CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
W
e think of kids in their teens racing at the pro
level a fairly recent phenomenon. You know
the mentality—start them racing at five and by the
time they're 15 they already have a decade's worth of
racing experience. But young racing prodigies didn't
start in the '90s or 2000s. Eddie Mulder is proof of
that.
Back in January of 1960, a fresh-faced kid from
Lancaster, California, just 16, scored a stunning
victory in one of the biggest motorcycle races in
America, the Big Bear Run. It wasn't just the fact that
a 16-year-old Mulder beat the top desert racers of
the era that was the story, it was the way he'd done
it—coming from behind after losing a footpeg on his
Mel Dinesen-tuned Royal Enfield in the middle of the
race, and passing hundreds of fellow competitors to
take the champion's trophy at one of the most impor-
tant races in America.
Overnight Mulder went from an obscure kid play-
ing around on his motorcycle in the desert, to having
his face plastered all over the country in motorcycle
magazines and win posters celebrating the unlikely
victory.
"It was big, man," Mulder says today when looking
back on his Big Bear victory. "After that things just
sort of snowballed, the sponsorships came rolling in
and my career was off and running."
The Big Bear first ran in 1921. Legend has it that
a group of riders were together celebrating the new
year when they decided to go out and see who
could be the first to compete the 100-mile ride to Big
Bear Lake. Helped along by annually being the first
big race of the year (usually right after New Year's),
the Big Bear quickly grew into one of the most publi-
cized races in the country.
Riders who won what would become called the
Big Bear National became well-known names in
motorcycle-racing circles, riders like Dick Page,
Dutch Sterner, Aub LeBard, Del Kuhn, Vern Robison
and Bud Ekins. By the 1960 edition of the race, it
had almost gotten out of hand. A total of 765 riders
took the start of that year's race. Only 207 crossed
the finish line 150 grueling miles later. The race be-
came so big in fact, that it was one of the things that
caused its demise with police complaining of crowd
control as a major issue.
P128
Big Bear's Baby-Faced Champ
