Northern California has left the building.....

RandyS wrote:

I totally forgot about Pascarellas, I used to go to the BMX races with them. Mike and Robbie both live in VV again I think. I...

I totally forgot about Pascarellas, I used to go to the BMX races with them. Mike and Robbie both live in VV again I think. I believe one of them has their grandparents house on Midway now. Did you live by the house on Cantelow or in town? I lived in VV 1970-85, my last relative moved away 5 years ago. I remember your dads shop but that was after I was gone

ecavaliere wrote:

I lived about a mile down the road on the opposite side of Cantelow - 5 acre lot. My dad had the shop from '82 to...

I lived about a mile down the road on the opposite side of Cantelow - 5 acre lot. My dad had the shop from '82 to '84, rough time to open a business. My dad worked for Yamaha Corp. for 20 years prior to that. Pascarellas were just getting serious about moto about the time we were exiting. I remember their garage being FULL of Italjet minis, YZ 60's and then KX80's. The other place we used to practice was a place called the "Sewer Ponds" near Markham Elementary School - sand whoops for miles!

RandyS wrote:

Maybe I don't remember the shop, I was still there in the early 80s. But I didn't ride much from 78 to the mid 80s. I...

Maybe I don't remember the shop, I was still there in the early 80s. But I didn't ride much from 78 to the mid 80s. I do remember a shop over by the rock shop off Leasure Town but I think that was later. I missed the sewer ponds days but I had a track at my house in the good part of Allendale(if there is such a thing), Greg Bonovich had a track at his over by you, Billy Carlson had one across the street from his house in town, and a few times I got to ride David Woods track(he lives around the corner from me in Grass Valley now). And then endless sun up to sundown at Argyle. Markham, lol. Hands down best playground ever, lawyers would be lining up at the gate there today.

ecavaliere wrote:

My name is Eric Cavaliere, I raced 9-11 Intermediate in '81 & '82, 125 Intermediate in '84 (my last real year). We had a nice box...

My name is Eric Cavaliere, I raced 9-11 Intermediate in '81 & '82, 125 Intermediate in '84 (my last real year). We had a nice box van and a real nice setup with my dad being a Yamaha guy, the only thing missing was me having speed to run up front! I'm pretty sure you were still on a 60 when I was on 80's, then when you were on 80's I was on a 125. I moved up to 125's at 13 years old, I was almost 6ft tall by then. I remember battling with Mike Young quite a bit back then, I think I still have photos of us at Huron on a rainy day.

ocscottie wrote:

Huron rainy day? 81 Golden State was wet. Was it that day? Man i was so bummed i cried when Mikey moved to SoCal. If i...

Huron rainy day? 81 Golden State was wet. Was it that day? Man i was so bummed i cried when Mikey moved to SoCal.

If i can get my brothers albums it has all the results sheets from every race cut out and everything, my mom was rad.

What color was your box van? was your name on the side? Its killin me, i can almost picture it, your last name so familiar.

ecavaliere wrote:

My name is Eric Cavaliere, I raced 9-11 Intermediate in '81 & '82, 125 Intermediate in '84 (my last real year). We had a nice box...

My name is Eric Cavaliere, I raced 9-11 Intermediate in '81 & '82, 125 Intermediate in '84 (my last real year). We had a nice box van and a real nice setup with my dad being a Yamaha guy, the only thing missing was me having speed to run up front! I'm pretty sure you were still on a 60 when I was on 80's, then when you were on 80's I was on a 125. I moved up to 125's at 13 years old, I was almost 6ft tall by then. I remember battling with Mike Young quite a bit back then, I think I still have photos of us at Huron on a rainy day.

ocscottie wrote:

Huron rainy day? 81 Golden State was wet. Was it that day? Man i was so bummed i cried when Mikey moved to SoCal. If i...

Huron rainy day? 81 Golden State was wet. Was it that day? Man i was so bummed i cried when Mikey moved to SoCal.

If i can get my brothers albums it has all the results sheets from every race cut out and everything, my mom was rad.

