Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Up the west coast road racing circuit cont'd l'$.< V ..0 o ... u o Portland along the Columbia River. But the law does allow camping on roadsides in Washington. We passed through a lot of rugged little coast towns along 101, which we followed to Aberdeen. Productive enterprise is centered around seafood - primarily oysters - and lumber. The highways were covered with wood chips from the big logging rigs. From Aberdeen we headed for Olympia and Tumwater, home of Olympia beer. We were hoping to tour the brewery but got there after closing on Friday. The brewery is open for tours from 8 a.rn, to 4:30 seven days a week. Seattle In ternational Raceway, or Kent - the name most everyone seems "Gee, Beth, mine looks just like yours!" to use - is located off Interstate 5 between Tacoma and Seattle. Take the Auburn turn-off (U.S. 18) and drive about six miles past the town of Auburn and it will take you righ t to the front gate. 'Alth o ugh the meetings are normally one -day events , this particular weekend included Grand Prix "racin g on Saturday with a 5-hour marathon for pr oduction bikes on Sunday. Production rules are strictly adhered to. "Production" means just as the ' bike comes off the showroom (no rear-sets, milled heads, cut pistons, etc.). . Typical of the openness we found among people of the Northwest despite the fact that camping at the track was only scheduled for Saturday nigh t - the security guard was kind enough to unlock the gate and allow us to spend the forenight there and even take a few laps around the trac k in the van. The track is run counter-clockwise. It is 2 1 miles around with nine or so 04 turns -and a ~mile long straight. Taller gearing than at Ontario is necessary; it is in fact almost Daytona gearing. The track surface is in perfect condition and the surroundings are absolutely beautiful. En try fee (including complete insurance coverage) is $8 and no license or association membership is necessary. One of the best things about the racing-is the amount of track time you get for your eigh t bucks. We had three eight-lap heats with each heat scored separately. At Kent it rains and there is no way to predict when. Race day was brigh t and sunny, save two short cloud-bursts which lasted only . a few minutes. Unfortunately those few minutes caused Rocky (who had never before raced in the rain) to throw his bike down the road once each cloud-burst. The second time nearly destroyed 24 himself and the bike. Slick tires, which Rocky was using, only aggravate the problem . No one runs slicks up north. We were surprised at the scarcity of road racers and the relatively small number of entries, but the riders are en thusiastic and the organizers seem to have an ideal program. After every race at Kent there is free kegged beer an d a real feeling of comradship among the competitors. Trophies are awarded through sixth place and the top scorer in each class gets an . engraved mug. There were numerous contingency awards from dealers, items like oil and plugs. We all agreed that Kent was the most fun we have had at a club race in a long time. If you're frugal, thrifty : or the average road racer, you can save a few bucks by using the state campgrounds to shower, shave, and whatever, then camp and cook your meals along some · deserted road. Mt, Rainier National Park is a back-packers' nirvana, with over 300 miles of trails. We decided to take a short, two-hour hike along a trail to Carter Falls. The trail was steep and paralleled a rushing stream cascading from one of the glaciers a few thousand feet above. As if someone h ad purposely placed it there to challenge the foolhardy, there was a narrow log spanning the falls at the point where its 100-foot verticle drop began. Rising to the challenge (or admitting to the foolhardiness) 1 make it across the log one way, but on the return trip 1 slipped while trying to leap to the "safety" of a boulder near the bank. There was a split second of horror when 1 was sure I was on my way over the falls . (It was similar to that milli-second of terror about a year ago when I came adrift of my T-Zed going red-line in 6th into tum one a t Ontario.] I came out of the water well-chilled but in otherwise sound shape. (I should have been so lu cky at Ontario.] We left Mt, Rainier for Seattle late Monday. Whenver we had a particular destination in mind, most of the passing scenery was just a blur with Beth having the smallest but heaviest foot. We encountered zero opposition from state or local authorities anywhere except on Interstate 5 coming in to Seattle from the south. There was a regular pogrom going on Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. 