Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'D YS ' A IX' ByKil Palmer n my column last week, I men tioned my oId stomping grounds - Coro na Raceway - w hi ch go t me thi n ki ng bou t the "old" d ays and this legendary track. Like so man y MX tracks in Califo rnia, and I'm su re all ove r the cou nt ry, Coron a Raceway met its demise by the la nd- develo pe r's b ulld o zer . Coro na Raceway w asn ' t jus t yo ur ave ra ge everyday MX track; instead, it was a racing facility like no other, and for a number of reasons. For one, it was primaril y used for night racing, Friday night racing to be mo re exac t. As w ith ma n y nig h t MX tr acks, th e co u rse s na ke d aro und the infield of a small dirt oval, but w hat mad e the Corona track itself so unique was that th e actual MX course left the confines of the infield and ran up and in to the hills ad jacent to the ova l. A n ight tr ack w ith natural- terra in up hills and dow n hills? You d on ' t see that too often. Corona Racew ay wa s never kn own for its excellent lighti ng, especially up in the hill sec tions , which mad e it tou gh for the ou t-of-to w n ers to d o well a t Corona, as all of th e loc al s, s u ch as myself, had memorized every bump, rut and slick spot in the dark sections. We Corona regulars laughed wh en some 'of the factory rid ers a t the La s Vega s Supercross last year refused to ride the ma in even t following th e infamous power outage that forced th e use of portable light towers . We would've been in heaven with lighting half as good , but, then again, none of us were half as fast as Jeremy McGrath or Mike Kiedrowski. Corona Raceway was one of the 'few tracks - if not the only track - that held night mo tocross all year lo ng, which had a lot to do with th e typicall y d ry and warm Southern California climate. Don ' t get me wrong, it can get downright chilly at night in the middle of the winter in California, but you had to race nonetheless, because that's the time of year when all the new bik es com e out and yo u couldn't wait to go out and show off your new mount - ra in or shine, hot or cold, da y or night. I Like I said, it could get cold at night, especially by the time your second mo to rolled around. A stroll thro ug h the pits in between mot os found most people insid e th eir trucks, engi nes id lin g and the heaters blowing full blast. Pe rha ps the most intense racin g at Corona was n' t even on the track itse lf. Yo u see, a t Corona, yo u had to s tage your motorcycle ou tsid e the co ncrete cras h wall that lined the outside of the ova l, and when the moto before you rs left th e start line, only th en were you allowed to push your bike - on the ova l abo ut .100 ya rds to th e sta rt ga te. The pu sh always tu rn ed in to a gia n t sprin t race, the winner getting first pick on the gate. Wh en yo u raced a t Coro na, yo u always invited your bu ddy who' s on the school' s track team to go wit h you and mad e su r e h e bro u ght h is runn ing shoes . If you didn' t have one or tw o (or three) friend s to do all the pushing for yo u, you wer e usu all y exhausted and sucking air by the time your moto started. If you happened to be on a w inning streak, however, you mad e it a point to walk your bike to the gat e to show off your confid ence. "He ll, I don't need to run, I'll sm o ke ' em eve n with a last pick." You started running w hen you started losing. And then there was the starting gate. Corona Raceway had on e of the first backwards-falli ng st arting gate in existence . You always knew when a re al Supercross was in tow n when you'd . show up at Corona Raceway and there was no starting gate, as it had been disassembled and hauled off to the L.A. Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, Anaheim Stadium, or somewhere el se for the big boys to use on Saturday night. Corona Raceway is also fam ous for introducing the first true d ouble jump and man-mad e s tadium whoops. Ron Crandall, a high school teacher and the AMA Supercross /Nat ional Mot ocross referee at the West Coast Nationals and SXs, ran th e RACE -promot ed Frida y Night races at Corona and used to build and design supercross tracks in the late '70 and early '80s.. Crandall would come up wi th, at tha t time, ra d ical id eas for obs tacles and experiment on us "guinea pigs." One of Crandall's creations was this series of four a pproxima tely fou r-foo t high jum ps that became doub le-dou ble . jumps, and preceding these quad jumps was a lo ng section of w hoop s, al so known as was hboards or stut ter bu mp s. Crandall only let the Pros and Intermediates ride thro ug h these sections, w hile th e Nov ice and Beg in ne r s too k a smoo ther rou te aro u nd the w hoop s and d oubles. Every now and then, thou gh , Cra ndall wou ld let everyone ride the whoop s and d oubles, and that w as the nigh t you came w ith you r camera and a bag full of film . Talk abo u t enterta inment. "I came up wi th the idea of the stutter bumps from rid in g in th e d esert," recalls Cra ndall. "There was th is long sec tion of w hoops th a t wo ul d alw ays pu t me on my head . My fri end Mike Goodwin ( yes, the Mike Goodwin) and I were always looking for soinething d ifferent, so we thou ght we 'd try makin g these stu tter bumps, which were good becau se it slowed the riders down and if the y crashed they wouldn't get hurt. "I got the idea of the d ouble jumps on e da y after watchin g kid s ride their bic ycle s in a d irt lot," sai