growth of desert racing ; it was a
na tural for that type of competition
and it came a long at just the right
time .
Participation in
desert events
mushroomed and more classes wer e
created to keep up the int erest and
ent h usias m and also to giv e a reason a~le portion of the riders a cha nce to
win .
This boom lasted for a relatively
short time as inc reasing bureaucratic
influence , lan d ' clos ures and the
infamous "gas shortage" of 1973
com bined to ca use a drop off in a ttendance by 1974 .
. T he 28th Annual Moose Run ea rly
. in 1974 st ill drew 800 rider s a nd A.C .
- Ba kken topped the 500 fini sh er s o n a
00400cc Husky. Mark Adem o n a 250cc
~7 ~enton fini sh ed second o vera ll. Bob
" Bal entine was third overa ll as a o pe n
~d ass Amateur whil e Bruce Ogilvie
t ~k eig ht h ove ra ll , first Trailbike o n
w_.his 100cc Baja. A .C , a lso won . the
"n9 heck Chase. that yea r from 894
b~st a rt e rs and 421
fin ishers . Larry
oRoeseler (Ha rley Baja) Bob Rutt en
: , (H od a ka ) and Ogilvie ( Baja) ba ttled
~ for the top three posit ions in th e
nl T ra ilbike class while Tom Brooks, J im
ish ba ck and Mitch May es wer e
" frequent overall winners .
gn
bns The development of the " de sert
lI..bike" as something very different in
JI !y pe from any other racing bike
'~ peaked in the late '60s and early '70s.
;Jf ro m then on the development and
e lava ila b ility of motocross machines
01 bagan to have its influence o n desert
o bik es.
IJf v The basic d ifferen ces today bet ween
,1 an ave rage moto cross bike and a desert
~2,b i ke are only in t he steeri ng head
gid' ng le a nd pe rhaps in the swing arm as
'(1'r: ell as bigger gas ta nks and higher
. gearing for the desert b ikes . A desert
q
