MXDN Lakewood CO 2010
I got to CO
early so that I could get organized. I’d been burning the
candle just to be able to get there. I hung out at my friend
John DeMott’s house playing music and getting caught up. I
went to the track on Friday to get the passes and see where the
Legends and Heroes were set up. I found Alex and began
helping.
This was going to be a big
deal. There were a lot of vintage bikes to display and a lot
going on all day both days.
The first set of guys I met
were 2 of the 3 members of the first American team we sent to the
MXDN back in 1973, Dick Robbins and Bob
Grossi . Mark Blackwell would be here later. These guys
were great. We started telling each other war stories and the
stories of how they were hooked up with Edison Dye in the early
Husky days was really cool. Edison drove a van to
Michigan and delivered the bikes to the Robbin’s shop. I
related what I was doing with the recognition plaques and decided
who better to acknowledge than the first US team to the MXDN.
I got their contact info and will get their awards to them after
the first of the year.
The second set of
heroes were the first US winning team of Danny La
Porte, Chuck Sun, and Donnie Hanson.. I have them
listed as recipients at the Vintage AM
but.........
There was a lot of interest
in all of the events at the Legends and Heroes display. This
by far was the biggest turnout of fans at the display. If I
had to guess there were several times when the crowd around the
display was close to 1000 people.
Gary Baily has gotten
on board with the group and is sponsoring a trailer and awning for
the upcoming year. I had been waiting a lot of years to talk
with him. At one of the early Hangtown’s it rained and rained
and rained. The track was flooded and so was I . We had
crammed 3 bikes in the back of a ranchero and 3 bodies in the cab
but I still was not onboard. I slipped into a mummy bag and
slithered down in between the bikes and away we went. It was
dry in LA but by the time we hit Fresno or so it started to rain
and rain. Race day was pretty soggy. That evening Gary
set up his videos of the races he had just been racing in
Europe. I found a seat and was exhilarated by watching all of
these races for hours. I’m not quite sure how it all came
about but the result was I had a tent to sleep in. 40 years
later I was able to thank him for his generosity and told him he
was on my Pioneer hit list. He thought the year was
1968 or 9 and yea it was a lot of rain. He also said “That
was a big tent. I think it was the first big tent at any of
the races!!!”
I had brought
Harry Everts award along with one for Stephan so off I went to see
if I could track them down.
Sunday at the
races is a big deal at the MXDN. You get the Internati0onal
flavor when you hear the announcements in French and
English
