Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GRAND PRIX By Anne and Tom Van Severen Photos by Kinney Jones LAKE ELSINORE, CA, OV.9-10 t was "On Any Sunday" aU over again as more than 2,500 motorcycles took to the streets of Lake Elsi- - nore to welcome back the legendary Elsinore Grand Prix. There was wall-to-wall traffic, flying dirt, tires howling on the asphalt and rows and rows of cheering spectators as the sleepy town on the shore of Lake EI inore took a roar down memory lane. Like the grand old race immortalized on film 25 years ago, 1996's version of the grand prix drew top-class· racers from across the nation. Kawasaki off-road champs Ty Davis and Paul Krause were there, fresh from victory in the SCORE Baja 1000 the day ~fore, and AU-Japan Mot~oss Cham- pion Jeff Matiasevich was there to do his bit for the Green team. Four-stroke National Champion Lance Smail turned out for KTM, and Honda sent Steve Lamson and his brand-new 125cc Honda factory teammate Scott Sheak. The en try list also included some old familiar faces that had spectators on their feet when they hit the track for a special Legends race Saturday afternoon - faces like Malcolm Smith, J.N. Roberts and "The Professor" Gary Bailey. There was even a "Harvey Mushman" listed in the program, but no one could find him when it was time for the hotshots of yesteryear to start theh engines. Young or old, the chance to re-create motorcycling history represented a milestone in the life of every racer who headed into the first tum. For old-time racer Malcolm Smith, it was a blast back to the past. "It brings back a lot of great memaries," Smith said. "This is a special event and 1'm glad it's back. I had just forgotten how fast these young guys are." For KTM's Scot Harden, it was a reminder of why he originally got interested in motorcycling. "I saw 'On Any Sunday' when I was about 13, and that changed my life," Harden said. "When I saw the movie, I told myself, I want to race Baja and I did it and I won it. 1 told myself, I want to ride the Six Days and I did it and I won. It aU came from 'On Any Sunday: and getting to finally ride' this thing is a dream come true." For Paul Krause, it brought back memories of his childhood. "1 came here and watched my dad ride when 1 was a kid," Krause said. "I remember watching Malcolm Smith pass Elsinore Grand Prix my dad. It was so cool. I always wanted to come back and ride this race." The new Elsinore Grand Prix is the brainchild of GFJ's Goat Breker, who combined non-stop action on the race course with Jet Ski aquacross, bicycle races, street luge, skydivhlg, stunts by the "Wheelie King" Doug Domokos, a spectacular motorcycle jump by Robbie Knievel and a Vendor Expo to create a three-day excitement fest that was, to borrow a phrase from "On Any Sunday," Neat, Malcolm. Unlike the original grand prix, which consisted of 10 laps of a lD-mile course, with the 250cc competitors racing Saturday and the 500cc race Sunday, Breker had laid out a four-mile chOOt that the racers tackled for 40 minutes in a series going to be a lot faster, bu t they've watered it really well, so it wasn't dusty. That's a plus:' said the KTM racer from Arizona. The quality of the racing was something that nobody could dispute. Saturday provided the fust look at Kawasaki's Ty Davis going head-to-head with Honda 125cc MXer Scott Sheak. "I wasn't sure of his (Davis') trength and ability," Sheak said. "1 thought I could keep the same pace and reel him in if I got the chance, but you can't teU when you've never raced with somebody." The pair's first battle came in the 125cc class. They were running neck and neck until Sheak experienced mechanical problems that sidelined him for a critical three minutes, leaving the way clear for what Davis hoped would be the fust in a sized Gary Jones chcling on a minibike, but rumor had it that Jones had entered the race to shepherd his mini-mounted son around the course and the former 250cc National Champion was never in any danger of taking the overall win. As the weekend progressed, the crowd of spectators continued to grow and parking, always at a premium in the small town, become harder and harder to find. The prospect of unloading his bike in the hnpound area, then parking his support truck at the stadium on the far side of town was too much for Utah racer Joe Linza, who was campaigning a Rokon in Sunday's Vintage class. Linza reportedly noticed a piece of property for lease dhectly across the street from the impound area and plunked down $100 for a day of premium parking. of c1ass-by-class races. The loop began on pavement, transitioned into a 100mph dirt straightaway, then followed fire roads to a