Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 5th Annual Dick Mann Vintage Dirt Bike Rally ~ Dirt, stories fly at Sandhill Ranch I England's Adrian Moss, four-time Int e rn a ti o na l Grass Track Champion, rides one of Dick Mann's BSAs: By Margie Siegel Photos by Nick Cedar BRENTWOOD, CA, OCT. 16 " H ey, yo u guys! My section starts between those two poles, I gotta co n ce n t ra te." Th e kidders moved out of the way 10 of T om Dabel, novice trial s contestant, still wisecracking." That's th e . most serious I'v e ever seen him, " claimed one. Th e tri als. co n tes t which kicked o ff th e 1988 Dick Mann Vintage Dirt Bike Rall y was moving along ni cely, despite the organ izers having to cope with a ll sorts o f..' entra nts from eig h t-year-old kid s to gu ys o ld eno ug h to be their grandfathers. All levels o f ability participated, from rank novices to hardened veterans (incl ud ing 'so me of those eigh t-year-o ld kids ). For th e fifth time, the Dirt Bike Rall y was off a nd kicking a t th e Sandhill Ranch, a scarred moonscape o f a dirt bik e facility in th e hills east of San Francisco . The ra lly was origina lly organ ized to provide fun for two-time G rand Nati onal Ch am p io n Dick Mann a nd fell ow dirt bike ent h u siasts . It has mu shroom ed beyond a n ybod y's im agination. Severa l th ousand spectators a nd participants now show u p . T he motocross portion of the pr~gra m is now a sanc tio ned vintage mot ocro ss race , taking p lace the week after the o the r events o f th e ra lly. Several dozen beau tiful exa m p les o f th e motorcycles of tim es pa st entered the conco u rse. Racers from th e thirties, forti es and .fifties lined up, all fault lessly restored . Antique parts sell ers, absent in years past, were very much in evidence and heav ily patronized. The tri al s' port ion o f the sho w, whi ch five years ago was a demonstra tio n by a co u ple o f transplanted Brits, is no w a recognized vintage bike competition with judges, scoring and trophies. Adria n Moss, four-time International Grass Track Champion a nd promoter of a si m i la r show in England, arrived from th e o ther side o f th e Atlantic to tak e part in th e trials' com pe titio n. " So meone ha s to come to represent us, since so many of yo u make it over to o u r side of th e water. I a lso ca me here to dry ou t, since we had no su m me r a t a ll , pouring ra in all the tim e. Would anybody offer me a job?" The next event aft er trials was a hi llclimb d emo nstration. Three menacing looking H arley-Davidso n . WRs lined up at th e bottom of a med iu m size hill, chai ns around th e rear tir es. A large audience gathered to hear Marsh R u n yo n , a huge pe rson , Pete Silva, a sm all person, a nd Keith Roesl er, an in betw een size person , blast th eir bikes to th e top. Unfort u na tely, Silva's bik e broke its clutch just before he made it, but Runyon had th e crowd cheering as he blast ed to the top three times. Roesler was less noisy', but made the fastest time. The ra lly serves as an old time Racer's Reunion, where those who lined up at the grid in th e forties, fifties and sixties can meet their old pals and rem inisce. " O h , I come every year ," smi led Ken Eggers, to p racer at Bay Meadows in the early fifties. " Dick Mann ·was my amateur when I was running for Hap Alzina. There were some real characters then . . . Hey CliffI," he yelled at Fra ncis Clifford, another prominent San Francisco racer in the early fifti es. "What was Frog's real name? Frog and Koko would show up a t the ra ces in a hearse with a pot belly stov e in the ba ck and play ca rds. Do you remember when . . ." Non-racers were a lso busy catching up on gossip and swapping stories. "A grand celebration." said Pa t Munroe, San Francisco motorcycle dealer. " AIthough it' s su pposed to be just vintage bikes, it 's a little sho t in th e arm for motor cyling in general." " I ride bikes, I know som e of th e people who are riding trials today ," sa id John Th ielen . "I'm enjoyi ng myself and I'm deve lopi ng an interest in trials very fast ." -Par t of the festivities involved bringing some of th e old tim ers out and interviewing them. The th em e of this year's interviews was the Old Da ys at Ascot, th e legendary track in southern California . Neil Keen , Number 10 and a consistent winner at that track, recalled fighti ng with the AMA over h is n u m ber plates . " T hey cha nged my number and didn 't tell me why. I liked m yoId number so I fought ba ck by using weird number pl ates. They said they had to be normal block letters. So I used block lett ers a ll right, Roman numerals, or spe lli ng o u t th e word ten . Oh, they reall y hated it," Joe Leon ard , former Grand Nati ona l Champion, shared his memories of An un identified trials contestant works his Greeves through a section . The fingers show he's lost one point.

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