Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dick Mann has become involved in vintage motocross rac ing in an effort t o keep the heritage of the sport alive. Interview: ~endarv Dick Mann Still at' it after all these years By Paul Carruthers Dick Man n won two AMA Gran d Nationa l Championships and 24 Na tional dirt tracks an d road races in his long and illustrious career, but i t seems the legend can 't get eno ugh , H e won h is first AMA National in 1959, and won h is last AMA Natio nal in 1972, bot h hi s first and last National 10 win being a t th e Peoria Yr. Now , in 1986, Mann is a maj or force in not o n ly p romoting vintage motorcycle events, but racing in those events as well. He co m pe tes mostl y in vintage mo tocross th ese days: he became interes ted in mot ocros s in 1963. " In 1963, I went to En gl and because I had been reading a bo u t mot ocro ss - wh ich was called scra mbles," Mann sa id. " Da ve Bickers a nd J eff Sm ith, they were m y h eroes and I f ina lly made it o ver th ere for th e first time wh en I won num ber one. I had no idea wh at it (mo tocross) was all about a n d o n the way home I sa id, ' well, I'm go ing to ge t in shape, I'm goi ng to learn how to do th at and I'm go ing to co me back .' Well I never did a nd now I'm th inking I'd bette r hurry up if I'm go ing to do that. I a m looking fo rward - if I can co me up with enough ex tra money - to taking my vinta ge bik e back a nd try ing it aga in. I better hurry because I'm ge tt ing to wh ere I ca n' t opera te o ne a nymore." Ever since that trip to Engla nd, Mann ha s had a keen int erest in mot ocro ss a n d mo re recentl y in pre. servi ng th at portion o f mot ocro ss h isto ry. H e h as been involved in promoting the sport of vintage mot orcycle racing - this yea r he wi ll fina lly see a vintage program at Daytona. O n Monda y, Mar ch 3, a vintage motocross will be held o n a slig h tly m odi fied su percross tra ck a nd in the a ftern oo n a vintage road ra ce wi ll take pl ace at the speedw a y. " Since Daytona is su ch a big thing for everybod y in th e U n ited States we thought it would be ni ce to get a ra ce th ere," Mann said. " So we've been talking about it for a co u p le of years, but it hasn 't come a ro u nd until this year. So this year we'll be trying to get a liule credibi lity for the sport. It 's new in th is part o f th e world, bu t it 's big time in Europe a nd En gl and." Mann has many rea sons for wantin g to see vintage racin g tak e o ff in this co untry. One is to keep th e h er itage of th e sport he lov es a live a n d th e o ther is quite si m p ly for th e fu n o f it. " It wasn ' t very long ago (tha t mot ocro ss began in th e U.S. ) a nd a lready people have no idea what it wa s li ke wh en it began a nd wh at it was abou t to begin with," h e sai d. " As th e sport goes on - lik e every other sport things graduall y cha nge. And if you' re not ca ref u l yo u lose sigh t of wh at it was a ll a bo u t to begin with. U n fortunatel y, we've a lrea dy forgotten a bo u t wh at were possibly th e gr eatest days of racing, th ose in th e '20s. Th ey were passed a nd forg otten a nd I'd ha te to see th at happen to mot ocross. " T he other thing , a nd th is is p roba bly th e m ost important, is th at it 's more fun . It 's rea lly fun to rid e those o ld bik es. T hose mot or cycl es are fun to ride. T he way yo u go abou t riding th em is a littl e d ifferent and it doesn ' t ta ke a very rough tra ck to ma ke yo u work very, very ha rd. Th e lin es you usc in a co rner - just exa ct ly lik e it was th en - are very im p orta n t. If yo u tak e the wrong line on a vin tage bike th e g uy will pass you and yo u ' ll lose. You don't have to go very fast to reall y get a th rill o u t o f go ing across th e ground . You ge t to ride every bum p a nd yo u have to read every bum p a hea d o f time. So it's keep in g th e herita ge a live a nd it 's reall y a lot o f fun to do." In ad d it io n to Dayton a, Mann is ho p in g to ge t a four-race series go ing in Ca lifornia this year a nd in th e futu re would lik e to see th e vint age class go riar ional, T he rules a re as sim p le as th e bik es used . The classes in clude a ll