VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P125
Orange County Raceway, Corona
Raceway, Carlsbad Raceway and
Ascot Park. In addition, there was
a group of about 50 entries from
Northern California filling out
the list. These qualifiers made it
out of around 15,000 riders who
competed in the fall program."
That was no misprint. 15,000
entries. California is a big state,
but that's a number that might
surprise many in today's MX
community.
"You have to remember," Reid
says, "that in the 1970s, moto
-
cross, especially in SoCal, was
huge. We would drive through the
different subdivisions and on ev
-
ery street, you would see at least
one dirt bike on a driveway."
The event brought out a large
number of spectators, with Cycle
News writing that the High School
MX crowd surpassed that of the
Trans-AMA event, which was
held the next day. The racing was
competitive, with CN noting the
bar-banging 125 Junior race: Fu
-
ture MX Fox-sponsored rider Tony
Wanket from Encinitas High "was
locked in a spirited battle with
Jed Mendez of Laguna Beach all
through the race. Twice in the final
lap, Mendez appeared to have an
inside line, but Wanket managed to
hold him off by shutting the door
on the final turn to take the win."
Other good performances
were turned in by several future
factory stars. Scott Gillman was
a Team Suzuki rider in 1979 and
a many times Powerboat Racing
Champion, but on this day, he
captured the 250 Junior class
victory on his Yamaha. Another
future member of Team Suzuki,
Jeff Jennings, finished third in
the 250 Senior class, while Tom
-
my Croft, who would ride most
notably as Marty Smith's team-
mate at Honda, finished second
overall in the 125 Senior class.
Another rider with a runner-up
finish was Rick Asch, who would
go on to serve as mechanic for
Team Kawasaki's Gaylon Mosier.
"Even when he was a me
-
chanic," Reid says, "Rick was still
almost as fast as Gaylon!"
"But the biggest winner of the
day," reported CN, "was probably
Steve McFarland, who, as winner
of the 250 Expert race was pre
-
sented a new Suzuki TM250 by
one of the main prize sponsors
of the event, Buco helmets.
"Those TMs were a pile," Reid
laughs. "He probably wanted to
give it back!
"This was a group of guys that
had grown up riding together. We
rode minibikes and XR75s in the
vacant fields in the area of Little
Saigon. There were a lot of talent-
ed kids, like Doug Nicol, who was
the fastest, most naturally talented
rider I've ever seen. My good friend
Ty Richie, who is no longer with us,
was another great rider in the high
school series. He was a good CMC
expert racer, too."
"It was a very competitive
time," Reid adds, "and lot of great
riders came out of that area.
It was this kind of competition
that helps explain why America
rose up to eventually dominate
the world MX scene by the early
1980s. There were a lot of future
champions who raced in the
High School Motocross series.
As I look back, it was just really
special that the school system
noticed us, saw what we were
doing and wanted to support our
sport."
CN
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had grown up riding together. We
sport."
As you can
imagine, high
school motocross
was very
competitive, as
evidenced by
Garry Faulks (300)
putting it to Jeff
Jennings at the
California HS MX
Championships at
Saddleback.