d Crandall. "They had built up these big jumps andwere jumping them . I thought that was pr etty neat. "A lot of times an idea would pop in to my head at nigh t, and if I couldn' t sleep, I'd go out to the track, fire up my tractor and go to work. I would try these obstacles out Friday night on my guinea pig s and see what w ould happen. Believ e me, not all of th em were such go od ideas. They'd (th e test obs tacles) be gone by Saturday morning." Pretty soon, racing at Corona center ed around th e d ouble-doubles. My racing partner was an Intermediate (I, on th e other h and , was an aspiring NOVice), and he couldn't stop thin king about the double-doubles. At that time only a handful of riders were d oubling the qu ad s - I believe the first rider to do so was Pro-class' rid er Andy Northrup w ho now races speedway. But my friend wai convinced he could clear the dou ble s too. Duri n g t h e week, he w o ul d think, d rea m and talk abo ut nothi ng bu t the do ubles. "I know I can do it," he'd cons ta ntly mumble to hi m sel f. You' d be having a conversa tion with him whe n he'd start staring off into space, mentally clear ing th e d oubles w ith ease. On race day, he would take one lap of practice then spend the rest of the time rid ing throu gh the w hoops and singling the double-double section over and over agai n, trying to build up his courage. He sai d he was terrified of the ju mps but was d e termin ed one n ight to d o the d ouble-d oub les - vno ma tter wha t. His ' plan was to make the first a ttempt during p rac ti ce, bu t he jus t cou ld n' t ge t himself to d o it. Instead, he'd wait during the race to ma ke the big d ouble leaps. Su re enough, on the first lap , he w ent for it . H e charged th ro u gh the w hoo ps then sa iled over the first double, landed, then cleared the second set of d oubl es with ease. Perfect. Talk about relief - for both him a nd me . "I was shaking on the sta rting lin e," he said. . "All I could think about were the quads.. After I cleared the ju mps on the first lap I was so weak-kneed th at Lpulled off the track, went back to the pits, loaded up and wen t home." , After I turned Int ermediate, I cou ld relate to my friend . I pretty much we nt through the same "I know I can do it, I know I can do it" ordeal until I finally got the nerve to double t he quads. The key was to wait a couple of weeks wh en th e second and fourth m ounds were worn down from the hundred s of pre vious "case-its" and the good lines were burned in. Then it was easy. I dreaded the nights when I s ho wed up a t the tr ack and Cr andall had re-formed the four ju m ps and th ey were as tall and peaked as the Rockies. Crandall says some da y he'd like to open a new track and bring back Friday Night MX to Sou thern Californi a . I kno w I'll be th er e if he d oes, running shoes and all. fX I· LOOKINGBACK·· ~· . I 25Y SAGO... EAR MAY 25, 1971 n d efea ted si d ecar pil ot Dean H u mm er ad ded to his list of victories by w inning at th e Gatora de Grand Prix '''' in O ra n g e Coun ty , i'f' Ca lifo rn ia, wi th I Ru lon Gulbransen : ."',-as t he p asse nge r. ~ -~'::""" Following in second were Reg a nd Ernie Pridmore... Ji m Foley came off the back row to take the 250ccclass wi n in the Los Gatos Scrambles at Mor gan Hill, Ca lifornia . John Gennai started next to him and finished in second... TomPenton took top hon ors in the 125cc class at the Berkshire Trials in western Massachusetts, whi le Jeff Penton was th e runner -up. Lars Larrson aced the 250cc di vision in the tw o-da y even t, a nd J. Lahto wo n in th e Open class. U Ii 15 YEARSAGO••. MAY 20,1981 howi ng off his bridge work on the co ver, Frank Sta cy rod e to th e 250 cc-class and O verall w in s in round four of the AMA Two-Day qu ali- S fier series at Belling- Fii'nlrr;r:-r-_-.J ham , Was h ing to n . Terry Cunn ingham to p pe d th e O pen class ... Mark Barnett and Kent Howerton s wep t th e 125 a n d 250 cc cla sses, resp ectively, a t the Nation al Cha mpi ons hi p Mo toc ro ss Se ries rou nd s in Braselton, Geo rg ia . It was Barnett's eigh th m oto win of eigh t ra ces in th e series to that poi nt.. . Randy. Goss won the Ascot Spring Cla ssic Na tiona l Half Mile in Ga r d e na , Cali fo rnia . Gart h Brow was the ru nner-up ah ea d of Jay Springsteen, wh o took the series points lead . bike challe nge at Mallory Park and Brand s H atch , En g lan d , th e y sou nd ly thrashed th eir co lo nia l guests. Onl y one North Ameri can ride r, Scott Russell, even mad e it to third place d uri ng the six-ra ce weekend . Ray Stringer took top ind ivi d ual p oin ts, w ith three w ins .. . Defe nding Na tio nal End u ro C ham pi o n Randy m ?7l...-,:-=__ Hawkins mad e a triumphant .retu rn to the circui t in the little Bro w n Jug Endu r o a t Union, So u t h Ca ro li na . Haw kins had been sid eline d for a cou ple of months with a broken thumb , bu t wa s able to edge o u t Jeff Ru ss ell an d Allan Gravitt by one point, 5758-58. 0 5YEARSAGO... M Y22,1991 A he fa mi lia r vic to ry ye lp of Scott Parker, pictured on the cover, was . heard again following round three o f the AMA Grand Na tional Championshi p in Pom on a, Ca lifornia . The three-time defending champ's runaw ay on the half-mile track moved him in to . fourth pl ace in th e se r ies ... The Brit s didn't just win the Trans-Atlantic Super- T . Randy Mamol a exec utes th e old Tum Nine at Laguna Seca Raceway in 1981. Photo fr om the Cycle News Arc hives.

• Cover