Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Louis McKey: If th~ BLM continues that they'v~ taIt~n in th~ last several weeks, yes, because on th~ Imperial Valley M.C. race, th~ BLM actually acquind all th~ permission to CI'Oll privat~ proFtJ and did most of the groundwork that in th~ past th~y hav~ forc~ th~ clubs to do. Th~ BLM did it th~lves with no hassl~ and no problem. If that's an indication of th~ BLM's new policy, th~~'s no r~ason why _ couldn't hav~ th~ Ch«k Chase. and th~~'s no ~ason why So· Cal's Olancha rac~ can't taIt~ plac~. I don't Stt why it didn't tak~ plac~ th~ last tim~. I fonee a rout~ opening up down towards th~ Salton S~a. perhaps som~thing joining up with th~ rac~ course that cam~ from th~ M~xican borda up to th~ Ocotillo Wells ~. I would ~~n think th~r~'s a possibility of th~ Ch«k ~ starting in Luc~rn~ Vally again. I thinlr. all th~ ~nvironm~ntalists and conv~nationists that monitor~ th~ Thanksgiving W~k~nd ~v~nt, with th~ ~xception of on~, w~r~ v~ry impresRd with th~ motorcyclists and w~~ w~1I satisfi~ with what took plac~. The on~ ~xc~ption, of course, is Ik~ Eastvold h~ made a lot of stat~mmts of violations of th~ cI~ ar~as. Th~ BLM ch~ck~ out ~~ry on~ of th~m and found th~m th~ attitud~ We gave some great thought to ~s and one day, how it actually happened I don't know - well. I'll gift AI most of the creait because he spotted it. As _ we~ marking the numbfis on the results. the 33rd 250 Novice was a guy by the name of Wallis Weatherwax. He ~Ionged to the Desert Ducks Motorcycle Club. AI says. "This guy's going to ~ a winner." ~ats his brains out, nobody cares. Nobody knows who he is and nobody cares and he still beats his brains out. What does he get? One stinking point ... We decid~ that something had to ~ done about that; it just wasn't right. We ended up making Burma Shave signs. The first one would stan out. "Quack, Quack." The s«ond would have some kind of saying on it, such as "Who wings frrst overall" or "Who wean racing feathers" or "Who flies fast" or "Who p«ks at the competition." something like that. The third one would say. "Wallis Cycle NetlJs would give you a fr~ 10word ad if you were giving anything away f~. so we were giving f~ fame to Wallis Weatherwax. Well, Cycle News went along with that for a few w~ks. Thm they decided that this f~bie business had to stop. Not having things going quite fast enough, we wrote a letter to Cycle News and it said something to the rlf«t that _ heard Wallis Weatherwax was a factory rider for a British motorcycle firm and that the Desen Duck was a new four-stroke that was going to tear up the desen and would Cycle News tell us the truth about all of this. The editor at that time, ~ing fairly sharp, d«id~ that this letter was probably written by the same individual who was placing the ads in Cycle News. Bu~ they had had a call from Mrs. Weatherwax, Wallis' wife, inquiring on who put the ads in there. Shortly after that, the letter appear~ with a long comment in thae about Weatherwax of the Desen Ducks M.C. and then anothe.r one saying "Quack, Quack... We made up some of these signs. AI wasn't along the first night. My children and I wae and we went out in the middle of the desert and we put these signs up on posts. I still have the scar where I was ~ating the post in the ground in the middle of the night and smack~ my hand. That was on the pit road going into the races, the dirt pit road. It did get some attention. Then we graduated to different types of signs. We decided that beating your hands up in the middle of the night wasn't the way to go. We didn't want anyone to know who was doing this either. We didn't know who this Wallis Weatherwax was. We were also putting ads. in Cycle News. putting these sayings up in the want ads. We started out with fr~ ones. the originator of the letter and the call from Mrs. Weatherwax, ending up if that was really Mrs. Weatherwax. unsubstantiat~. Any plans for th~ Phantom Duck of th~ Desert, Incorporaml for 1980? Louis McKey: W~'v~ just toy~ with som~ id~as but w~ havm't sat down and com~ up with anything concr~te ~t, acept that we would lik~ to n~tiat~ with th~ BLM and we f~1 that w~ can. W~ f~1 that we can n~tiat~ with the BLM and th~ ~nvironm~ntalists from an angl~ that th~ AMA can't, and District 37 can't. W~ would lik~ to n~tiate to th~ ~nmt of AMA and District 37 if they would gift us a vot~ of confid~nc~ to do that for th~. ~ing that w~ don't hav~ to abid~ by th~ binding rules and ~Iations that ar~ im~d on organiz~ promotional clubs, I think that w~ hav~ opportunities that th~ organiz~ promotional clubs don't. and I would lik~ th~ opportunity to use th~m. But we hav~ to hav~ AMA and District 37's go-ah~ad to do that. Turning away from th~ future, and back to 1975. How did you ev~r come up with the name "Phantom Duck of the Desert?" Louis McKey: It came up a long tim~ brlore 1975, and it's quite a story in itself. Back when AI and I and another nepheW that I won't name, b«ause he wouldn't want to get involv~d, were racing and w~r~ novices, we were unfamiliar with AMA and District policies and when we thought that if you won on~ point you would have an