What color was your box van? was your name on the side? Its killin me, i can almost picture it, your last name so familiar.

ecavaliere wrote:

Yep - rainy day at Huron - grey skies all day. I will find the pics I have of that day this weekend and pop them...

Yep - rainy day at Huron - grey skies all day. I will find the pics I have of that day this weekend and pop them on here. I have one with me, Mike Young, and Tallon Vohland in the same pic. Our box van was Yamaha yellow with the black racing stripe, my name (along with Mike and Robbie Pascarella) was on the side but not very big. In '78 or '79 when my dad was still working for Yamaha Corp (before the dealership), they asked him to find 4 NorCal riders to give Yamaha "support" rides to. I remember him having a bunch of resume's on his desk that were fun to look through, and he ended up picking Rodney Smith, Dave Wood, Ricky Ryan, and Tyson Vohland (on an 80) - not a bad group!

IceMan446 wrote:

Crazy to hear all the stories of the NorCal scene before I came up racing. I was lucky enough to race against the new school dudes...

Crazy to hear all the stories of the NorCal scene before I came up racing. I was lucky enough to race against the new school dudes like Morais, Mertens, Nye, Mccrummen and Tony Sherman. But hearing all the stories and seeing the photos from back in the day really makes me see how good of a place this was and how much moto really was in the forefront of the NorCal area.

And Cavaliere used to help Casey Johnson when he was younger. So I guess you could say he played a hand in his success.

ocscottie wrote:

To damn cool Eric, if i am not mistaken, that might of been the year Tyson had a [i]really[/i] trick YZ80, it had gold ano'd side...

To damn cool Eric, if i am not mistaken, that might of been the year Tyson had a really trick YZ80, it had gold ano'd side cases! He crashed really hard at Prairie City and dislocated his hip (or something similar) Same year? or am i getting old?

Remember Grandma Vohlands hand made gear / tank covers and crossbar pads? My brother, Me, Nealer and Mikey all had matching jerseys made by her, that was about 78ish. you can see them in the pic of my on my RM60 pic at PAL. The Vohland Family ruled.

almost forgot about this rad pic of Mikey (Prairie City)


Mike Sr. made the trickest bikes, ever seen his totally handmade MR50? totally mind blowing.

RexBackman wrote:

Pat Richter = Fortuna Charles Halcomb = Santa Cruz Hey...let me see here from D-36: Kevin Henry, Arnold Plant, Charlie Marshall, Eddie Brown, MIke Marquez (spelling?)...

Pat Richter = Fortuna

Charles Halcomb = Santa Cruz

Hey...let me see here from D-36: Kevin Henry, Arnold Plant, Charlie Marshall, Eddie Brown, MIke Marquez (spelling?), Jon Woo (who died way to soon racing road bikes), Ken Sisler and his CZs, Delno Becker and his CZs, David Wood from Fairfield/Vacaville (?)

Too long ago...

Clutchy wrote:

There were so many guys that hauled ass, Coleman brothers, Gene Mckenzie, Brian Jodry, Jim Lisnewski and of them all a handful could win nationals and...

There were so many guys that hauled ass, Coleman brothers, Gene Mckenzie, Brian Jodry, Jim Lisnewski and of them all a handful could win nationals and Sx's....... Not one top twenty rider any more..

jplough973 wrote:

Does anyone in Nor Cal remember Buck Ford?

GoldenState54 wrote:

https://youtu.be/LUGrWp_wgho

ocscottie wrote:

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life. Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my...

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life.

Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my 81 YZ80, i was only 11 or 12yrs old.

The Menjarahus (sp?) family, Mike was deaf and his older brother also raced, them and the Flores family are the true meaning to the phrase, "you meet the best people at the track"

BobbyM wrote:

u know danny castro?

ocscottie wrote:

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life. Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my...

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life.

Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my 81 YZ80, i was only 11 or 12yrs old.

