Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Goodbye to aneat guy l/l 0: "' o "' Z J: o l/l Z ..... . .....' - - - '_ _ Marvin Le Blanc died on April 6, 1975 . At the time he was doing what he liked to do more than almost anything else in this world: racing his Bulta co in the Great Bear Grand Prix . Marvin was not a sen timen talist. He did not want eit he r a funeral ' or a me morial service. I am sure that he would no t appreciate any sloppy tribute fro m m e, so I am going to re spect his wish es. But I would li ke to tell some o f y o u who m ay h ave met him onl y on ce or twice or seen his nam e on a resul 15 sheet something of what he was li ke , becaus e people will be m en tioning h im for a long tim e to come. Although it seems so m eti m es li ke I've beert on the desert racin g sce ne foreve r, I actually arrived at the tail end o f Marvin 's racin g career , so me five o r six years ago . At that tim e I was just kind of dippin g my big toe in the wat ers of the raci ng scene, t ry ing to de cide if I would li ke it or n ot. It seem ed like the th in g to do was join a club , so my wife and I poked around vari ous pits. Th en on e day we happened to c om e to a Red Dot race , the Mother's Day Fun ction. Th e Red Dot 's Mother's Day race was like n oth in g else in the deser t. From the obscene outh ou ses, p ap ered wit h Playbo y centerfolds, to th e d ou ble-ta ke finishing pins, to the blast o f he avy roc k soun d com ing o ut o f th e Red Do t pits to th e sweet od or of Mex ican to ba cc o waftin g over from th e Red Do t cam p fires, it was ap paren t th at th is was a different clu b. What th ey bel ieved in was fun . An d righ t at th e epicen te r of th e Red Dots was Marv Le Blanc. We wer e hooked righ t th en an d there. But, le t 's back up a littl e. Th e Red Dots didn 't start until th e early 60 's, but Marvin 's raci ng career starte d all th e way ba c k in 1949 wi th Indy t ype cars . Marv went back to In dianapolis th at year with A.J . Wa tson and qualified as first altern ate, 34 th in a 3 3-car field. Th at was as close as he ever go t to th e Indy 50 0 as a drive r, but th en he s ta rted building fib er glas bodie s for the ca rs an d one year b uilt bodies for 29 o u t o f the 33 cars , according to his cl osest bu ddy, Mi ke Burn s. When th at enterp rise o - - ' 0: petered out, h e buill spear guns for scuba divers, and t hen di fferen tials for racin g cars . An d of co u rse sinc e he ha d the bug, he kept o n racin g sprin t cars himsel f in th e L.A. area. Marvin got into m ot orcycl es by an odd route, on board a Zundapp with a sidec ar , whi ch was even tual ly updated (? ) with a J aw a. For tunately , be fore an y more were ad ded to th at p arade o f eas y winners, Doug Yerkes cam e along. Marvin h ad a grin th at showed 73 teeth all at o nc e. Nobo dy , includi n g Doug, co ul d resis t h im . Yerkes starte d furn ishing him with motorcy cles an d p ar ts and never co ul d b reak th e habit. Even afte r he go t ou t o f th e BulLaco busin ess, he someho w m an aged to keep Marvin supp lie d wi th a stream o f "almost" new parts. Fo r his part of it , Marvin did manage a fairly steady stream o f sidehac k vict o ries, m os t notably at Corriganville. Although he never qui te got o ut o f sidehac k racin g, Marvin's in terest gradually shifted to solo machines, helped alo ng no doub t by seve ral sc ary crashe s on the sidehack. Marvi n took racing very seriously , bu t because he was alw ays clownin g around, politicing fo r one thing o r ano the r o r tryin g to promote som e ne w scam , that fact was often o bsc ured. It was like J ack Ben ny with his violin o r Phyllis Diller with the piano, both of whom are accomplished musician s wh o ca n never be re c ko ne d as such, beca use merel y seein g them reminds y o u o f so me th in g funny that th ey di d. Last year, at age 48, Marvin held No . 53 in the desert, whic h is no mean acc omplishm en t. "Paying yo ur dues," m igh t be called deser t ride rs' eleventh the co m man dmen t, but for Marv it was , m o re lik e th e first com man dm en t. He re ally beli eved it, an d he tri ed to live by it. To ' him , "paying y our dues " m ean t get ting o u t on ce a year an d hel p in g to pu t on a race. 111is p ut Marvin in a di ffi cult posi tion a lo t of times. The type of club mem ber s he a tt rac ted to . the Red Dots (an d he di d do most o f the at tracti ng !) were mostly fun -loving party types, fo r whom th e trophy presen ta ti on (co mbin ed with a be er p ar t y , natcherl y ) was more im p o rt an t than the . race. Marvin alw ay s talked li ke the party was th e most importan t th in g, but wh en it came to the nitty-grittv, he'd p ut o n th e race all by himself if he had to . An d a co uple o f years, it just ab o u t cam e to t hat. The highe st co m plim en t th at an yone could pay the club (an d Marvin , becaus e he was 10 0 per cent asso ciated wi th the club ) was, " It was a go o d race and everybody had a good time! " To m ake sure th is complimen t was earned, Marvin came up with one idea after another either did it himself, or talked som eon e else in to doing it . Most of the ne at th ings .the Red Dots have done from the tons of m er chandise that h-as been given away to the work-of-art r ace posters, Marvin had some kind of hand in. He personally laid out most of the courses, and of co urse took a good share of th e blam e for a couple of pretty spe ctacular foul-ups. Although h e was usually the quintessence of practicality , he could oc casionally get lost in the glo ry of the Grand Design. I can still remember (with more than a little horror!l the nigh t he proposed to run a race in