The Scene

THE SCENE

IVAN J. WAGAR

COSTA MESA, Calif., is a neat place. Pushed back from the ocean by the over-affluent city of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa features backyards strewn with concrete, fiberglass and plywood boats under various stages of completion which eventually will be sold to the Wealthy Newporters. The easy going little community can probably be considered the boat building capital of the world. Just about all of the big manufacturers of ocean-going yachts have a construction plant in Costa Mesa. And the bar talk centers around great men of the sea, and beautiful boats in which to race or make world cruises-and Speedway racing.

For, at the Easternmost fringe of Costa Mesa, there is this itty-bitty little dirt track, where every Friday night during the racing season, all hell breaks loose and the relaxed little city goes crazy for motorcycle speedway racing. On a track so small that a factory Harley or Triumph haif-miler would have to slip the clutch all the way around, the lithe, stark little Hagon JAPs, ESOs and Jawas are in their element. Piloted by the Bast brothers, Wild Bill Cody, Sonny Nutter, Rick Woods, etc., the tiny, uncomplicated 5 00cc Singles glide at weird angles through the tight turns, and come up right for only a couple of hundred feet before being slid almost backwards into the next turn.

But the show is not really motorcycle racing; it's roller derby! As in England, (the acknowledged home of world speedway racing), the 4000 spectators packing the stands are not motor cyclists, they are the shopkeepers, aero space engineers and the guys that make boats. They bring their wives and kids, and Friday night dinner is hot dogs and cokes. The whole event is spectator sport par excellence in the immaculate, comfortable little speedway.

Even the golden voice of part-time radio announcer Larry Huffman takes on a P.T. Barnum quality as he rimes through the program. The crowd, refer red to as supporters because of their overwhelming loyalty to their own hero on the program, boo and cheer like no other crowd in the world. The atmos phere becomes almost electric as the riders show their appreciation to the supporters by hanging incredible slides within inches of each other. For this kind of action the riders, mostly very young, can earn $30,000 a year.

There now are four speedway tracks operating in California: Bakersfield, Ventura, Irwindale and, of course, Costa Mesa. And there is talk of more tracks opening, although the riders now are competing four nights a week. As one crony put it, "Can't you see this going on at four or five tracks weekly in every major population area in the country?" And it is completely possible in my mind. With frequent visits to Costa Mesa by World Champions Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger, speedway has grown at a fantastic rate in just four years.

Credit for the rebirth of speedway racing in this country has to go to Jack Mime and his enthusiastic partner, Harry Oxley. Milne, his brother Cordy, and Lammy Lamareux were considered three of the greatest speedway riders in the history of the sport. Never have Americans dominated international motorcycle competition the way these three men did for two decades after taking 1-2-3 places in the 1937 world championship. West Coast riders in that era were earning $1000 week, racing every night between San Diego and San Francisco.

The purses are possible because of the sheer dedication of the typical speed way supporter. Oxley and Mime know they will have the same 4000 fans this week that they had last week; it is a ritual. But the promoters did not come by a successful program by accident. Milne's years in international competi tion made him very aware of what speedway fans wanted; a good show at a low price. Admission at Costa Mesa is $2.75; a free program and parking make it very appealing to the family man on a budget. Also, the promoters have been fortunate to have the services of dedi cated workers such as English trans plants as George and Freda Wenn, who have been connected with speedway for more than 30 years. As George puts it, "It gets in your blood. Once you get hooked on speedway, there is no way out."

Speedway is yet another form of international competition that has caught on in this country, and going on to success. Mauger and Briggs made a visit, and it was instant popularity. Torsten Haliman, about the same time, came to Pepperell and Hopetown and motocross became an overnight sensa tion. Now we have a World Champion ship motocross in the U.S. Sammy Miller came over with his Bultaco and trials competition has blossomed to the point that the FIM, the world governing body for motorcycle sport, has now granted points event to this country for trials. The event will probably he held early in January 1974, thus elevating the European Championship to the sta tus of FIM Prize. The next step, prob ably within one or two years, will be that observed trials will become a World Championship.

Yet to come, and it may never be possible, are the fantastic Russian ice racers. Certainly one of the most spec tacular forms of two-wheeled racing ever devised if you can stand the cli mate, and what a way to thaw (no pun intended) U .S./Russian relations. The English are big in grasstrack. Grasstracl racing is held in a big, open, grassy field, and usually does not feature grand stands or anything fancy like that. The whole thing is sort of like a smooth motocross, but with the fuel-burning little speedway slingshots, and can be held on any farmer's fairly flat field.

The English also have motoball. In motoball, the contestants ride around on fairly low powered machines and play a mixture of poio and soccer. The playing field features a goal at each end, with goal tenders, and the opposing teams have to kick a soccer ball into the other team's goal. While not as posh as polo, and not as strenuous as regular soccer, motoball can be pretty funny to watch.

This column is not intended to cover all of the forms of motorcycle compet tion that better international relation have opened up to the American specta tor. But it does, I hope, point out the non-conflicting nature of the various forms of motorcycle competition that were not available a half dozen years ago. I~I