The Menjarahus (sp?) family, Mike was deaf and his older brother also raced, them and the Flores family are the true meaning to the phrase, "you meet the best people at the track"

BobbyM wrote:

u know danny castro?

motoxxx599 wrote:

Does anyone in Norcal know Jared Fisher?

ocscottie wrote:

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life. Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my...

All this reminiscing is about to bring a tear to my eye...best times of my life.

Tony Flores dad taught me to split cases on my 81 YZ80, i was only 11 or 12yrs old.

The Menjarahus (sp?) family, Mike was deaf and his older brother also raced, them and the Flores family are the true meaning to the phrase, "you meet the best people at the track"

BobbyM wrote:

u know danny castro?

Factoryphoto wrote:

I know Danny Castro well just rode with him last Friday great guy and still goes good. Sondra Eric McKenna is still at it and is...

I know Danny Castro well just rode with him last Friday great guy and still goes good.
Sondra Eric McKenna is still at it and is probably the fastest 50+ guy around he is in incredible shape and can run with most pros. Another great guy and very fast still is Dave coupe he's unreal .
I see tallon around mostly with his son riding and racing and Tyson coaches some fast kids and us older guys also he's a great riding coach and he maybe a big guy now but he can still hop right into the vet pro class and lay wood when he wants.

slipdog wrote:

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see...

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see many rider coming out of Nor-Cal in recent years is because the quality of the tracks we have don't support top level racers. The only places to practice are organized ride days at the local tracks and the problem with that is they never get rough. There was a time where everyone knew of a few riding spots to go to and the more they got ridden on the rougher and more technical they got. There were no tractors, no water trucks, you just unloaded and pounded laps or worked on technique. Thanks to urban sprawl those places dried up and now we're left with butter smooth tracks that anyone can go fast on if they just have the sack to twist the throttle.

I understand that the track promoters can't build super rough pro caliber tracks because their business is dictated by the customer base which is mostly the average joe, but I think you would have a hard time raising an olympic skier if all your training was done on the bunny slopes. It is not my intention to bash on any one racetrack or promoter it's just my take on part of the reason Nor-Cal dosen't produce talent like it use to.

Clutchy wrote:

how many divisions do they run now a days....?

Clutchy wrote:

there's are big part of the problem all on it's own......

slipdog wrote:

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see...

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see many rider coming out of Nor-Cal in recent years is because the quality of the tracks we have don't support top level racers. The only places to practice are organized ride days at the local tracks and the problem with that is they never get rough. There was a time where everyone knew of a few riding spots to go to and the more they got ridden on the rougher and more technical they got. There were no tractors, no water trucks, you just unloaded and pounded laps or worked on technique. Thanks to urban sprawl those places dried up and now we're left with butter smooth tracks that anyone can go fast on if they just have the sack to twist the throttle.

I understand that the track promoters can't build super rough pro caliber tracks because their business is dictated by the customer base which is mostly the average joe, but I think you would have a hard time raising an olympic skier if all your training was done on the bunny slopes. It is not my intention to bash on any one racetrack or promoter it's just my take on part of the reason Nor-Cal dosen't produce talent like it use to.

WORCSRacer wrote:

IMO Nor-Cal MX went to hell in a hand basket when AMP and CMA became the dominant promoters. It just blows to go to a race...

IMO Nor-Cal MX went to hell in a hand basket when AMP and CMA became the dominant promoters. It just blows to go to a race shell out nearly a hundred bucks, sit around all day and then only get four or five lap motos. Add in the advent of practice days and presto no more racing scene...


I just wish someone would put on REM style races up here.

slipdog wrote:

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see...

Now that I'm finished in the shop I want to address the orignal topic a little. I think part of the reason that you don't see many rider coming out of Nor-Cal in recent years is because the quality of the tracks we have don't support top level racers. The only places to practice are organized ride days at the local tracks and the problem with that is they never get rough. There was a time where everyone knew of a few riding spots to go to and the more they got ridden on the rougher and more technical they got. There were no tractors, no water trucks, you just unloaded and pounded laps or worked on technique. Thanks to urban sprawl those places dried up and now we're left with butter smooth tracks that anyone can go fast on if they just have the sack to twist the throttle.

