Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 00 ..... v ..0 S v ;> o Z Host Dick Mann squirts dirt on the BSA Gold Star on which he won the 1963 Grand National Championship. Three-time Grand National Champion and two-time USAC National Champion Joe Leonard was on hand to bench race w ith everyone. 6th Annual Dick Mann Vintage Dirt Bike Rally Bugs brings back·those bygone 'days, again By William Edgar Photos by Rich Eichner and Edgar BRENTWOOD, CA, OCT. 15 Dick Mann's latest " Back-T o-The-Past" .rally revved u p to be h is most su ccessfu l yet of time-warps to wh en rider and machine toughed it ou t together in yesteryear dirt racing. Low-tech and nostalg ia ruled supreme. There was . so much of It at Tom Anderson's central California Sand- 20 hill Ranch that goosebumps a nd cheers nearly di sappeared in the dust and throat of well -used motorcycles, while a record cro wd of approxi- matel y 250.0en th u.siasts w<;is awarded bench rac ing latitude with an inperson talk show of some of the greatest ever _ "Smokey J oe" Leonard, Carroll "The Mooch" Resweber, Jody Nicholas, Sammy "T he Flying Flea " T anner, Everett Brashear, Neil Keen , as well as Bru ce " O n An y Sunday " Brown, and to say nothing of the event's inimitable, soft-key, hard-riding ace - Dick "Bugs" Mann. Getting there was a treat, too. Approaching through the tan roIlin g hi lls a long Camino Diablo Ro ad . it wa s like coming home aga in. Home to a time of hearth and a nvil, wh en the spo rt's legends took o n the hillclimbs and dirt tra cks with th e gr it of true trail blazers. Once in th e natura l bowl of Sandhill Ran ch , ca len da rs fell away a n d it was G reeves tim e aga in. There were sideshi fter Ind ia ns a nd hard-ta iled H arleys. CZ's and J aw as, Bultacos a nd Nortons and living-w orking samples of every th ing else. A veritable sea o f swap meet paraphernalia andmusty ma gazines. Patches and badges and books a nd bik es that veterans ha ven't oogJed in decad es, and that kid s still wet beh ind the ears marv el a t in th eir awe of wha t's classic a nd coo l today. In sho rt , th ere was something for everybody, every age, every minute of the da y. " O rig ina ll y, I got to thinking abo u t the people from the era that I raced in who were about to be forgotten," said Dick Mann, now 55, telling how his vintage ra lly first got started six years ago. "I'm not a car sa lesman and I'm not a promoter, so it 's a lot of work for me. But like everything, it you sit and wait for some bo dy else to do it, it never happens." Dick uses the same stu ff to do this th at he used to win hi s pair of number-one plates eight long years a part - determination. "We've never tried to make money," he said. " Bu t I'm really satisfied every time we do it be cause it seems like everyb ody here is in a good mood." "Bugs called me and I had two alternatives," said Joe Leonard at Sa ndhill, th e only man besides Joe Weath er ly ever to win National cha m p io n sh ip s with motorcycles and cars. "A friend called from Laguna Seca ," Leonard admitted, " a nd I thought about going there for the car race, because tha t was m y last racing escapade. But I wanted to see this thing go for Bugs and his partners. Motorcycles is my first love , a nd I guess my strongest. "Joe, down now from being way overweight, and using a ca ne because of a bothersome leg , was enjoying sitting next to Everett Brashear. With a career total of eig h t mil e wins to Joe's nine, and, in Bugs' estima te, the top motorcycle racing tacti cian of them all , Everett was playing AMA historian. "T he best race at Springfield that · Joe and I had was in '57 for the first 50-miler. We were running close and Dick Klamfoth was right on us a ll the wa y, and we made 10 bucks a .la p. Joe won it , but we ran pretty close for 50 miles. Then it was about a year later that this guy Resweber made a monkey out of all of us." Carroll Resweber, the on ly rider ever to win four consecutive AMA Grand National Championships, was th ere at the rally, hail and smiling. As vintage dirt tra ckers started lining up to later exhibitio n run Sandhill 's oval, the famous " Mooch " sighed. "It's been a lo ng time," said he, "since I'v e seen a ' kneehock' on a motorcycle." Ah, the dirt tra ck history in that Resweber's face! Here was a hero who could ride the hell out of a mile and never put his foot down . "You can see a machine in a museum," said Bugs, "but you can't see a Joe Leonard or a Carroll Resweber in a museum. Even if you have a movie of Resweber, it 's nothing like really talking to him." And the veterans' talk was as good as the ra lly 's vintage sights and sounds. The crowd gathered around to listen. It was like an Indian summer's day at some fairgrounds track lost in a gauzy Midwestern past. Leonard was telling one on Resweber that went like this: " Ca rro ll , who was a little guy at 128 pounds or so, would come along and be right in the middle of the corner and put his foot up, and we'd still be dragging our foot and fiddling around trying to make sure you 're safe to co me out of the corner , and he'd be wide open shootin' mud balls at you . And then he had a knack for looking under his arm at you, and you 'd see an eyeba ll looking a t you that was saying, ' Wha t are yo u doing ou t th ere sliding, you're su p posed to be layin"down a nd go in ' stra igh t!" Then Neil Keen, wh o had his on ly National win at Gardena in '61, got started again on the AMA in a styl e that ca used some ears to smart, a nd smiles to either fade or bro ad en. Quipped Neil at the end of the crafty reprimand, ''I' m always afraid that I'll open my mouth and nothing will come out. " Worry not, fans. Keen lives! Forever to speak his mind. Anoth er veteran racer , Jody Nicholas, who won Laconia 26 years ago last June, entered the gab by '. confessing he " fina lly got married ·befor e I got any closer to meeting my maker. ". H e a lso took up flying jet fighters for th e Navy after a tooshort affair with bikes. And Sammy Tanner, sporting a full crop of hair and still slim as a 60s kid winning Ascot with a banjo on his lea thers, commended today's speedway racing for being a great training ground for flat tra ck. Harley-Davidson superstars Leonard and Brashear continued their popular duet, joking about how " th e Indian wrecking crew was tough to beat." Said Smokey Joe, "Everett was a rea l mi ld and meek g uy until the green dropped, and you know that " B" and the "S" stuff? - it stopped when he turned the handle." Bruce Brown, who helped show motorcycle racing to the masses by dishing up his classic crossover hit movie, was saying, with befitting end less-su m merly serenity, " I like to come here and hang out. " And ex-ra cer/ a n n o u n cer Mike Vancil , superbly subbing for Roxy Ro ckwood this time, meant it when he put out over th e P.A. - "I don't know abo u t you , but I get goosebumps watching these guys." The rally was all-encompassing; it had niches for everyone, satisfying.

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