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Thanks TG for sharing vid.
Nothing like being on the edge of the track then.
I think nostalgia is driving some comments on this thread. For every Sears Point there was a Rabbit Run (Plano Tx) that was flat and unremarkable back then.
If you took the banners and fencing off of Red Bud and Budds Creek, and didn't disk it up you'd have comparable tracks right in front of you. But dust isn't anything anybody wants (riders or spectators). Thinking about it Colorado, Washogal, Steel City are all epic layouts, we just become so accustomed to them we lose sight of how bitchin' they are, IMHO.
But, no doubt Sears was special, wonder how they kept the dust down that day, it had to have been raining a bunch in the weeks prior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQyI8jt_Lag&feature=BFa&list=ULrQyI8jt_L…
Here's the full clip of Brad Lackey and Bob Hannah dicing, then coming together...That track was rough for both of them...
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv8O2xHB-Ak
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The Guy in grey and the guy with the pit board/white hat are my buddies.
Mosier had a great ride that day, too, won the first moto with Hannahe second; pretty sure Lackey took the overall winning the second.
The off cambers were brutal because the grass was all worn off and sat dry for the week. But it was still a great time and
one of my favorite tracks to race or on off weekends ride on.
Sorry about the bump but that FTE PIC simply kicks ass and so did Sears Point. I loved that track and felt unbeatable there.
What Bobby said 👆FTE has some great work.
No need to apologize. Some of us have never seen these pics.
Very cool stuff.
I appreciate the kind words from my old friends Kenny and Bob on this rekindled.
Truth be told I was a dumb kid lucky enough not to throw out his old slides and negatives. I shot my first time when I was 13 or 14 in 71 and pretty much made all the dumb mistakes you get without guidance, and I did not have very fast gear (all manual focus back then). I never was credentialed to shoot, and I last shot a pro race in 79. Had to turn to trying to prepare for an adult future at that point. Grateful to Pat Schutte and then DC for getting me back out to shoot again in 2002 until I had to step away again after realizing I no longer physically could make a full race day trucking around the track at a national. Hangtown 2019 was my last shoot; I miss it a lot. Many thanks to the different shooters who were generous and kind to me when I got back out there in 02, especially Kardy, but GuyB, Simon and Paul Buckley were always generous to me, Steve Cox as well, and TFS (who when I first showed up with an old manual focus Nikon F3 asked it "those are still legal" LOL).
Sears was a fun, fun track to shoot.
I think the pic bounced up again recently because I had reworked the drum scan a few years ago when new PS tools helped refine out some of the flaws.
I'm glad that today's top racers can make enough money to retire on, etc., but I really wish that the bike development were still in that 1977-1980 timeframe and that the tracks had stayed relatively at that level also. The tracks may look easy to folks who have always had the technology of the last 20 years or so, but they were harder than crap on the old bikes of yesteryear. I'd rather see the '77 race pictured above than just about any National of the last 2-3 decades.
I think the fact is that it took them awhile to match the performance of shocks and forks to the potential of long travel suspension, and things took off after that when stuff got dialed in and they could really cut it loose and the tracks adapted. When you watch old footage even the factory bikes are pogoing a lot. I think they were getting a lot of travel, but not yet perfected.
Not that modern bikes couldn't navigate a natural track, but it probably would develop differently, even hard pack. If I recall, this was Dick Mann's righteous cause when people started pushing AHRMA to run long travel bikes on vintage tracks used by bikes not modified for long travel, and respect to the legend, but it was controversial for a bit until it was clear that events with more classes were necessary to stay viable.
At least that's what I recall, but it may be an AI level hallucination, LOL.
Man this brings back memories. Thank you.
Team Green help my memory.
Homer Worth ran Huron Cycle Park(other than being a huge rancher) Tim and Rick Worth cut a track on a friends land and the race was held.
I am slipping the name of the land owner(mouren)but his son had a GTO Judge in high school.
I want to say 82??
we made a few bucks towing stuck cars out of the mud.
