Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Malco)m Smith won the '65 Cactus Derby on a 250cc Greeves. 8 machines, a Royal Enfield. a BSA. and a Matchless. Mulder covered the gruelling 158 m iles in four hou rs. 21 m inutes. Mu ld er spent much of his time over the next five yea rs in the desert but is best known for his Cla ss C racing. He was one of th e best , if no t the best TT racer to ever put a wheel on the race track - but he got his start in th e desert! For the first six years of its existence he also owned the Corriganville (Hope town) GP Open Expe rt class . His first win in that famed GP race. its innaugu ral year was 1960. Also notable in the 1960 Big Bear was Da ve Ekins who was the onl y rider to finish (out of IS vstarters) on a 125cc mach ine . He rode a Honda. That .year only 15 riders started in the 55 inch and over class; two finished ; the winner a t 104th overall was Bob Greene (later long time ed ito r of Motorcyclist Magazine) on a HarleyDavidson . The Shamrocks Sta te Championship Hare and Hound in December of 1960 was won by Don Surplice over Marsh Meridith (bot h Open Experts on Ma tchless ), Bud Ekins (500cc Expe rt ) and Al Rogers. Bill Messer on a 250cc Jawa was the top lightweight rider at 14th overall. Messer was the leading light weigh t rider for the year in the big events. At 22nd overall . first 500cc Amateur was a rider destined to be one of the dominant riders in desert competition in the mid sixties. Ro n Nelson. The Checkers "Check Chase" Hare and Hound of 1963 was won by Nelson (Tri) over J.D . Williams (Tri) . Mike Patrick (Enfield). Dick Vick (Mat) , 'La rry Berquist (BSA) and Rich Thorwaldson (Mat) . The rac e report mentioned the previous year's winner Bud Ekins was plagued with me chanical difficu lties and the loss of h is right foot peg. Then in 1965 Gary Conrad stunned everyo ne by winning the 90-m ile National Championship Ha re Scrambles overa ll on a 250cc Greeves l It was to prove to be no fluke as he won agai n overall several tim es in the next few months. Rich Thorwaldson won t he Spokebenders Hare Scrambles on a 250cc Bultaco one week after Conrad had won the Checkers Hare and Hound for the first-ever second straight dese rt win by a ligh tweigh t bike . Also in the fall of 1965 . the Cactus Derby was won by a fellow named Malcolm Sm ith on a 250cc Greeves. This was the 20th running of the famed Derby promoted by the Riverside Bombers ' club. The winner that year of the 200-mile long event. Smith also earned the title of the western National Enduro Championl Thoulfh . the lightweight machines were beginning to occasionally have their day, Nelson and his big Triumph came back to win the California State Champioruhip Hare and Hound one week after Conrad had won the National Hare Scrambles. It wu interesting that Nelson fmished fourth (with leat problema) to Conrad at that National and Conrad in tum finished fourth to Nelson th e nex t week behind second place Mike Patrick (500 Norton) and third Phil Bowers (500cZ). Another name was seen in 1965: J.N . Roberts took 26th overall as a Novice on a Honda . During th e next year on a 305 Honda as an Amateur, J .N. was to prove all but unbeatable. He began to ga in recognition in 1965 however when he fin ished 10th overall, first No vice at th e Cal State Hare Scrambles. In ha t race th e first six places went to T riumph ; Conrad snuck his Greeves in for sevent h. followed by two m ore T rium phs and J .N . There were over 40 active clubs in the desert in the m id sixties and the average attendance at a race was 250 to 300 rid ers. th oug h there were over 600 riders who earned points du ring the yea r in dese rt racing. Some of the other top riders of tha t time: Bud Smith , Bob McLaughlin. Don Smith . Bob Steen . Bob Steffan, Bob Ferro, Al Roge rs and Walt Axthelm. A few of th e top clu bs: Shamrocks . Ca lifornia Golphers . Ch eckers. Rams, Prospectors, Sa n Gab riel, OCMC, Buzzards . Dirt Diggers and Jackrabbits . Anothe r class came along in 1965 t he Trailbike class. T his reflected the growing popularity and availabilit y of th e small 100cc an d under motorcycles by th e early 1970's th is was one of the most popular and hotl y contested classes with a regular tUIlflOUt of 150 to 200 riders. The early seven ties saw the largest number of riders ever to race in the desert on a regular basis : weekly tu rn outs averaging betw een 600 ·800 ridersl By the end of 1966 the T rai lbike class was drawing 50 riders maximum in the bigge r events - it was still a po rtent of things to come . Jack Morgan on a H odaka and Earl Roeseler (yes. La rry 's dad ) on a Zundapp were the top two H onch os in the Trail class in the m id sixties . Bob Steffan also raced this class on a Hodaka. At the State Championship' Hare Scrambles in m id -Octob er 1966 , Bob Belt won overall on a 250cc Greeves. J.N . Roberts (1451 Amateu r) was second overall on his 305 Honda . while third and first Open Spo rt went to Buzz Hurst on a T riumph. Then a young rider named Malcolm Sm ith came back from his first Inter national Six Days Trial to take the Spokebenders Championship Hare Scrambles over Bobby Ferro (T ri) on a 250cc Husqvarna. This was the first overall win for the Swedish brand in desert competition. Though the big "desert sleds" would continue their dominance for a few more years with their "drigor" Bates seats and "long travel" Ceriani forks they would give way to the lighter, increu ingly reliable (and available) high horsepower European two strokes in the same way that the bigger and heavier American bikes had given way to the British 15 to 20 years before. Eddie Mulder, Mel Dineson. Whitey Martino, Malcolm at Baja. Another rider appeared in sou th ern Cal ifornia in 1966 . three times and current 250cc World Motocross Champion Torsten Ha llman. He trained for his U.S. big race debut at Hopetown by riding a couple of Hare and Hound r aces in th e dese rt . The big races at Hopetown were International class races set up just like European motocross . T o many southern Cal ifornia riders' chagrin . Hallman swept the field both da ys; only Malcolm Smith and Paul Hunt could keep him in sight. It would be four or five years befor e the sport of motocross rea lly bega n to take off in this country and begin to exert an influence on d esert raci ng machinery and clothing. No one rider dominated the desert in . 