CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
T
he current resurgence in
off-road racing, particularly
SCORE-type Baja events and the
like, is well chronicled in the re-
cently released BronWa pictures
film Dust To Glory, (click here)
which chronicles the adventures
of several characters as they go
through the trials and tribulations
of racing the 2003 Baja 1000.
Among those characters are
the motorcycle winners of the first
Baja 1000, both alumni of the 1971
Bruce Brown film On Any Sunday.
That Dust To Glory pays respect
to these two legends—Malcom
P104
rately focuses on the exploits of
Roberts, who returned to contest
the race as part of a team that
includes his son, Jimmy, nearly
40 years after J.N.'s first Baja
win with Smith, which Roberts
remembers pretty much as more
of an adventure than a race.
"Before that race, I was up
and coming, and I was ridng a
350 Honda, which was a 250
Scrambler converted [bored out],"
Roberts says. "Everybody tried
to make 'em lighter, but they still
weighed 350 pounds. Then the
Huskys first came over in '66, and
I went down to Tracy's Husqvarna
in Burbank, and I bought my first
one. I paid $825 for it, and my
third race on it, I won an overall
in the desert. Then I just kept
winning on the thing, and the next
thing I know, [Husqvarna importer]
Edison Dye contacted me and
said that Baja was coming up, and
he wanted to know if I wanted to
ride it with Malcolm."
Roberts accepted the offer,
not fully realizing what he had got-
ten himself into.
"I never got to pre-run it or
anything," Roberts says. "Back
in those days, just getting down
there was a feat. The people that
were going to be in the race went
down there and marked their own
course. They'd paint different
rocks different colors, and there
were so many different lines or
different roads that you could fol-
low. Half the time you didn't even
know where you were. It was pick
your own way, pretty much."
Actually dubbed the Mexican
1000, that first race was run in two
Smith and J.N. Roberts—as well
as several contemporary Baja
motorcycle legends, such as the
Honda team of Johnny Campbell
and Steve Hengeveld, is perhaps
testament to the familial influence
On Any Sunday had on Dust To
Glory director Dana Brown, the
son of Bruce Brown. That apparent
respect for motorcycles and the
men who race them isn't at all mis-
placed in Dust To Glory. Smith and
Roberts serve as an unintentional
but fitting link to the two films made
over 30 years apart.
A portion of Dust To Glory accu-
J.N. Roberts
during the
Mexican 1000
(aka Baja 1000)
in 1967.
J.N. AND THE
BAJA 1000
