Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

he dust start and finish were. In the original concept, a good rider from the pro· moting club was selected as the "hare," and he was allowed a halfhour to one hour start on the ' rest of the , field who were designated the "hounds." The hare would throw the lime as he went, and the first guy to catch him would be the winner. These weren't, strictly speaking, quite desert races yet , though the desert was where they would usually end up because of the amount of land needed for holding one of these events. Sometimes in these early races , you were lucky if anyone (besides the hare) made it to the finish . All the riders who got to that spot would lie to each other, bench race for a while, then leave for home. There were no sweep, or pick-up crews. If a rider missed his buddy after a day or so he would go looking for him or the. guy would walk out. get to town and get the necessary parts to fix his bike, and go back and fix it there on the trail! There were no classes then either, for riders or machines. The prizes were first, second, and third whether you rode a pogo stick or a Henderson Four! In many ways, desert racing evolved because the desert was the only place where you could run distance (80 to over 100 miles) events. The sport appealed to the many independent and individualistic riders in southern California, and to this day , desert racing has remained the most indivi dualistic form of motorcycle racing. The riders in southern California were lucky that they had a place in which to continue distance racing unlike the other areas in this country. After the second World War was over, in 1946 , European bikes began for the different types of races at this time, though during the fifties more and more riders began to specialize in either endures, or scrambles or Hare and Hounds and European Scrambles. There were three "really big" events during this time that literally everyone rode: Big Bear, the Greenhorn Enduro and the Cactus Derby. To win one of those races, you had to be one of the best. During the early fifties they separated the classes into Lightweight, Heavyweight and in the later fifties into Amateur and Expert. A Lightweight was any bike of 250cc and under and a Heavyweight was anything over 250c C:The reason for this split was the growing numbers of small displacement bikes , those two-strokes, which started coming into this country after the war. The Open class bikes in the mid-fifties were Matchless, AJS, BSA, Triumph and Velocette, while the "ring-ding" class machines were Dot, NSU Terrier, ' some BSAs and later Triumph Cubs followed by DKW. The top machine for several years, 'til the DKWs got going was the Francis Barnett which was universally called the Fanny B even in the race reports in Cycle and Motorcyclist magazines. By the late fifties, DKW was top dog, and Jack Krizrnann won the 200cc class at Big Bear in '57 and '58 , placing 19th overall in the latter event. coming into this country and began winning these Hare and Hound races . That's when desert racing really got started. The number of riders, motorcycles and events increased to the point that (including endures and scrambles races) a rider could compete in about 45 events throughout the year from 1951-1952 on during the fifties . . Desert racing had progressed from its infancy to the toddler stage. there was still no difference between the machines and most of the riders who raced any of those types of events on AJS, Ariel , Matchless and then a bit later BSA and Triumph motorcycles. There were still many riders competing on Harley-Davidsons at that time, but Indian had pretty well disappeared . Some of the top riders from the late thirties through into the early fifties were Swede Belin, Ray Bowels, Slim Cocker, Ray Tanner, George unther , Walt Harper, Earl Flanders, John McLaughlin, Del Kuhn, Ernie May, Doc Trainor, Nick Nicholson , Guy Lewis, Max Bubeck. Larry Bornhurst , Ralph Adams, Cleve McNeil , Charlie Cripps, Dick Dean, Vern Hancock, the incomparable Bud Ekins and later his brother Dave, Bob Ewing , Bud Sage and Aub LeBard. LeBard and Bud Ekins were the only two riders ever to win the famed Big Bear Run three times. And LeBard has the distinction of being the only rider to win it three years in a row , '49 through '51. A point scoring system for races was begun by District 57 in 1950 . That point system was used to qualify riders (as the entry was limited) for another famous race which grew in popula rit y in the fifties, the Catalina Grand Prix. The points were not kept separately Bud Ekins, Dick Dean and Vern Hancock were the three top riders in 1954. Ekins won his first Big Bear run , covering the 150 mile course in about eight hours. He topped the "over 500'" rider field on a AJS single scrambler and remembered that "it was real cold that morning" (second week in January) and the oil in the suspension units was so stiff that it was just like riding a rigid frame machine. The only ones not affected by the cold were those riding " Ma rt in" Specials. These machines had an unorthodox swinging ann suspension which used hydraulic fluid that wasn 't affected