San Diego Desert Racing 1972

No, not me. I was number 308

It was 110° today here in my little corner of Arizona, not a fit day for man nor beast to be out and about so I spent the day messing around at the computer trying to wrestle some new video software into submission. It was a draw.

I have been putting together videos from old Super 8 footage I took way back when and did another video today from a desert race in 1972. No idea about the location of the race anymore except that it's east of Sandy Eggo, CA in the desert, probably near the Plaster City area.

Since the race was put on by the club I belonged to, the Brush Barons M/C, I did not race that day but worked "home check" for race. Home check was the place back at the start / finish line where riders would get a colored marker stripe on their helmet card as proof they were staying on course. Out on the course there were other check points manned by less lucky club members. I recall a guy riding in slowly at the end of the race on an AJS scrambler (2-stroke kind) with his front wheel looking like a pretzel. The final climb up a powder dust hill about did him in. Poor guy was exhausted, his bike was broken, his wife and kid looked on in concern and when he rode over to his truck the brakes on the bike didn't work or maybe he didn't work anymore and he rode into the front fender of his own truck and landed spread eagle on the hood. Ah memories!

I was putting together the bits and pieces for the titles in the video and wanted to use a still shot of some sort. Rather than keep using ones of me (I don't have that many) I decided to grab a frame from the video. Saw a fellow with a nice low number on a white "expert" number plate and thought "Ah ha!" But then I decided to use some mid-pack racer like me. The fast guys always get their pictures used for stuff. Slow guys only get picked if we crash spectacularly (I have some experience with that). So the guy above, Husqvarna rider No. 323 with a red and white novice plate, got the honors.

When I look through the old 8mm movies I shot I know from experience now that the bikes were pretty rough and the course conditions often less than unsafe. But if I could spin the clock back I'd do it all again. It was a fine time to be a racer.

Here's the next video on YouTube:




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