F
or many motocross racing
fans, the famous Unadilla
track in New Berlin, New
York, was long considered to be
America's purest MX track. Lush
greenery blanketed the rolling
hills where Mother Nature's
course was laid out. European
riders like Roger DeCoster spoke
highly of promoter Ward Robin
-
son's commitment to honoring
the essence of the sport and the
five-time World champ made the
most of that familiarity, winning
numerous Trans-AMA events
there.
In the early 1980s, fans in the
western region of the U.S. were
blessed with their own version
of Unadilla, the CDR (Continental
Divide Raceway) Tech Track in
Castle Rock, Colorado. Besides
MX, the facility also featured a
2.8-mile road course, a half-mile
oval and a drag strip. Like Unadil
-
la, the race day at the CDR MX
track began on a natural course.
There were no man-made jumps,
and the first competitors out for
practice were treated to a ride
through knee-high, dewy, wet
grass. The CDR track was pris
-
tine in the morning and weath-
ered well over the course of the
race day, even though it almost
seemed too serene to roost.
In its short, two-year run on
the AMA circuit, the CDR Tech
Track would grab for itself a
healthy heaping of MX history.
In 1981, it served as the final
stop of the AMA's 250cc chase.
The '81 season had been the
year that Kent Howerton and
Bob Hannah, once good friends,
became bitter rivals on the
racetrack. It began, as do many
public tiffs, in the press:
"I was being interviewed by a
journalist," Howerton would say
years later, "and he asked me
about Hannah. I told him that
I thought Hannah was riding
faster than ever. But when the
story came out, I was somehow
quoted as saying, 'Hannah has
never been faster than me.'"
That was enough for the
"Hurricane" to declare war on his
former pal, and the two racers
launched a cockfight that would
CNIIARCHIVES
P146
SHORT BUT SWEET
BY KENT TAYLOR
Castle Rock's CDR Tech Track in
Colorado hosted just two National
Motocross races (1981-'82),
but they both have significant
historical value.
THE CASTLE ROCK MX NATIONAL IN COLORADO
WAS SHORT-LIVED, BUT THE TRACK'S MEMORIES LIVE LONG
