I was listening to the radio a few minutes ago and all of the talk was about Thanksgiving and turkey, and for good reason. All of this turkey banter got me to thinking about how some of our family turkeys were acquired back in the day.
There was a motorcycle club just north of Pittsburgh called the Leaping Links, they mostly put on night hill climbs during the summer, but as fall approached they started to do some observed trials events. One thing about their hill climbs that I will never forget was watching an exhibition rider known as Mr. Backwards attack the hill on his big Triumph twin sitting backwards. I have seen a lot of crazy stuff in my days, but watching Mr. Backwards clear that hill ranks right near the top of the list.
About a week before Thanksgiving the club would host what they called their Turkey Trials where they would present Turkeys instead of trophies. It became pretty much a tradition for old Augie to load up his Sherpa T on the back of his old yellow Ford pickup and stop by the nursery for me and my steel tank Penton, and we would head off in search of Thanksgiving dinner. I don't recall if we were always successful in our turkey hunt, but most times as we headed back home there were a couple of frozen birds making the trip with us.
Today the location of the Leaping Links club grounds is directly under what is known as 279 north heading out of Pittsburgh, every time I travel on that particular stretch of road I get to thinking of all the fun times we had about 50 foot down, almost 40 years ago...
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and may you all enjoy your memories as much as I do mine.
Paul
Great story Paul,
Have a good Thanksgiving and God bless.
john D.
Thanks John,
How about you other guys, ever run for a Turkey, or ???
Paul
No turkey stories from me. We are on our way to Mars now to see my sister, bro and parents. POG is a great community and I count myself fortunate. Best, John
No turkey stories from me. We are on our way to Mars now to see my sister, bro and parents. POG is a great community and I count myself fortunate. Best, John
(http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g8/BobWardlow/backwards.jpg)
Rob,
Thank you for diving into what must be a fairly extensive archives of printed material to provide that picture. Having the given name for "Mr. Backwards" has allowed for a proper google search, some of the results are below. Now to actually find Mr. Backwards and get a chance to talk with this amazing man. How about you guys from around Martinsville, Indiana, have any idea what Roger is up to now? Would be really cool to get him on a Penton sometime........
Thanks again,
Paul
Motorcycle Jumping: Roger Riddell "Mr. Backwards" Martinsville, Indiana
Motorcycling is one of life's many pleasures. Way back in the 70's, Roger Riddell of Martinsville, Indiana dreamed of being famous as his legend Evel Knievel was. Evel Knievel was well known for his famous motorcycle jumps and falls. The recent Evel Knievel passed away, leaving behind all the daredevil stunts. One of those stunts included a live jump over Idaho's Snake River Canyon in 1974, but it failed. Other jumps were over Greyhound buses and in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, just to name a few. Mr. Riddell would try to imitate some of Evel Knievel's jump only to do them backwards. Yes, I said backwards. It is one thing to jump facing where you are headed but to do the stunts backwards is something else. When Evel Knievel was making the big bucks, Roger wanted to just turn his dream into a money making project. The only thing Riddell got for making his jumps backwards was hospital bills, which left little money left.
Roger Riddell became know as the world's first and only backwards motorcycle riding ramp jumper. Roger Riddell started jumping around three cars backwards. His first jump landed really smooth, so he started adding cars, seven cars to be exact. When Roger did one of his seven car jumps it spanned 60 feet and earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Roger Riddell also was on the Television show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and also on ESPN. Roger has jumped in several states, once in the Astrodome, while he was working with promoter Rick Case of Ohio, who was also Mr. Evel Knievel's promoter. When Case quit doing daredevil promotions, Roger Riddell booked himself. Roger is a very good friend of our family. Roger has even set a new world record jumping around six cars backwards. And he had a very successful jump.
Roger Riddell began his motorcycle riding when he was around 18 years old, which was over 40 years ago. Roger who is now 58 has quit jumping for around three years then in 1999 he started jumping again. His motor cycles included a Triumph then he went on to a Honda but he then went to an all American favorite a Harley-Davidson. The crowds went crazy and it wowed them. Riddell's Harley-Davidson is a standard road bike with only a few adjustments. This bike flattens out when it lands, absorbing the shock of the impact and makes it very easy to control. Roger Riddell's Harley-Davidson has landed six perfect jumps very successfully. Only a lot of times he wasn't so lucky, you see Roger has broken around fifty bones in his body. That is a lot of bones, arms, legs, ribs, his shoulder, you name it he has broken it. Roger Riddell has around five projects going on in his life. Many are remodeling his semi-trailer into a motor home and bike trailer. This is all being done so he can also haul around his motorcycles and his jacked up 4 X 4 Monster Corvettes he has built as a side hobby, another one of many projects.
His Corvettes stand around five to six feet high, Roger and his wife drive around the towns while they are touring. On the side Roger has a dry wall business. Roger is also rebuilding his home; a few years ago fire destroyed it. Roger Riddell wants to jump a few more years. After all there is no one else doing what he does. Roger "Mr. Backwards" Riddell jumping cars backwards.
Paul, I think I know exactly where you were. The location was off My Nebo road and you entered beside the one-room school house that is now a jeweler.
There was a 1/4 mile (or smaller) dirt track there with a go-kart track in the infield. Dad raced go-karts there and I often went with him (age 8-10?) and explored the entire property.
I remember going over to watch the hill climbs on Sunday when they were held at the same time as the go kart races.
Bob
Bob,
That is it exactly, there was a figure 8 track there also. I think the stock car track was referred to as North Hills Speedway, some of the better local late model drivers were guys like Herb Scott and Bob Wearing. Wearing lived about 5 miles from me and during the winter he would join in on our weekend trail rides, he was no slouch on a dirtbike, we spent some great times running impromptu dirt track races in big old fields in the middle of nowhere.
I have a fairly decent collection of race programs from back in the day when guys like A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Johnny Parsens and others were running sprints on dirt ovals, I will need to look and see if I have anything from the North Hills track and see what it's official name was.
Your mention of go-kart racing reminded me of what a hot bed for kart racing this area was. I know of a couple of old timers in the area who have some pretty extensive collections of karts from their hey day. Back in the day, somtimes on a Sunday afternoon a bunch of the karters would set up a course in the Mars High School parking lot and they would put on quite a show. One of the go-kart guys from just over the hill from me might not have raced in much organized competition, but he has made quite a name for himself. He went on to work for Roger Penske as an Indy Car crew chief. I think he started out with Rick Mears, then Emerson Fittipaldi and maybe a few others, now he is crew chief for Castroneves. His name is Rick Rinaman, he graduated a year ahead of me from Mars High School. If Rick did any organized karting maybe your Dad might remember him.
Paul
That's a great memory there buddy. I had to rely on the Internet to jog my memory. Green Vally Speedway. Here's a link to a good article in the Trib.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/racing/s_464975.html
I remember Rick well from the height of the CART series in the late 80's and early 90's. I think your list of Penske drivers who worked with Rick is most likely very acurate also.
In the article the most well known area track for me would have been Heidelburg. I remember Dad taking me down there in the early 70's and watching Cal Rayborn and his Harley give Gary Nixon & Yvonne Du Hamel (Kawasaki) and several other a good riding lesson.
Bob