Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

J ~ h rr ' J) 0 ... 't. J 11 u: I " the track for practice and I did it : I got it in fourth an d rode th at thing a ll th e i:. way aro u nd th e mile wid e op en . It was " the gre atest feeling and I figured that I . :;; rea lly had things set up. "When I got back to the p its Mert co Lawwill cam e up to me and asked me if .ri I wo uld like to ride one of his Harleys. I u, '" said I didn't think so as I t hought th at Ul Gold Star was out s: the re. That's when the fastest th ing and the Sonny came in UJ Z kind of advised m e th at there was a UJ better future with Mert and Dudley ...J U Perkins and that ould >- still didn't want Itoshdesertrid e his KR . I Sonny but I U though t I wo uld ride it in practice . I took it o u t and it reall y felt slow. It didn't tum th e r's, and so coming down th e fr ont ch u te, I turned it all th e wa y on and pitched it into the comer. I remember th at Mert told me n ot to tum th e throttle back or I would push the fr o n t end out and was I surprise when th at thing got into th e co rner so fas t. I got b ack into th e pits still feeling th at it wasn't as fast as the BSA but wh en Mer t showed me my times I c o uld n 't bel iev e it. "I rod e th e KR and won th e wh ole ball o f wax th at day and Mert told m e that I c o uld ride it on th e rest of th e miles and that's when I go t m y first rid e with Mert a nd Dud Perkins. "I rod e some of th e other Natio na ls that year on Les Edwards' Triumphs and one thing's for sure : That year I reall y learned the value of good mech an ic and the drive it ta kes to get th e machines running. Bo th Sonny on th e BSAs and Les on the Triumphs reall y worked their hearts out to Ret th ose bikes in sh ape. We wo uld change engi nes two or t hree times a week and we still always had a miss at the top, b u t Le s wo uld always say, we'd get 'e m next w eek." T he res t of the year was a success although not always a winner. "Jim Rice and m e were doing o ur thing then. J im won th e n ext four races after Po rtlan d and t hen I came back to win a co up le. I won the Peoria TT and at Sedalia on the mile. Rice flat put it o n me on a Go ld Star. I won Santa Fe on a Suzuki an d won Salinas an d then Sacramento. Wow, I really wanted to do good th ere. "I knew that everybody would be watch ing that one and so I knew I had to do good to im press everybody . All my p ast sponso rs and my par ents were in th e stands that day and when I won it, I was the happiest guy you ever saw . After that I c o uld n 't have cared less abo ut an y other races but wh en I won i'J, "•• • ·;.r· " "'I( ! .. 1 Oklahoma City and tied Joe Leon ard 's rec ord . wow, was tha t a thriller." Mark had in fa ct tied the rec ord of one seaso n number of wins set by Joe Leonard back in the la te '50s at seven and for this d eed , Mark was selected as the National Amateur ch am p io n and for 19 70 an d was given the National number of 87 which he we ars o nce again in '72. " It was b ack in July at Sa n J ose that Dick O'Brien, H-D's racin g rep , had come up to m e a nd was ta lkin g ab o u t th e next ye ar. He asked me if I had p lans to b ecome a professional racer and when I said "y es", h e told me to keep him in mind as h e th ou ght th at we co u ld wo rk o ut a deal on racing Harl eys throu gh Dud Perkins . I re ally wanted to impress him after th at and so th at helped me d o well th rou gh out the res t o f th e year. "I wen t up and ta lked wi th Dud and Mert late th at year a nd we go t togeth er and I've been with th em since." Mar k Brelsford now had a full-t ime job a nd a boss . "Starting th e first year as a factory-sponsored rid er and a Nati onal number didn't make m e any friends with some gu ys. Jim Rice, who sh ould h ave gotten one, used to throw a knife at a picture he h ad o f m e. I w as ge tting help and it was th e end o f th e season before J im st ar ted to even ge t a few parts ." The inequities o f racing are grea t and were to become quite appar ent to th e racing nature o f Mark Brelsford. "I t ook my short tracker ba ck to Daytona and in one of the races I h it and wall and broke my hand. " (For t hose of you that can remember th at fa r back, Mar k was caugh t b y a photographer flying over th e wall in one of the m ost specta cular shots ever taken.] " I couldn't race Daytona that year , b ut I was glad. I really d id n't like road racing that time and w hile I was sitting in th e hospital missing the race I was actually h app y because I didn't like it." Mark went home and rec uperated so well t ha t two months later at the first dirt track Natio nal h e got a seventh . "The first race wa s Cumberland and I was still sore - my wrist - but I was real pleased to have gotten a seventh cause I was travelling with Mert Lawwill and Jack Dunn. Jack ta ugh t me all the little tricks while Mert taught me everything." Enter the team effo rt. Harley -Davidso n had