Grand Prix Memories

When most people think of Grand prixs , they think of the United States Grand Prix at Glen Helen or if they are older like me Carlsbad , Unadilla or Mid Ohio come to mind . The Grand Prixs I'm talking about are the cross country races that usual consist of either or some following terrain ; desert , hills , pavement , mud holes , jumps , fireroads and moto cross tracks . Most grand prixs you run a larger gas tank and depending on the course higher speed gearing . Over the years I've been lucky or unlucky ( depending how you look at it ) to experience the following Grand Prixs ; California City , Rosarito Beach , Riverside , Adelanto , Carlsbad And Tehachapi . Here's some of the words I could use to describe some of these races ; frustrating , fast , sad , weird , cool and fun . Adelanto had some interesting memories for me . One of them was in the ealy 90's while heading to the town before the race the day before , driving I hear a noise and one after another six Army Hercules C-130's fly over had a height of less than 200 feet off the deck running parallel with road , COOL ! Then in the 1982 grand prix there , I was running my Husky 430 wide open down a paved straight-away , my bike suddenly went quiet for several seconds ( it seemed that way but really wasn't ). I was still moving and felt the engine vibration through the hand grips Then the loud noise of a F 4 Phatom jet fighter over took over . The course that year ran parallel with a runway of George Air Force base , the sound of the fighters would push the sound of the bike away with a gap of silence , weird ! One year at Adelanto I decide to ride the unclassified race ( part of it at least, ) with my friend Mike Keen for practice . Mike was a expert when it comes to cross country races so following him around is definetly an asset ! Everything was going fine until we got back to the moto cross section . Mike goes over the big mud hole jump with ease . I think if I carry medium amount of throttle I'll be ok . Not remembering my bike was geared for Bonneville I didn't think I was going all that fast but in reality I was carry maybe way too much speed . Oh I cleared the mud hole with no problem and I had plenty of height . The problem was that I lined up bad and my weight too far to the back . I almost loop over backwards , I tap the rear brake . I hear the large crowd that always hangs around the infamous mud hole let out a large GASP ! I've talked to pros who ridden in Supercross and they told me that it's true you can hear the crowds in Supercross and now I know it's true ! When I come down my front end of my Suzuki 250 RMX slams down HARD with my legs straight back doing my own version of a flying "W" . Then I see my front end clip the edge of the bulldozed dirt curbing then I transform the flying "W" into a tankslapper . I actually then recover to my amazement and probably the crowds amazement . Yeah , I think one lap of practice is good . During my vet race I'm running up front in the 250 vet class when we catch the slower open vet riders which the open bikes start several minutes ahead of the 250's . I come into the moto cross section and I'm passing open bikes . I see a real slow but heavy rider on a Honda cr 500 . I go to the inside while he's on the outside ( hey the track is over 12 feet wide ) . He then procedes to do the impersonation of the guy in a raincoat riding the tricycle that use to be on Rowan and Martin's Laugh in show ( boy I'm really showing my age by talking about that TV show ) , he bounces off the berm and literly falls over on top of me . Now I weigh over 200 lbs but next to him I look as slim as Bob Hannah . This guy had to weighed at least 350lbs and that's without riding gear on ! Hulk Hogan couldn't have pinned me any better . I was calling him every name in the book , hey I'm sorry but part of me is Irish . It took about four flagmen to pull him off of me . By that time you could stick a fork in me , I'm done .On that race all I had to do was start at the back of the results sheets to find me in the results .Hey I didn't say all my grand prix memories were good ones. California city grand prix use to be one of the biggest races of the year for desert racing in California with several races being held over the weekend with 300 riders at least in every race . In the early years the course was 20 miles long ! Whatever gearing your bike could pull you geared for . It was Daytona for dirt bikes . There was some paved straightaways that way over a mile long ! The first year and the first grand prix I rode was in the 0-200 class on my 1975 Penton Jackpiner . I had a 3 