Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

smo ggy California day s ab ou t three weeks earlier that this hair braine d idea go t planted. Saddleback was at its absolute worst. Down on my hands and plastic knee caps I was staring intently at my tire that had been shredded on the con cre te like surface. Wipin g the blue groo ved rubber ....rith my hand, shaking m y head and swearing all at the same time abou t the hard-packed, ill-prepared, dusty , over-use d Southern California motocross tracks I failed to notice an in terested bystand er who was leaning against my van watching me . I don't think I gave him an y encouragement, what with the foul mood permeating my life space , but he started righ t in. "In Texas we have tracks with dirt so moist and loose that Chinamen feel the trembles when the Open Experts hit the first turn." He said it with such an earnest-look that I couldn't tell whether he was crazy or sadistic. As he spoke he rolled a smoke in one hand and struck a match on his zipper with the other. "Why I can tell you about tracks," he drawled, "where riders carry small shovels with them in case they crash. So they can dig themselves ou ta th at furrow." Perhaps I was ripe for picking, or signalled my weakness by letting my jaw drop cause he swaggered righ t on over, kicked m y milkcrate upside down and squatted nex t to me. Leaning in close as though he was going to sell m e a hot watch the words poured off his tongue like syrup. He spoke so softly an d slowly ' the sec ret was barely aud ib le. He said, " In Texas we have real motocross .tracks. His pron un ciation of 'real ' t ook eig h t seconds. " T he tracks ar e long, ro ugh, and satisfying. Texas mo tocrossers are mo bile, agile and hostile." Bitin g my tongue to avoid striking o u t with so me foolish stateme nt like , "What do you mean real motocross? Wha t do you think this is?" In stead I ' looked arou nd the track. Up over the ' starting hill I co u ld see whe re th ree beser ko 125s had just left the gate . The black rubber marks we re still on the trac k. My ears drew me do wn t o the sweepin g lefthande r as the screechi ng tires of two guys half-rniling it through so unded like Wednesday nigh t o n the bo ulevard. "Tell m e more." I ask qu ickly h oping to drown out the sigh ts and sounds of California motocross. " Well Podnuh , where 1 co me from we only race our tracks on ce or tw ice a month at the most. The promoters turn them over before each race, water them all nigh t and stay in business by meetin g high standards," he said, "and not merely su p plying the demand." Later that night at home I saw some old motocross mags that told about th e 1973 Tex-AMA series. The magazine re-c apped a race in a different town every week. The tracks didn't ring an y bells with me (Lockhar t, Killeen, Rio Bravo, and Lake Whitney ), but if 1 remember co rrectly none of the riders names me ant anything t o me then ei ther. It was a snore article when it firs t came out. So what if some dumb Texas hicks named Stev e 'Wise , Steve Stackable, Kent Howerto n , Wyman Priddy and Danny Doss had given Gary Jones, J immy Weinert and some Californians a thrashing. It would be a different sto ry in California . Yeh, now those names I hadn't heard of in '73 are famous and m y saying ' it would be a different story in California sounds an awful lot like what some Europeans are saying lately (wi th a change in location). I crawled down under the van and tightened the loose little culprits. The T exan at Saddleback told me it was only 24 hours to Texas, but no one told me that it was 24 hours of nothing but desert, prairie, desert and more prairie. It was 85 degrees outside when I go t rolling again down IH 10 towards Austin . Here 1 am in T ex as I mused, wasting my vacation because some crackpot catch es me a t a weak moment. I didn't have to drive 1,500 miles to prove to myself th at Cali fornia motocross is better th an any o ther ki nd . It's obvious. A list of motocross st ars will tell you that California rules. All the National Champs have been from Southern California. Marty Smith is from San Diego, Tony DiStefan o is from ... . oh > yeh, he's fro m Pennsylvania. Jimmy Weinert lives in U .. . . . . ... •• • 4. . • ... "The armadillo lS the Volkswagen coupe of the animal