Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141053
Lunch Hour Motocross at California High School b y J oh n Hue t t er Ph o t os bv A rt Friedman INGL EWOOD . CAL.• Mar . 30. 1973 School Days Were Never Like This! '" M r-. OJ o is. ..Scratch any teen-age m o to cro sse r and <{ yo u 'll find an ex hibitionis t. Al on g wit h the spi rit of co mpe tition that makes an y yo u ng (o r o ld) guy p ull up to th e sta rt line is that de sire to imp ress a certain girl, o r frie n d, or th e family th at he can do so me thi ng n o t eve ry body can : race mo torcy cles . . It all happen ed for almos t fif ty In glew o od High Sch ool students today . T he l ett erman 's club, with th e coopera tio n o f Principal Hal Kelban and vice-principal Bob Hoffman, sp onsored and conduct ed a no on time motocross on th e school a tle tic fields in downtown Inglewood. Th e idea of a motocross surfaced in a sch ool surve y on student_ want s, and from then on , the le tterm an 's club got advi ce and trophies from Bill Krause Honda, a local dealer, and trucked the dirt, railroad ties, and old tires to make a course. Frankly, it was abo ut as good as most local artificial . tracks and longer than most, and short enough straights so that overeager riders would not put it through the b aseball backstop. Announcing, organ ization and cc tu al competition within each class were better than a lot of regular weekend motocrosses. The bulk of the entrants from the student body were all hardcore MXers who showed up on trick machinery. Prepra tion was, well, predictable. Sportsmanship was fa r above the norm, ~ w 2 w ...J o > o It may sponsor a motocros: some afternoon, like Inglewood H igh School did . Pictured is the highly competit ive 250 class. Ray Benner, who spends his non-scholastic time as a CM Expert , won the 175 class. C Slide outs on the grasstrack were frequent but there were zero injuries , as the ambulance grew cobwebs. the students not racing sep ar at ed from those who were and w orried a lot about injuries. Wh at w ould the parents say if Billy was hurt in a lunch hour moto cr oss ? What would th e scho o l b oard say ? Nothing terrible happen ed th at we co uld tell , e xcept th at early m oto' leaders all seemed to slide ou t in th e grass y co mers . T hey had n ice b ig tr ophies fo r th e t op three in each class and p articipation trophies fo r jus t about every body. The racers got two hours o ut o f the middle of th eir school day and the rest of the school got a break from the ca fe te ria routin e . ,.. Perhapsbest of all , every body go t to do their moto cross th in g in front of th e girl in fourth p eri od Al geb ra class that it is so hard t o impress.' Even the f ootball lettermen manning the ye llo w flags lo o ked at the little skinny guys ra cin g motocro ss with new respect. T h ings are ge tting very serious, th ough. We n oted th at all of th e ri ders wh o made th e main mo to in the 250 class were sponso red . A nd th is was the first h igh schoo l moto cro ss. ever he ld . \Vait 6t il their cross-town rivals he ar abou t this. Some of the lawnmower-eng ined minibikes watered out. While some of the mini-cycles ran like greased eels. Whoopee. '" " '" c, though , and these guys were running lor trophies in small classes. There was Ii ttle co urse-cu t ti ng, elbowing or kicking with close atten tion being paid to the numerous flagmen and the st arter. The chec kere d fla g t ootsie and a sele ction of In glewood H.S . cheerleade rs 'did n ' t hurt th e atmosphere at all. By the time the n oon buzzer ran g for lun ch, most of the eliminati on mot o s had been run off and the studen ts piled out o f class to wat ch th e finals . Heats were run to get the final five-lap moto down to five or six starters ; a go o d idea on the tigh t track it was hard to pass an ywhere. • Those who had fri ends running in the motocross went wild with th e kind of enthusiasm usuall y reserved fo r Homecoming footb all game s. T h ose who had never seen moto cross before thought it was really neat ; even on the athletic field inside school grounds. The administration tried frantically to keep This zippy 125 Pursang ran out in front of that class until the rider laid it down in the notorious north hairpin. Despite the label, photographer was not really a d irt bike . He was a long hair. hippy freak I