Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIfllllllllllllillfllllllllfflillfllillIfI 111I 11 llllllrlllrrllllrrrrllfrrrlflrr ((r !!rrrr 1!((fffffflllillfllllillfl{ 11I/ !{ !{ !1{ ! Going for the big times Rick Delacy: Top short tracker > By W. H. Spence r To the North of Vallejo, Californi a, a tract of housing ends with a rather big hill and field th at leads out to the fame d Napa Valley wineries. The vineyards are still off and away. so the field becomes the usu al lovers land, dope smoking operation and best of all a ne ato scram bles cowt ra il. For Rick Delacy the top rated District 36 short tra cker for two straight years, this was the st art of what he hopes will be a caree r as a professional mo to rcy cle racer. For Qiff Delacy, the father of Rick, Mike and daughter Melinda, it was a challenge to make sure that the kids got outdoor living an d rapport with nature. While Cliff was raising his family , he had found himself a few really ne a t fishing holes in the outback. Then he bought a step- th rou gh Honda to lo ad up his fishing gear and would trek off. Well, with two eager y oung boys it wasn't long before th e Honda was spe nding mo st of its tim e in th e field across the st reet chasing ra bbi ts. With a change to a Trial 90 it got heavier. Rick relat es, "I would come home from sch oo l and there-it would be , it was just to o tou gh to not try it out and wi th th is b ig field and h ill righ t across the street, seein g th e oth er kids ride , it just see me d natural. "I even went with my dad to Vallejo to see the ra ces back in the late ' 60 's and when 1 would ride, 1 thought that I'd like to be a goo d TT scrambles rider, that was my thing at th at time." Cliff relates, "It wasn 't too lon g afte r he started riding that he would come home with cuts and bruises from crash ing it so hard. I j ust had to get him all the th in gs for safety. Even th ou gh he R ick in t riumph , with the Cancillas, flanking, and Pop, far right. / was only , 0 he had that look in his eye to become a racer. " Even though not 14, father knew there was the desire , so at the local ' shop, Pelican Cycles, 100cc ACE Ho daka became the new play toy for th e field. In Distri ct 36 it was the pe ak of the scrambles era when J im Fo ley was king; The age of 14 was attained an d the racing began. Th e number 431£ was affixe d to th e fron t of a l25cc Yam ah a an d it's off to Vallejo. Rick was th e average n ewcomer, nervous, not sure of hi mself and n ot sure of wh at to do , exc ep t go fast . That was easy enough for the heat race as he won it handily. His problems came from that point. "I guess I was so pumped u p ab out winning th at rac e th at I wen t up to the grandstand for so me glory and got carri ed away with it. So much so that when they called the main event, I was still up there and m issed it ." Po p Delacy never had a chan ce to ride as a kid but felt that if Rick wanted to , then he wo uld do wh at he could even if he missed a main event or so. " Ric k didn' t like me trying to promote him but after awh ile, it just h ad to hap p en. " Rick's advancement through th e ranks progressed into the 250 Expert class in slightly over a year. But with times ch anging as rapidly as the y did, the scrambles kid was all of a sudden really into rou ndy-round. Short track took over the scene in Northern California in 1973. Rick ro de a 250cc Yamaha to the No. One sp ot for both th e 1974-75 seasons an d it wasn 't u ntil the middl e of the 1975 season that other p eop le be came interested in him. While Rick wasn't spo nsored by anyone except h is Dad 's pocketbook, his mos t notorious fea tu re was his aggressive style. In Augus t of 1974 Rick was figh tin g for a spot on the to p 20 Whi te Plat e sho rt track list and his desire to get to the top was p ar amoun t . Eno ugh so that rider s we ren 't happy with the way th ey were li;e tting pass ed . The problem came to a he ad when Fenn brought the problem in front of the Competition Committee. The laundry was aire d and Rick was apprised o f what o th er riders thought of his ridin g styl e. He was told that he would be wat ched closely the very next Wednesday ni ght at Fremon t. With two members of the Competition Committee on each comer, Rick rode from the m iddl e o f the p ac k to slide underneath Pervier with out so mu ch as a brush , an d went on to win with ease . So mu ch for th at problem at the moment . Rick's accomplish men t of the No . One in 1974 was a one bi ke, o ne