Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

For years, the purse has been 30 percent of the gate against $1225. 1('s been that way for 12 years. The riders striking wanted 40 percent of the gate. The strike involved about half the riders, I'd say. That strike kinda started the whole thing off between the promoters and myself. Up until then I'd been Champion about four or five times and was making good money. The promoters said they weren't going to give 40 percent. They said: Anybody who wants to ride, come on and ride. That's what they've always said. They've never really tried to make agreements or settle this thing like 1 think. promoters should. So the guys stuck by their guns, guys 'Iike Sonny Nutter, Bill Cody, Rick Woods, Jeff Sexton. There were six or seven big name guys who carried a lot of weight. At the time of the strike, Bruce Penhall wanted to ride, and 1 wanted to ride because I mllde a living out of it. I never went after 40 percent of the gate because I didn't feel there were funds at the time to merit paying that to the riders. I always wanted to up the base purse to a couple of grand and leave the 30 percent alone. I felt it would work out better in the long run. If you try to kill the promoters, then the whole sport is going to die. So the whole time everyone argued back and forth and never got anywhere. Jerry Fairchild, chairman of the SRA, threw up his hands and said he quit. 1 never picketed. Neither did Penhall. We always tried to contribute to the show. And I have to say, eventually, we got stabbed in the back for trying to keep the show going. Here I am a few years later, sick of the political empire. And Penhall's in Europe. He couldn't get anything out of the promoters here, couldn't see where the sport was going. You make 25 to 40 grand a year for three, four, five or ten years but you finally say: Well, what the hell am I doing? 1 want to go ahead in life. I want to get ahead and get somewhere before I'm too old to do something else. So Penhall left. We were pretty good friends at the time because we used to ri~e together on the old Sprockets team when we rode team racing. He kept saying: What are we going to do now? Are we going to go to Europe? I said I thought I would try to stay here and try to promote the sport. I was happy living here. Of course I was 25 and married and he was 18 and single. So he upped and left to go to England because he saw some light over there. He saw he could make money, that he could ride a lot more and didn't have to hassle Harry Oxley and John L week in and week out about 25 bucks to appear. The strike really did change everything. Soon there was nobody left here. Half the guys weren't riding, and the rest went overseas. I was winning everything easily. Not. bragging or anything, but I ~ad tried so hard in the past to be number one that it was a cinch to be number one when there was no one to race against. Some of the guys who had been out on strike tried to dribble back in. The promoters would put them on one. night and leave them off the next. They really gave them the runaround, and there was nobody the riders could go to. Today a rider can't go anywhere and say: Look, I have a legitimate bitch and they're goof"mg me around. I'm not getting on the program. What can they do? They have to go to the p;omoters. It's really been one-sided all along. And some good young blood has been kept out because they had been on strike. You mentioned hassles you and Penhall had over start money? I'd say to the promoters: Look, I need so much money to appear. I'm six or seven times champion and 1 feel I should get a hundred dollars for each time I was champion, but I'm only asking [or fifty bucks or a hundred bucks. I always had to fight for my stan money. How Weft things after the racing went AMA? For years, the AMA had been trying to get into our racing. Of course, there were another 300 guys to get licensing fees from. Not to bad rap the AMA, but our entry frees have gotten higher and our licenses get higher and there is no one in the AMA who contributes to speedway at all. I raced five nights a week for two years for the AMA, and they appoint Harry Oxley to run the board. The rider representatives seem to be picked at random. I was a rider represenatative the first year, but literally had no power at all. I'd try to bring something up Iik.e getting a track fixed and they'd say: You know you can't do that. Are the tracks getting bad? The tracks are worse than they have ever been. They're dusty and holey. The promoters control the board, they control the races, they pick who they want to pick, they make up their own programs. It's strictly a conflict of interests there. If a rider had a bitch, they'd say: Well don't ride then. This is the fint year Larry Huffman hasn't announced at Ora~ County. Yes, I guess he and Harry Oxley got into a big quarrel over money. Last year, I didn't ride at Orange County one time because I got in a quarrel with Harry over money. I said: Look, Harry, I've built your show over all these years. I've stayed here in this country. 1 haven't ventured overseas because I wanted to see the sport in this country get bigger and I've stood by you. But he wouldn't give me the appearance money I wanted, and it wasn't much. So I didn't ride for him at all in '79. I was the Last of the Mohicans trying to promote his show, and he was goofing me around. So there wasn't one word said between us the whole year until I came back and won the National last fall. I think. that kinda ticked him off. My first trip back, and I won the National with 15 points right straight up. It was beautiful. SO what happened this year? I said to Harry: Whatever you want to do, give me whatever you think I'm wonh, and 1 won't argue. I thought I wouldn't get anywhere sitting around not riding when I knew 1 could make myself five hundred bucks a night. So he said: Let's go back to the old arrangement. A year before it was half of what I asked for, but I settled for it and said okay. I broke my pelvis in three places at the first race and later I had the flu and pneumonia. But 1 was going down there when I could. But you finally quit racing at Orange County. That happened because of an incident one night. My sponsor, EdJustice, was in the pits. He had paid his five bucks to get in the back gate, but he wasn't wearing the appropriate pants. You're supposed to have white pants. So here comes Marilyn Oxley, the promoter's wife. and she belligerently asked him to get out of the pit area. I said: Marilyn, how come you're throwing him out? He paid his money. She said: He doesn't have white pants. So I looked around and pointed out three or four guys who didn't have white pants on. Then I looked at the referee's wife who had open-toed shoes, sandals. They aren't allowed in the pits either. So I pointed that out. She yelled and said she didn't need to listen to me, and I said I didn't need to listen to her either. So I packed my bags and left. That simple. About a half hour before that 1 had walked over to the gate to say hello to Rick Woods and his dad and wife. They couldn't get in, they didn't have a pass. I felt that after all the years that Rick put time in to help pioneer this spon and win National Championships, he should be able to get some passes. I thought that was really chicken. I told him I'd go get him some passes and that's when I walked over and saw Marilyn arguing with my sponsor about tl!e white pants. That was the last time I went to Orange County. I had enough of their bull, I didn't want to take it. In the meantime, the promoter at San Bernardino took me off my appearance money because I left early one night. Alan Christian and I tangled in a race, and he went down. Later he came back and jumped me and tried to provoke a fight. I had kind of backed-off from fightmg. The last time I'd been fined $250. 