Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Bast Comes of Age o disre spect to Bruce Pe nhall , w hose e lectri fying Wo rld t it le win s be fo re national te levision audie nces in 198 1 and '82 made his name synonymou s with the spo rt of speedway in Ameri ca , but before there was Bruce Penhall, t here was Mike Bast, the toughest Ameri can ever to swin g his leg ove r on e of t hose brake less , methanol fueled circle burners known as a spee dway bike. As cu ltural ico ns go, Bast was [irnl Hendrix to Penhall's Eddie Van Halen, Joe Namath to Penhall's Joe Montana. Penhall pushed the envelope. Bast created it. Mike Bast' s entry into t he consciousnes s of American speedway racing fans may have come earl ier than Octo ber 8 , 197 1, but tha t date cemente d him the re . His family credit was already go od , as his brot he r, Steve , had land ed the inaugural United State s National Speedway Champ ionship at the allnew Co sta Mesa Speedway bullring on th e Orange County Fairgro unds in Southe rn California in 1969, one year after the spo rt 's res urge nce from oblivion in the USA. Steve Bast w as a good speedwa y racer, but young Mike , pro phesi ed t he railbirds, was go ing to be great. In re tr osp ect, it was o n t hat autumn night in 1971 t hat Bast was co ronated as America's first king of speed way, w inning his first of w hat would turn out to be a record seve n U.S. National title s in a nail-biter that en ded in a champ ionship runoff with Mike Ko nle. That said, you might assume that w ith the brass iness of just 18 years of age on his side, winning that first title was a cakewalk. No t t rue, says Bast , who turned S I this past January. "Rea lly, I had no business w inning that race at the time that I d id," Bast claims. "My brother was mainly the guy, and I was just the backseat guy. Steve , Rick Woods, Sonny Nutter and Bill Cody, they were all t he shoo-ins, you know? But there I came. I don't know how it happened, but it happened." How it happened is th at Bast came out of the box strong in his opening ride that fatefu l night , leaping off t he po le to beat Bruce Haserot, Mike Clancey and Joe Fitzpatrick during event number three on the prog ram , but he would drop one point in his very next ride, ta iling brother Steve across the line in event six. Konle, mean wh ile, made his way back to five points total by winning even t seven over Larry Shaw, Dave Gifford and Haserot. Konle continued o n his roll in round t hree , beating Mike Bast in eve nt 12, a race that also saw the re igning U.S. National Champ ion exit the title chase w ith a knee injury afte r tangling w ith Konle and crashing. Bast kep t pace by rebounding and squeak ing ou t a victory in a pivotal event IS over Nutter, 3D YEARS A60... N March 5. 1974 A high school MX lineup got sort ed out for the cover of Issue # 8. Inside, we featured two separate high school motocross races . Shaw and Scott Autrey. Bast won his final ride as we ll, heat 17, to finish w ith I3 points. Konle inched out Nutter in event 18 to tie Bast, forcing a one-race w innertake-all battle for the title . It would be the only t ime amo ng his seven championship runs that Bast wo uld ever find himself in such a runoff. "I really wanted to w in it, but I had no idea that I co uld," Bast said. " I was so dang scared. Mike Ko nle was a big guy, a heavyweight. He was about 6'4". I had no business be ing there, but my dad kept me calm. He kept rubbing my shoulders and telling me . 'You can do it.''' In the runoff, Bast lined up on the inside of Konle. Using lightning-quick reflexes that would serve him well during his entire career, he mad e the gate and took the lead, pulling furt her clear of Konle with each lap on his way to the U.S. National Speedway Champ ionship title . "I'm sure t hat was the hardest title I ever w on," Bast says. "I just put my head do wn and never looked back. Since I was a little kid, my d ream was always to be a champion, and w hen I crossed the line, I had tears in my eye s because I realized I was the number- one guy." Bast' s first Nat ional win begat other Nat ional w ins. Never again wo uld he be considered a "backseat guy " by the com petition. T hat first title also opened the door to racing opport unities in otherworld ly