'The Pacific Northwesta !Jikers and backpackers nzrvana. with a couple of ~ell-hidden radar traps and at least a dozen chase' cars within a ten-mile stretch. Vans with mags and fancy paint don't get it anymore: C. B:s and super-snoopers are where it's at. Outwitting "Smokie" has become a sport and, just like ' racing, it takes money to play. Seattle is laced wi th lakes, rivers, and canals. We drove aboard the ferry "Look; Rocky, I don't think anything is wrong with your bik e or my stopwatch!" "Spokane" in downtown Seattle about midnigh t, having spen t only a short time in Seattle because the mono-rail is a rip-off (even at 20 cents) and the space needle is a bigger rip-off at $1.25 per person. I did win a green du Hamel frog for Beth at the amusement park (the o nly thing I won during the whole trip!) The thirty -minute ferry across Puget Sound to Winslow cost $2.20 plus 85 cents per passenger. We headed up State Highway 305 across Agate Pass Bridge to State 104 and Port Gamble, which is a restored ghost town, We spent most of a day in historic and picturesque Port Townsend. Their Chamber of Commerce calls it the "Key City of the Pacific Northwest." The town is a veritable Victorian museum. Some 200 homes throughout the city have signs with the date of building and the name of the original owner. Wally Exum is a noted artist and author who runs the "Old Quarantine Station" on the main drag. We purchased a few of his pen-and-ink drawing. for a fraction of what they sell for in L.A. The transport ferry "M. V. Coho" leaves Port Angeles, Washington four · times daily for Victoria. During the peak traffic of the summer months it · is a good idea to show up at the loading dock at least two hours before sailing time. After paying the $15.75 fare for the van and three passengers, we sat out the 2-hour wait playing pool in one of the local pubs and cooking dinner on the pier. I slept through the 90-minute voyage. Beth wrote post cards. Victoria, the capital of the Canadian province of British Columbia, is a veritable light show at night, with colored flood lights, buildings outlined in tiny white lights, and street lights i ll u m i n a ting intriguing shops and restaurants. It has an Olde English a tmosphere with numerous British-goods stores, tea shops, the buildings of Parliament and a vast num ber of English cars. After spending the night outside Victoria we drove the 14 miles up Route 17 to Sidney to catch another ferry, this time bound for the San Juan Islands. Lying in the uppermost part of Puget Sound and considered one of the ten most desirable placed in · North America to live, the nearly 120 islands still have a combined population of only a few thousand. Rocky and I both had a lot of work to do on the bikes before race day at Westwood. We found a spot atop Constitution Mountain in Moran State Par k on Orcas Island, which overlooked all the surrounding islands for miles. We even got within ten feet of a rare Appaloosa deer, one of a dozen deer we spotted on the trip. After spending most of the day cleaning Washington topsoil out of Rocky's engine and trying to get the gremlins out of mine, we passed the evening drinking beer and eating pizza and subsequently missed the last ferry leaving the island that night. We caught the six o'clock ferry the next morning and drove straight to Vancouver from Anacortes up Interstate 5 to Canada IIighway 99. There is an excellent tourist information center just after you cross the border. Vancouver is a first-class city, . with all the attractions of any large city in the U.S . It is also an open city, . having double the crime rate per capita of any city in the States. Everything seemed a .trifle over-priced but we found out that local wages are correspondingly high. We spent about three days in the Vancouver area as guests of Canadian racers we met at Kent, but really didn't get a feeling one way or the other about the city as far as being a desirable place to live. We drove out Highway 7 to Port Coquitlam where Westwood Raceway is located. We had a couple days to waste and we were getting pretty tired of the rapid pace we had been keeping, so we decided to kick back and take a leisurely canoe trip up the Pitt River near Coquitlam. We had some trouble navigating the rapid parts of the river and ended up spending a. good deal of the time wading in the frigid water, pulling the canoe by rope until we surrendered to the greater force and enjoyed a rapid trip back down to calmer waters. Orcas Island on top of Constitution Ridge. We spent a day at Paul Billings' paren t s ' home in Coquitlam just minutes from the track. Paul is a local racer who had the misfortune of coming off his G.P. bike and breaking his leg just a few days before he was to leave for the National at Laguna Seca, We were treated like family by the Billingses, much as we were by everyone we met in Canada. Canadian riders for the most part are not the suspicious, ego

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