obviously thought that the tie -up of Brelsford and Lawwill was all righ t and w ith Mert b uildi ng " h . ~, II f ' Mark's racers , the team acuvi ty was to take shape in a strange fashion. "Mert was th e thinker, boy, he taught me so darn much . He had me confused wi th all the frame geom etry b ut h e was like a sch ool teacher and really st uck with me ." Equipment and cons tenc y are the two words that ma ke a win ner and fo r Jim Rice used to throw a knife at a picture he had of me, the y ear 19 69 , th ose two th ings ad de d up to a win for H -D an d Mert Lawwill . "Wh en Mert go t Number I , I had seen h ow h e had d one it . I fe lt so fa r ahead of everyone else. F or m y age gro up , I pretty we ll knew w hat it to o k t o ma ke it and th at was my ed ucat io n . " I th ink if Dick Man n had the eq uip men t , h e'd wind up Numbe r O ne every year." Mark's first y ear as a Nati on al number wasn't all th at gre at b u t it was good co nsid eri ng h e wa s rid ing Mert's o th er equipment whil e Mert was in a hot bat tle fo r first. The educati on o f t raveling th e circ u it with a ll th e hero es and th en rid ing with them and making th e main eve n Is mad e a lasting impression of the wisdom of keepi ng th e b od y an d th e motorcycle shap ed. While Dick Mann was st ill th e ob vio us hero . Lawwill as th e educator and Ca l Ra yb orn as the road racin g educator set Mark up for his tri als and tribulations on the road co urses. "I asked Cal if I co uld fo llow him around Laconia. I hadn't fallen off a ro ad racer and re ally didn't know what th e limits we re. Because he was th e guy to beat, I th ough t that I could get so mething done by fo llowing his lines. I followed h im and after a few laps he picked up the p ace and I found that I could fo llow real easy and so at o ne poin t I passed h im th inking he wanted me to. We kept up the pace for a few more lap s and then came in. He was shaking his head wh en I came up to thank him, because I felt that I had really learned something and then Dick O'Brien told us that we had se t the fas test tim es and that I was the fa'stest guy for that day." By this tim e t he ,idea of team effort was rea lly a part of Mark's life . He h ad a great team to work with and with his own natu ral ability, the co mb inatio n was working qui te well. "I was , ... f lr f' i r , , pumped." T hat express ion means being psych ologi cally set up to go out and race o ne's h eart o ut. While Fred Nix and Cal Rayborn and Mert Lawwill were the wi nners up u nt il that time, the newc omer was about to launch his own set of rec ords. " I ended up third in my first road rac e a t Loudon and I re ally felt good. I won nearly $ 100 0 and could n ' t hardly believe it." The rest of that early part of the seaso n wasn ' t spectacular and back on the West Coast, t he San Jose National only p roduced a ninth while Jim Rice was ex te nd ing h is ownership o f th e San Jose half-mile . Bu t things we r e to cha nge. "I w on m y first Natio nal at th e Ascot 50 Lapper, but they said it was a fluke . I st arted o ut on the Sp o rtster be cause Mert said it wo u ld finish although I wan te d to ride a KR b ecau se it was easier to ride. He just said to st ick to the Sp ortster and it would finish. Well , I was running abo ut sixth un til toward th e end o f th e race I lo oked at the b oard and saw I was sec o nd to Sk ip Van Leeuwen. I p ulled up o n him and passed him goi ng into the first co rn er ju st to see if I c o u ld do it an d it was easy. But Mert h ad ca u t io ned me abou t thinking on these longer ra ces and so I thought th at th e best th in g t o d o would be just to fo llow him and let him think th at 1 was just slower than h im and wa it until the last to get b y ." T he time to ge t b y c ame b y it self for th e 20 -year-old ro o kie when on lap 4 2 the indomitable Skipper bl ew up . "I found myself in front and I fro ze; I just knew th at I was dropping a co uple of seconds a lap , bu t I really knew that I was in the lead. I took th e checkered and won my firs t National. I put money in th e bank and really fel t great." At the n ext National a t Castle Rock, Mark was really charged and while leading t he heat he bai led. On the second Eastern tour, he collected so me more points! and th en broke his collar bone at Sa nta Fe . By the time h e could rid e again, it wa s Sears Point. " Cal led it until he b lew, then Grant go t the lead and he was gone. I h ad p u t back th e lo w bars on the road ra cer and w ith the break, it hurt. In practice I made sure I was smooth and so in the race I was doing all right. I got up to second an d was really feeling comfortable and then I k new I was in trouble. I nearly went to sleep and I could n 't pull in th e cl u tch and so I had t o p ull off. It t urned out that I had p u lled the collar bone out again." T he very t ric ky Sears Point Raceway

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