| October 1, 2023
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
In the Beginning: Sears Point and “Little Fauss and Big Halsy”
By Kent Taylor
There were plenty of “firsts” to celebrate as the AMA’s 1969 Grand National Championship drew nearer to its end in the September 16th issue of Cycle News. The new Sears Point raceway was holding its first major event, and the winning brand, Suzuki, was on top for the very first time at an AMA National. Their win also marked the first victory for a Japanese manufacturer, and they owed it all to road racer Art Baumann, a second-year pro who had also just won his first AMA national road race!
A historical day, to be sure. Yet, it would be the performance of another racer, a bespectacled, soft-spoken mouse of a man that would live on in motorcycle racing lore. His name?
Little Fauss.
Indeed, it would be Fauss, an up-and-coming former mechanic who would become a star this day. With his strong fictional ride at Sears Point, Fauss would forever sever the apron strings of his mama’s boy image, breaking free from the bad influence of his side-burned, ne-er-do-well mentor and establishing his own name on the AMA circuit. Fifty-four years later, motorcyclists of a certain age still quote the unassuming man in a boy’s body: “I was going faster than I ever went in my whole life,” Fauss said. “Then, I fell off.”
A film crew was on hand that day, but not to capture Baumann’s brilliant, dominating victory in the 50-lap, 125-mile National. They missed the Suzuki rider’s skillful demonstration of road racing talent as he pulled away from Harley-Davidson’s Cal Rayborn, often called America’s greatest-ever road racer. Cinematographers also couldn’t have cared less that Yamaha rider Yvon Duhamel, having missed the first two laps of the race as his crew replaced fouled spark plugs in his machine, made an incredible charge to eighth place by the race end. Ron Pierce would eventually finish in the runner-up spot to Baumann, with Harley-Davidson’s Roger Reiman taking third.
Instead, it would be the incredible ride by Fauss that would be immortalized, forever etched in the noggins of motorcycle film geeks. These couch racers credit Fauss and his sneering, fiendish partner, “Big” Halsy Knox, with a fistful of racer’s quotes, including Halsy’s most famous line, which he delivered to Little’s doting, pie-faced mama: “Cycles,” the cocksure Knox said, “is a mean toy, lady.”
True, there were other amazing moments on that hot (105-degree trackside) day at Sears Point. It was a different world of motorcycle racing in 1969, as factory-sponsored riders were allowed to jump from one brand to another. In the weekend’s 250cc race, Baumann switched to a Kawasaki for a third-place finish behind the Yamahas of Pierce and Duhamel. In sixth place in that same race was another Kawasaki rider—Harley-Davidson’s Cal Rayborn!
Imagine Eli Tomac parking his Yamaha after the first moto and saddling up a KTM for the second race!
In the 50-mile amateur event, Jim Dunn, also on a Suzuki, topped Triumph rider Don Castro, who was riding in his first road race. Both riders would go on to have successful careers as Experts, with Castro winning the 250 race at Daytona as a member of Team Yamaha in 1974.
1969 had brought many other memorable moments. A few weeks before Sears Point, 350,000 free-loving rockers had gathered at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in upstate New York for a concert called Woodstock. Around that same time, followers of a frustrated, out-of-work musician named Charles Manson went on a California killing spree. In 1969, a man walked on the moon. Sesame Street was born.
In a year of such momentous events, is it possible to overestimate the significance of Fauss’ ride that day at Sears Point? What if Big Halsy’s bike hadn’t broken down during the race, leaving the handsome hunk helpless on the side of the track, forced to listen as the track announcer pierced his ego with updates on his former protege’s progress through the pack? What if Seally Fauss, seeing the bad influence that Big Halsy was inflicting on his impressionable son, had put his foot down and sent “sideburns” on his way, long before the boy was corrupted?
Few remember that the talented Art Baumann won his very first AMA road race that day at Sears Point. Meanwhile, motorcyclists everywhere can still quote their favorite lines from Little Fauss and Big Halsy. Somehow, that doesn’t seem right.
Cycles…is a mean toy, lady. CN