Posts
150
Joined
6/14/2007
Location
corona, CA, USA
Edited Date/Time
3/29/2018 8:55am
just wondering how many michigan riders are still out there in moto land ? i grew up in troy,
14 mile and i75. we had alot of practice tracks all around there, i raced from 72 til 79. some
of the tracks i remember are-
baja acres
millington
brown city
portland
midland
brighton
irish hills ?
rockford
how about you guy's ?
14 mile and i75. we had alot of practice tracks all around there, i raced from 72 til 79. some
of the tracks i remember are-
baja acres
millington
brown city
portland
midland
brighton
irish hills ?
rockford
how about you guy's ?
Bulldog-assuming this is what you consider Millington (Picture in avatar is from here 1987)
Mt. Clemens Speedway-Don't think they started til late 70's ?
Milan-Night track
S & A Raceway-Marlette Also started late 70's early 80's ? Goes by Freelin Mx now
Delta- Night track in Toledo area
Log Road MX
Red Bud of course
Must be some more but all can come up with for now.
Not going to find any practice tracks or open ground in Troy these days or anywhere in SE Michigan for that matter. Used to be able to ride from the house to any number of tracks in that era. Wow have things changed. If by chance you rode Yamaha's you must have been familiar with Dynamic Cycle as it would have been right down the street from you.
By the way...Welcome to Vital and as an oldschool member of the Michigan Mafia I will let you slide on the noob hazing.
thankjs for letting me slide on the noob hazing tho !!!!
Since you rode Suzukis...Remember the dudes from Champion that rode Suzi's and Maicos in your era? Hilgendorf, Hruska, etc. Also Denny Bentley and Danny Wallace that used to ride out of Holders Suzuki I think. Those guys were all fast. Especially Bentley, sure thought he would have gone on to be one of the great ones. Certainly one of Michigan's best.
Recently spoke with Mike from Dynamic Cycle. He's been tracking down some of the former riders to gather some material for an article about the shop to appear in Racer X sometime in the near future.
Iron Mustangs was in Brighton Twp. It is now a Home Depot
White Birch, later Stanton is gone and closed
Mt Clemens was off of I-94 closed.
Midland, Polka Dots still has a race or two
Baja is huge
Portland still races
Red Bud yes
Log Road
Alpena...
Oscoda on the airbase in the 70's!
Was Holders Suzuki Team General at one time? How about Team Dynamic, Foltz Yamaha, or K&W out in Utica.
Holder
Bentley
Crawford
Budzin
Bigelows
Alan King
Eddie Warren
Brad Lowe
Tom Holsher
Art Black
Ah the memories
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
80cc Mini Class rider 1974, 75, 76, 77 in District 14. I grew up in Lk George, MI, after we moved from Bay City in 73.
Stanton and Polka Dots were my home tracks. Polka Dots, little closer to home.
Best rider(not in my class) and my idol back when I was 11, 12yrs old, was Leonard Cheisia(forgot the correct spelling).
On RM125's(and TM125's in 74?), I can still hear his bike scream today. Tall and lanky, he would just have the throttle pinned and wouldn't let off.
I have pictures and all sorts of stuff from that era. I would love to exchange and share!
Tamblings
Chezas
Hillgindorf
Lamps
Hinkles
Walker
Wilkins
Bowens
Haring
Mack
dooley hills mx near pierson,mi closed after 78 season.
egypt valley mx near cannonsburgh,mi closed after 77 season.
freedom acres mx near luther,mi closed late 70's also.
garfield inter county mx near newaygo,mi changed to big air in 1995,still open.
iron mustangs closed end of 95 or 96 season.
mt.clemens[brown city] closed late 80's.
portland,polka dots,battle creek,bull dogs,dutch,cadillac,baja,bulldogs,frelin[S&A comp.]log road,red bud- all old tracks still open.
back in the day on the east side of state there were about 6 tracks within 1/2 hour including rolling hills,bulldogs,baja,browncity,S&A and proving grounds near davison/flint.
Calvin Travis (lightning fast Bultaco then Yamaha), he usually won at Alpena and Oscoda races.
Randy Hackett,
Jack Mayor (first name?),
Gary Lutes the owner/promoter of Dirt Inc. with his first track by the air base at the old bombing range. Whooped out sand track. Then he made a track in Mikado.
Ted Foltz
Bud Randolph's son, (from Bud's Suzuki in Oscoda)
Is the Alpena track still in the same location as in the early '70's?
I grew up in the Tawas's and my first races were on these tracks. Once I moved down state, the tracks seemed much better or more interesting.
Thanks for the memories.
Matt Hilgendorf
Ken Bump
Just a few more.
My dad took me to an outdoor supercross track right on M53 S&A raceway?? (south of Bay city) forget the name of the place (no flag-men) but there were 3 other riders there that day and one was a quad but one of them to our surprise was Team Yamaha rider Kieth Bowen. It was the first time I saw someone fast up close. The place closed a few months later after we heard a quad and a bike had a head-on collision over a jump and someone got pretty hurt.
Went on to National championship in flat track
Then NASCAR crew chief
How about Eaton Rapids?
Pit Row
Possibly the first big (rear) wheel 80.
Riding style way ahead of his time.
His dad always built killer bikes like the California guys.
It will be a sit-down banquet and it will be at Jeff Stanton's event facility in his hometown of Sherwood, MI. (www.theoldstonebarn.com). It was Drex Akin's idea and he got some other Team Dynamic folks (Mike Konners, Jeff Stanton, Rusty Hibbs and Steve Ellis) on board, and it's shaping up to be a real fun event and a chance to renew old friendships and make some new ones. It’s not just for Team Dynamic riders. Anybody Who had anything to do with, or any interest in, the Michigan motocross scene back in the 70’s or 80’s is welcome. Right now, we're planning to have most of the ground floor of the "Old Stone Barn" be a display of Rusty Hibbs’ outstanding bikes and memorabilia, and the second floor will be set up banquet-style centered around a "Tonight Show" setup where we'll have various folks take turns as MC with various guests and bench-racing topics, with maybe a few old action movies from the old tracks back in the day up on the big screen TV. Tickets will be $30 per adult and $15 per kids 12 & under. We aren't looking to restart Team Dynamic or make a profit on this event, -just cover our costs. Reservations will be required. Cut-off date to order tickets is October 15th. Go to www.DutchSportParkMX.com for more info.
This is the 1st time an event like this has been attempted and may be the only time. Don’t miss out. It should be a great time even without you, but even better WITH you. You don’t want to have to hear about how much of a good time you missed. See you all on Oct. 28.
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