I understand that the track promoters can't build super rough pro caliber tracks because their business is dictated by the customer base which is mostly the average joe, but I think you would have a hard time raising an olympic skier if all your training was done on the bunny slopes. It is not my intention to bash on any one racetrack or promoter it's just my take on part of the reason Nor-Cal dosen't produce talent like it use to.

WORCSRacer wrote:

IMO Nor-Cal MX went to hell in a hand basket when AMP and CMA became the dominant promoters. It just blows to go to a race...

IMO Nor-Cal MX went to hell in a hand basket when AMP and CMA became the dominant promoters. It just blows to go to a race shell out nearly a hundred bucks, sit around all day and then only get four or five lap motos. Add in the advent of practice days and presto no more racing scene...


I just wish someone would put on REM style races up here.

slipdog wrote:

I agree! I'm a much better at talking than typing so it would take me too long to put it all down in one post. It...

I agree! I'm a much better at talking than typing so it would take me too long to put it all down in one post.

It started in the 90's when GFI popped up to compete with CMC and they split up into north and south, then CMA, AMP, Estreetmx, etc... The competition at any one race is so watered down you never see a full gate of all the best riders. Back in the day the Golden State Series raced one week up north and one week down south and everyone was there racing every weekend. It didn't matter what class, the gates were full and you really were going to "race with the best" and that's how you get better.

Also, what happened to the mini expert class??? It dosen't exist anymore. WTF!

Clutchy wrote:

there's are big part of the problem all on it's own......

Sondy132001 wrote:

Like Worcs said, Practice has killed motocross, plain and simple, yeah the bikes are costly etc but people practice so much that when it comes to...

Like Worcs said, Practice has killed motocross, plain and simple, yeah the bikes are costly etc but people practice so much that when it comes to racing they don't. They complain that they can spend $25 to practice all day and more to race and get hardly any laps, or complain that they're at the track all day, come on have you looked around at the races ?? no one is spending 8 hours at the track like the good ol days, maybe 2-5 at the max...

S

Clutchy wrote:

there's are big part of the problem all on it's own......

Sondy132001 wrote:

Like Worcs said, Practice has killed motocross, plain and simple, yeah the bikes are costly etc but people practice so much that when it comes to...

Like Worcs said, Practice has killed motocross, plain and simple, yeah the bikes are costly etc but people practice so much that when it comes to racing they don't. They complain that they can spend $25 to practice all day and more to race and get hardly any laps, or complain that they're at the track all day, come on have you looked around at the races ?? no one is spending 8 hours at the track like the good ol days, maybe 2-5 at the max...

S

WORCSRacer wrote:

Just my observation but most the people at practice days are running hardly any laps but staying 8 hours... The "problem" with practice days is riders...

Just my observation but most the people at practice days are running hardly any laps but staying 8 hours...

The "problem" with practice days is riders don't really line up and compete. They can ride around and when they get passed or shown up they pull off. Its "ya I meant to do that... bike is all over the place gotta change some clickers...." or "ya dude I just wasn't feeling it that session, I wasn't even trying..." I've heard it all.

I like racing for the aspect of "when the gate drops the bullshit stops". No excuses just race. That type of mentality is sorely lacking today and I think we have practice days and the professional practice rider to thank for it. The stupid 4/5 lap moto format just makes it all that much easier to pass on racing. I can't really say for sure but I don't recall in the past having the proliferation of classes like we have today.

Sondy132001 wrote:

[b]Also, what happened to the mini expert class??? It dosen't exist anymore. WTF![/b] People bitched and whined, didn't want there 9 year old racing with a...

Also, what happened to the mini expert class??? It dosen't exist anymore. WTF!

People bitched and whined, didn't want there 9 year old racing with a 14 year, so the Junior-Expert classes were replaced with age groups, remember that old adage, be careful what you wish for it just may happen ?? Mini Experts poof gone.

S