1 was out of the heat race and didn't transfer. So I left early once in five years and the promoter killed my appearance money. I decided I didn't need his bull either. The month before 1 had quit racing at Ventura. I was on good terms with the promoter up there, but it was a question of safety. The track would often be so dusty I couldn't see where 1 was going. I offered to help the promoter with his track. I asked if I could give him some advice since nobody else was. It wasn't his fault, and it wasn't mine. I just didn't want to ride handicaps there in the dust because I didn't want to get hurt again. I dearly love to ride. All these years I've travelled thousands of miles to race, bu t you fmally reach a point. So, that was three tracks I was on the outs with. . That left Ascot. There are other tracks, but you can't ride them because tlhe promoters say if you ride there you'll get blackballed. That isn't legal. They can't tell me where I can or can't ride. Didn't Dick Mann go to court over something like that yean ago? Exactly. Dick Mann was the first rider to stand up for his rights. And I wish a lot of us now would get together, unite, and say: Look we're going to ride speedway, and we're going to promote speedway in this country, and we're going to supervise the tracks for safety and preparation. What we've done is nothing. So you were racing just Ascot at the time you decided to retire? Ascot was my favorite track anyway. It's a 'quarter mile or so. I never had one quarrel withl.C. Agajan· ian, and I didn't treat him any different than I treated the rest of the promoters. He's a good promoter. He k.new what he could pay, and it was fair. The other promoters were taking in more money, yet I had to fight to get my money. What brought everything to a head a month ago? San Bernardino taking out my appearance money, then having my sponsor thrown out of the pit area, and having a referee fine me for giving him a little shove. He threw me out of a heat race. I tried to reason with him that it was a bad call and asked him to rerun the race. He came into my pit area, he was yelling at me. I had been putting up with referees for 10 years, and I got a little mad and shQved him a little. So I got fined and suspended. And then when Christian tangled with me I got fined and suspended for that. I just said what the hell? What's the use of fooling around for my 25 or 30 grand a year, the same as always. I wasn't sleeping at night. My blood pressure was rising. I couldn't understand why those guys didn't agree with me. They had to see the light sometime. Here all the good guys go to Europe and I'm trying to fight for the spon here and they always wanted to challenge me for some reason. I could never walk up and make a suggestion about the track. So you're done with speedway? Well, I'm done with speedway in southern CaLfiornia until they change it or there are more tracks. What are you up to now? I'm a partner in Mike Bast Mopeds in Montclair. We sell bikes, do service work.. We're getting into moped competition events too. We have an association called the IMA. We're going to run our first event at Montclair High School, two riders per bike, a two· mile course. It'll go for six hours. Ed Justice has offered me a job I can't refuse. Justice Brothers sponsored my racing. He has motor oil and other motorcycle products that he's producing. He wants me to take over the national promotion of the bike products. We'll be able to develop any products we want, like octane boosters. gearbox additives and oil additives. I have the two-stroke oil in a few bikes, and it looks lilte the best stuff I've ever used. The oil will be for street and axnpetition. There will also be a chain lube and spark plug cleaner and similar products. Our first show will be in Las Vegas in October. I think we're going to hit all the shows next year. So I'll do some travelling and hire a staff. We're going to go at it slowly, but I think. we'll have really great products. I think being a representative for Justice Brothers will be a full time thing for me from now on. You used to express an interest in promotiJag some speedway racing youneU. I'd love to promote speedway. That's a big dream of mine still-. I have a location for a track right now. I have a backer. You might see Mike Bast Speedway in the next year. I have the money, everything, except 'an association. I know I don't want to go in there and butt heads with Harry Oxley. He's been doing it for 12 years. By all rights and means, he's responsible for the spon even existing today. He's the guy who pioneered the revival and promoted thespon. I don't have any animosity toward Harry or John or the other promoters. It's just been an accumulation of these little things over the years. I'm just as hardheaded as they are. It was just time to up and go do something new or promote speedway myself. If I go through the AMA, then I have to go through Harry. So what am I going to say to the current promoters: I have a track., can you guys help me out? Do you have any regrets about not goiDg overseas and going for the World Championship? Oh, yeah. A lot of them. I think. tliat by now I could have been World Champion. Bruce Penhall has now qualified for the World Final. In fact, he lost a runoff for the overall win at the Inter-Continental Qualifier that we went over for three years ago. After the way we were treated over there, not being allowed to practice or set up the bikes, I decided to stay in my own country and promote speedway. In the meantime Penhall went back over because he couldn't see any light over here. I haven't had any desire to go back since that experience in '77. I should have gone over five years ago, though. I think by now, if I had gone over to England to compete, I. could have been World Champion. I have beaten World Champions. and I beat Penhall in this country. I taught him to ride when he was a youngster and I think. now he's better than I am because he went over to Europe. He's now competing on the world level and I think this year he'll win the World Championship. And if he can win it, I lmow I could win it. • o 00 0') 11

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