Posts
16
Joined
1/11/2009
Location
Thornville, OH, USA
Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 10:29am
I'm new here. Raced MX for quite a few years in District 11, ended living just 5 miles from Honda Hills and became good friends with Flat-Track Champion and track owner, Dick Klamforth. He even started putting me to work prepping the track the day before a race. I raced the Vet class for a number of years too, usually on a 500cc Honda.
My trivia question is this;
We had a rider from my home area (Marietta, Ohio) who many considered another Mike Hartwig. Super smooth and fast. In 1980, he went on the National circuit out of his own pocket and his buddies van (who was his mechanic), riding a 490 Maico. He was an excellent mud rider and he proved how good by winning both moto's at Red Bud that year. His feat was so incredible that Jody Weisel will still find a way to mention it in Jody's Box. If you were racing in 1980, you may know who this rider is.
Maico never offered this rider an ounce of support after this win or after he finished 8th in the 500cc National standings at the end of the year.
In 1984, I'm waiting in the staging area to go down to the gate for practice at Honda Hills. A rider on a 490 Maico comes rolling up beside me, looks over at me with that big grin. It was him......and he royally kicked our cans in the first moto. He lapped me and I was running in the top 5.....a 20 minute moto, he lapped up to 2nd. We had become so happy to race on weekends, go home unscathed and be at work on Monday, we had forgotten what going fast meant to having real fun. Several races later and lots of practice time, I was able to keep this rider in sight and so were several others and we were having a blast. Our lap times at Honda Hills rivalled the 250 A class by this time and Dick was more than happy to accomodate us. The Vet Class, as we were known, became the class to watch. My wife would tell me things she was hearing while sitting in the bleachers at the top of the "hill"...all good! We owed it all to this rider. He raced with us for several seasons but then got serious with his older brother starting their own MX track and hare scrambles course, east of Marietta, Ohio. A red clay nightmare in February and March when riding hare scrambles, but worth it just to see him and joke around. Hope you know the answer!!!
My trivia question is this;
We had a rider from my home area (Marietta, Ohio) who many considered another Mike Hartwig. Super smooth and fast. In 1980, he went on the National circuit out of his own pocket and his buddies van (who was his mechanic), riding a 490 Maico. He was an excellent mud rider and he proved how good by winning both moto's at Red Bud that year. His feat was so incredible that Jody Weisel will still find a way to mention it in Jody's Box. If you were racing in 1980, you may know who this rider is.
Maico never offered this rider an ounce of support after this win or after he finished 8th in the 500cc National standings at the end of the year.
In 1984, I'm waiting in the staging area to go down to the gate for practice at Honda Hills. A rider on a 490 Maico comes rolling up beside me, looks over at me with that big grin. It was him......and he royally kicked our cans in the first moto. He lapped me and I was running in the top 5.....a 20 minute moto, he lapped up to 2nd. We had become so happy to race on weekends, go home unscathed and be at work on Monday, we had forgotten what going fast meant to having real fun. Several races later and lots of practice time, I was able to keep this rider in sight and so were several others and we were having a blast. Our lap times at Honda Hills rivalled the 250 A class by this time and Dick was more than happy to accomodate us. The Vet Class, as we were known, became the class to watch. My wife would tell me things she was hearing while sitting in the bleachers at the top of the "hill"...all good! We owed it all to this rider. He raced with us for several seasons but then got serious with his older brother starting their own MX track and hare scrambles course, east of Marietta, Ohio. A red clay nightmare in February and March when riding hare scrambles, but worth it just to see him and joke around. Hope you know the answer!!!
We had a rider in the Vet class in the 80's/90's that could be a real doink. When lapping him, he'd do all he could to get in your way...and then apologize after the moto. One day at Honda Hills, he braked checked Larry Evener going into the left-hand 1st turn at the start. I was able to roll underneath the carnage and continued on. I guess Larry got run over and couldn't continue. Denny saw it too and after the moto, we both went over to Larry's pit to see how he was doing. While helping him straighten his bent handlebar, here comes the "brake checker" and Larry turned to me and said "get him away from me". So I met the guy not knowing Denny was behind me...I was going to deck him and say this is from Larry, but before I could, Denny came around and said to the guy, "if you want to pull off that kinda crap, you need to sign-up for the Schoolboy class". His jaw dropped and I thought he was going to start crying. Denny had alot of respect from us and deserved every bit of it, even from the doink's!
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#33...Can you say "Band wagon" ?
Welcome #33
Noob, noobie, or Newb, is short for new guy.
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