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/125991
Opin ion Ace Kinghell laughed. "Yes, it 's great for families . I'm thinking of something on the order of a Disney picture, for th e Saturday matinee audience. " "Ace, it 11 be a bloc kbuster." Th ey drank to th at. " But after we do the picture, 1 wanna talk with you ab o ut this fea t ure doc umen tary about a couple of American guys in the Euro pean motocross ci rcus. ,. "I 'll cal l yo u in a few da ys ," said the Hollywood mogul , draining his glass and decampi ng. The kids wave d o u t the windo ws as his station wagon drove away. "And a li tt le ch ild shall lead th em ," the mo to cross t h ou g ht wri ter -turned-producer as he stared at th e ice cubs th at turned in his cup. - Charles Clayton Perris Raceway go t hi t with a million doll ar law su it th e day of the Din o saur Races, which quite naturall y t hre w a pall over the fest ivit ies. To say th is endangers the fut ur e o f our o ldest scra mb les track wo uld be a mild stateme nt. Tak e a he had 'co vered and little leagues. The NMA lets each class practice for a wh ile, t he n flags th em off an d lets out another clas s. Nifty , he thought. Safe and san e. Ace 's littlest kid John, do es a spect acul ar en do on t he Indian , but bo unc es ba ck up lik e a superb all an d rid es it .well t he n ext lap aro un d . Th e producer felt like applaud ing little John. Th is is not like me , he thought. I'm enjoy in g this. Min icycle racing has certa in ly improved sinc e the NMA came on the: scene. Sunday's children Unaware of the Hollywood custom of small talk before business, the neophyte producer got right into what had been bugging him . " By all me ans, Ace, let 's make a m ovie abo ut m o torcycles. But min is? I mean, why not fo llow Brad and Bimbo o n th e Interna- 36 ti onal trail?" Ace Kin ghell, Pre sident of Kinghell Studios, did not say anything but went on unloading th e ch ildr en's little cycles off his trailer. Th e mogul's kids .fo rmed a semicircle aro un d the producer's Triumph like Lilliputians ge ttin g t he ir firs t gan der at Gulliver. Three of the kids were Ace's and o ne was th e son o f a neighbor wh o ha ppe ne d to be a very fam ous movie star . They ranged in age from six to almost 16 an d wer e dre ssed in m iniature motocross boots and leathers an d jersy s th at read Beverly Hills M.C. Th e scoo ters included an Indian Bambino abo u t the size of a Trium p h flywheel, a tri ck Honda 75 with laydown sh oc ks, and a whole bunch o f Yamaha YZ 8 0s. If Jim Weinert were four feet tall, thought t he producer, he would loo k just right on a Y Z 80. Th ey were racing on a long course an d the producer we nt t o a hill to watch practic e, th inking back to bigtime ra ces The Novices too k over the course , Ace 's eldest am on g them, mat ch ing his trick four-stroke against th e modified class. Th ose little scoote rs scream! t ho ugh t the former motocross reporter , now turned m ovi e producer. Indeed, the spee d was scaled do wn to the size of the mot ors, b ut sp eed is relative and th e little ra cer s looked p ret ty spectacular, even to his tr ain ed eye. Ti me see med to go in a hu rry as t he three-short-mote p rogram unfolded. The kids were co mpeti tive an d well-ma tched. The paren ts were help ful , bu t no t p ushy. They congratulated each o ther on their respective offsprings' performance. There was none o f that " your kid let down the side " typ e of recrimination like yo u find at yo ung people 's te am sports. There were the usu al cu ts and bruises as riders fell o ff o r ran in to each other - minor playground inj uries, m o m ; not to worrry . Their rid ing go t n o t icea bly be tt er as the day progressed. The produce r even unpacked his still camera and too k a few pictures. Maybe Ace Kinghell's idea for a pic ture on minikid racers isn 't such a bad one: at all, he was begin ning to th in k. Cu t to the ch ase ... Un de r his breat h he roote d fo r the BHMC rid ers an d ye lled encourageme n t who did a to Ace 's el dest , com e-from -beh ind number in two motos to dice for sec o nd pl ace. When it was allover th e mogul an d th e producer poured drinks in the ca m p e r, and th e MX writer-turned-mo vie-pro ducer answe red his m ornin g's qu estion for h imsel f. " I see terrific m aterial fo r a picture here , Ace. I heard one fa ther ye llin g to his kid to cool it ; on the next lap he ye lle d, 'b ut don 't co ol it too mu ch !' n m inute and th in k ho w y ou'd feel as y o u read t hro ugh a t hi ck shea f of p apers and fo und you we re sued for a million. A milli on ! My Go d ! J ust shut th e track down an d forget the whole t hing. Let the rid ers find some other place to ride . .. tha t would be the first reaction any of us would ha ve. Th e way the news media reports to us dail y on multi-billion dollar loans, giveaways and armament purchase s we forget just how mu ch o ne little mi llio n, is, when applied to average people. Bef or e writing this column I've done some real homework on th is thing as I was not at Perris the da y the incident that caused this suit happened, and 1 ' wanted to get all the facts I could. Last Mother's Day at th e Powder Puff Associati on '5 scrambles, a rider develope d prob lems with a tire as he approache d t he jump lea ding out of the back section. Th e pl ace where the water tr uck fills up at. As he approached he lost co n tro l. Right by the jump' was the plaintiff in the ca se, o ne Mary Grigg , cro uc he d and read y to sna p a shot of her fa ther, an Old Timers M /C member riding in t he same race. According to Dian e Connolly , Pres ident o f the Powder Puffs , her flag people repo rted that th ey had repeatedly to ld this wo man to move out, she was standing in a dangerous pl ace . Manuel Burton, a professional photographer w ho has shot literally thousands of hundreds, p robably scramb les without ever being inju red was also near an d told her of the danger. (A point here , as a pro photograp her 1 kn ow th at a t t im es we all will tak e a justifiable ris k th at an amateur sh o uld not. But we learn how to judge and make a de cis ion. ) In attemp ting to prevent Ms. Grigg fro m bei ng injured wh en he saw the bike getting away from the rider, Manuel was hi mself injured with a bro ken leg th at will never be quite right. The rider was also hurt and is also being sued by Ms. Gri gg. After th e fac ts we re all in, Mary Grigg and the rid er, Larry Logan received flowers and bes t wishes from th e Association bu t the ride rs that day d ona ted t heir trophies bac k to the club and the Associa t io n was ab le to hand a nice check to Manuel to help with expenses . He has been the Powder Puff's