a "figure ei gh t" with the guys going one direction in a deep trench th at we were goi n g to dig, while the guys going the other way would jump the trench from a small launching ramp! There w as on e o t her Red Dot project which was high on Marvin 's list of personal priori ties, and th at was th e an nual Eas ter Morning pi cnic. The p icn ic was a ch ance for the wive s and girl friends to get together in a non-m ot o rcycle atmosp here for one Sunday a y ear and for all the kids to ge t toge th er an d p lay. Marvin h ad nin e kids of his own (all th eir names s tart with "J "l, and t he re were a good many who might have adopted him i f th ey had h ad th e opport un ity. Marvin o rganize d bicycle races for th em , tug-of-wars, bag races, and God knows what else , an d almos t every kid won som e thin g on Eas te r. I've never bee n m uch for picnics, but Marvin ha d a way of exercising some very sub tle pressures on people , and over the years, with o ut really knowing h ow it cam e abo u t, I came to realize th a t fo r a Re d Dot, th e Eas te r picnic was more importan t than Easter mass fo r a Cath olic. I ha ve sp o ken several times of Marvin 's "racing career", and in fact he has been so dedica ted to racing th at it has seemed much lik e a caree r, but in fac t it was onl y his hobby. He was al ways an ama teur. Pro fessi onally , he was a fireman with the LAFD. He compl ete d 20 ye ars an d was retired on disabili ty after an inju ry sus tai ne d whil e he was d raggin g som e people ou t of a burning h ouse. Marvi n 's fire departmen t years were n ot t ot ally happ y . My feel in g from knowing Marvin is tha t by n ature he was on the conservative side, but his sense of fair play often got him espousing a liberal ca use. When th e fire departm ent was dragge d kic king an d scre aming into the t wen tieth cen tu ry by way of integrat ion, Marvi n befrien de d the first blac k fireman, and th ereby ea rned a la rge m easu re of ha te fro m some of his white co-firem en . This bothered him a lot because he really wanted to be lo ved by everybody, b ut he didn't bac k o ff. Marvin lived in a low-income, p redom inantly Chican o nei gh borhood. Every ti me his kid's bicycles wer en ' t chai ne d to a post , th ey go t ripped o ff. But Marv spe n t so me o f th e last wee ks of his life wo rki ng wi th the Board of Ed uc at ion try ing to set up bili n gual classes in the local schools. Marvin an d his family sp en t th eir sum me rs an d vacations in Mexi co, an d he was able to differen tiate , in his head an d heart, th e p roblems o f Spa nis h-spea king st ude nts fro m the act ivities o f Span ish-speakin g thieves, which is damned h ard to do , so me ti mes. Especi ally when y ou h aven 't go t th e money to buy your kid ano ther bicycle. Marvi n and I spe n t a goo d part of last year sharing an in tense h atred of Richard Nixo n , but as we listened to the news from Watergate in Marvin's basement workshop, Marvin voiced a desp air sometimes that I could ne ver qui te understand. " I' d like to h ave just on e hour with a flight of B-52's and a lo ad of hydrogen bombs," he said on several occasions. "That's the only way to deal with this co un try !" This wasn 't entirely co nsisten t with a house that was alway s filled with his friends and his kid 's friends, and whi ch alw ays seem ed a bit happier than m ost houses because th e Christmas tree lights were left on year- round, but I never questioned it be cause I didn't believe that a person had to be 100 percent consistent. Probably the saddest thing Marvin exp erience d in the last few years happened last fall when the Red Dots voted not to as k for a race date this year. The club was at an all-time low, both in enthusiasm and membership, and putting on a ra ce didn 't seem possible. The Dusters took o ver the traditional Red Dot date, Mother's Day , May II. The Dusters have been good friends of the Red Dots, and when they he ard the news of Marvin's death they im m ediately offered the proceeds from their race to help Betty and the kids . I hope all you desert ra cers and enduro riders who kn ew Marvin will come out and supp o rt that event. May I I. Last year at Christmas time, whoever did the Red Dot minutes wrote one of those joke Christmas present lists. The present they su ggested for Marvin was, "A y ounger body to match his spirit." Yes . Ron Schneiders M.O.R.E. Information Center inSouthern California Russ Sanford, presid ent of M.O.R.E., is a volunteer. He draws no sala ry from M.O.R.E., ye t for nearl y six years he has been single-hande dly per formin g th ree services for motorcyclists in California: I. He has pro vid ed b oth written and personal representation for the motorcycle population 0 f California on the legisla tive lev el and at public heari n gs throughout th e state. 2. He has acted as a "clearing house" fo r cycle-re la te d problems of in divid uals . .. If th e High way Patrol handin g out tickets for starts transporting a com petiti on bike, wh at do you do ? Call Russ San ford. 3. He h as served as an o ffi cial ce nter. The monthly in formatio n newsletter outlines curren t bills before th e legisla ture, public hearin gs, wh o to wri te to an d wh ere to go. And, of co urse, if you have a qu estion , you can always call Rus s in Sacramento. A fe w years ago th is could all be handled by one m an. But to day th ere are too many he arings to atten d, too many individual questions and problems, too many legislative issues requirin g attention fo r one man to cover. Therefore , to better serve en th usiasts, M.O.R. E. cha p ters are being (Con tinued on page 43) 19

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