world." California, of course he d id learn to ride in New .York. Well, forget that an yway. We'll see for ourselves. As I drove on through the morning that cleared itself like an en ormo u s throat m y fertile mind laid motocross tracks over the terrain th at became increasingly more rug ged. T he farther South 1 drove the be tter my tracks we re get tin g. 1 re membered a paradoxical ending to my Saddleback conversa tio n ju st as Austin's lakes an d hills came in to sight. Before I cou ld re tort th e Texans boast in g he turned an d wal ked back to his bi ke, stopping o n ly t o say, " Mo t ocro ss is just like driving a tax i. It ain' t the tracks or wo rk you enjoy. It's the people y o u ru n into." Austin , Texas has a restaurant named the Stallion where chicken fried ste ak costs a d o llar. For this one buck toll you get rolls, mashed potatoes, salad an d a good size chicken fried. It is not ne cessarily go o d , but the juke box plays Willie Nelson full blast and a couple of hundred o f Austin's finest guzzle Lone S tar Lo ngnecks . T he cap ital of the St ate of Texas resides abou t a m ile down the road. If you can 't reco gnize it in person the n you will certai nly n o t ice it when one of UT's 25 ,000 co-eds stru ts down Gu ad elupe St. with a T-s hi rt depicting a homey armadillo mou n ti ng th e capi tal dome. Everyth ing in A ustin has an armad illo on i t; Fo r those o f y ou in the blank about th is armor pl at ed m arsupial a sign concisely ex p lains t h a t the armadillo is the Volkswagen co u pe of the animal world. With $1 chic ken fried, a musical mo vement all i ts o wn, o ne of. the largest uni versities, nude nation's be aches, t he lowest cost of livin g of any major city, the las t through-the-streets ro ad race in America, and a motocross track less than five miles from the capi tal grounds, Austin is a veritable individualist's playground. My basic shock over the degree of civilization was magn ified by cowboys, hippies, rednecks, pick-up trucks with guns ' in the back, Italian sports cars, vans with cosmic paint, street singers, Texas Rangers and businessmen in Billy Sol Estes suits sharing the same space at the same time without spontaneous cultural combustion. 'Austin Motocross Park' 'say s the poster with the ever p re sent armadillo o n it t hat' s tac ked to th e wall of Mac Austin Sportcycles. M cK i nl e y' s McKi nl ey d oesn't look th e part of a T exan. He's not tall and lean , but he acts with th e warm th and frie ndship of the South; laughing and joking with his custo mers, who never seem to be in a hurry t o go anywhere. For all th e distance travelled I co uld be standing in a California motorcycle shop except fo r the cu sto m ers. They ar e differen t, relaxed, friendly and very open. It turns out that A ustin mo to cro ssers are the least travelled of the mi lieu of Texas MXers. I had come to Texas with plans to see the best tracks in the sta te - Austin, Lak e Whitney and Dal laS' Mo sier Val ley. Surprisingly enough m ost A ustinites had never been to the other two. Distance in Texas is a relat ive thing. Nothing is close , so drives of 2 00 miles aren't co nsidered very lo ng journeys. Al most everyon e in Austin kn ew who th e ho t riders fr om No rth Te xas were an d had se en them ride, but said th e lo cal boys could be at them. " Yeh , they co me d own from Dall as-F t. Worth eve ry n ow and th en. But th ey d on 't d o no good he re," says a 15 year o ld 125er. "Mark Wheeless, he's crazy ya kn ow, alwa y s beats them. Nobody can beat hi m if he doesn 't break o r crash." It turns o u t that Mark Wheeless is an immensely talen ted if undisciplined 125 Ex per t. Wheeless, JumpingJack Hicks, and DeWitt Knox ar e amo ng the few riders in Austin who ar e sp onsored. This fact rankles many of th e cap ital ci ty crossers, for as it turns out almost everyone in North Texas has a spo nso r. " Even Dallas No vices have better sponsors than our Ex perts," says a recalcitrant Austin Novice, "Yo u don 't even have to win up th ere. Shops sponsor riders t o beat the gu y in front o f th em , even if he's lap ped. " The Austin ri ders major p oint of pride is lo cal hero Steve Stackable. Stackable was one of them, and everybody y o u talk to knows "old Short " personally. (Continued on page 3 9) - 15,

• Cover