W
ith this year's Daytona's
Bike Week now in our
rearview mirror, it's a good time to
look back when another NASCAR
track, Talladega Superspeed-
way, hosted its own mini version
of Bike Week. At its height in
the early 1970s, the Talladega
weekend featured national road
racing on the track's high banks,
complete with a national radio
broadcast (the MRN Network) of
the race, AMA Motocross Nation-
als on a temporary infield track
and flat track racing on a short
track across the street from the
big speedway. The event attract-
ed motorcycle racing fans from
across the Southeast and, one
year, a motorcycle gang brought
chaos to the Alabama facility.
In the late 1960s NASCAR
and Daytona International
Speedway founder Bill France
was looking to build another
Super Speedway. This time
he wanted to go even bigger
and faster than Daytona. He
searched for a suitable location
across the Southeast before
finally landing on Talladega on
the site of an old airfield. France
broke ground on the new track
in the spring of 1968. The still
unfinished track opened a
year later at a cost of $4 million.
The track was named Alabama
International Motor Speedway.
The name would remain for 20
years, all through the motorcycle
racing years, until 1989, when
the facility's name was changed
to Talladega Superspeedway.
According to ex-racer and
World Superbike founder Steve
McLaughlin, "Big Bill" France
CN
III ARCHIVES
P140
When
Had Its Own
Bike Week
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
Attendance approached 20,000 at the
height of Talladega's popularity. Note
the grandstands here in the 1973 race
with Don Castro (11) and Gary Fisher (21)
racing down the front tri-oval.
PHOTO: GARY VAN VOORHIS PHOTO
Talladega hosted both AMA
Road Race and Motocross
Nationals on the same
weekend. Here Brad Lackey
races on the temporary track en
route to victory in 1972.
When
Had Its Own
Talladega
