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An Unbelievable Race
By Kent Taylor
Everyone knows Jim Rice for his crash at the Sacramento Mile in 1970, which was documented in the movie On Any Sunday, but he should really be known for what happened two years later.
Last week, broken collarbones and motorsports became almost laughably linked when NASCAR Xfinity driver Connor Zilisch suffered a clavicle fracture while attempting to celebrate his victory at Watkins Glen International Raceway. “Almost” is the correct adverb here to modify the adverb “laughably,” because Zilisch’s injury required extensive surgery and puts the series points leader in a tenuous position for the remainder of the season. Zilisch has maintained a sense of humor about the fall, which occurred while he was attempting to exit his race car in victory lane.
Real race fans will rank this one as the second-most famous broken collarbone in racing history. And it will be a quite distant runner-up to the legendary injury suffered by Jim Rice, which occurred during the 1972 San Jose dirt track mile.
Jim Rice was already famous for another dirt track crash, a violent get-off at the Sacramento Mile in 1970. Film director Bruce Brown captured the incident while filming On Any Sunday. This cinematic gem has forever won a place in the hearts of motorcycling enthusiasts, and Rice’s heroic emergence from the ambulance to return to his steed and finish the race is one of the movie’s most unforgettable sequences.
Two years later, Rice’s gunfighter spirit was back on display at San Jose, which had become one of the premier events on the AMA’s Grand National circuit. Even magazines that paid little attention to dirt track racing would cover the San Jose mile. Cycle News was there (as always) and writer John Bethea witnessed a performance so mind-boggling that he would refer to it as “unduplicated…greater than any this reporter has ever seen.”
The 1972 season presented race fans with some of the best competition this sport had ever witnessed. Champions like Dick Mann, Gene Romero and Mert Lawwill were watching the shrinking of the talent gap between themselves and future champs like Mark Brelsford, Kenny Roberts and Gary Scott. Rex Beauchamp, John Hateley, Chuck Palmgren, Dave Aldana and Don Castro (who would win the 1973 San Jose mile) were also on the grid that day, battling for precious points toward the Grand National Championship.
When the green flag waved, it was Triumph-mounted Gary Scott out in front. Scott had turned in the day’s fastest lap time while winning his heat race, and it looked as if he was on his way to victory in the 25-lap final. Harley-Davidson’s Rex Beauchamp was challenging in second, with Roberts and Rice third. Somewhere around lap 10, however, Rice began to fade. What had happened? CN explained: “On the eighth lap, Rice went through and he was too close in and he hit the guard rail with his shoulder…it probably ripped the shoulder out of its socket.” But rather than take the mortal-man bunny exit to the pits, Rice kept on going. For a professional, the message of excruciating pain being sent to the brain is overpowered by the racer’s will. Rice, according to CN, “…rode from lap eight on with just one hand.”
Apparently, he needed just a couple of laps to shake it off, because by lap 10, he had re-entered the chase for the lead. When Scott’s Triumph expired on lap 17, Dick Mann took over, with Roberts in pursuit, and the rookie Yamaha rider snatched the lead from Mann just one lap later. Two of the greatest names in the history of Class C racing had stolen the race from Scott. Yet, both men would soon find themselves looking over their shoulders at a one-armed bandit named Jim Rice.
Bethea’s frenetic report almost makes the reader want to stick their left foot out and lean with the text as Rice and Roberts battle on the white-flag lap: “Down the back chute, Rice pulled past the Yamaha and regained the point, shutting off last. Kenny can’t hold back. He whips the throttle on and comes out of the third turn side by side with Rice. Rice shuts off for an instant on the last turn, Roberts doesn’t. Rice gets the bite, Kenny goes sideways and loses all that hard-earned ground. Rice wins it, and Roberts has to settle, reluctantly, for second. Mann rolls across in third.”
After taking the checkered flag, Rice takes a victory lap, then coasts into the pits. Smart motorcycle racers will know to use their limbs as auxiliary suspension for the bike. Rice’s BSA, with its rudimentary 1970s shocks and forks, has sent the bumps and holes of San Jose into two good legs, one good arm and one arm that is dangling like a marionette puppet. The race is over, the adrenaline no longer flowing, and Rice is a mere mortal once more, letting out, according to Cycle News, an “Awwueghheh,” when his mechanic touched his shoulder.
“It was an unbelievable race…there is nothing like the Mile,” Bethea wrote. “Pick an adjective…I’ve tried and none will suffice.”CN
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