by the low temperatures (Vern Robison had used one of those Triumphs the year before to win the event over Ekins who broke 14 miles from the finish in 1955) . Ekins also won the Moose run that year , topping 265 competitors. That, according to Cycle Magazine was considered one of the "Big 8" runs of '54. Then Ekins and Hancock spent a couple of months during the summer competing in scrambles events in England. Dick Dean on a Matchless single was the winner of the 1955 National Championship Hare and Hound held Dec. 15 near Palmdale by the ' North Los Angeles M.C. He topped a total entry of 580 riders (510 big motors and 70 lightweights) in the 145-mile run . Dean, a member of the checkers M.C . (formed in 1951 and during the hey -day of desert racing in the '60s one of the biggest and best known desert clubs) , was also winner of the all around rider of the year award in 1955. Other top riders in 1954 included Bud Sage who won the San Gabriel Hare and Hound on a K Model Harley! and "Feets" Minert who spent most of that year in the service . Larry Hester, publisher of the trade publication Motorcycle Dealer News had a big moment in October 1955 when he topped a field of 195 to win the Checkers Hare and Hound over Pat Zaremba . Bud Ekins and Vern Hancock. By 1958 the Big Bear entry had swelled to an incredible 822 startersl Roger White was the winner over Charlie Hockie, Buck Smith , Bud Ekins (who was leading until he hit a patch of ice 17 m iles from the finish and fell down a 50 foot cliff) and Cal Bottom. All of the top five were Triumph mounted and 20 of the top 50 (out of only 145 finishers) were on Triumphs. Of course this might be explained by the fact that 267 of the 822 starters rode Triumphsl This was probably the beginning of the decade of Triumph dominance in desert racing. In 1965 points were finally split and desert racing really came into its own. The 10 year period from 1965 through 1972 was the "Golden Era" of desert racing. The bikes themselves evolved into very specialized machines created to do one thing very well - run very fast over desert terrain. One of ihe primary reasons for the split between desert races and racers and scrambles riders was the grading of scrambles coures. Scrambles racing became the proving grounds and "little league" for professional "Class C" racing. There weren't many rough scrambles anymore. but smooth IT scrambles courses with water trucks and graders. The only difference between many "scrambles" courses and Class C tracks was the fact that one was ridden by amateur racers for trophies and the other by professional riders for money. Many of the tracks even specified "Class C" traction - no knobbys allowed, because they might spoil the surface. The desert riders preferred to stick to their knobby tires and "rough" long distance courses over open terrain. When the scrambles and desert points separated in 1965 , enduros were kept with the Hare and Hound , Hare Scrambles and European Scrambles in District 57. Enduros were finally given their own separate point system on Feb. I , 1966. At that time the District Sports Committee voted to allow no other type of desert event to be held on the same Sunday as an enduro and also to keep the first Sunday of every month an open Sunday (along with Easter Sunday). The Committee also started that from then on, posters are to give complete directions to the start of events so as to avoid heavy liming on the main highways. It seems the law was getting upset about the lime on main highways and had been repeatedly warning different clubs. At that time the amount of desert used for racing was still open and so many different areas were used by the different clubs that most of the riders . didn't know when they left home for the race exactly where the start would be . The clubs used lime not only to mark the course but also to mark the .way to the start from one of the main roads. Now a small' amount of lime is used at the highway turnoff but the areas allowed for racing are SO restricted any desert regular can pinpoint, within a quarter mile, where the start and pit area will be for any given race. The course is marked with ribbon for the most part and a bit of lime is used to indicate a danger area or a (dirt) road crossing. Anyone can even find out where the course goes as the club must post- the route with the BLM prior to the race for their approval. Course maps are available as a public record. This is all part of the government control now exercised over desert racing. The other major rule put into effect Feb . I , 1966 was from that time on the marking cards, used by the promoting club, marked by their officials at the start and at the different checkpoints on the course, was to be put on the gas tank. Until then some clubs put them on the rider's helmet , some on the gas tank. As desert racing moved into the sixties, a talented young rider named Eddie Mulder surprised everyone by winning the Big Bear over the 197 finishers t hat year out of 765 starters. The first three bikes were also a bit su rp rising; they were all single cylinder so M Q) ..c 8 Q) u Q) o 7

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