Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 28 JULY 15, 2014 P135 Robles. I called him up and asked him to meet me for lunch one day and that's when I started spon- soring him. He was the first guy." While Murphree had the honor of being the first rider sponsored by Digger, he certainly wouldn't be the last. Jimmy Wood was the second rider and then as Digger said, "And then it just kind of went nuts," he laughs. "It got out of control for a while." Helm then rattles off about 15 riders who he ended up sponsoring. Everyone from big name riders like Jared Mees, Kenny Coolbeth and Joe Kopp to a dozen or so lesser known riders who Helm helped keep on the road going to races. And he didn't stop there. In addition to sponsor- ing individual racers he even put up the purse mon- ey to sponsor entire flat track championships on the west coast. Dozens, if not hundreds of riders benefited from Digger's support of flat track racing. Jared Mees' comments about Digger are typical what you might hear from many racers. "I'd say I'd consider him more of a friend than just a sponsor," said the current AMA Pro Grand National points leader. "If anyone comes up to talk to me and we start talking dirt track, Digger's name almost always comes up. I mean all the support he's given to the sport is just incredible. We go out to those Eddie Mulder races on the west coast and he's one of the biggest supporters of that series. I bet if you add up all the prize money I've gotten from Digger over the years it would add up to over $100,000. "I can't tell you how many times I've heard a racer tell me that they had a situation and maybe weren't going to be able to make a race and Digger wrote them a check and helped them to make sure they could still keep racing. He's a really cool guy and I always enjoy it when I get a chance to hang out with him." Helm said he loves to help when he's able to, especially in flat track racing where purses have always seemed to lag behind the other forms of motorcycle racing. "The purses haven't kept up with the expens- es," Helm explains. "And it makes it tough for these riders to pursue their racing careers. It was really low back when I raced and then it got good there for a while [with tobacco money], but it's back to being really low now and I know how much it costs to travel around the country. It was cheap back then [when Digger raced] and we never had any money either. So I just decided to start helping these kids." Nichole Mees (formerly Cheza) has a fundrais- er every winter for her racing program and Digger always buys some of the raffle tickets. He ended up winning, but turned down the prizes. "One year she called me up and asked for my address because I won a $100 prize," Helm re- calls. "I told her I didn't want it, to put it in her rac- ing program. Then she called me a half hour later and tells me I won the $1000 prize! I told her to keep that for her racing too." If you see a list of a rider's sponsors and see Digger 57, you know that's Helm, who is backing yet another racer. He smiles and admits that sometimes it's a friend who gets him to kick in some money at the races. "Rod Lake is another guy who does a lot to help the racers out here," Helm says. "We'll be at a race and he'll just throw something at me, 'Hey I'm going to do this.' And I don't want to get one upped by him so I'll match it." Helm is one of the behind-the-scenes guys who keep the oldest form of motorcycle racing in America going and takes very little credit in return. It's good to know people like Digger still exist.CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives SPORT" TO HEART

• Cover