Throwback Thursday: Sacto Mile ’69!
Larry Lawrence | January 19, 2017
Cycle News Photo Collection
In this week’s Throwback, we see one of the final AMA Grand Nationals held at the old State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. A massive crowd filed in to watch the 1969 Sacramento Mile. This was the old track that held its last national in 1970, before the fairgrounds, and the Mile, moved out to its present-day location at the Cal Expo.
The track pictured here is the same one that first hosted a national motorcycle race over 100 years ago, when Bob Perry rode an Excelsior to the FAM 5-Mile National Championship in 1914. The track where later legends like Carroll Resweber, Joe Leonard, Bart Markel and Gary Nixon were all victorious.
This shot shows Gene Romero leading the pack into the first turn in front of a packed grandstands. Cal Rayborn (25), Jody Nicholas (58), Dick Mann (2), Dusty Coppage (32), Bart Markel (4) and the rest of the field give chase.
Chuck Palmgren took the national victory that day on a Triumph. Together with his brother Larry, the Palmgrens won three of the four AMA Grand National Miles that season.
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