Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

'" 00 ..... CU ..0 8 CU ;> o Z Regarded by many as the best dirt tracker of all time. Carroll Resweber won four consecutive Grand National Championship titles. every interest and instinct. It was re m i n isce nt o f so me giant and engaging organism, alive throug h th e middl e, and on all sides as well. Beyond shapely show bikes and cl u ttere d swa p meet tabl es a nd blankets sp rea d with a pi ece or pa rt or mem or y for every bo dy, beyo nd a ll this there was that clear-cut art o f Vintage trials going on. Said Dick Ma nn, "T hese vintage tri al s have brought ou t a lot of guys . Mod ern tri al s is so fa r down the road with it tha t it intim idat es the co mmon rider. The vintage even ts ar e a t a level that th e normal person ca n understand and al so look at and say, 'Gee! I co uld do th at !' " And there was th e brute hi llclimb exh ibitio n. Tha t hairy big run for the sky! Not on th e stre tched a nd trick mega-climbers of tod ay, but astra dd le raw Class C "s ic kles" wi th gene tic wh eelbase intact. So me th ing yo u co uld ride from home to the tra ck and back agai n, p ro vid in g you didn't break or get stuc k in a ba r. These were motors and men o u t o f a sim pler past wh ere a lmos t a ny good hill could be a wid owmak er. Dick Mann expla ined it like thi s: "The Class C bike was a prope r conce p t, it wa s a real motorcycle tha t you co uld go to the store o n, a nd yet you had to climb a gia nt mountain with it. The wh ole Class C co nce p t was o ne th at was co ncei ved in th e Dep ression when the wo rld was not very well o ff fin a ncially. So, a Cl ass C bike was basi call y a pr oducti on mot orcycle th a t had been slig h tly modified for dirt track, TT, o r hillclimb. Th e li gh tw ei ght performance-orie n ted bik es were 45inch side valve engines bu ilt by both Indian a nd H arl ey. They d idn 't want to run th e big 74-in ch ers in di rt track becau se th ey mad e a trem endous amo un t of pow er, but th ere were formulas in TT racing a nd hillclimb for the 74 ove rhea ds. " Later, wh en the p re-war British bik es started racing, they decided th at a 30.50 cu bic inc h engi ne was compatibl e with th e 45, and nat u rally Indian a nd H arl ey more or less dominat ed and mad e th e rules. After the war, wh en th e mor e sophistica ted overhead cam engines came from Eu ro pe , th ey put th eir thumb o n that to keep th e com pe titio n down to th e level o f th e American fact or ies. Wh ich everybody th ought was a terr ibl e th in g a t th e time. Bu t wh en we look back we can see it didn 't work bad a t al l. I was a British rider, but I don 't ever rem ember feeling that it was unfa ir. I always trie d to think: if this BSA was a side valve, th ere's no way I co u ld keep u p wit h th ose guys. The reason H arl ey wo n a ll the races , in m y estimation, was beca use they had a ll the best riders, and they worked harder tha n a ny im porter was willi ng to do a t tha t time. " It goes ba ck to the basis of th e wh ol e thing," Dick con tin ued. "T he ave rage Harley-Davidson or Indian dea ler in th e Un ited Sta tes had been in b usiness for 30 or 40 years, it was a famil y a ffair, th ey had a success fu l bu sin ess, ni ce home a nd n ice shop, a nd th ey cou ld afford to spo nsor a rider. And m ost of th e British dealers in th e beginning were a guy in his · garage wh o cou ld n ' t have a H arl ey dea lershi p , but he go t BSA or T ri u m ph. Also th e H arley factory wa s very m uch into Amer ican di rt track racing, and th e British machines were designed for some thi ng else, and you had to work o n it to mak e it a dirt trac k bike." T he aft ernoon ligh t by then was fros ting everyth ing in a neat way th a t reca lled ch ildhood. T he flat track exhibitions wo u ld start soo n, and people drifted together to find places a lo ng the bales a nd behind the turn wa ll. Sudde n ly a 10-year-old burst into view riding a mini trial s, a lread y show ing roots o f fin esse b y the manner he rode. Ri ght th ere in the mi dst of a ll that age a nd rac ing savvy was this lo ne kid on a bike with po lis hed tro ph ies in his eyes. Wh en Dick Ma n n was a bo y wi th a paper ro u te in th e 1940s, pumping hi s bicycle over the hills of home tow n Richmond across the ba y from Sa n Francisco , hi s o lder brother got stuc k wi th th e n ickname " Big Bugs," no o ne was certai n wh y. Dick in evitably sha red the en igma as " Little Bu gs." As much or perhaps more than a ny thi ng , th e pl ace this bo y gre :-v u p in sha ped Dick Mann 's racing years. " I was