Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

The Adventures of Patriclr, CIris, . ans, Bonnie, Susie, Gary the H . Wind-Up Starter, tile .Senior Red Neck, ,and the Caterpillar b y Patrick Ne il NORTHERN CALIf., Feb . 18, 1973 We we re up un til tw o A.M. Sunday preparing the machin es. At five A.M . we were u p again, pr ep aring breakfas t. It was going to b e a long day. After loading the shiny, new bla ck "an sitting in the d rivew ay, my self and four oth ers: Chris, Hans, Bonnie and Susie, started to d rive fro m Marin down to Salinas. 'T he dark ness st ill hid Moun t T am as we to o k the tum onto 101 h eading so u th. Com in g into San J ose, aft er 40 minutes on th e road , th e sun starte d to reveal a colorful sp ectrum o f cl ou ds on th e h ori zo n ah ead. As the day go t ligh te r, a bank of fo g clung to th e ' lowl ands a the wa y at th e race ?" I "Will it bet th at bas e of th e foo th ills. asked Chris. He didn't think so. I alw ay s w anted to race at the Salinas Sand Pi t, but n ever until today could I manage to get th ere. Today wa s it. This is the place Eddie and Ch ris 'alw ays trophied. Now with Eddie gone, Hans would be the debutante , keeping the family tradition active at "their" course. It wasn't like a T rans.AJI,1A event, but about 250 riders and su pp o rters turned out for this Scrambles. We pulled into the pits and noticed too much pit racing. Bad Sign. Everyone wa s anxi ous to get going with the program, so we walked the co urse. Sand! Sand about 10 in ches deep. But fast . Third ' and fo urth gear, ke e p -o n - t h e-gas fast! In practice , everyone spen t their time tuning their machines and se t ting up lines on the curving, quick co urse. And the n a t 10,: 00 a.m , the man calle d riders', m ee ting. No on e said much, but onl y looked at the large green chalk board used for set tin g up the schedule for th e raci ng program. The riders' meeting w as over as soon as it began. Everyone j us t looked at the board. The Caterpillar tractor then s p e nt 30 minutes oblit erating a ll t he berms and whoop-de-does and made a freeway out of the ha lf.mile long track. The qualifying heats star ted thirty minutes later. G ary , the starter, m ust have some kind of trouble with his motor n erv e control. He lo ves to smell those clutches burning. Like a me chanical toy, h e would lift the green starting flag , way up ove r his head and slowly bring it down in front of hi m, where eve ry rider coul d observe it. J ust as it would appear th at th e flag would be waved, Gary th e st arter would play his little game of psy chout, and su d denly · tum his ba ck on the whole aff air . At th is point about three or fo ur bikes would be starting to creep be cause o f th e clu tc h having h eated up. N ow all the bik es w ould be co mple tely dis array ed and out of line. T h at's wh en th e starter w ould wh irl around, show an exp ress io n o f surprise and wa ve th e flag as if he we re in a parade, welcomi ng home _th e tr oops. T he m ost ex ci t ing thing o bserve d during the h eats was th e little cu tie in the pits sun ba th ing. Ch ris transfers . Hans transfers. N ow it's clean th e ma chine. Oil th e chain s. Wipe the number pl ate s. Watch th e m an on th e Caterpillar destr oy th e lin es again. Take anoth er 30 min ute break while h e does it. The sun is out, and we 're gettin g sun-burned. Love it ! We almost get luIled into sleep . My egg sandwich is so ggy. It h as sand in it . It 's time to ch eck the heat board. A revers e program is marked on it. What the hell. Why not? 1 have to check wi th one of the o ffi cials b ecause I'm a little co n fu sed as to when I should be up on , th e line. T he tractor is out on the course again. T hey should pui nu mber pl ates on the d amn ed thi ng . Suddenly, a group o f 125's starfoff the lin e. Maybe it's my time soon . Better check! Arriving a t the start ar ea aboard my mount, I can 't teIl if it's my cla ss on the line or not. I be tter ch eck with th e officia l. T ha t on e over th ere with the brew in his hand, looks lik e he might he lp me . "Sir, can yo u teIl me wh en I should b e o n th e lin e ?" The stri pe d shi rt an d leathers replies, "Your race already went: ' Damn ! 1 m issed it. Hans tries to console me and m ake me fe el better . He fail s. We go .get a b eer. Why n ot? If th e officials do it, wh y shouldn 't °a rider? There go es th e tractor out again. Chris 'is wired. Out on the lin e h e sits. Waiting. The putt-putt-putt of the metal monster drags on. Someone wake those guys up out there. It's time to st art the six-lap 250 Expert Main Event. The tr actor once more has wiped o ut th e lines. . Racing on th e fre eway sho uld be done o n the wa y to the races. Leav e th e damn co urse alon e! Ch ris gets scolde d ab o u t not ha ving a ch ain co ver o n his machine. Am azin g p art about it is th at th ere is a co ver o n his ma chine. Incredib le. Mean wh ile, Gary the me chanical wi nd-up toy gets ready to do his act again . T his is ano the r clu tc h-b urn er start. Those pe ople in Salin as mu s t get off on th at kind of aroma . T h ey SALIN~S the Main Event. T he official, this o ne with a cigar burning, says , "Gary mi scounted the lap s." Oh. S o th at's su pposed to be fu nn y . . The cigar o fficial lau ghs. I suggest th at Gary should see a specialist for his p rob lem. A math teach er. A ft er all , Chris wa s chea te d o ut of on e-t hi rd of th e ra ce and ma y h ave b een ab le to ta ke firs t. funny, th e guy wh o too k first p lace w as a club memb er. And so' is Gary . Lo ok o u t , Gary , this is to o obvious . ' So , Chris w o n a second pl ace troph y in spite of th e o ppo sitio n . We buy so me SCRAMBL£D probably think it's fuel burning. T he flag drops. Chris gets second place and holds that position gradually gain ing on fir st . But almost too soon, the finish flag co mes out. Chris gets second pl ac e, not quite nipping o ff first place. But wait aminute . I onl y counted four laps. There should have be en six, being that it was m ore beer an d watch the co nclusio n a t the circus. One of the senior members o f the club rap s to u s ab o u t the days in 1941. They, th e club , bought th e land the co urse was laid o u t on . And how during the week only member s ar e allo wed o n th e land. An d h ow a lo cal judge, a friend of the club's fin es tre sp assers 5500. And how the feIlow g. ,.. e, M '" U

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