Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~. ~,q~!~~~!~"I;~,~orem~,~~~o~:re"." of 'h~, p'" ~ through was to do exactly as told . Viewfinder Everett Creach, wh o did the riding as George Hamilton' s " Ev e l Kneivel," would get you started in the Cf') ruts, then tell you, "Don't stop for any0\ th ing, and I mean ANYTHING." He'd 0\ tell you the right gear to be in and away ....-l you'd go, driving between lines of men, ... allread y to give you a shove should you 00 bog down. For those he lpful chaps, this ....-l wen t on for hour after hou r, but the situation had become a challen ge and racers ;j love a challenge. Besides, everyone realbJ:) ly likes to play in the mud when mom's ;j not looking! ~ The third running in 1970 was eager......... ly aw aited, bu t b y th en , wo rd h ad sp read an d th e public fou nd out wha t we wer e u p to in th e earl y spring in Elsin or e. The Los Angel es Tim es es timat ed th e specta tor cro wd in town a t 50,000, and weren't really too kind about it all. This year saw the bikes all impo unded overnigh t under lock and key in the baseball field, so, if you had n't done all in days. Anyway, McQueen and his H usky were nearly creating fa inting sp ell s among some spectato rs w ho sudd enly realized, "It's HIM, it' s re all y HIM!" He'd also been there the yea r before, but with riders treating him as one of their own and not so man y specta tors, he'd gotten away with it. This year he w asn't so luck y, and fin ally had to ask a local yokel to give him a break an d let him out of the fishbowl for a wh ile. The star ting rows - 10 riders abreast in each - str etched for over a qu ar te r mile back into town, an d the noise was ears plitting as ro w after row took off, giving watchers an adrenalin rush and ca us ing th em to wond er if th e ro ws weren ' t reproducing themselves somewhere in the back. Saturday they started 1116 lightweigh ts and 500 heav ies left the line on Sunday. The media just about gave up any attern pt to cover the even t as a regular race, and instead just scribbled not es, listened to individual tales, and tried to figu re ou t approximately wh o the lead ers overall were. plus entran ts who were strung around the circuit wasn't easy, but what a challenge! The sensation all enjoyed the most was coming off the d irt road into town and blasting by all the stop signs! Sund ay bro ug ht more spectators and p roblem s . Th e ma jority o f cr ashes occurred where riders changed surfaces and on certain in-town turns that could only be negotia ted a t X mph (regardless of how grea t the rider's skill level). A bit too quick and you'd be on your buns. Grady Laffer ty 's In ternational Racin g Radio Crew ha d a member at each such place to call up extra assistance in crowd control when needed , and it would not be incorrect to say the Grand Prix cou ld not have bee n run without them. With their walkie talkies and base he adquarters, they could move ambulances, police or wha tever was required a round th e circuit quickly. That Sunday the crew foun d themselves very busy as a strange phenomena began to occur. Peopl e w ho had just driven ou t for the day (as opposed to the true fans) had no concep t of just how fas t the racin g Difficult sections like this uphill provid ed a challenge for the participan ts, and en tertai nment fo r the s pecta tors. 6 th e w ork yo u r scoo t needed , yo u couldn't do it the night before. Jim Foxe, the tough-but -fair race director, presided over riders ' m eeti ngs. Cel ebrit ies experts or novices - were all treated the same; sam e rules for everybody and crybabies or snivelers we re not tolerated. With the rid ers' meeting over, everyo ne t roo ped to th e g a te to get thei r motorcycles. Some pa nic started w hen the officer who had the key couldn' t be found, adding some hilarity along with the nervous attacks. Finally the cop was found and the da y really started. From the lock-up area, ride rs' stamina was tested early, as they had to pu sh their mou nt s m ostly uphill for several blocks; and tha t meant rid ers pushing, not friend s. Some of the old-ti me rs and th ose w ho had partied a bit the nigh t before suffe red quite a bit befo re th ey even kicked the motors to life. Pushing right along with everyone else was actor Steve McQueen. In those days before his u ntim ely d eath, McQu een was a real dirt racer, not an actor playin g a t be in g one. Watch the movie "On Any Sund ay" (the first one), an d you can see McQu~n' s talen ts for yourself, along w ith the other things you After the first few hun d red had sta rted , things beca m e m o re d ifficu lt as many of the visiting hord es walked up to see w hat was hap pening up on the road , crowding in on the fron t lines and creating a dangerous situation that was impossible to control. The gas pits stretched along one of the town 's back roads, one long lane that was lined on both sides with crews, club banners, hand mad e signs and balloons just abo u t an ything to he lp riders spot their crews when they came in . Bruce Brown's helicopt er was following riders around the course with McQueen running in the top 10 - and the scoring was again being assisted by video tape; this time the mud was ju st of th e no rm al variety in the sandwashby the