IN
THE
WIND
P36
Trailblazers 75th
Anniversary Banquet
T
he Trailblazers Banquet celebrated its 75th
anniversary, and once again, the theme was all
about motorcycles and the people who rode them—
especially the people. When emcee Larry Huffman
asked each award winner on the night what was
a career highlight for them, all of them said it was
the people they met throughout their career and
their families, fans and friends, not to mentions the
teams, that supported them along the way.
Approximately 800 people
turned out for this year's banquet.
Chris Agajanian, the son of J.C.
Agajanian of Ascot Park fame, was
the recipient of the Earl & Lucile
Flanders Award. Chris had good
stories to tell from his earliest
memory when he began to sell
programs at Ascot to the story of
how Olympia Beer, which was the
beer supplier at Ascot to how Co-
ors came in to be the beer suppli-
er. The first few races did not go
well due to an issue with the cups.
So cans of Coors were sold from
tubs of ice. That first night, the
track sold every can they could
get their hands on and ever since
then, Coors was the "official" beer
of Ascot Park.
Road racing world champions
Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey
took home the Dick Hammer
Award. This was the first time the
highest award at the Trailblazers
Banquet had two recipients at the
same time.
The Trailblazers also inducted
A.C. Bakken into the Hall of
Fame. Bakken was a factory
(Top) Chris
Agajanian (left),
alongside Bruce
Flanders, was
the recipient of
the Earl & Lucile
Flanders Award.
(Middle) Desert
racer A.C. Bakken
was inducted into
the Trailblazers
Hall of Fame.
(Bottom) Rex
Staten (right) was
also inducted into
the Hall of Fame
with the help of
good friend Marty
Tripes (left).