places, such as Aust ralia and New Zealand , against st ronger competition. It was there that Bast says he really honed his track cra ft. ':A.fter racing o n t hose fast tracks and seei ng the world, O range County was not hing," Bast says. He would lose the U.S. t itle to Woods in '72, o nly to regain it in '73 and then lose it again to Steve Bast in 19 74 before st ringing an unreal run of five consecutive U.S. Nat ional wins from 1975 thro ugh 1979. To date , no other rider in the history of the sport has more t han t hree U.S. National w ins on his resume. "I still don 't know how I managed to win five in a row like that ," Bast says, "but t hat first one is still the o ne that I rem ember the most." Even after his final U.S. t itle in '79, and even after Penhall's doubl e World co up in '8 1 and '82, Bast remai ned near the top of t he game unt il, tired of th e ugly politics of the dom est ic sce ne , he called a rather premature end to his car ee r in 1985. "I was probably riding better than I had in my who le life when I quit ," Bast says. "Every weeken d I'd win, and the promoters didn't want me to win. I just got to where I hated be ing the villain." Bast followed in the footsteps of other to p racers, such as Eddie ·Mulde r and desert ace J.N . Roberts, putting his motorcycle skills to work as a stun tman in Ho llywood. He later moved to No rthern Californ ia, where he started a co nst ruction business . He has been at it ever since . As far as speedway goes, Bast says he really has no regrets. "I think about wha t might have happe ned if I had gone to Europe with Scott [Autrey) in '72, that maybe I could have won the World Ch ampionship four or flve times , but I neve r really had any reason to go over there ," Bast says. " But speedway treated me really well. Because of spe edway, Iwent around t he world when I never t hought that I would have just out of high school. I met my wife be cause of speedway. It taught me about work eth ic and how to res pect people." eN Mike Bast grew up in speedway. 40th A n n iversary The first, which took place in Irwindale. Califomia, was dominated by a team from Arcadia. In seven races. they achieved seve n firsts, six seconds and five thirds. The second event, run at Saddleback Park in Irvine, California, was won by Santiago High School in a highly unorganized affair... Bryar Hot co m b (Bul) won the 2S0 and 500cc Pro classes at Carlsbad Raceway. Marty Smith (Hon) won the 12Scc Pro class... Mike Bell (Han) won back-to-hack I25cc Expert races. The fi rst was on a Fridaynight in Irwindale, California, while the next was the following Sunday at Carlsbad. 20 YEARS A60•.. March 7 . 1984 The Can·Am 560 Sonic jumped on the cover of Issue # 8 as the fi rst motoc ross-specific thum per to hit the market in quite a few years. And in the O pen class, we figured it could be a contender. It featured a 562. 1cc Bombardier moto r, retailed for $3045, and its left-side kickstarter was surprisingly effective... johnny O 'Mara (Hon) won round four of the InSport/Wrangler Supercross Series in Atlanta, Geo rgia, and moved to within three points of series leader jeff Ward (Kaw), who finished third. Mark Barnett (5uz) was second, while Rick johnson (Yam) was fourth , and David Bailey (Hon) was fifth... Ward, Erik Kehoe (Ha n) and Phil Larson (Yam) top ped the 125, 2S0 and 500cc Pro classes at the final round of the CMC Golden State Series. Micky Dymond (Hus) fi nished second in the 250cc Pro class. 10 YEARS A60••. March 2. 1994 Various images of Daytona Bike Week covered Issue #8, which was our Daytona Preview Issue... We picked Australian Kevin Magee to win the AMA Superbike Series in his first season in the States ahead of Co lin Edwards, and we picked Troy Corser eighth... We picked Ricky Graham to win the AMAGrand National Championship over Chris Carr, Larry Pegram and then Scott Parker... We interviewed Da le Quarterfey, Pegram, Ezra Lusk, Rodney Farris and Larry Roeseler... Mike Kiedrowski took a ride in a USAF Thunderbird F-16 and successfully pulled nine Gs without losing breakfast. He said, ':.\5 far as crashing, Iwasn't worried at all. In fact, I wou ldn't have minded that at all; it would've been cool to eject and bail out ."

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