Backtrack

Backtrack

If you're old enough to remember Trelleborgs, Jofas and CZs, you'll enjoy BackTrack, a motocross retrospective written and produced by Kent Taylor. Actually, "retrospective" isn't quite the right word. What this video is, is a compilation of interviews shot at the Third Annual Texas Vintage Pro Am interspersed with action footage from the 1970s.

Stars of the show are the racers, former factory Pros Billy Grossi, Kent Howerton, Gary Jones, Jim Pomeroy, Warren Reid and Marty Smith reminiscing for the cameras and then competing in the vintage races on bikes similar to the ones they made famous. Except for Smith, who inexplicably rode a Maico!

For the most part, the video relies on the racers’ commentaries, with only enough narration to tie things together. Whenever possible, applicable footage is used, so while we listen to Pomeroy talk of becoming the first American to win a Grand Prix in 1973, we watch him rip up the Spanish track on his Bultaco. Same with Howerton’s win in the muddy 1975 Hangtown national, which he attributed to overhearing fans saying that Jimmy Weinert or Jimmy Ellis were going to win-but not him.

Predictably, the riders spend a fair amount of time talking about each other-and Bob Hannah, too, although the “Hurricane” wasn’t there. Not surprisingly, each waxes nostalgic on his racing career, and to a man they say they still enjoy riding.

“There are a lot of people who retire from the sport who don’t even get on a motorcycle,” Howerton says, shaking his head. “I don’t understand how they do that.”

Not only do these 50-year-olds still ride, they still haul ass. Long may they moto...

Brian Catterson

BackTrack, written and produced by Kent Taylor 55 minutes, $25; Taylor Productions, P0. Box 29781, Lincoln, NE 68529; 402/438-4426; wwwbacktrackvideo.com