Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
Believe it or not, high school MX was, at one time, a big deal.
By Kent Taylor
Those bumper stickers may have boldly stated, “We Don’t Care How The Hell They Do It in California,” but truth be told, every ’70s motocross kid pined to be a child of the Golden State. It was something that was especially true if you grew up in the Midwest, in one of those places that Californians lovingly refer to as “flyover states.” Long after kids in the Midwest had been sent off to bed, California’s breezy brats still had two more Pacific Time hours of sunny fun to enjoy. And when the unfortunate Central Time kids were getting up in the early morning darkness, lashing their pack sleds to the team of Alaskan Malamutes before voyaging out in deep snow, beach boys and suntanned girls were still snoozing, getting in two more hours of sleep before they had to wake up for school, where they would likely sit next to Marcia Brady and Laurie Partridge in class.
And speaking of school, kids in the central part of the country attended high schools with everyday names that indicated only the general direction of their location: Northeast High, Central High and South. California kids? Their schools had names that made them sound more like vacation resorts, the kinds of places where you won trips to on The Newlywed Game: Bolsa Grande, La Mirada, San Pedro. Where did these school buses take these kids anyway? Puerto Vallarta?
There was one more thing that Californians had that was making the flyover state kids’ cornfield green with envy: high school motocross! While everyone else was drawing obtuse circles and learning why General Custer and the 29th Infantry stormed the Bastille, California kids were probably being taught about the importance of weighting the outside peg and writing comparative essays about Roger DeCoster versus Joel Robert.
There was even a championship series, with Cycle News covering the 1974 Yamaha California State High School MX Championships in the December 17th issue. The event was held at the famous Saddleback Park, and the results section includes some future heavy names in the sport, including Broc Glover, Tommy Croft, Jeff Jennings and Warren Reid.
“It operated a lot like every other high school sport,” said Reid, who was victorious that day in the 125 Expert class. We had a sponsor, Mr. Dembow, a shop teacher who loved to ride. There were even cheerleaders, I believe, though I think they just sat in the bleachers.”
“The entry list of 325 riders,” according to CN, “represented the survivors of qualifying events run by the Scholastic Association of Motorsport at tracks such as Orange County Raceway, Corona Raceway, Carlsbad Raceway and Ascot Park. In addition, there was a group of about 50 entries from Northern California filling out the list. These qualifiers made it out of around 15,000 riders who competed in the fall program.”
That was no misprint. 15,000 entries. California is a big state, but that’s a number that might surprise many in today’s MX community.
“You have to remember,” Reid says, “that in the 1970s, motocross, especially in SoCal, was huge. We would drive through the different subdivisions and on every street, you would see at least one dirt bike on a driveway.”
The event brought out a large number of spectators, with Cycle News writing that the High School MX crowd surpassed that of the Trans-AMA event, which was held the next day. The racing was competitive, with CN noting the bar-banging 125 Junior race: Future MX Fox-sponsored rider Tony Wanket from Encinitas High “was locked in a spirited battle with Jed Mendez of Laguna Beach all through the race. Twice in the final lap, Mendez appeared to have an inside line, but Wanket managed to hold him off by shutting the door on the final turn to take the win.”
Other good performances were turned in by several future factory stars. Scott Gillman was a Team Suzuki rider in 1979 and a many times Powerboat Racing Champion, but on this day, he captured the 250 Junior class victory on his Yamaha. Another future member of Team Suzuki, Jeff Jennings, finished third in the 250 Senior class, while Tommy Croft, who would ride most notably as Marty Smith’s teammate at Honda, finished second overall in the 125 Senior class. Another rider with a runner-up finish was Rick Asch, who would go on to serve as mechanic for Team Kawasaki’s Gaylon Mosier.
“Even when he was a mechanic,” Reid says, “Rick was still almost as fast as Gaylon!”
“But the biggest winner of the day,” reported CN, “was probably Steve McFarland, who, as winner of the 250 Expert race was presented a new Suzuki TM250 by one of the main prize sponsors of the event, Buco helmets.
“Those TMs were a pile,” Reid laughs. “He probably wanted to give it back!
“This was a group of guys that had grown up riding together. We rode minibikes and XR75s in the vacant fields in the area of Little Saigon. There were a lot of talented kids, like Doug Nicol, who was the fastest, most naturally talented rider I’ve ever seen. My good friend Ty Richie, who is no longer with us, was another great rider in the high school series. He was a good CMC expert racer, too.”
“It was a very competitive time,” Reid adds, “and lot of great riders came out of that area. It was this kind of competition that helps explain why America rose up to eventually dominate the world MX scene by the early 1980s. There were a lot of future champions who raced in the High School Motocross series. As I look back, it was just really special that the school system noticed us, saw what we were doing and wanted to support our sport.”CN
Click here to read the Archives Column in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
Subscribe to six decades of Cycle News Archive issues