kick start and was working up through the field when on the last lap the spark plug blew out ! luckily it didn't puncture the fiberglass tank and luckily I carried a spare plug . I made a mental note of the first bike to pass me ( a Suzuki TM 125 ) . I got the plug in as fast as I could . Coming into to town I pass the TM rider and he gives me a thumbs up as I pass by him ( a lot of desert racers are classy people ) . I wind up 23rd overall in that race and the first rider not to trophy ( I even had people getting trophies after me , different classes ) , now that was frustrating . A couple of times I rode my 1975 Yamaha 250 mx . the first year I had the bike's jetting too fat and the air filters too oily ( the yamaha had two airfilters )to wind up fouling several plugs , the next year was another story . That year I got my entry in late and wound up starting on the 24th row in the novice 250 / open class race . They started 10 bikes per row at 30 second intervals ( 300 bikes ) . I asked my friends where were they going to pit me ? They said they will wave me in . The pits ran a mile long . When it comes to my row to start only a CZ 400 gets the jump on me on the start . He leads me down the asphalt and when he gets on watered down fireroad his bike isn't pulling so well , I shift down to 4th and I pass him . I'm now leadig my group ! When it came time to pit I'm straining to see where my friends are at . I see them to the left of everbody ( remember which side I'm on ) so I get gas . I wind up passing over 200 riders with nobody passing me . I come across the finish line with a flat ( got it on the last lap ) less than a couple minutes behind the first rider to cross the line . I wait several weeks to get the results only to find out that I was D.Q.ed for pitting on the wrong size ( I didn't know about that rule and know in my heart I didn't cheat ) , talk about being bummed out ! My friend Mike Keen won the amateur/expert race the next day on a 1977 Husky 390 with a "76' 360 CR pipe on it ( it allowed the motor to rev more =more top speed ) with a broken foot ! Oh , he ptted on the right side . One of the last races on the old Cal City course I raced was the 1982 Cal city gp in the amateur/ expert race . I had had a bad start (due to a ignition problem , I found out later on ) , started moving up steadily until the completion of the first lap . Then after the first lap my my Husky 430 died , at least it didn't happen in the mud hole ! I spent a long time trying to get the bike started , finnaly it fires up . By this time Desert ace Dan Smith is lapping me on his factory Husky . I hop in behind him and draft him on the paved straightaway . For almost two laps I hang not too far from him . What's funny is I see a guy who is obvisouly a husky fan jumping up and down thinking Huskies are running 1-2 in the race . Dan's talent takes over and he pulls away from me . For a little while I got to know what it felt like to run up front in the amateur /expert race . I wind up 41st or 43rd overall in that race and one lap down to the winner . I raced the Rosarito Beach Grand prix once which gave a small sample of what it's like to race in Baja . During the race I changed 5 spark plugs ( remember the ignition problem I had at Cal city , same bike , fixed this problem after the race ) , came across a man on a horse and a family in their station wagon on the course . I was the second place guy in my class out of 5 riders in my class , the other 3 didn't finish . I ran a couple of races at the now extinct Riverside raceway . The memory I enjoy which I enjoyed was running sixth gear on my Husky 430 threw the esses where a few years before that I watched Petty , Earnhardt and Waltrip go through there ! I did a couple of races with mediocre and less than memorable finishes at Carlsbad . What was COOL about the Carlsbad races is that they primarly ran on the USGP course and the superbikers course . That was a FUN track ! The most FUN Gp for me had to be the Tehachapi Great escape . We like to call the Tehachapi Grand prix . This course ran threw the foothills around a prison ( hence the name the Tehachapi great escape gp ) . The course actually ran in front of the prison . It was a FUN course ! I have a picture on my brother's Husky 360 cr in front of one of the guard towers ! I actually did ok . The second year I raced my brother Hal's Husky I finished 18th overall and 3rd open beginer . The next year I finished 11th overall on Hal's bike again and 3rd open Novice . So not all my grand prixs were bad memories for me ! by the way , my friend Mike Keen was first in both those races overall !