Bad weather day trivia

[Paul Danik]

Greetings,


    Great day for some trivia..

How did the famous Southern Cal. Hopetown event get it's name?

Paul

[chicagojerry]

as i recall. it had something to do with bob hope. maybe he owned the property?     chi jer

[johnborn]

i believe it had something to do with a charity event sponsored by bob hope.

[firstturn]

Wasn't it a ghost town movie set?

Ron Carbaugh

[Paul Danik]

According to what it states in Gunnar's book, HUSQVARNA SUCCESS, the Hopetown event was held on property owned by Bob Hope, I never knew that.  It goes on to state that the race was held in the location on the property that was used to film western movies...

I have had this book for awhile, actually Gunnar signed it on July 9, 2010 at VMD.  I grabbed it to look for the Husky Cycle Liner photos posted by Ted and Gary.....and started to read it:)  It is AWESOME !

I am sure that many of you have read it, if not I highly recommend that you give it a try. I am only about 1/3 of the way thru it but have learned a bunch already. I always really liked Bob Hope, now I like him even more.

Paul

[Kevin Grimes]

Paul,
 The property was first owned by Crash Corrigan a Hollywood stuntman, later sold to Bob Hope. Numerous movies filmed there over the years before the western set burned down. It is a state park now. Check out the videos on youtube.
                                            Kevin

[sixdazed]

It was a neat GP that ran thru the old western town sets and thruout the property.Lot's of fun riding thru an old barn and of course the traditional mudhole.

[Kip Kern]

If you like Bob Hope, you will like the airport named after him in Burbank California.  Love to fly into that place 2-3 times a year to visit the kids!  I think his best movie is "Ghost Breakers" with Paulette Goddard (what a doll)[}:)]  Best line in the movie is a fantastic political slam.[:0]

[Paul Danik]

I have no personal knowledge of the movie set Inter-Am tracks, only what I have read or been told.  The movie set Inter-Am MX track that I have read the most about was at Westlake Village near LA. I am assuming that Westlake Village is not the same as Hopetown....

In issue #3, the Spring/Summer of 2010 issue of Moto Retro, there is an extensive story about the reunion of folks who rode the Westlake Village event, the reunion took place at Tom White's Museum. Included in the story are numerous photos, including one of the riders entering the Westlake barn which the story states they entered after crossing a stream at the bottom of a nasty gully.

I am not sure if both tracks had such barns, but some of you will probably know the answer to that.

I did have the privilege of riding through a barn at a hare scramble one time, I am pretty sure it was put on by Dave Combs at the Appalachia Lake track, maybe some of you folks remember that as well.

All great memories, and interesting uses of what was available by enterprising and creative promoters.

Paul

[Kevin Grimes]

The latest version of VMX magazine has an article about the Hopetown GP Reunion.
        Kevin

[Lloyd Boland]

I did race Hopetown one time in the early 70's.  It was a blast racing through the western movie set.  I was runnig third with one lap to go, coming up to the mud-hole and the condenser wire my CZ points came off, luckily I stopped about 2 feet before the mud-hole.  As previously stated, it was a western movie set at one time and was owned by Bob Hope at that time.  And "Crash" Corrigan did own it previous to Bob Hope.  Westlake Village is a different area, probably 20-25 miles as the crow flies.  We had a lot of local tracks back then: Indian Dunes, Bay Mare, Muntz Moorpark, Simi Tapo track (Gillebrandt property - forgot the name of the track), Hopetown, Westlake Village. Some of these tracks were short lived, but all were within a total of about a 25-30 mile radius of Simi Valley.

[gooddirt]

Westlake village Ca. was my stomping grounds, moved to that area in 1967 as a kid.

[Paul Danik]

Great info, thanks.

Here are a few photos and more info on Hopetown, including a photo of Carl Cranke.

http://motodude.com/2012/03/18/hopetown-corriganville-grand-prix/

Paul