Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

_. 00 00 0') The Rolling Thunder Show. 1968 Cockeysville style. (l eft t o ri ght) Mike Sponse ller. an un identified rider. Chuck Palmgren. and 1967 -68 Grand Nat ional Champion Gary Nixon. Norm Farris is second f rom the right. hi s hand to his mouth . IDITOl'S M AHN IGP OI . ' Cockeysville memories R on Davidson, our circu la tio n develo p men t manager, j u st stop ped by my desk and sai d, " I was talking to Norm Farris 80 on th e phone and he said to tell you hell o. He said you sold bikes for him years ago and left hi m to go with Cycle News. He sai d he hated to see yo u leave beca use you were the best salesman he ever had." Norm was stretching th e truth with the " best" bit, but I did sell my share o f motorcycles o ut of the Cockeysville, Maryland , shop Norm managed in the sixties- a nd in to th e seven ties. Like most dealers of that period, N o rm ate, sle p t, rode, tal ked , brea th ed, drea mt, lived , loved and sold motorcycles. H e sold a lot of motorcycles. The Coc keysville shop so ld H onda, Yam a ha , T riu mph a nd o the r brands of mo torcycl es and ad jacent to its downs tair's service depart ment was a race bi ke facilit y t hat served as 1967- 68 Gra nd Na tiona l Champion Ga ry Nixon 's, headq uarters. I don 't see Norm much an ymore, but I'm remi nded of him nearly every week of th e racing seaso n; pro di rt tra ck race r Rodney Farris is Norm 's so n. T h is year Rodney's off to his best start ever. H e's finished fourth, third a nd fourth in the last three Gra nd National Championship Series races - the San J ose Mil e, th e Springfield Mil e an d the Lo uisvill e Half Mi le. At Springfield he shared the winner's circle with Bubba Shobert a nd Scott Parker an d at Lo uisvill e pressured J ay Springs teen all the way to the finish.I ine. Pretty elite company, I'd sa y. But I can 't wa tch Rodney pitch a bike sideways on a di rt tra ck oval or talk to him withou t thin king of the little kid who pestered me to dea th in that Cockeysville deal ershi p. I clearly remember a busy Saturday when I was closing a sa le and that littl e kid kept pestering me. I poked him a nd told hi m to get lost. H e yelled o ut, " Dad, J ack pushed me." Norm, fro m the back of th e shop, yelled; " He should hav e killed yo u. Get out of the shop and leave him alone, Rodney." When Rodney first started mak ing a name in racing he would a nswer my hello in the pits with, "Hi, Mr. Mangus." I to ld h im that Mr. Mangus , my fat her, had passed a way many years ago a nd my name was Jack. It took a while, but I' m Jack to Rod ney now . Wri ting th is brings back fo nd memories of Cockevsvill e and I now rea lize that a lot of th e good ti mes I had in th e sixties a nd early seventies were a result of th e efforts of No rm Farris. Every. Wednesday he'd close the shop a t I p.m . and joined by a grou p of customers and friends would head for a n earby qu a rry for so me im promp tu h illclimb in g and the n hit the Oregon Ri dge woods for a n afternoon of trail rid in g. Mo re often than not, Ga ry N ixo n ', wou ld jo in us. I fondl y remember riding with (I shou ld say, chasing ) the likes of Nixon, Dick Ma n n, Eddie Mulder , G en e R o m e ro , Chuc k Pal m gren, Da vid Aldana, G ary Fish er, Frank Gillespie, Don Emde, Jim Rice, and o the r T riumph or BSA ride rs -who o perated out o f 't he Cockeysvill e area when the race ' circuit hit the east. Cockeysville is just a few miles u p the road from Timoni um , where the Tr'i umph Corpora tio n h ad its ea s ter n headq uarters. I rem ember Norm being th e force that spurred us in to forming th e Ba lt i mo re County Trai l Riders Associa tio n . Cha rt er membe rs incl uded Nixon, Ch uc k Palm gren , Ni xon 's tu ner Dick Bender, Mor t Wood who's now a well kn own a nt iq ue bike co llec tor, Ray Brurnbeloe wh o went on to be a Ka wasak i regio na l ma nager , yours tru ly a nd, of course, No rm . The cl ub wou ld ho ld it's weekl y Tuesday n ight mee tings in Norm's shop, cond uc t bu sin ess as fast as possible, a nd head next door to Do lly Gold berg's bar. T he ben ch racing conducted in that bar co u ld fill vol umes, T he club hosted field meets, hare scrambles, mo tocross races wh en no one was quit e sur e what motocross was, a nd in la ter years promoted o utdoor and indoor short trac k races under th e lead ershi p of Tay lor White III. T a yl or spo nsored two -ti me Daytona 200 winner Dal e Si ngleto n throughou t h is career a nd th e lat e Singleto n's Yamaha TZ2 50 carried the club's nam e in hi s No vice year. T hen there was th e club's unique T exas to Berlin .race, That's T exas, Maryla nd , to Berl in , Ma ry la n d. Texas is little more than a do t on th e map to lo cate a ba r whose out door sign carries th e ' message, " Don 't worry ab out it." Berlin is loca ted 100 or so mi les fro m T exas on Mary la nd 's Eastern Sh ore. T he race rul es were si m p le : mac h inery was li mited to singlecylinde r ' di rt bikes a nd th e first per son to a rrive in Ber lin a fte r having hit all th e design at ed "c hec k points" was th e wi nne r. . Just as Rod ney reminds me of m y Coc keysville da ys, I'm reminded of o ne clu b mee ting n igh t in Dolly's ba r by the leathe rs he wears . Rodney is sponso red by Mike Sponseller and "S ponsel ler" is emb lazoned across the chest of h is leathers. Michael was a journeyman dirt tra cker, who, if my memory serves me correctly, ha d his p roudest mo ment whe n he won the J un ior class road race a t the 1969 Heidelberg Natio nal. Sponsell er was a muscul ar young man. One ni gh t wh en club mem bers go t into a ro und of arm wrestling I was paired agai nst him and the bets were all on Michael. I covered one from Gary Nixon, bea t Sponseller , a nd smiled all the way to the bar to bu y th e nex t round. I'll never forget th e look on Spo nseller's face. No, I never go t suckered into letting him get h is revenge. Times hav e changed. Norm now ope ra tes a Yamaha de a le rs h ip , Norm 's Cycle Wo rld , o n the other side of Balt imore in Dundalk. N ixon still has a shop in Cockeysville but makes more money sell in g radi o controlled cars than he does fro m selli ng motorcycle accesso ries. The Baltimore Co u ntry TrailRiders are still a ctive,' but don' t ga the r in Do ll y's a ny more. T he Tri u m p h Corp . is go ne. Rod ney's grown up and is raci ng wheel-to-wheel with th e likes of Shobert , Park er and Springsteen at th e Nationals. Sponseller now lives in Frederick, Mary land, a nd flies to busi ness ap po in tm ents i n h i s Bell J e t Ranger helicopter a nd drives home in a Mercedes. . And I' m go ne, livi ng on the other sideoft he coun try. It 's tru e, you can 't go hom e again, bu t yo u can sure as . hell have a good time thinki ng abou t the good old days. Thanks, Ron, for relayin g Norm's hell o. T he next time you talk to Norm, tell him I said th an ks for the memones. Jack Mangus

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