Eddie Mulder's Academy

Eddie Mulder’s Academy

The old Pro speaks usefully and carries a big stick

Two facts that should contradict and cancel each other, but don't: 1) Dirt-track is the most difficult form of motorcycle racincing to learn; and 2) Eddie Mulder has a day job. Mulder won’t need much introduction here, as his vintage-racing Triumphs and street-trackers have appeared on these pages already. But for the record, Mulder earned an AMA national number, won nationals and made his living as a racer. He knows how to race dirt-track.

Nearly as important, he’s willing and able to share what he knows. That may sound odd, but any sports reporter learns early in his career that being able to ride, throw, catch, hit or whatever doesn’t mean the athlete can tell you how it’s done-or even knows how it’s . Mulder can, and will, explain the facts and theories behind on the throttle and turning left.

Wisdom holds that the simpler a skill is, the more difficult it becomes to perform that skill really well. Speeding down the straight, pitching a bike into a slide to the left, hooking up and powering out of the turn is as hard to do well as it’s easy to say.

What it takes is tutoring and track time.

Which is where Mulder comes in. His day job is as a stuntman for the movies and television. Show business pays well, but demands time and commitment, so while he and wife Jodi would like to do the school a couple of times a year, the 2002 class, held last May, was only the third session in five years.

Facts: The students supply their own machines and gear, which is required to meet the rules and the standards, as in good helmets, leathers or motocross outfits, with steel shoes strongly recommended. Tuition is $400 for the two days, including two lunches and plenty of snacks morning and afternoon.

School begins Saturday a.m. at the public library in Rosamond, California, a mile or so east of Willow Springs Raceway. The morning session is mostly chalk talk, with Mulder illustrating lines in and out of turns, how to pick shutoff and roll-on points and so forth, with extra data on physical fitness and mental preparation. As a hint, emphasis is placed on an instruction more important than it sounds: Look up!

After lunch, the class transfers bikes, trucks and vans in convoy to a park east of the library. To the delight of the kids and consternation of the parents in the park, the motorcycles are lined up on the grass and subjected to a strict technical inspection. Out come the toolboxes, and delegates are dispatched to the hardware and parts stores for nuts, bolts and fork oil. Mulder is, as the referees always say, tough but fair. Bikes are prepped in time for dinner at Rosamond’s leading gourmet Italian restaurant.

There is proof here that a common interest makes a powerful bond. Students range from teens to Medicare-eligible, and while Mulder’s school (661/268-0105) isn’t for beginning riders, some students are new to racing and some are local amateur champions.

Track time begins Sunday morning, at Willow’s smooth and narrow dirt oval, officially 3/8 of a mile. For the school, Mulder has restrained the water truck, on the grounds that a dry, slick surface will teach throttle and rider control at lower, i.e. safer, speeds. Even so, an ambulance is in attendance all day.

Mulder first leads the students in a walk around the track, putting real world into the diagrams on the blackboard. He places cones at the recommended shutoff, roll-on and feet-up points. Recommended, Mulder emphasizes, not required. Each student can try, and modify, the points-the only rule being that any student who looks down will be whacked by

Mulder’s stick, or by the other tutor, former Pro (and former CW staff writer) Walt Fulton III.

On the track, finally, each student circulates at a safe pace, which picks up visibly and markedly, as the student learns: “Hey! Eddie’s techniques work; I can run in this deep and come out this fast!”

Mulder keeps the track open until late in the afternoon, and until the last tongue is hanging out. Every student is faster, every student is happy, no one’s been hurt.

If there’s a negative, it’s that Mulder can’t do this more often.

Allan Girdler