| April 5, 2022
The Carson Center in Southern California once again hosted the 77th Trailblazers dinner meeting and award banquet, on April 2.
By Richard T. Haight | Photos by Mitch Friedman
The Trailblazers is one of the oldest AMA sanctioned clubs, and with so many national and world champions from California, many of them are also Trailblazers. In an effort to preserve a history of motorcycle racing in all forms, they honor not just famous or well-known racers, but those who make motorcycling and racing possible, from industry leaders to team managers, tuners, sponsors and those who have made history or contributed to motorcycling in a significant way.
The Trailblazers Hall of Fame Award winners this year included legendary Yamaha race team manager Kenny Clark (posthumous); Sue Fish, the first woman to earn an AMA Professional Racing license; Donnie Hansen, a multiple Supercross and motocross champion and member of the victorious American team that won both the Trophee Des Nations and Motocross Des Nations; Reg Pridmore, multi-time AMA Superbike Champion and sidecar racer; Sel Narayana, who helped bring KTM to national prominence; and Tom Seymour, founder of Saddleman, who, before he retired, went out of his way over many years to promote motorcycling and sponsor so many and up-and-coming riders.
The Earl and Lucille Flanders Lifetime Achievement Award went to Norm Bigelow, who, over the years at Kawasaki, was responsible for mentoring and assisting so many Kawasaki riders both on the dirt and road racetracks. Bigelow is also almost entirely responsible for saving so many historic and significant Kawasaki race bikes from the “crusher,” building and continuing to curate the Kawasaki Heritage Museum where many of those bikes reside.
After a great dinner, the final award of the night, the Dick Hammer Award, for “Drive, Determination and Desire” went to Northern California’s own Mert Lawwill, AMA National number-one in 1969, and one of the stars of the first and finest major movie about motorcycling, Bruce Brown’s On Any Sunday. After retiring from active racing, Lawwill didn’t sit on his laurels. Mert was asked by Chris Draayer, an ex-racer who lost a hand in a racing accident to make an artificial hand that would allow him to continue racing and riding. Lawwill, who is an engineering genius in his own right, did it. Along the way, he became a pioneering manufacturer of artificial hands that allow amputees to ride motorcycles and mountain bikes, starting his own business, Mert’s Hands. Today, Lawwill continues to develop innovative products to assist those amputees with unique problems, and is the inventor and designer of suspension systems for mountain bikes that have been adopted by several bicycle manufacturers.CN