Hangtown 1991...The Real Story

Recently an old video showed up of the infamous Hangtown Mud race in 1991. This was the year when torrential rains pounded the Sacramento area for days and before the Dirt Diggers had poured thousands of tons on new dirt onto the track. Slippery as snot doesn't begin to describe track condtions in '91. This was still the era of the high powered two stoke. Nobody really likes a mud race and the factory pros balked at riding in these conditions. The officials were faced with a dilemma, cancel and lose big $$$$ or try to force the pros to ride. Fortunately a solution presented itself. The solution involved our very own #33...here I'll let him tell it. 

"We (The Vet Pros) were sitting on the line while the riders were having a meeting with the AMA and wanting to cancel because it was not possible to make a lap. We were getting cold sitting there when Kevin Henry from the Dirt Diggers walked by and I asked him what the hold up for our race was. He said the Pro riders did not want to ride and the AMA was going to cancel because no one could get around the track. I told Kevin I could and he said show him and he would run us. So he hopped on the back of my bike and I rode him to the first turn let him off then took off to bust out a lap laughing my ass off all the way around as the spectators began cheering because they wanted to see a race and they were getting cold and bored.

When I came back to the line Cheryl gave me new goggles and Kevin told us to fire the bikes up and let us go.

We completed our moto and the Pros were lined up when I came off the track, they couldn’t say no one could make a lap when a bunch of geezers just rode, they would have looked pretty lame to the spectators!  They were not happy. I won and Dave Coupe’ got second. But it saved the Dirt Diggers literally tens of thousands of dollars by not being cancelled and having to refund ticket and sponsor money.

Thanks for the reminder, it made my day!"

#33

The local boys were not deterred by the conditions and the day was saved. The fans, despite the cold, wet day had a blast and got to see some good racing although it was sometimes tough to identify their favorite rider. Now you know the rest of the story.

If you were there let us know what you remember.