lake. Still, with tim ed sta rts and pit stops to be tak en int o account, it would be wee ks before the result s we re out. Saturday' s wi n went to Gary Bailey on a Greeves, bu t th e racin g b e tw ee n Bailey, Husqvarna-mounted Malcolm Sm it h and desert ace Mike Pa trick had tho se wh o were tryin g to the keep nose coun t talkin g to themsel ves. Forthe r id ers, thread ing their way back and forth among their fellow 1000- machines were going, and th us lacked th e abi lity to ju dge d is ta nce versus speed. So there th ey we r e, norm a l Americans, reachi ng ou t to touch the riders or scamp ering in front of the bikes like the Mexican country folks had done with the cars in the Mexican Road Race' in the ' 50s. Not all sca mp er ed q u ick enough a t Elsino re, and Malcom Smith had a d evastating crash because of it. Coming a round the be nd a nd o u t onto the main back straig ht, Smith was full on it whe n a woman with two little kid s in tow jus t decided to cross to the other side . The real race fans couldn't believe their eyes. Smith saw them and locked it up; there was noth ing else he could do bu t try to avoid them, and it's a wonde r he was able. The H usky slid asSmith leaned to miss the group, and then he lost it and he and bike sli d across the pavem ent, into the d irt, and didn't stop until they hit a tree. It was one hell of a crash! As people picked the bike off him, all Smith could say in a panicky voice was, "Did [ mi ss th em? Did I mi ss the kids?" The fan s assu red him that he had, but he kept on, "They just walked .ou t in fron t of me -.are you sure I missed them?" Those at the scene were still have trouble believing what had actuall y happened. As Smith was slid ing for the tree, some were running for him while others w ere runn ing towards th e kid s a nd mother, who had started to become hysterical. As the excitemen t finally began to die down, there still was not another motorc ycle in sigh t, nor had on e gon e by. An act of total un conscious stupid ity had ended Smith 's efforts at Elsinore for the yea r, and had almost ended his life. An other ISDT medal winner, Steve Hurd, was adding to his list of victories that Sunday as he won the overall, while spo use [ackieHurd rode " monkey " on Woody Ca ru th 's sidehack. The hack Aragon/Deurmeirer hack team had the crowd che er in g la p after la p, as the y were decked ou t as Eas ter bunnies, hu ge ears a nd all. At H ope tow n the sea so n before, they had mad e their appearance as Santa Clau s and an elf. Thei r class was wo n b y the Met er broth ers, who were Greeves-po wered. Gary Bailey did not get to repeat his previous day's w in; his bike broke a primary nut. Mike Patrick ran up front off and on w ith Lars Larsen and Hurd, with Larsen running out of gas a quarter mile from the finish. A spec tator gave him a few dr ops, but it wasn't enoug h and just kept him sp uttering along a bit, an d t,,, end ed up pushing the bike in to cross the finish line and be, posted as a finisher. Once all the "big boy s" were off the course, the rest of the hun dreds just sort of struggled and stragg led in, most of them still complete ly en thused by the w hole expe rience of rid ing a race like Elsinore. "Better than Catalina," said one happy soul, washing down the mud and bugs with something cold.you couldn't hav e had higher p raise than tha t. If the Ides of March once brought bad lu ck to Julius Caesa r, th ey did n't do mu ch be tt er fo r th e G ripsters and the Grand Prix in 1971. Way before the race was even prop erly in gear, the thinkers of District 37 were havin g more than second th ou ghts a bo u t the ev ent. After many insider meetings with th e hea d hon chos of each group, including the Els inore ci vi c lea d e r s, the G ri ps te rs ag reed to r un it a ga in . Shopkeep er s again looked forwa rd to their increased revenues for that weeke nd , bu t a not-so en th used District 37 Spo rts Co mmittee d id not put it on the District calend ar in hopes that fewer peop le would find out about it.•.Ha! ABC's Wide World of Sports showed up to shoot the event; spectato rs grew in huge n umber s, m ost of th em in town and clogging things up. There were hund red s more Novice-class rid ers, b ut a di stin ct drop in Exper t and Ama teur entries. A loo k through the p rogram shows some still-famous nam es entered in wha t was then their ea rly racin g years, like La rr y Roes eler on a Ha rley-Davidson Baja in the 100cc Expert class, and Jeff Wright on a Rickman. Nu mber 44 was McQueen, who could not escape unseen, so a bit of skulld uggery took place. The n umber 44 machine appe ared on the line in its proper p lac e, bu t a frien d had p ushed it th ere, w ith a small mob following along, just waiting for the actor to appear. His w ife and known friends were close to it as the excitemen t grew, while abou t six rows back, unnoticed as just another one of many Huskys, there stood McQ ueen's real mo unt, with different n umbers; the club had cha nged his number, an d by the tim e th e mob had men tally dealt with the fact that the man who had ridden off on number 44 wasn't "everyone's favorite mo vie star," McQueen was off and vanishing down the road. Away from to wn, the ra cing wa s · great, but as riders negotiated the out-:

• Cover