bik es up to a nd in cluding 1974. They must have th e orig ina l amount o f suspensio n travel and if th e bike has been m odi fied or is a hand-built speciaI. it has to have a max imum o f seven in ch es o f travel in th e front a nd four inc hes o f travel in th e rea r. Non-un it-construction ma chine run separa tely and s pre-I 965 ligh tweig h t machines arc a lso in Divi sion One. There is a lso a class for large twins, 60lcc-Open. T he re is Class Two for th e more mod ern bikes that are basica lly all unit co nstruc tio n like Huskys a nd o thers of the la te '60s and earl y '70s . Class Three is for riders o ver 40 and th ey ca n ride an y vintage bik e they want. All th e cla sses will be divided into 125, 250cc, Open and Open Twin divisions. " It will be so rt o f a rebirth," Mann sa id. " Most of th e rid ers a re in th eir 30s - th ey were teen s wh en it started - and th ere ar e quite a few rid ers that a rc o lder. Believe it or not, th ere ar e quit e a few yo u ng rid ers - th ere wa s a n o ld siuing in th e garage th at wa s th eir o ld m an 's - so th ey've dragged th em o u t a nd had fun . " O ne thing a bo u t it is th e bikes a rc fairly ch eap. There will be so me $4000-5000 motorcycles o u t th ere, bu t th ere will also be a bunch o f $400-500 ones that are really com peti tive. There is no advantage of having th e expensive o nes and th ere a re a lot o f th ese bikes out th ere." The most importani criteria th e bikes must meet is th e sus pe nsio n tr avel , according to Mann. " T h e amount of travel seems to be th e key to th e whole th ing," he said. " T he reason the cu toff dat e is 1974is becau se a t that time none-of th e factories, or very few of the factories, produ ced a long travel bike. By 1975 th ey all had cz. longer travel. T ha t was a lso th e beg in n ing of th e mod ern era an d the sta rt o f th e m on oshock ." One o f th e rid ers co mpe ting a t Daytona a nd in a ny series beyond tha t will be Mann himself. H e has a selectio n of vintage bi kes a nd he sti ll thri ves o n th e co mpetition. " I had suc h a big ga rage full of junk," h e said. " I've go t three o r four machines th at I ca n use. I sti ll have th e BSA .8-50 tha t I wa s rid in g in th e ea rly '70s a nd I h ave wh at I a lways wanted bu t co u ld never have because I was a lways rid in g for a BSA deal er , a nd th a t' s a 500 Mat chles s single. I a lso hav e a Iiule 250 O ssa." Last year, Mann had a vintage m ot oc ro ss in Steamboat Sp ri ngs, Col orad o , a nd it was a success . " It was a perfect th rowback to th ose days," Mann said. " When we go t th ere th e cred ibility o f th e thing was real low. T h ree or four o f us went back and we had thi s field - yo u co u ldn' t hav e a mod ern mo tocross on it because th ere were very few ob stacl es. We la id out the co urse with a law n mow er. The grass was abou t a foot high a nd we just mow ed out a course. We had such a good race you co u ld n' t .believe it. It was so much fun . " Every rnoto, wh en th e moto was over, everybod y was tired. It was amazing how much yo u co u ld do without having to bui ld big jumps and ditch es. The g rass lasted all afternoon and th e town-father type guys looked a t it when it was a ll over and just shrugged th eir shou lders and said, ' yo u guys mi ght be a ble to have this right o n th e ski slo pes right in front of th e restaurant next year .' That would be outrageous, The main thing is th ey don 't do anything to th e ground. They don 't bu ild a ny th ing, th ey just race o n it. The modern motorcycles really tear up th e ground. When yo u ge t through wi th a modern motocross , you can tell th at they've been th ere. The old bik es don 't tear up th e ground n earl y as much ." Mann is su rprised at the amount of ent h usiasm in regards to racing o ld bikes. But none may be a s enth us iastic as Mann. " T here is so much en th us iasm read y to be unleashed ou t there it 's unbelievabl e. I don't have much time left , I' ve got to get a lot of laps in ." • After winning two Grand National Championships with his skills on oval dirt tracks and road race circuits. Mann has turned to motocross.

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