jump that motocross experts turned into spectator heaven. The course criss-crossed Interstate 5 on an overpass and then followed the famous Ridge Route back to the start I finish in the center of town. The action roared to a start at 8 a.m. Saturday with the Unclassified race - a chance for riders of everything from factory motocross bikes to quads to check out the terrain and learn the fastest lines for theh specialty class later in the weekend. Matiasevich stole the spotlight at the front of the pack on his Kawasaki KX250, but he had a lot of competition for the crowd's attention from a first-time racer way in the back. "Goat Breker sponsored me to come and do this," said Jim Steward, who turned out for the race on a 1978 Honda Elsinore fitted with a western saddle complete with stirrups, and dressed in spurs and fringed leather chaps, with a straw Stetson fastened to the top of his helmet. "Sure I've ridden before, plenty of times - on a horse. People sure like to roost you when you're slow." When it came to describing the course, slow was something the racers just couldn't agree on. Motocrossers like Matiasevich described it as a freeway. "It seems extremely fast to me, but I don't know too much about this kind of racing. All I know is I had fun and that's what I came here for:' said the "Chick- long series of wins. But the Kawasaki racer discovered that what goes around comes around in the very next race, when his KX250 suffered a rear flat and he had to sit and watch as Sheak's CR250 led the way home. "There was no way I could hold him .off - not with a stock tube and a stock tire," Davis said. '1t went flat fast and I was lock-ta-lock sliding. 1 think one of the rocks got me. There are a lot of them out there and, coming in from the back section on the fire road, it's like riding on marbles where they've watered them." Davis, who arrived late after the trip back fr0!D the SCORE Baja 1000 and dashed up to the 125cc start less than 10 minutes before the race began, admitted to being a little tired. "Yesterday was great - we pretty much killed those guys, but I need to put toothpicks in my eyes to "keep them open By Sunday afternoon, spectator cars were scattered willy-nilly allover the hills in the outly.ing sections of the course, T-shirt booths had sprung up in unauthorized places, and hot dog vendors were having a field day. There was a carnival atmosphere that extended all the way to the starting line. "When we lined up for the Over 40 class, which was combined with the Over 35s and Over 50s, there were something like 700 of us," Karel Kramer said. "The field stretched back a couple of blocks and it was obvious it wasn't going to work." Organizers hurriedly split the classes and created a separate race for the Over 40 competitors, but more than 600 racers left the line together. At the beginning of the weekend, the racers left the start three rows at a time in an orderly fashion but, by halfway through Saturday, the starting area had degenerated into mass confusion. Each time the starting banner dropped, the entire field would surge through the staging area and around 9Q-degree corner for the rush down the main drag. If you wanted a good start, the only place to be was on the front row, and getting there seemed full of confusion, too. "I thought the start was a bit hokey. We didn't have a good shot at that," said . Gary Bailey, who drove 2,500 miles from Vhginia to do a few more turns on the Elsinore circuit. "We were supposed to start in. the same order we signed up, but they must've had some foulup. I signed up before there was even a date set for this thing, but I ended up with number 39, so I was way back." But like everybody else, Bailey agreed that the problems paled alongside the en." To desert racers like Destry Abbott, it was more like a twisty back-country lane. ''It's pretty tight. I thought it was right now," Davis said. The back section, with its potential for spectacular supercross-style jumps, got a big thumbs-up from the spectators as the top-class motocrossers went to work. The desert racers did theh best to thrill the spectators, but Krause admitted that, when he looked up during one of his best jumps, he saw nothing but the skid plate on Sheak's Honda. "You can see who the factory motocrossers are right there at the jump:' said Abbott, who .puts in a lot of time on a motocross track to hone his desert skills. "I felt like a beginner after watching them." The women and minibikes combined for an action-packed 4O-minute dash that saw Kawasaki's Mike Alessi blast through from a last-place start to take the win by an impressive margin. The spectators got a laugh wpen they noticed adult-

• Cover