To all of you who do not know Hopetown it was one of the biggest races in the United States back in the 60’s and 70’s. Bob Hope’s movie Ranch aka Corriganville was the place to be. In the early years we rode Honda 4 strokes, Triumphs, Harley Davidsons and BSA’s stripped of their lights and street tires. In 1967 Edison Dye , Ted Lapadakis and Andy De LaTorre brought over Europe’s best and introduced us to MOTOCROSS. The rest is History. It caught on like wildfire. By 1970 through 1975 1500 to 2000 racers would race on that historic track in front of tens of thousands spectators. It was filmed by Bruce Brown (Endless Summer and On Any Sunday) and aired on Wide World of Sports. This was the race we all trained the whole year to race. Being in my back yard I always tried to excel there, but the course and the famous mud-hole and track itself took its toll a couple of times. If you look at my extremesportspioneer.com website you will see a riders demand to bring back this event…..well…
This year there was a reunion of the racers and the public. Heroes such as John Rice and Preston Petty (the inventor of the unbreakable plastic fender) were there as well as John DeSoto (the flyin’ Hawaiian) Brad Lackey (first American to win a championship in Europe) . Also there, the legendary Marty Tripes winner of the first two Super-bowl of MOTOCROSS at the LA Coliseum along with Greeves great Jim Wilson. Keith Mashburn, who put on this event with the Zimmermans, was a motocross racer turned flat-tracker when Yamaha offered him a ride. Dave Ekins won 2 Gold and 1 bronze at the prestigious ISDT’s in Europe. Eddie Mulder ,Mike Runyard John Hateley as well as Ekins took their Flat-track / MOTOCROSS skills to the big screen in hundreds of movies ;
In the parking lot there was at least a thousand feet of high tenting providing shade for all of the bikes and memorabilia people brought to share. I heard 2700 people had signed up for the lunch but there were many more who knew nothing of the signing in process. I would guess that 4000 people showed up. Chuck Daly brought the Sachs DKW he let Preston race at the Catalina GP back in 2010 as well as an original 3ft. x 4 ft poster. We also did a memorial display for the late Gene Cannady. He won many races at Hopetown as well as all of the tracks around So Cal. He was probably the first cop to be able to catch us riding at the various unapproved tracks we had around the valley. He discarded the HD for a Kawasaki. RIP Gene!!!
The entire day was non-stop moto talk. The event was to wrap up by 4 but as you can imagine it took a while to get everyone gathered up and out of there. There is a rumor that there will be another event next year but we will have to see what happens. When Hopetown quit hosting the event after 1975 it went to several other racing facilities but it never drew the same racers and crowds that it did in Simi. It would be awesome if by some miracle they could revive this event. Most or all of the track is still there. It is now a park with houses around the perimeter. We’ll see if the stars can align. Keep the fingers crossed !!!!
Dick Mann was the speaker Saturday night, which was very interesting. Walt Fulton had some really good questions for Dick during the Question/Answer session.
I love going to these get-togethers to see people I have not seen for perhaps 40 or so years, and even longer. I am still thinking about the Hopeton/Mashburn production. It was beyond fabulous. I had no idea it was going to be so Big, have so many people, with so many things going on. I met the Zimmerman's at the event to Honor Dave Ekins, but no one told me about their motorcycle collection or that we would be seeing these wonderful Vintage motorcycles. I couold not believe that I saw so many old friends and so many old bikes. Boggles the imagination! I am having a hard time waiting for the next event, no matter what the size or where it is.
Go to the Gallery for more photos.
Photos and edited text sent by Chris Brook