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STUFFThe following is a collection of pictures & memories from Pete Wells. Pete attended a few Midwest Inter-AM and Trans-AMA races in the fall of 1970 & 1971, and he took some great pictures at those events. Pete's notes were jotted down in early 1998 and were set along with a collection of his photos, (slides), to the now defunct Motocross Journal magazine. Unfortunately that publication only used a handful of Pete’s pictures, fortunately Pete has offered to let us see them here on the AHRMA NW MX web site. So what follows is a bit of background to go with more of Pete’s pictures than we saw in print. Many of these shots have never been seen before, except by Pete and a few of his friends. Thanks Pete! (Note: a couple of these shots are now in the May 2008 Racer X Illustrated's Barry Higgins article)
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This was the best weekend I ever had at a race. My buddy Fong, and I went down to race Saturday – trying to win a slot for Sunday’s international event, (gee, we came close!, so anyway, we still got to go out for practice and ride with them!!). Saturday night, we camped at the track, as did a lot of the riders – And we went over to John Bettencourt’s camp, (a New England rider, later had a bit of success in superbike racing – killed in a car crash-early 90’s). John’s got this French rider with him who can’t speak English – but he carries on a conversation with him anyway, tells us “hey – I won’t be the fastest guy out there but nobody has more fun!!” (Bettencourt had purple fringe leathers his girlfriend made).
Sunday morning a Volkswagen van pulls in next to our camp, turns out to be Toman and Halm – and they’ve got this little stodgy mechanic that’s trying to get one of their carbs dialed, (with a Czech mallet!!). So he tinkers with it a bit, and then Toman heads out in the woods and thrashes it till practice opens, which is when we followed them out on the track.
First Moto, DeCoster went down in the first turn, and got hit several times before he could crawl/limp off the track – I was standing nearby but my efforts to help him got lost in the language barrier. He spectated the rest of the day.
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This was the track we South Michigan guys would go down and race at, and in 1970, it was nothing special. But with the likes of Joel Robert riding, we realized whole new lines to old corners. Robert would ride anywhere he pleased, passed on and off the groove. I was amazed at how casual he was before a moto - I mean ALL these guys were on vacation, but Robert would sit and bullshit, and not go to his bike until just before the start! He would have a cigarette between motos – I really don’t think he was that fit even back then, but he had such a great technique and economy of motion, that would get him by. I think it was Bob Hannah that once said of Marty Tripes, “If it was illegal to train, nobody could touch Marty!!” that’s how I pictured Joel Robert.
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The track was greatly improved from 70 – More jumps – Some nice wide ones. Great berms – Nice dirt and the year of the “Tree People”. The downside was the pits were starting to become inaccessible this year.
There was more of a presence of American riders – Dick Mann and Dave Aldana – BSA, Brad Lackey and Barry Higgins – CZ, (Lackey had his name on his jersey in electrical tape!!). DeSoto got a Suzuki ride that year.
Anyway – hope you enjoy these photos. My how things have changed since then, it has been fun watching the Americans become so good, now dominating the European scene.
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