That really brings back the memories. I think I might have been there in '77, for sure I was there in 78. That was an amazing and memorable track. Years later when I was road racing there I tried to remember where the track was and all I could remember was up the hills in back of turn 4 and the Carousel. Anyone remember where it was? And didn't it cross the pavement once?
Pit Row
Yep, RIP Gaylon Mosier. Two years in a row when I went up to Unadilla as a kid I got to meet him and chatted with him. When you're a young guy and a pro remembers you the next year that's a big deal. This is what I found when I showed up to Unadilla and went over to find his pit area.
Sick pictures FTE. With that picture you could almost feel the temperature in the air.
I raced Sears at a local race in 81 and 84. Quite a different skill to ride a natural grass track than a disc’d track. I wasn’t very good there but it was as exciting knowing I was going over the same grounds as the top 1970 pros. And it brought out all the racers so it was cool to be in larger classes than usual.
TheTrans AMA/National/local race track was at the north part of the facility just off the big 180 at the far end of the road course. I don't recall them ever allowing the dirt track to go over the road course for a professional or local event, but it was used for the pro pits. You can sort of see the lay out in the upper left background of this pic, which is dropping down a section of the 76 track that ran in a different direction one the same plot that where the sited the off camber section in the other pic in 77. The terrain immediately around the road course now is a lot different and populated with stands it seems to up capacity for the big NASCAR and drag events (I expect permitting may limit dates as well). There was plenty of property up top and on the other side of the hills to make yourself a fun track.
Gaylon won a moto that day with the Hurricane nipping his heels! (Brad won the other and I think took the overall). Note that is Bengt Aberg by the checkered flag on his HLA Yamaha TT500.
That’s some pretty fast company
The Bobby trolling and bashing here aside, Bob was really good, just really breaking out he lost his leg. I personally think he was faster than Donnie Cantaloupi, and that Bob would have been a solid pro in the early 80s with top five championship potential. Believe he finish second one moto in 250 support at Sears in 78 besting a lot of top guys. Hard to beat how thick the Socal scene was, but there was a lot of talent hitting local races in the NorCal in the 70s to hone the talent.
I did not know Bob then personally and knew of him only as a NorCal competitor of a pro friend of mine during that era, but was crushed the first time I saw him on crutches. Finally hooked up at a Primm showing in the early 2000s.
FTE Michael you are the best Sir! Zero doubts. Just own it my friend. Pretty classic shit that you captured on old school film brother. Hope to see you soon and enjoy Hangtown this week. Cheers
I was lucky enough to get to a couple of these Sears Point races, and race there a few times as well (the stickiest/crappiest/slickest/ mud on earth). Magoo sending it on the Maico, Roger freaking DeCoster, Bad Brad, Hannah - amazing! And don't forget at 14 years old manipulating your buddies with a drivers license and truck to drive down to the Richmond Ramblers? Mini Bike GP two nights before the Trans Am (Bros Glover on a YZ 80 with a 250 motor in took the win - and I had a 10 year dislike for Hannah for being the ONLY one refusing to sign autographs). I know this will never come back - but damn just for one race - we can dream.
Absolutely. Bobby was a hell of a rider, whose potential never came to be due to the leg injury.
This pic is from the race you spoke of. Bobby (686) finishing 2nd to Magoo and ahead of names like Glover, Reid, Moates, Turner.
Thanks for the props FTE. I loved Sears Point. To go there and watch the pros then race the same venue was awesome. I considered Sears Point and Sandhill Ranch as my home tracks and I really thought I should podium at either the 500 nat or the trans-ama 250 support class. My goals were not met and I didn't land on the box in either event. Close in the 250 support class and if it wasn't for a dnf in the 1st moto I could have put a wheel on MAGOO and the O/A. Danny won the overall with a 6-1. Great memories from that place. We were very lucky to have raced livermore and Sears back then because I think those were actual "real motocross" tracks compared to even the famous mx tracks in Europe and were easily some of the best tracks in the US sans Unadilla.
That’s an awesome pic. I was born in the wrong era.
Post a reply to: Bad ass Sears Point Pic 1977