Inauspicious beginning

[TGTech]

My first race on my very first Penton, a Berkshire, frame #V595, was a hare scrambles held near Norwalk, Ohio in November of 1969. I don't remember what the condition of the entire course was, but I do remember that near the end of the lap, there was a very soft, muddy rutted section. It wasn't very wet, just muddy.

I really don't remember much about my feelings before the race started, but if it was like nearly every other race I entered in my riding career, I had a pretty fair case of "butterfly stomach". During my entire riding career, I can never remember eating a "decent" breakfast prior to the event. If I had, it would simply have been wasted in a port-a-john or behind a tree. My stomach/nerves simply wouldn't stand it. Once the green flag would drop, that would be the end of that problem, but it lived with me for my entire career.

That day was rather overcast, just like most of November in Northern Ohio, but not too cold, because all I wore over my jeans and flannel shirt, was a pair of herringbone coveralls. My simple white Bell R/T helmet with the clear full face shield was all cleaned up and ready to go, this being prior to the days of full face helmets or Scott goggles.

Near the end of the first lap, I felt that I had been making pretty good progress as I approached the aforementioned muddy ruts. Since I couldn't really tell how deep they were, I didn't just blast through them, thus assuring that if they were deep or too soft, I wouldn't go over the bars. That was a big mistake.

I didn't have the momentum to carry myself through the mud, and I got stuck, really stuck, to the point where the bike wouldn't go anywhere, no matter how hard I pushed. I let the bike stall, and got off to lift the wheels out of the ruts, like one would do in a really nasty situation. I lifted the front wheel up into the air until I could just let the bike fall over, thus getting front end free. Then I went to the back end, and lifted it out of the mire.

When I went to start the bike, it would only pop, and then stop. I thought that all the acrobatics, caused excess fuel to flood into the engine, thus loading it up and fouling the spark plug. Fortunately, my  "race transporter" (dad's farm pick up truck) was close by, and I ran back to the truck, to get another spark plug. Once installed, I kicked and kicked again, to no avail. Now I was stumped. What could be wrong? (This was pre-Motoplat, so that couldn't have been it and we hadn't been in any water, so the points couldn't have been wet or dirty)

A few spectators gathered around, and helped me push the bike up to the truck, where I dejectedly sat on the tailgate, wondering what could have gone wrong. It was at that point, that I found my answer. Keep in mind, that this was in the day before mufflers, and two strokes just had straight stingers on the back of the pipes. As I sat there looking over the bike, I noticed that mine was no longer "straight through", but rather, jammed full of mud! When I had picked up the bike to release the front wheel, the stinger had been jammed into the mud, and packed the end full. Once I cleaned out the mud, the bike slowly sputtered to life, and blew out all the excess gas from my desperate kicking while still stuck and just freed. All of this took quite a while, and I decided that it was futile to go back out and try to make anything out of the event, but rather I decided to just spectate for the rest of that day. That was the beginning of my racing career.

The second race I entered, was a motocross near Kenton, Ohio, some time after winter had arrived, and the ground was about 1/2 frozen, with some snow and watery ditches as obstacles. To get right to the point, I managed to out last two of the fastest riders in the state, a young man named Jim Jerels (sp?) from the Zanesville area and a noteworthy rider from Northern Ohio, named Jack Penton. I won that race, admittedly by being better over the long haul, than the fastest. Jim's Suzuki blew up, due to the water and Jack, who had forgotten his boots, had feet so cold that he couldn't ride the second moto. This gave me a 3-1 and the overall.

I saw more than my share of successes after that, but one thing that I never managed to do, was to win a motocross State Championship. At least as a rider. Three years ago, I finally was on a winning "team". In my son's first year on a 125, he managed to win the Championship in the Schoolboy class, on his KX 125, on which I was the mechanic. I think I was more proud of that, than the second places I did manage to earn as a rider.

There's some of my most notable stories from the beginning of my career. Who's next?

Dane

[Mick Milakovic]

Great stories, Dane, I'm sure you have many more.  One thing that piqued my interest was your comment about riding in weather so cold the ground was 1/2 frozen.  I remember hare scrambles at K & R Raceway near Portage, Indiana where the windchill was so cold that your fingers were frozen before the first turn!  Am I mistaken here, but does it seam that fewer of those types of events take place?  Maybe our desire to ride was greater back then, or the promoters of today just can't make enough money to justify the event.

