Desert Daisies
DESERT DAISIES
MIKE TERITO
THE DESERT DAISIES is a new and unique riding club in Southern California; unique, in that all of its members are girls who share one common interest — desert racing. And if you’re getting any ideas, fellahs, forget it. The club is for women only.
Though small in number (with only three members), the girls have big plans, which include enlisting new members, providing. of course, they can meet the requirements. Each prospective candidate must have ridden and finished at least 10 desert events, and each must be unanimously accepted by a secret vote. All meetings are held at the desert, due to the fact that members live so far apart.
For only having been in existence a few months, the club is quite well-known in Southern California desert racing circles. One of the girls, Terry Bryce, of Chino, is the daughter of Dr. William Bryce, one of California’s top heavyweight desert riders. Terry, the youngest of the girls at 17 has won several trophies. When not bike racing, she competes with show horses.
Terry has been riding desert for one year. So far she has taken tenth place in the Hilltoppers M.C. National, and placed high in the Don Watkins European Scrambles. In one 50-miler she was doing fine for the first 10 miles, only to blow a tire, and with it her chances. Nevertheless, with female determination, she finished the race. Terry rides a Hodaka with Ceriani forks, powered by a Honda S90 engine (you figure out how it goes).
The girl with the longest riding record is Ian Ditson. She's been beating the tumbleweed and cact i for two and onehalf years. Jan lives in Reseda, Calif., with her husband and two children. During the week she works full time. She is 29 years old, but acts like an old timer on her Yamaha 80. Her husband, Carroll, who has been riding for more than three years, introduced her to the sport. Now Jan can't wait for the weekends. She says it's hard to think of anything else when Friday rolls around. By Saturday the butterflies start, by Saturday night the butterflies turn into heavy bombers. Jan claims she gets a keen sense of satisfaction out of racing. One of the trophies she received has the following inscription:
To Jan Ditson, The First Girl Beautifying the Desert 1966 Side Hack Association.
The clown of the trio is Rosemarie Martino. Rosy is 32 years old and hails from Aihambra, California, where she lives with her husband Jimmy. She works all week as a manicurist, and weekends is a "holy terror" on and off the race course. Rosy loves to clown, and to relieve the strain of the day by coming off the course and reenacting her falls and troubles. She thinks nothing of lying down and showing the gang just how she landed.
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Rosy got her start as a TT scrambles rider. The switch to desert took some getting used to. At first, she didn’t like it, but her husband bought her a new Hodaka and with a little urging from Jan, Rosy was on her way to becoming a desert rider.
To see these girls ride is an unforgettable experience. When the smoke bomb is lit. they take off like jackrabbits, handling themselves and their bikes like old pro’s. It’s funny to see the look of gloom on the men’s faces after suffering defeat at the hands of the trio. It’s difficult, too. for the men to really accept the girls because they fee' that desert riding is too dangerous for the opposite sex. The girls don’t agree, and relish competing against men.
As an example of the love these girls have for the sport, Jan Ditson entered a race before they had a trail bike class. She went to the rider’s meeting and asked the referee which course the small bikes took. “The same as the big bikes,” he told her.
It took her five hours to finish the 90 miles, including a sparkplug change. The trophy from the San Gabriel M.C. for the 1964 District 37 championship hare and hound race is on the mantle above her fireplace, and it’s one of her proudest possessions.
In speaking to all three girls, one can’t help but get the impression that they ride for the pure love of riding, not for the publicity or attention. None are afraid of getting their faces or hands dirty, and they think nothing of fixing a flat tire. If it’s a front tire that’s flat, they’ll ride it out if it is at all possible. Terry Bryce has ridden 40 miles with a flat.
With the popularity of motorcycling growing by leaps and bounds, it won’t be long before you see even more women riders. In time the ladies will invade the TT courses and the desert in greater numbers. The few pioneers riding in competition should be regarded as a special breed. It isn’t easy to climb on a motorcycle and turn it on full bore. The first race is the toughest. After that they get a little easier, despite the fact that competition gets rougher.
Many of us who race would like to see more of the girls out there, but in a separate class. Yet, amazingly, the girls recently competed against some of the top desert riders in the district. Result? Jan and Rosy came in first and third, with Jan boasting a mile and a half lead on the second place rider.
She might have looked like a Kamakazi rider in the middle of a dust cloud, but when Jan’s husband saw her coming, he jumped up and yelled, “Here she comes. Here comes Jan in first place,” and his face was lit like a Christmas tree. ■
