Cycle News

VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P109 she had to come up with the funding, which was no easy task. When Evans was 15, she got a factory-sponsored ride with Yamaha, and Yamaha was will- ing to help some, but she needed more help—as in more cash. Evans recalls today, "A friend of ours said, 'Hey, have you ever thought of riding the Six Days?' And I went, 'Well, kind of, it's just been a dream, but I never told anyone.' He said, 'Well, I'm going to help make it happen, and he got ahold of Cycle News, and you guys put something in [the newspaper] telling I needed help to go to ride the Six Days, and people started sending money and donations in, and it was just amazing! Yamaha got me the plane tickets; Gordon Farley Motorcycles [a sponsor of hers] gave me the motorcycle, and so I had a 175 Yamaha as I rode in the Nationals and everything. It was really an amazing experi- ence that Cycle News had a very big part in that." Finally, Evans made it to the start line of the Scottish Six Days Trials in 1978, and not only did she finish, but she also finished well. "I had a great time," Evans said. "But when I first got there, though, a bunch of people were betting on me as to what day I would quit, and were being really kind of rude, but I just bit my tongue and bit my lip and just rode. And those same people came up and apologized later. "It was an amazing experience," she said. "I was the only woman out of 280 entries; I was 109th overall on a 175, and I was fourth in the Under 200cc class. Yeah, so it was a dream come true." She added, "The funniest thing was on the seventh day after rid - ing for six days, when I got up, it felt really weird not to be on my motorcycle!" Evans says she is still proud of her accomplishment. "It was a real test of the kind of rider and endurance that I had. When I would get really tired and when my calves were cramping up and everything else, I think of the two guys who were betting on me as to what day I would quit, and I would just keep going. But I also rode in enduros as a kid and out in the desert, in the snow or in the heat—125 miles sometimes with my Dad, and so I think that trained me because I really didn't have much problem with keeping up stamina." Evans, now 66, still rides mo - torcycles (and is still very good at it) and is still passionate about riding trials. After the Scottish Six Days Trials, Evans became a big- time stunt woman in the movie industry. What movies might you have seen her work in? "Well, let's see. In the movie The Jerk, I rode over the Volk- swagen, and did the turning wheelie off the semi-truck, and rode through the wall of fire. And let's see, in the Matrix Reloaded, I rode the Ducati 996 and drove the Cadillac CTS doubling as Trinity [Carrie-Anne Moss], and one of my favorite things was in a car in The Fast and Furious. I drove a car underneath a semi- truck. Then the semi-truck hits me, and then I flip off the side of the road." Fun stuff! Evans was in the motocross movie Winners Takes All, where she jumped a ravine that no other male stunt motocross riders would attempt. When the guys hem-hawed about doing the jump, Evans stepped in and said, "I'll do it!" Another part Evans played that you might not have known is that she was in the Cycle News cover photo from the 1978 Scottish Six Days Trials. "I did get on that cover of Cycle News!" she says. "They had a picture of me riding up a famous section at the Scottish Six Days, which was called Pipe - line, and I was very surprised and happy to see that they had put a picture of me on the cover of Cycle News. The headline said the winner was Martin Lampkin, so not many knew it was me, but I knew it was me." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Trials in 1978, and not were betting on me as to what day I would Debbie Evans was the only female who competed (and finished) in the Scottish Six Days Trials in 1978.

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