Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P100 BY LARRY LAWRENCE ISDT TIMES NINE S tarting with a small storefront motorcycle shop, Dave Mungenast Sr. built a business empire that included commercial property, ranches, a marina, and some of the leading automobile dealerships in the Midwest. Along the way he found time to become an Army Green Beret, an international motorcycle endurance racer, and a Hollywood stuntman who shared the set with Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds and Jackie Chan. Mungenast became a leading enduro racer of the 1960s and '70s, riding the International Six Days Trials (now called the ISDE) nine times in his career and earning six medals in the prestigious competition - including two golds as a member of the Club Team and a silver as part of the Triumph manufacturer's squad in 1973 when the competition was held in the United States for the first time. As a motorcycle dealer and owner of off-road riding areas, Mungenast supported off-road riding after his retirement from racing. He also sponsored numerous off-road racing events in his home state of Missouri. Mungenast was born in St. Louis in 1934, and except for a stint in the Army (where he was a Green Beret), he always lived in the area. His start in motorcycling was inauspicious, to say the least. At the age of 16, he bought his first bike, a 1946 Indian Chief. Unfortunately, Mungenast crashed the bike on his way home. He recovered from that ill-fated ride and continued riding Indians through the 1940s. By the early 1950s, Mungenast began riding offroad, partly out of necessity. "Every time I'd go fast on the street, I'd get myself in trouble," Mungenast confessed. "I would get tickets or the police would chase me, so I thought maybe I could go fast in the dirt and no one would chase me." Fortunately for the aspiring dirt rider, there were several places to ride near his home, including an abandoned quarry. Soon, Mungenast began competing in local off-road events and quickly moved from the big Indians to a more dirtworthy bike – a BSA single. "I'd ride my bike to the races and tape over the headlight and race," Mungenast recalls. "Those were the days before we discovered trailers, so it was pretty common back then." Mungenast raced a little bit of everything – enduros, scrambles, TTs. He first attended the famous Jack Pine Enduro in Michigan as a spectator in the 1950s and began racing the event in the mid-1960s and won his class at the Jack Pine in 1965. Another big win for Mungenast was a popular 24-hour off-road reliability event held near his home at Riverdale Speedway. The race went on for several years and was given national status in 1964, and Mungenast won the race that year. Winning that event brought a lot of acclaim and helped him further his racing career. In 1967, Mungenast went to Poland to race in the International Six Day Trial, the oldest international motorcycling competition. Riding a Husqvarna, Mungenast won a Club Team gold medal. He would go on to race in the prestigious international event for nine straight years, tallying two golds, two silvers and two bronzes.

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