1966. Dick Vick , La rry Berquist , Gary Con rad. Ro n Nelson and Mike Pa trick shared top honors. Up to 1967 dese rt ra cing a ll b ut ceased for the sum mer; it was j ust too hot , bu t by 1967 desert racing was suc h a popular sport and so many clu bs wanted dates (plus the po ints were finally ga ined by desert races onl y as enduros had been separated out in 1966) that r aces continued every week except the first Sunday of th e month during th e summer. By 1968 t he first Sunday of th e month was given to enduros. J .N. Roberts was on e of the first people to use protect ive gear in desert racing - a football mouth guard, shin guards and shoulder pads. As a stuntman who worked regularly, he may have gotten some of his ideas from that. Ironically he never earned a number one plate in the desert. His work kept him from competing every weekend and in those days all of your rides counted. Nowadays just your best 20 rides a re cou nted for po ints. Gran d Prix raci ng ca me along in the late sixties with the Viewfinders Grand Prix and the Elsinore ra ce joining Hopetown . These races provided a chance for th e Scrambles riders and the Desert riders to get together and sett le some of thei r "who is best of all " disp u tes. In the Cycle Ra cing Annual of 1968 . Gordon Jennings said that the desert racer "ri des for his club's honor ma king fast tracks over a trackless land." He wrote of the arroyos. whoo ps, rocks. heat sand and the "d readed cholla - a cactus so abund antl y endowed with spi nes as to ma ke a po rcupine ap pea r naked ." An d Jennings descri bed th e ga th ering of riders. famil y a nd fr iends by saying. "A remote bit of dust becom es pit ar ea , gra ndsta nds. picnic grounds. child ren' s sa nd box. solarium and ra ce course roll ed int o one." In 1967 th e last and biggest ph ysicall y of th e "big" desert races was run for the first time . Dust y Coppage won the first San Gabriel Valley M.C . Barstow to Vegas (hereafte r referred to as the B-to -V) on a Triumph over 619 start ers. For the next fou r yea rs in a row J .N. Roberts dominated th e race which grew to 2000 starters in 1970 (according to Cycle News) a nd to 3500 sta rte rs in 197 11 There were more finishers in 1971 (638) t ha n there were sta rters in the ina ugu ral event in 1967. T he T ra ilbi ke class - indeed a ll~ of th e classes in desert ra cing - grew eno rmously in the early 70's. In ' the 1971 B vto -V , Mitch Mayes finisned ninth overa ll on his H -D Baja 100. Don Ogilvie (fat he r of cu rre nt 250cc ace Bruce) finished 35th overall, third T ra ilbik e on a rear rim . Ja ck Morgan was still competing a nd winning in t he sma ll bike class in 1970. but the young riders were beginning to ta ke over and finish incredibly hig h in t he overa ll standings. Rid ers like T erry Cla rk. T om and Co rdis Brooks, Mit ch Mayes, Jeff W rig h t, La rry Roeseler and Bru ce Ogilvie developed su perb raci ng skills on the small bikes. According to Bru ce. "the sm a ll bikes forced you to become a really good racer , you couldn't count on the horsepower. Also th e competition was so int ense and good at that time it was a big help ." Any of th e racers who were very good on th e small bikes almost autom a tica lly became overall top competitors when they mad e the switch to bigger bikes . The 1972 s-re-v was won by Tom Smith on a Yamaha after a 10nK battle with T om Brooks on a DKW 125. Brooks. finish ing with a broken header pipe. was seco nd overall, first Division II (175c c) and end ed the yea r with th e n umber two plate in th e Di visio~ ~ II class af ter several overa ll wins on' lihe 125cc mach ine. T hird overa ll in lth e grueling race to Vegas t hat yea r.v~as A.C . Bakk en , fou rt h went to Rolf Tibb lin and fifth 10 th e la te Larr y Pfu tzen reurcr on a 250cc Bultaco . Mitc h Mayes moved to the O pen class in 1973 and beca me a relatively regular overall winner and took 19 open class wins by mid September. He also topped the 3000 sta rt ers in th e BIOV ra ce that yea r after duel ing th e entir e way with Jim Fishback . Fishback finished second by a mere 41 seconds. There were 1067 finishers. ' .; . The Ba rsto w to Vegas rac!= held In 1974 was the last. due 10 environmental problems. Mit ch Mayes and A.C . Ba kken cro ssed , th e finish line in a literal "dead heat " to tie for the win . They were so close near the finish of the ra ce that th ey decided it would be a fitting end . In 1969 and 1970. the death of TT a nd scrambles racing on a lar ge scale (d ue partly 10 the in creased interest in that " new" a nd growi ng spo rt of moto cross) caused ma ny riders 10 switc h to th e desert. The number o f riders do ub led a p parent ly overnight fro m an ave rage of 300-400 to 700·800 by 1970 . Motorcycle sales were on the increase in 1969 after two years of slowdown from th e inc rease d growth and " boom" of th e early 1960·s. Yam aha brought ou t t he ir DT ·I mod el in 1969 ; it was th e first rea d ily avai lable. decent. inexpensive bike which ~as ad equate for racing. It was also street lega l. The DT -I was a biK factor in th e ..... .... ..... . . . - - - --- -- -- . --- . --- - - - - - - .. - -- - -,. _ _ ........

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