A little BS from PD

[Paul Danik]

Greetings, the better half of the Danik family likes to browse antique stores / malls, and given how well she indulges my all-things Penton Passion, we traveled to an antique mall a few days ago in Duncanville, PA where there just happened to be a stall full of old magazines that beckoned me from the aisle.
Mixed in with 138 issues of Easyrider stood out an August of 1974 Popular Cycling with TRASK MOUNTAIN I.S.D.T. QUALIFIER in bold print on its cover. The headline of the article reads, " The Six Day Qualifier That The Penton Name Cleaned House On! TREKKIN' THROUGH TRASK . Apparently no one wanted to lay claim to the article as no name was listed with it.
Mixed in with the usual race event article were six lines that grabbed my attention, " The Penton team seemed to be tired of renting cars wherever they went so this time a group of guys got together and purchased an old Buick for fifty bucks. Needless to say, the car earned their respect after the team literally utilized it for the two days and it was still running when they left."
Ah yes, I remember that car.....and a little event that occured one evening after dinner when we returned to the homebase of the event after dark and there just happened to be a sandlot baseball field that was lit up rather well. To our driver that evening, it must have looked like one of the dirt short tracks that he raced on and soon enough he was in time trials mode as we spun circles around that ball field, then the light show began. That was back in the day when the cops had those bubble gum lights on top of their cars and through the dust the lights sure made for quite a sight. There must have been ten of us in that car, and given how worn the seats were, Joe Barker and I along with 3 or 4 others in the back seat didn't have the best of view. Our driver, who shall remain nameless and shall be referred to as C.C. to protect his reputation, soon enough had stopped his time trials and began talking with the "officials". Fortunately for all of us, there was a certain young lady from the area that had a lot of local pull and who not only helped with getting the car dealer to sell the car with the agreement that he would buy it back after the weekend if it was still running, but who also convinced the "officials" that no real harm was done and to just give C.C. a few words of warning.
As for the Penton race results, Jack took overall, Dane won the 100cc class, Joe barker, Tom Penton, Rod Bush and I took 4 of the top five golds in the 125cc class, Jack and Carl were the top two in the 250 class with Lars Larsson taking the 350 class.
The stop at Duncanville did cost me a few bucks as Miss Judy always seems to find something that she can not live without. To me it surely was money well spent as my trip down memory lane was well worth it, even though I had to look through all of those Easyriders to find this hidden gem !

[Don Roth]

Paul,
Thanks for sharing, amazing what we got away with in our youth.
-don

[skiracer]

Wow!  What a great story, thanks!

[Rain Man]

CC and dirt track racing,hhmm. Musta been a 400. Being a Big Block Buick fan, it had 2 be a 4 door wildcat. That or a station wagon which... nobody would ever fess up to owning anyway!
Send pics...great story Paul!