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The classic bad ass motorcycle racer thread

Love the additions boys!!

Bill has Joel covered..... if he adds Joel’s AMA HOF profile link - nudge nudge wink wink. :teeth

The Elsinore.....I remember it well a long time ago in a place far far away....riding at the PAL track in Santa Clara, #2 of three I believe. I was on my CZ 250 and being passed by those pesky, flickable, nimble, fast, bitchen, little chrome tanked fuckers.

I wanted one (so bad) and Marty Smith was Honda’s poster boy.
Chrome....?
Marty.....?.
....the shit.

I got to ride one once. :drool
 
I'm gonna throw in the last of the 500cc 2 stroke slide kings, Garry McCoy...

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I think the R7 was the best sounding bike ever.

I could smell the sound it was so sweet.
 
I will have to find some pictures, but other notable locals to the California region could be:

Steve Eklund
Jimbo Felice
Gene the bean Romero
Mert Lawwill
Gennady Lubimsky - AFM
Dave Emde - AFM
Harry Klinzmann - AFM
Fred Merkel - AFM
Rich Oliver - AFM

Oregonian - Chuck Sun
Texan - Mike Kidd

Billy Sugar Bear Grossi
Jimmy Ellis on his CanAm
 
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Johndicezx9 said:
Damn those Cagiva GP bikes were pretty...
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... great pic! :thumbup

Cagiva V593 GP500 Specifications

Engine:
Liquid-cooled, 80-degree V-4, twin crank, two-stroke, 56.0 x 50.6mm bore x stroke, 498cc, two twin-choke 36mm electronic power-jet flat-slide Mikunis, crankcase reed-valve induction, pressurised airbox, titanium expansion chambers with carbon-fibre mufflers, electronically controlled cylindrical power valves – five transfer, three exhaust, electronic ignition with programmable advance curve linked to throttle opening, exhaust power-valve and carburetor power jet, single plain piston ring pistons, needle roller small-end and roller big-end bearings, straight-cut gear to clutch from right-hand end of lower crank
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... they don't make them like that anymore ... :laughing

... how about Max Bubeck:

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[YOUTUBE]XeA39bnG7k8[/YOUTUBE]

... the Greenhorn Enduro was a SoCal desert race
put on by the Pasadena Motorcycle Club, an AMA sweater club,
that was founded in 1907 ...

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Max Bubeck made a name for himself dominating the enduro scene from the 1930s to the 1970s. Bubeck was also a speed racer & builder who in June of 1948 rode his Indian “Chout” (an Indian Chief 80 c.i. engine jammed into the smaller & lighter Scout frame) to a record speed of 135.58 mph on the Rosamond Dry Lake north of Los Angeles. It’s a record that still stands for an unstreamlined, normally aspirated 80 cubic inch displacement Indian motorcycle. After retiring from competition in the late-1970s, Bubeck continued to be active in motorcycling, doing everything from restoring classic Indian motorcycles to sponsoring antique motorcycle meetings.

Bubeck’s last major win came in 1962. That year, the 44-year-old racer again won the Greenhorn Enduro (on a 1949 Indian Warrior), a full 15 years after he’d last won the race.

In all, Bubeck competed in 32 Greenhorn Enduros (from 1937 to 1979) and finished the rugged race 24 times.
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Max Bubeck's AMA HoF:
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=137
 
Scot Harden

Scot Harden raced in North and South America, Europe, and Africa, earning titles and building a reputation as a world-class racer.
A short list of his major titles includes:
• Two-time Baja 1000 overall winner
• Three-time overall Baja 500 winner
• Three-time overall SCORE Champion
• Four-time overall Best in the Desert Champion
• Three-time International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) medalist (Gold: Italy, 1981; Silver: France, 1980; Bronze: Czechoslovakia, 1982)
• Winner of the 1987 Djerba 500 Rally Tunisia
• Total Challenge Performance winner of the 1987 Rally de Atlas Morocco
• 1982 AMA National Reliability Series Open Champion
• 1994 AMA National Enduro Vet Class Champion.

Harden enjoyed a nearly 40-year career as one of the world's top off-road racers and compiled a set of records that few can match.

He served as team manager and a rider for the 2004 and 2005 U.S. Red Bull KTM Dakar Rally teams. In the 2005 Dakar Rally (at age 48) he finished 17th out of 250 motorcycle competitors. He has also helped develop the careers of other off-road champions, including Dan Smith, Danny Hamel, Russ Pearson, and Chris Blais, who finished third in the 2007 Dakar Rally.

Harden’s AMA Hall of Fame Profile.

Team Photo below:
ISDT in Czechoslovakia 1982. Willy Wilson, Terry Cuningham, Scot Harden, Mark Hyde, Ed Lojak, Mike Melton and Dick Burleson (L to R)
 

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Johndicezx9 said:
One big dumpling in the soup we've not mentioned is Mat Mladin.

Obsessive, talented, fierce, dominant...
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I'll add very smart and strategic

Mladin fan here. I think every racer should look at how Mat Mladin managed his career. Instead of partying and buying toys, Mladin studied the paddock to determine the best team and crew needed to get where he wanted to go.

Mladin recognized he was in a bad situation at Cagiva and left before he got hurt or became irrelevant. He came to the U.S. and did a year with Yoshimura Suzuki then one year with FBF Ducati. He obviously had taken a measure of the paddock and decided how to build a successful team and career. He went back to Yosh Suzuki and got them to hire Reg O'Roarke and Peter Doyle. Now he had the team and support he wanted and delivered for Yosh for the next twelve seasons. Very few racers managed their career as well. We've all seen lots of talent and no brains (another Aussie comes to mind) but rarely so much talent and intelligence to match.
 
Very true.

Good points Steve. Professional in many ways. The most important was his dominance on the track.
 
Mladin was all business, all the time.

I was helping out with an autograph session at our local dealer, after he won a championship. When it was over he left a few signed posters but asked me if I wanted one personalized. I jokingly said “Yeah, can you write ‘To John, couldn’t have done it without your help and support, you’re a great guy to have as a friend, I owe it all to you...’” blah blah blah. AaRon Yates was cracking up, but Mladin just gave me that icy stare and said “No!” :laughing
 
Johndicezx9 said:
Mladin was all business, all the time.

I was helping out with an autograph session at our local dealer, after he won a championship. When it was over he left a few signed posters but asked me if I wanted one personalized. I jokingly said “Yeah, can you write ‘To John, couldn’t have done it without your help and support, you’re a great guy to have as a friend, I owe it all to you...’” blah blah blah. AaRon Yates was cracking up, but Mladin just gave me that icy stare and said “No!” :laughing
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:laughing
 
budman said:
Randy is bad ass. The local kid had one hell of a career.

Barely missing out 3 times on the #1 plate. He is the best ever to never win the Cship.

A member of the AMA Hall of Fame Randy started here in the Bay Area as a flat tracker. I remember seeing him at Baylands Raceway when we were both lads, but he was racing and I was dreaming of it.

I spent some time with Jim Doyle his manager and from the stories those guys had some good times. After growing up in Santa Clara success landed him in Woodside. One thing I always remember is how cool it was for him to come home and be an average guy. Success abroad meant hoards of fans surrounding him and the Bay Area allowed him to chill and enjoy.
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Hell yeah, Budman. You always nail it.
 
 
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Weird how a 25 year old motorcycle can look as sharp as anything today. We must have hit peak styling decades ago.
 
 
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