wal le t effort for the most part and th e 25 0 is still runn in g with such n otabl es as John Gennai an d Randy "Belly" Scott competing on it. The assistance of the A & A Team, Yamaha World in the 19 75 season brought about a friendship that is h elping yo ung Rick Delacy. "At the first da ytime Pro half mile at San J ose, I rode Gary Conterno 's 360 Yamaha and was really impressed. It was my very first 360 ride. He let me ride it at Ascot and when he started tuning on that and my 250, I rea lly. sta rted win ni ng the half m iles. He really had his st uff togeth er. " In the profession al wo rld , Rick has held a card fo r two years but be caus e of the. lack of pro p er rides and hardly any raci ng for Pros in Northern California, he is still a Novic e. This won ' t get pas t the year, though. "With th e help of the Can cill a team, 1 should have my Junior points by th e '11 still mean 1 h ave to rac e the rest of th e year as a Novice but I want to do it an d spend some time getting a 4 0 incher to geth er , getting ready for n ex t year and maybe even lining up sponsorship , because I want to ride the National circuit as soon as I can. " It's onl y t oo obvious th at when the bug bites the you ng up and coming racer , thinking on ly goes toward the circuit. The infam ous circuit . " I go t my first real shot at a race series in early February when they ran th e Northwest series of indoor Pro stuff, Despite a lo t of p roblems that I had, I h ad a b all , m ade six poin ts to give me _ over 30 towards my Junior card and en ough money to alm ost p ay fo r the trip." At Seattle Rick was as tast as anybody and took a second in th e heat. "'"bile running second in the Semi he wen t for an inside shot and u nloade d, popping his shoulder out of the soc ket. Luckily enough , Bob Scally was right on the scen e with Steve Foster and the two ve terans popped him right back in to pl ace . At Portland, Rick took fifth fastest qualifying under the new AMA sep arate Novice rules and easily won the first heat over Frank Borba when Borba overcooked it in the first comer. A win in the Semi was easy and pu t him next to John T avis and Greg Ferguson . The start was once again all Borb a's who outread the green light an d overdid the first tu m like before . Ric k tucked in behind Tavis an d chased him for aw hile, still favoring the bad shoul der wh ile Fergu son dropped out. The race was long an d when he got around to ca tch in g Tavis, it was wh ile lapping th ro ugh sixth place in the p ack. "I really didn' t feel the pain of the shoulder although I hadn't been able to sleep well an d it would hurt when 1 wasn 't riding. I guess th at h as to do with adr en alin flow. T owards th e end of the race 1 caught up to T avis who h as having problems lapp ing guys. I wanted to try and p ass bu t yet didn' t be cau se 1 was afraid of the shoulder. Well I made th e decision to go u nder but about the time I went to try and get a wh eel under hi m, he got by this guy and it was all I could do to get by him before the checkered." Corvallis was something different. "The ar ena was dirt co mp are d to the concrete floo rs. It was so cold that 1 had to keep moving or stay in the van with th e heater go ing . I h ad let Randy Scott ride the 250 and between the tw o of us we got in a few extra practices just to keep warm. We were doing calisthenics like to keep the blood going and Dave Hansen kept his Honda going to keep his hands and feet warm. "They ran us in weird heats. There were like five or six guys in some 14 or 15 heats with only the first two going on to the Sem is. The track was ne at and I won the he at with the seco nd fastest time. In my Semi I got off the line second and kinda felt like holding that. About halfway th ro ugh Ho cking trie d to get under me and fell. The next lap I saw hi m and Billy Oliver tied in a knot. On the next lap I relaxed too much and fell off. That was the wor se hurt o f all. I was taking it easy and just wasn't pay ing enough attention . "I do n't like to remember that or th e Sea t tle crash bu t th e Portlan d thing was neat and the party at Scott's, (Randy and Deanna), was th e b est experience an d m akes me want to do better cause I like the life style." That last part probably really boils it all down. For this kid at any rate, the life style is righ t and it may just be that kind of thinking that is the making of a ~oten tial star, and that means the bii nme. 25

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