Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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M any of the most influential off-road racers of the 1960s are practically household names among motorcycle enthusiasts. Rider such as Bud Ekins, Malcolm Smith, John Penton and Preston Petty immediately come to mind when one thinks of big-name off- road riders of that era but ask the riders who raced during that time and many of them will mention Walt Axthelm as one of the best off-road racers of that period. Axthelm was one of the first Americans to compete in the prestigious International Six Day Trials (now called the International Six Day Enduro). He won numer- ous off-road events in South- ern California during his racing career, including a class in the popular Catalina Grand Prix. He rode with factory backing from BSA, Jawa, Suzuki and Kawasaki during his 30-year racing career. Axthelm was born in Upland, Pennsylvania, in 1933. His family moved to Southern California when he was 14 years old, and he took up riding. He lived in Compton, and in the afternoons, he would go down to the Los Angeles riverbed and practice riding until dark. By the time he was 17, he'd begun racing his first true motorcycle, a rigid-framed Royal Enfield, which had no rear suspension and all of two inches of front fork travel. "One of the first races I entered was the Big Bear Run in 1951, a big race they held annu- ally in Southern California," Axthelm said. "It was one of the two big events we looked forward to every year, the other one being Catalina Island. The Big Bear Run started in the desert and made a big loop from the Lucerne Valley out to Barstow and then up a can- yon to Fawnskin up at Big Bear. It was about a 180-mile-long hare and hound. "The race went across some dry lake beds, but that first year I rode it, they weren't dry," he recounted. "It was so gooey that the muck built up in my back wheel and it locked up solid. I had to take my back fender off just so I could get out of there." Axthelm wasn't discouraged by his racing debut. He began racing in scrambles events on an AJS in Palos Verdes, gradually working his way up to become one of the leading off-road racers in Southern California. His first sponsored ride came in 1954, when he was backed by Louie Thomas' BSA shop in East L.A. Riding a BSA Gold Star scram- bler in 1955, Axthelm earned the District 37 (Southern California) number-one plate. "They threw everything in together," Axthelm said of the points chase. "Desert races, scrambles and everything to get your points." "Walt won the AMA District 37 high-point championship when there were a lot of great champions competing," said fellow off-road leg- end Dave Ekins. "I always thought of myself as the king of the 250s, but Walt showed everyone how good he was on a 250 the year he won the 250 race at Catalina." The Catalina Grand Prix that Ekins spoke of was the high point of the racing season on the West Coast. In 1956, Axthelm won Sat- CN III ARCHIVES P126 Walt Axthelm: WHAT ABOUT WALT? BY LARRY LAWRENCE