Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P108 BY LARRY LAWRENCE ENDO GALINDO Y oung men loose on the land. Rudy Galindo and Steve McLaughlin fit the description perfectly. It was the 1970s, fun and free. A small group of Southern Californians, racers, wrenches and their pretty girls all in their early 20s, were packed into two vans driving the sun-drenched, mid-summer, open road up to Kent, Washington, to race in the AMA Road Race National. Life was good. As racers are apt to do, then as now, they'd poured all their money into their racing bikes and little thought was given to the expenses involved of actually making the trip to the race. Improvisation was key. No money for food? Well there's a stream flowing through the campground and streams have fish don't they? Of course catching the fish was one thing; no one had the accessories fisherman generally carry to prepare the fish once caught. Again more improvisation - on the fly so to speak. Somehow the gang miraculously made it to Kent and Seattle International Raceway. Steve and Rudy were both good enough to finish in the money, so getting home should be no problem right? First up was Steve. He was running up front, well into the money, but then the best laid plans… Stevo crashed. Instead of the pay booth it was the medic tent for him. It was all up to Rudy now. 'Gettin' home money' had fallen squarely on his shoulders. As expected Galindo, who was the fast qualifier, started off well in the Novice-Junior Final. The only problem was he was doing too well. He was leading the race. "All of a sudden it hit me," Galindo said. "If I fall off, or anything happens, we're not getting back home. You have to understand the mentality of a privateer. John Green came past me and I figured I would just follow him 'til the last lap and pass him. And then the third-place guy passed me." Before he knew it Galindo was in a fierce fourway battle for the win with Green, Jimmy Chen and Mike Lane. "I got so caught up in the battle that I forgot all about making a pay day," Galindo laughs. "On the last lap Green got me by a half-wheel length. I finished second, but the good part about it was I made 900 bucks! That's like 7000 dollars now. You could imagine – we're talking steaks, hotels, the works on the way home." Unless you raced in the AFM in the 1970s, where Galindo was a two-time champion, you've probably never heard of Rudy Galindo. He's one of those characters in racing whose name pops up time and time again when talking with riders of that generation. It seems like everyone who knew Rudy liked Rudy. His path into racing and some of the things he did outside of racing are stuff of legend. "My wife always warns me, don't tell people what you did," Galindo says. "They'll never believe you." Among Galindo's accomplishments are being the guy who practically invented Superbike handlebars in the '70s, by cutting bars for guys like Freddie Spencer, Wes Cooley and Eddie Lawson, asking them where they'd like to have the bars positioned and then taking the bars off the bike and bending them with a big pipe right there

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