earn~ number for the next year. That would ~ the most fantastic thing that could happen. W~ w~r~ new at this and quit~ mthusiastic. Each w~k as th~ results of th~ race would arrive, a coupl~ of w~ks old, w~ would rip those things open and th~ first thing you did was look at the top 10 or 12 peopl~. W~ und~rlin~ all of our club m~bfis in r~. So you look~ at top dog first and then you ch«ked around for your nam~. In those days, the lightweight division was 101 to 250cc and that was what we were riding. W~ would ch«k the num~r of entries and s~ how many points were paid. In those days a maximum point run - where there were 200 entries in your class - paid the Novices down to 33rd position, the 33rd' position getting one point. We would num~r th~ right down the line, ch«king out each rider in our division. We also ponder~ over the injustice of the Novices, who comprised the majority of the riders, not getting any T«ognition in Cycle News or the maKazines. We made an attempt to find out what reaction this gentl~an was having from the adftrtising we were doing because we have n~er ~n him before. We didn't know who he was. So having the race results from a race, I called the refer~ from that clu b. I told him I had met this guy 'out there and we wae supposed to go riding the following weekend and 1 lost his address and would he mind looking the guy's address up for me. He says, "Oh, sure. Do you have his riding number?" I said "I certainly do," so I gave him the riding number. He looked it up and then he gave me Wallis Weatherwax's address. He asked if I wanted his phone number and I said. "Certainly." which was good b«ause it was an unlisted phone num~r. With that, I called the Weatherwax residence that evening. I did not say so, but I kind of insinuated that I was with Cycle NetlJs and was inquiring about the ads and letter and what-not. She said he didn't mind the advertising at all, that he had such a big head she couldn't hardly talk to him and that they didn't have any idea who was doing that b«ause the Desert Ducks were just a small group of their friends. Somewhere along the~ in that same paiod of time we acquired ~ name Phantom Duck of the Desert. Just how is kind of a half mystery. So as soon as we found out that he didn't mind the advertising, we ~ally went to a heavy campaign and he actually, according to Cycle News. became the most famous Novice rider in the world. Even to the point where he had his motorcycle stolen in Mexico, and couldn't afford to buy .a new one, so I sent a bout 20 letters ou t to various shops saying why they should sponsor Wallis Weatherwax. One of th~ did and gave him a motorcycle. Still no one knew who we were. No one knew who the Phantom Duck of the Desert was. That's the way it was meant to be. Finally it faded out. Other people picked up on it. Other people started placing ads in Cycle News. Other people stan~ putting signs up at the desen races. It was pretty popular. One of the best times we had on that was the clubs picked it up too. One of the clubs advertised that if the Phantom Duck of the Desen showed up at their race to put up any signs, they would catch him. There was no way that he could possibly get the signs up out there without th~ catching him. We did 27 signs that Right on the sides of rrlrigerator boxes. We didn't ~m go to the race. We both had to work. It was in Lucerne Valley and we went out in the middle of the night. The signs _re so big we had to tie them to the bushes. You couldn't ~en put th~ in with stakes. We went out a couple of nights later and picked them up. Then the Phantom Duck of the Desert faded away after that. In 1975 when it was obvious that there was not going to be any Barstow to Vegas race, I used the name Phantom Duck of the Desert again. Not AI, he didn't have anything to do with it, he was innocent. I made up some little poster goodies. so few, by the way, that they were made on a Xerox and hand-colored. They were distributed to a few of my friends. In 1975 there were thr~ of us out there, myself, my son Keith, and a friend of ours. When we arrived out there, we met about 15·20 other people. Cycle News had their motorhome out there. No one knew who the Phantom Duck was or knew who I was. There was a gentl~an out there who said, "Hey, I have a map! I know how to get to Vegas legally on roads and stuff." I said, "Well, I don't know how to get the~ - I'll follow you." So I followed that group as far as Rasar Road and they had a little trouble there and had to slow down. So I went down Cima Road - I knew how to get to Cima Road. At Cima Road I met up with a motorcycle club - a few members from a district club. They were just getting ready to leave and had already gassed up. I ask~ them where they were going and they said, "Hey, we've got a guy here who knows how to get to.vegas." "Be right with you, fellows'" We poured some gas and followed them and they showed us most of the rest of the trail b«ause I didn't really know where it went. In 1976 we were out there again and someone else got blamed for being Phantom Duck of the Desert that year. o 00 0') .-4 21

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