Round Up

ROUND UP

JOE PARKHURST

THE MEXICAN 1000 really put me in a strange position this year. CYCLE WORLD and I have been associated with the race down the wonderful Baja peninsula for years. In 1962 I was part of the team that set the original record for Honda, and I've been a booster of the race ever since.

CYCLE WORLD has sponsored several bikes in the race, and this year our companion magazine, Dune Buggies & Hot VIV .v, entered its own special VW-powered race car. Built by Miller/ Havens Enterprises in Costa Mesa, not far from our offices, and fully sponsored by the magazine, our car set a record in this year’s 1000 that will be very hard to beat: 16 hr., 7 min. The full story of the race is covered elsewhere in this issue.

What I’m saying is . . . it's downright embarrassing. I've been a motorcyclist all my life, a pretty avid one at that. It broke me up when the bikes were beaten in Baja last year, though the Preston/Burquist 1968 record time of 20 hr., 33 min. has stood until this year. So here I am now, the sponsor of the car that put the best bike times to shame.

There are a lot of reasons why cars are getting faster, not the least of which is that builders like Drino Miller and Sand Haven have been working on off-road racers for a long time and have learned a lot about building them. Drino and co-driver Vic Wilson both speak of the DB&HVW special as being more like a motorcycle than a car.

Cars can also carry incredible lights. Our hot VW Special can fry the air with 1,200,000 candlepower! Compared to the pitiful lights a bike can carry, it is the difference between night and day. Mike Patrick (360 Yamaha), winner of the 1970 Baja 1000 bike class in 18 hr., 31 min., described the sensation of seeing his lights as shadows in the blast of light from one of the cars coming up behind him.

Also, the course has been considerably improved with grading and pavement. This is not terribly important in the first half of the race; Vic Wilson’s time to halfway-point El Arco was 8 hr. and 2 min. Malcolm Smith, on the eight-speed, 400-cc Husqvarna, made it in 8 hr., 4 min.! But the second half is now paved over a greater distance, and it is run at night. This combination gives a considerable advantage to cars.

Another Baja record was being set during the 1000, albeit unofficially. Head of Montesa Motors, Kim Kimball, riding a new King Scorpion, broke the old Tijuana-to-La Paz record set in 1962 by Ekins and Robertson on the original Honda record attempt. They traveled the 963-mile distance in 39 hr., 56 min., and this record for non-stop solo has stood since that time. So, Kimball decided to have at it, although the people at NORRA refused to allow him to ride the 1000 all the way alone. Seen off by J.N. Roberts, Kimball arrived at La Paz 38 hr., 54 min. later, trimming one hour and two minutes off the record. In 1962 Ekins and Robertson got lost and spent the night asleep on the beach. Kimball ran out of gas, had a flat with a broken air pump, and got lost as well. Kim feels the time could be reduced considerably with a little more organization, and somewhat better luck. It would make an interesting record attempt.

JOEL ROBERT MARRIES

Four-times world champion Joel Robert recently got married in his home town, Charlerois, Belgium. Joel, certainly the most colorful and personable motocross star in the world, married Jeanine Bracq, also from Charlerois.

To add color to the ceremony, 40 motocross riders from Joel’s home town motocross club formed the Guard Of Honor outside the church. Joel got special permission for them to ride their bikes into the city and they lined up. leathers, helmets and all. What a beautiful sight it must have been, even though the sound of 40 two-strokes in those narrow streets must have been something else!

Joel and Jeanine traveled together during the Trans-AMA motocross series, staying with Bud and Betty Ekins when in Los Angeles. The Ekins’, along with Joe Bihari, open their homes to European riders each year during the Inter-Am series, and their hospitality to such guys as Dave Bickers, Roger DeCoster, Joel, and many other riders is well known.