Mr. Enduro meets Old Timer Moto....and Survives!

Los Angeles OT/MX International

#33 has been encouraging me for the last year or so to ride an Old Timer Moto Cross event and apparently this is the year I have decided to try doing other things outside the Dist 36 Enduro and Cross Country events I’ve been doing for many years now. Last month I rode in the Score San Felipe 250 so why not a Moto Cross.

Last weekend (March 31st) the So Cal chapter of the International Old Timers Moto Cross Association held an event at the Hillside track in Hesperia, California. There were people who traveled from out of State and a few from other countries to attend this event. The format was an open practice on Friday, a short practice by class on Saturday morning, a riders meeting then shortly after that the first race. They didn’t mess around; each race went one after another. There’s class for just about everyone and they don’t put you on the course with any of the young guns who might just fly over your head or land on you over a jump. Saturday’s format was three motos for most classes and two for the rest of us. Most of the motos were fifteen minutes long with a few being twenty two minutes long for the faster classes. Then the open support classes which consisted of “younger” riders, my guess is most were friends or family of the Old Timers. Sunday’s format was the same except two motos only for everyone.

I arrived Friday afternoon too late for practice but I did have the opportunity to walk the track. The temperature was in the low eighties with a slight breeze. The course was as the name suggests a hillside course. The elevation changes weren’t hair ball but made it interesting. All the jumps and step ups felt safe. The start was a long uphill with a left hand bend to a drop off left hand corner then a right turn and part way back down the hill to a tight right hand sweeper then over a couple of short jumps then uphill to the first big jump.

By the time I had walked the track and signed up the breeze had turned into wind and the temperature was dropping. Before I left for the motel I took refuge in Eric and Cheryl’s comfy trailer where Eric filled me on what to expect over the next couple of days. Eric and Cheryl have a very, very nice weekend warrior, but they were parked between two huge motor homes towing bike trailers that were almost as long as their trailer, they definitely looked dwarfed and out of place between them.

I was at the track by 7:00 AM Saturday the wind was still blowing and it was very cold. I got to ride the track for the first time and I liked it.

My race was the first one and there were enough of us to fill the start gate. This was my first time starting behind a gate and my first motocross in over thirty years. They were still doing rubber band starts the last time I lined up for motocross. I have a Rekluse on my KTM 350SXF so my plan was to start in low gear apply a little brake and throttle and when the gate dropped stay strait and pin it. It worked pretty well the first moto I think I was about fourth or fifth to the top of the hill and within the first lap or so worked myself into second then to first but had a small tip over that allowed the second rider to pass me back. I caught back up to him but ran out of time and energy to pass him back. Seems to me we made seven or eight laps, it’s amazing just how much energy you use in that time, especially when you’re not use to doing it.

My second gate start went even better than my first; I grabbed the holeshot and began to stretch out a small lead. However, after a couple of laps they blacked flagged us, apparently a rider had fallen and they weren’t sure he was going to be able to get off the track. I was to say the least a little disappointed. We all lined up and again I got a good start but this time my friend Bob who owned the bike and managed the San Felipe 250 race team I rode on was right alongside me. This time he beat me to the first corner. I followed him for most of the first lap then passed him down a long strait that led to a right hand turn and over a table top. I had gone inside him and needed to take a slightly different angle to make sure I hit the table top straight otherwise I could possibly land on the side of the jump. I’m still not quite sure what happened but I had slowed the bike a lot to make sure I hit the jump square but I slid a little left. I corrected to the right and thought OH SHIT… just as Bob plowed into my right rear. It straightened me right up but sent Bob over the bars and down the side of the jump. I stopped, looked back and saw Bob tumbling down the hill. My first thought was I hope Bob’s alright. My second thought was I hope I’ll still be invited to his house for a BBQ tonight. I and the third place rider who was now stopped maybe twenty yards in front of me as we both looked to see if Bob was alright, he waited for me to start riding again and let me pass him before we started racing again. That gesture sums up what this Old Timer racing is all about. I was able to go on and win that moto by a huge margin. Later I had a chance to talk with the rider who had won my first race and was the one who waited with me in the second race. He had traveled all the way from BC in Canada, and he told me he felt it was only right to let me go in front of him and then see if he could catch me.

I took a huge amount of razzing from a couple of the riders on the San Felipe race teams for taking out Bob. Bob turns out was ok, landing on the soft side of the jump helped. He actually got up and finished the moto. Best of all I was still invited to his house for the BBQ. I met one of his daughters later who admitted she had called me an asshole when I took her father out. I told her I called myself the same thing.

By the time #33 did his third moto of the day the wind was blowing so hard it was becoming very dangerous on the jumps and Eric admitted that the moto sucked. I found out later after I had left to get cleaned up for the BBQ I had a winning raffle ticket but wasn’t present to claim it, dammit. I understand they had some good stuff to.

Sunday morning was even more windy and colder, it was barely forty and the wind was probably a steady twenty five with gusts of thirty to forty. The wind had taken its toll on me Saturday and I had spent a miserable night so I went to the track Sunday morning to say goodbye to my friends, especially all the new friends I’d met. Friendships and a sharing the same passions are what it’s all about.

Eric told me the weather actually got a little better as the day went on.

I understand the rider who traveled from Canada and waited for me to pass him back won my class overall, as far as I’m concerned he more than deserved it. My plan is to attend the Sierra Old Timers event to be held in Marysville in May. Hopefully the guy from BC will attend and we can once again chase each other around the track.

Doug 21J

For Information about the upcoming May 5th Sierra OTMX visit their website at:

www.sierraotmc.com