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riders, such as the Basts, Rick Woods and Sonny Nutter. Even TT legend Eddie Mulder, a man whose senses are most acute at detecting the scent of green- backs, came to race. "I was making a lot of cash rid- ing speedway," Bast recalls. "At Ascot, my biggest payday was $15. We started at Costa Mesa, and all of sudden we were mak- ing between $200 and $400 per night." With speedway taking off, Bast's JAP was quickly replaced by a state-of-the-art Jawa two- valve, just in time for the inaugu- ral U.S. National Championship. "We got about a half a season in on the Jawa before that Na- tional," Bast says. "They would just fly." And by then, Bast knew how to make them fly. Scoring 14 of a possible 15 points, he became the inaugural U.S. National Speedway Champion. John Cart- er was second, and Rick Woods was third in that first race. From then on, Bast remained a prominent player in speedway throughout most of the '70s, trading U.S. National titles with Rick Woods and with brother Mike Bast. Steve Bast won the second of his two U.S. National titles in 1974 aboard another two- valve Jawa, and he was almost able to defend it in '75, but a miscalculation would cost him the title. "I rode the very first Weslake that came into the country," Bast says. "A friend had imported it, and we got it ready for the cham- pionship. I did real good in the early heats, but then I made the decision to go to a higher gear, which I shouldn't have done. I should have gone to a lower gear. I couldn't even keep it on the track after that. I had won the first two heats, but then after that, I felt like a guy with two left feet. I would have won if I hadn't made the wrong decision." Bast would never win another U.S. National Championship, although brother Mike, who won the '75 U.S. National, would go on to win it another four times for a total of seven titles. But Steve and Mike Bast are level on Cali- fornia State Speedway Champi- onships, each man holding six. "Yeah, that was one thing where I won it six times, and Mike told me that he wouldn't quit until he tied me," Bast says. Bast would back away from full-time active status in the Southern California speedway scene in 1976, electing to move to Northern California, where he won the Northern California Speedway Championship. He would fly back and forth be- tween the north and the south in 1978 and '79, but that proved to be too much of a grind. "That got to be a hassle, so I quit completely," Bast says, "but I did come back one more time. I rode the '81 or '82 season—I can't remember which. I rode for George Wenn and Vans. I had a few good sponsors, but it was only a one-season deal. And by then, there was a whole new breed of cat coming into speed- way." The scene was changing, Bast says—not necessarily for the worse, but still changing. "It wasn't the same," Bast says. "It was still fun to see all my old friends and fans, and I made the whole season, but after that, I moved back up north and said, 'Forget it.'" Bast has no regrets about the time he spent chasing his motor- cycle racing dreams. "Those were fun days, and it was cheap fun," Bast recalls. "We used to buy tires at $25 apiece in bulk. Fuel was cheap, oil was cheap, and gasoline was cheap to get there. It was just a whole different deal. The promoters weren't greedy. They were learning right along with the riders. That [speedway] was my business for seven years, and I got to see a lot of the world with the U.S. Team. My brother and I went to Australia and New Zealand. It was great for me." Editor's Note: Steve Bast passed away in 2007 at 55 years of age. CN This Archives edition is reprinted from issue #36, September 14, 2005. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor CN III ARCHIVES