very lu cky in m y career," said th e ve tera n Bu g s, toda y, " beca use whe n I started there were th ree or four o ld H arley guys arou nd this area . Even though I had a BSA, I hung aro u nd the Harl ey sho p a nd th ey tau ght me a lo t by just nothing but the ir talk a nd stories o f raci ng befor e th e war." Just o u t of high school, Dick had q ui t a short- lived, gri my job at Sta nda rd O il , a nd went to see H ap Alzina, an im porter for BSA who had been an In di an dis tribu tor until a row wit h th e factory in 1949. "I went to work for him as Francis Clifford. a 69 -y ear-young Californian. turned laps on hi s 1 930 45-cubic-inch Indian. Clifford raced professionally from 1940 to 1953. a Cushman mech anic," Mann said. " Alzina was one o f th e big time people from the T eens and 20s a nd he sponsored riders. And th ere were o thers, lik e Bill Bolger. So I had a daily co urse in dirt track racing from th e Teen s and 20s. Also, coming from Ri chmond, I was lucky because of th e heritag e o f so many great riders from th e are a. It was easy to go watch so mebo dy a nd pick things up. So . tha t spawned mor e grea t riders , and in th e 50s a nd 60s, in the little town o f Richmond, a t one time 26 of our club member s we re p rofessi onal motorcycle racers. " We were able to ride o ur mot or cycles every day on th e steep hills aro u n d Ri chm ond wher e professio nal hillclimbers p racti ced. We had off-roa d days, and scra mb les, a nd were very enth used about dirt riding. We did it every da y, not o nce in a while. Every day! We raced o n th e wa y to work, worked a ll day , then raced a ll the way home. Qn Friday n ig h t we would drive to L.A . to ride th e ha lf-mile th ere, and drive all th e wa y ho me th rough the night so we co uld cow tra il a ll day Saturda y, then on Sunday go ri de an even t of some kind . O n Monda y m orn in g we would ride to work, a nd Monday a fternoon we would race aga in." Dick Mann 's first professional race was in 1952, a t Selma , a local quartermile that ran every Friday night, th e track where everybo dy from th e Bay Area got started in the 50s. H e d idn 't have a Natio na l win u ntil seven years la ter - th e TT a t Peoria on his BSA. " In su m mertime," said Dick , "in the m iddle of th e Class C days, if you co uld ge t the su m me r o ff you cou ld get to a lot o f races. In th e mo nth o f Aug us t durin g th e fa ir circu it, if you cou nte d all th e fair races a nd the short tracks' you cou ld co me across in the Mid west, and th e Sp ri ngfield Mile a nd Peoria TT, you cou ld run 22 races in 30 days . T hey were a ll fai rs, little races and bi g races. I wasn 't a very big star wh en I first started. It took a long time to learn. So m y forte was th e smaller races. I had a will to make a living a nd I wen t to every ra ce th at I could get to, an yp lace, anytime, and did wh atever I co uld. It was a slow job to work up to being able to ride a t the Nationals in th ose da ys. Three years to mak e ex pert, and th en abo u t three years as an expert to make a real race r." Bu gs' 22-year pro rac ing career is hi story, indelibl e and revealing in th e reco rd books - cam pa ignin g BSA, Matchless, Yam aha, H onda , coming ba ck to BSA for th e finale. H e won th e AMA Natio nal Ch amp io ns hi p in '63, a n d again , a n unprecedented eig h t years later, in '71. His 1972 victory on the mile a t H omewood, near Chicago, made him th e first rider ever to get th e G ra nd Sla m , winning every as pec t of the Grand Na tional : sho rt tra ck , half-mile, mile, TT and road race . Di ck 's Vinta ge R ally a n nou ncer Mi ke Van cil h appened to be a cornerwo rker on th at sterling August 5th a t H omewood, Illinoi s. " It was th e worst prepared tr a ck in th e history o f mil e racing," recalled Van cil, " wi th fur rows deeper than a corn field. The guys were wobblin g th rough the corners an d just barely makin g it down th e stra igh taways. And Dick was on th e ga s. For him , it was motocro ss." At Sa nd hill Ranch, th e crack and rap of vintage twin s brought a ll eyes a nd ears to th e quarter-mile circle, fresh ly wa tered and begging for dirt ac tion: In ch in g into positio n, there were motorcycles stra ig ht o ff o f faded posters th ere. Images you find o n o ld sho p walls a nd in science-&-ind us try museums. And guys on th em in o ld team je rseys and leather breech es with kn ee-high strap boot s, wearing pot helmets a nd gogg les, men wh o co uld well pass for gr andpas, and in most cases were. And th e kids! T he 21

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