Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125977
EASY? Ask for it at your deale r today. "Mother's milk for your pet 2-stroke" HARDLYl Earning No .1 in A. F.l\I. road racing is a long, hard grind. No . 1 Rudy Ga l indo depe nds on DURABLUBE 50: 1 2 cycle oil to keep his tigh t winding Yamaha 36 0 Grand Prix machine ru nni ng stro ng. Winners ca n't afford to use anything bu t th e best. Lubrication Dyn am ics, 111 N. Allen, Pasadena, CA rnl~ I ' . LUll ] ! ~ - SO~O'1 VVhateverhappened to Scrambles? When this column was first conceived, back in the dim days when Cycle -New s was very small compared to what it is today, we 'wro te about nothing but scrambles, hence the title. But we expanded over the years as the paper did . Still, my editor sug- Don't read this M AI C O r. I J 1I:IIIIIl 1 ·1:1illS 25 o New ported cy linder & piston o 3assani hand built custo m p ipe o Modified Mikuni o Info boo k let on assembly. mainten ance . & mods for a bett er hand ling CR sm. 14 plus cylinder & p isto n exchange mor e info: 714-492 -2270 McDougal Enterpr ises 525 N. EI Camino Real San Clement e. CA 92672 IS WORTH A 1000 WORDS •••••••••• gested, it would be proper to write about scrambles once in a whi le. He wanted to know if they were in such a bad shape as ru mors have it. Maybe they should be allowed to die a natural death as the sport changes and progresses to other things. Look at the gains speedway is making compared to di rt track on the professional scene. He's right about the changes. But I do n't see the day when speedway will do in dirt track and I don't see the day when motocross will completely do in scrambles. The District 37 calendar for 1975 has 15 IT scrambles lis ted. Clubs who have traditionally thrown scrambles are still doi ng it, like the Jackrabbits, Simi Valley, Hilltoppers and the Gri psters with Sandak getting the lions' share because they asked for them . Fifteen races for a year isn't so bad you say? It 's bad when you co nsider that the District has 84 sanctioned events for the season . High school motocrossers were still on tricycles when District 37 had its heyday of scrambles and they weren't all the fast, IT type. Rusty Nails and Spencer Park were every bi t as rough as the roughest motocross nowadays. Back then the District clubs were responsible for all the racing. The now-gone California Gophers M.C. operated Prado Park, which was still the best IT track we've seen bar Ascot, which it was a copy ' 0 f. Besides throwing scrambles themselves, they rented the track to other clubs and scrambles flo urished. If you didn't get turned on by desert racing, scrambles was the alternative. Feature a July Fourth race the Jackrabbits hosted at Prado Park with over 420 riders! To get the number one p late in scrambles meant a real fight. Matos were run in only a few classes. It was usually a program of heats, semis and main with a consolation thrown in for those who only go t to ride a heat with no transfer. ( A common gripe then was how you spen t all day at a track on Sundays and only got a few la ps of actual riding. With these large number of riders it wasn't uncommon for a scrambler to sign in at the prescribed 10 Lo 10 :30 a.rn. and spend hours on his duff until he got on the track by t hree . Honest! That's how it was. But it provided a steady stream of well-trained riders moving up thro ugh the ranks to the professional circuit and there was a close tie between Ascot and t he scrambles. At one time there was a "gentleme n's agreement" between Ascot promoter J .C. Agajanian and the District that we wouldn't throw scrambles on the Sundays he held his IT steeplechases. Then motocross exploded and many riders rushed to that bandwagon . Machinery changed. The scrambles ' bikes became dinosaurs. Old timers whe n the number o ne wai led heavyweight plate went final ly to a rider on a " Goddamn ring-ding" instead of a Goldstar or a Triumph IT Special. Scrambles started sliding do wnhill. In 196 8 the District m ade an effo rt to get m ore clubs involved in throwing scrambles with meetings solely for scrambles clubs, but the effort only gave scrambles a short boost. Tracks started closing too. Huntington Beach was neat to ri de bu t it started life too close to ho uses and las ted a pitifully short time. Ne w tracks were built further out but didn't get good turn-au ts, Riders reasoned, "why drive o ut to t he deser t to ri de a few laps on a track when y.ou can drive as far , en ter a real desert race an d get lots more riding for your mon ey ?" Then inflation hit the people who owned the tracks, and to cover their expenses they were forced to raise the track rental, and as entries dropped ana costs increased, clubs found themselves going in the hole or barely breaking even on scrambles. One club to ld me, "Why should we work hard and throw a scrambles and not get anything for the treas ury when we can work hard on a desert run and get something for it? All a lot of those scrambles guys do is bellyache any way . " Ouch, but it's true! I'm afraid. Track ra cers can be a bit prima donna-ish . It goes with pitching y ou r equipment into a full-lock slide and holding it there at high speed, letting it all hang out to the very edge, It 's Just an opinion, but although motocross racing takes a tremendous lot out of your bod with the co nstan t pounding, a IT racer lives more on his nerves and that exacts a toll. Man y riders cannot go at those speeds for very many laps, although they profess they do n't get enough riding. Dirt track p rofessionals are a different breed than motocross professionals and some road racers who operate at speeds of 180 mph plus are on a completely different wave len gth . So, with fewer and fewer sanctioned races coming their way, the track owners were forced in to throwing their own races so they co uld pay t heir bilIs. This produced so me intere sti ng things. On one han d we had people saying some un kin d things about t he track owners