[Steve Minor]

I remember riding the Ballground Enduro in Ballground, GA one winter in about 74....It was 13 degrees and sleeting.....you had to keep breaking the ice off your rear brake assembly and front levers...

Seems like it took me a month to fully thaw out....

[TGTech]

Mick:
After I came back to racing when my son started to ride in about '92, I noticed that there weren't many (if any) events in the winter anymore. I think the reason, is that there are so damn many events through the rest of the year, when the weather is conducive to riding. In our "little" outlaw sanctioning organization here in northern Ohio, there are over 120 motocrosses from the third week of March until the third week of November. By the time people get to that point, they've pretty much had their fun cards punched for the season. Back when I first started racing, we were lucky to have four events a month. Now, you can go to three motocrosses per week end, from the first of April until the end of October. And this is just in the outlaw organization.

There is also AMA District 12, and they have at least one event per week end, from the first of April until the end of October. They too, have week ends where there are two or three events as well.

That is all motocross and then there are the hare scrambles events. The CRA starts them at the end of February and the last one is this coming Sunday. Nearly every week end! And like motocross, they too have week ends where there are events on Saturdays as well.

I suppose that we have to look at it like this is a good thing, because it gives the riders more places to play.

Dane

[TGTech]

Steve,
The coldest event I can ever remember being involved with, was one of the "Joshua Drivin' McCoy" Hare Scrambles that Penton Imports put on at the Amherst Meadowlarks M/C in conjunction with their annual dealer meetings. The event was in January, and the high temperature for the day, was 4 degrees! The really sad part of the day was, that the event was won by a motocrosser! Frank Stacy was near the end of his Professional career, and had begun to ride hare scrambles and ISDT events, and he was there to ride. I don't know what he was wearing as layers, but I do remember that he wore a jersey as his outer layer.

Dane

[Lew Mayer]

Dane, you reminded me fo the coldest event I've ever ridden. It wasn't THE coldest anyone has ridden it just felt that way to me.
 It was a winter enduro in Jersey, I believe. We were breaking ice in the creeks and somehow in the first half I snagged my leathers on the silencer bolts and ripped the inner seam of my leathers from one boot to the other. The only thing keeping me and mini-me warm was that thin nylon liner. It wasn't that warm though. We finished the event though frozen through. Gives me shivers thinking back on it. Guess that's why I don't like winter anymore.

Lew Mayer

[TGTech]

Lew,

   Can you say "MAJOR SHRINKAGE"! Like you, that chills me just thinking about it.

Dane

[olgoose]

Dane, as i was at that hare scrambles, a couple of things stand out in my memories of that day. I arrived at the track with Jack Lehto in his van. The van was left running the entire day i suppose to keep the engine from freezing, but the heater was left on to keep the adult beverages from freezing. Being a California boy,i had never been in below freezing weather.Just breathing after about ten minutes in that cold hurt. I was amazed to see the bikes come over the jumps with zero suspension. I also always wondered if they were using studded tires.

David Duarte

[Mike Lenz]

Good stuff! Mick, I rode some of those winter Hare Scrambles at K&R I think. What year were you there?

[Mick Milakovic]

Hi Mike, my brothers started racing there in '70, and I joined the fun in '71 until the local authorities turned the property into Robbinhurst Golf Course!  Gene Ritchie and Dave Knudsen were running 7-11 Cycle shop in Chesterton at the time and a lot of us considered K & R our home track until 7-11 burned down and Gene moved his shop to Red Bud.

[Mike Lenz]

Mick, I got out the movies and Im pretty sure I have footage from a hare scramble at K&R in late 72 or early 73. I won my class, 175, and if I remember some guy on a XR75 won the overall due to how icy it was!!

[tlanders]

Jeff DeBell, Phil Ketchum and I entered the Hillbilly GP near Springfield, MO two winters ago in January. It is a hare scrambles that is done in two 45 minute sections with a break betwen them. THe organizer always uses lots of technical sections and in this case, two stream crossings. Everything would have been great except it was 17 degrees F that day. The stream crossings were above the foot pegs and you needed to do them at speed for fear of getting stuck in the water. Therefore, our hands, legs, arms, ec. were covered in instant ice from the splashing water. Some guys made one lap and quit. One of them set himself up on the other side of the deepest crossing with a camera. Seeing the camera, another rider decided to show off with a wheelie across the stream, however, he went over backwards into the unbelievably cold water. We survived it and had a great time.

Teddy