| April 5, 2023
Trailblazers Motorcycle Club held its 78th Annual Banquet at the Carson Center in Carson, California, April 1, 2023.
Story and Photos by Mitch Friedman
There were many new faces this year, including Rita Gregory of JT Racing fame, motocross racer Doug Dubach, America’s first World Road Race Champion Steve Baker (1977 Formula 750) and speedway rider Steve Lucero.
The popular bike show awards kicked things off, as usual. The award winners were Bill Rychlik (Tom White Competition Award), Dennis Burkman (Spirit Award), Chris Mistretta (People’s Choice Award) and Pat Knoop (Best of Show).
The Earl and Lucile Flanders Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Hope England for the lifelong support she and her late husband, Don, gave back to motorcycling, the riders and companies. The couple promoted the very first Elsinore Grand Prix in 1968 and then opened Huntington Beach Cycle Park that same year. The facility featured a TT track, MX track, and at the suggestion of Rick Woods, a speedway track. Larry Huffman began his announcing career there. Hope said during her acceptance speech Saturday night, they saw an ad in Cycle News for a “dormant Adelanto track,” and purchased the land in 1971. They soon opened 395 Cycle Park. In 1976, the England’s hosted the first Adelanto Grand Prix, which attracted approximately 900 racers and more than 5000 spectators over the two-day event.
Later in the evening, the Trailblazers inducted six new Hall of Fame members: Dave Hanson, Eric Jensen, Danny LaPorte, Shawn McConnell, Ron Pierce and Ed Schiedler.
Hansen is best known for winning the Houston Astrodome TT in 1974, where the little-known D-36 racer from Northern California beat out Kenny Roberts for the win and then finished second in the following day’s short track.
Eric Jensen is the Eric in “Eric’s Motorcycle Company,” a well-known motorcycle establishment in the Southern California area. Jensen was an accomplished motorcycle racer, as well. He earned bronze, silver and gold medals in the ISDT, not to mention, he added, taking a DNF “rounded out” his ISDE achievements.
Danny LaPorte won the 250cc Motocross World Championship in his first attempt in 1982. A year earlier, LaPorte was a member of the winning U.S. team at the Motocross (500cc) and Trophee (250cc) des Nations. This was also the first year that Team USA had ever won the prestigious race. LaPorte went on to become an accomplished off-road racer.
Shawn McConnell is an expert speedway racer who is still racing after 49 years on the circuit.
Ron Pierce started out racing flat track and later became a factory-backed road racer with Yamaha in 1969. In 1979 he led a Yoshimura Suzuki 1-2-3 sweep in the 100-mile Superbike race at Daytona, and then finished second in the Daytona 200 the following day.
Ed Scheidler was recognized for his days as a factory race tuner for Yamaha motocross stars Tim Hart, Pierre Karsmakers, Broc Glover and many others. Yamaha later made him Supervisor of Racing, helping to develop the company’s YZ motocross line and most famously, the first YZ-F four-stroke. He retired in 2002 after 30 years with the company.
The evening’s grand finale was Brad Lackey given the Dick Hammer Award, the ‘Blazer’s most prestigious award which is chosen by its board members. The award embolizes the “Drive, Determination and Desire” to win, like Dick Hammer did. Lackey decided in the early ’70s that he wanted to be World Motocross Champion in the premier class. He finally accomplished that goal a decade later when he won the 1982 500cc Motocross World Championship, which was also a first for an American. Along the way, he rode for several different factory teams, including CZ, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, Honda and finally Suzuki, on which he won the title. He retired from professional racing after winning the title. Though he did race one time in 1983 at the Carlsbad U.S. GP, just so he could wear the number-one plate at least once. He rode a nearly stock Yamaha YZ490 to two top-five moto finishes.
Lackey, the award’s first motocross recipient in its 23-year history, accepted the special perpetual trophy while several members of his family, including his wife Lori, looked on.