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O.T.-VA Mega Mile dirt track race

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Phil9N3667

Well-known Member
Anybody from VA/Maryland go to Colonial Downs Saturday for the AMA Pro dirt track race races!? They ran 450 and 750 bikes on the 1 1/4 mile track with speeds approaching 135 MPH! They also (to keep it tractor related) had a JD tractor doing the grooming between races. I did a little bit of racing like this a LONG time ago (1970's) and it changed a little bit. The smells and sounds brought back a lot of memories!!
 
I remember when the Triumphs and Nortons were KINGS of the dirt. Don't recall seeing Harleys'

I still remember watching the bikes slide through the turns, rider had his butt on the tank. Once they got out of the turn, bike upright, rider would move his butt to the rear tire and do a wheelie half way down the track.

Back then it was called the Camel Pro series.
 
Back in my 20's I had a fun thing to do. I use to help out some friends I knew that owned thier own off road racers. Like Jeeps and dirt rails they would race on dirt roads leading them across country. I would meet them in a half way piont and service thier cars. You know Gas, tires and what eles they needed. It was a fun thing to do. They stoped after the E.P.A put a stop to to alot of the cross country raceing do to the california environment. I still enjoyed it and it was fun to do.
 
Harley-Davidson has won more Grand National races than all other brands combined. They also did it with flatheads when others were running OHV.
 
Perhaps I have a bad memory. I don't recall seeing Harleys on the flat tracks in the 50's and 60's. Mostly the 650 triumph and Nortons.

Did harley even make a 650? Perhaps the camel pro series then raced in just 650 class. I really don't remember.

Did harley create it's own sportster class division like the 881's or something?

So perhaps it had something to do with camel pro rules or something is why I didn't see harleys. Been too much sand run out of my hour glass to remember.

I just remember seeing the bikes run on Terre Haute's flat track at the fair grounds and make better time than the dirt cars.
 
George, if you ever have the opportunity to pick up a video casette of the movies, "on Any Sunday" and "On Any Sunday II", pick them up. The first one has a lot of flat track racing on it. Probably two of the best motorcyle movies ever made. Lots of incredible footage of Mert Lawill, Malcom Smith, Steve McQueen. Old classic races like Syarcuse, Peoria, Barstow to Vegas, Elsinore, Baja, ice racing. There is some really neat helcoptor footage of the start of the B to V. Lotta neat crash and burn stuff.
 
And when Honda got involved, Harley wasn't even close to competitive. So much so, Harley started whining and crying to the point Hondas had to start running a smaller rear tire, smaller fuel system, and more weight. That just made it EVEN. Google "Bubba Shobert" or "Ricky Graham" if you don't believe it.

Instead of going to work and making their outdated bikes competitive, Harley simply threatened to pull out of the sport unless rules were made prohibitive for Honda to compete on an even basis.

I was the AMA referee for Grand National events held at Louisville Downs in the 80's.
 
The Harley's came into it a bit later. Late 60's early 70's. Once into the 70's the European brands started to fall by the wayside. Oh yeah, on the movies I mentioned there was some good footage of Dick Mann, too. Once into the mid to late 70's the Harley XR 750 owned the track. Honda made some inroads into the flat track racing toward the tail end, also.
 
Harley did go to work by using and making the outdated bikes competitive. They worked with the flathead until the early seventies. I would not try to argue that Harley-Davidson did not control racing in the AMA since day one in 1903.
 
The Harley fans have their "revisionist history" of what happened, but, as I mentioned, I was an AMA Referee/tech inspector during the late 70's until mid 90's. I sat in AMA rules committee meetings and saw first hand how it went down. Even Harley's best efforts weren't competitive with Honda during the 80's. Once it was clear that Harley would keep lobbying AMA to outlaw Honda from victory lane,(ie "buying wins") Honda took their efforts elsewhere. While that made Harley fans happy, it essentially made flat track stagnant.
 
2 old 2 Care,
So how good is my memory? Were Triumphs and Nortons the king of the dirt in the camel pro series, 60's? Was the camel pro a part of AMA? Were the Triumphs 650? My 1966 was a 650.

I remember seeing on TV a race where a local boy from Terre Haute, Don McClung, raced a Triumph. Years later I became friends with his dad.

So how good is my memory?
George
 
Camel Pro was late 70's, and on in to the 80's. But yes, Triumphs had their day too.

I raced dirt bikes. (Hare Scrambles and Enduro's) Back in the day, Triumph "Tigers" were converted into dirt bikes. Then the Husky's and Pentons came along and stole the show for a while.
 
I think it may have been late 60's when Kaw 350 3 cylinders were imported. Harley people called them rice burners.They were half the price of a sportster and would beat the pants off them in the 1/4 mile. Then a few years later kaw imported the 500 3 cylinder. It was a harley bruner. Just about put an end to Harley. If I recall back then most harley's were hard to start, kick start, leaked oil. College kids liked the price of the imposts. Harley had to re-invent it's bikes to stay alive.

I road a friends 350. He warned me not to open it up, If I did at 4000 rpms the front wheel would come up. It did in more than one gear.


The triumphs I remember racing on the 1/2 mile dirt were 650 bonneville, the one that set a speed record at the salt flats, twin carbs. The tiger wasn't just a 250?
 
Back in the "olden days" early 70's I raced Bultacos and a 450 Husky in the Louisville/ Cincinnati area. On the flat tracks the Harley XR750 was tough. I think the 3 cyl Kaws were 400, 500, and 750. I had a 500/3 and a 900 4 cyl.Both were really fast for their day.
 
Last year at the Oakley tractor show I spoke with Mr. J. Wondergem and he said he was a pro flat track racer back in the day.
 
I had to good a google search and discovered that Gary Nixon was the Grand Nation Champ 2 years in a row on a Triumph. So I was wrong thinking it was the Camel pro series, Grand national in the 60's

Neat read down memory lane.
george
Gary Nixon
 
Man, I didn't have any idea there were so many dirt racing fans here! The first time I ever saw "On Any Sunday" was at the Eliz. City Mot. Club race track on an outdoor screen the year it came out! I still have five different bikes from a 6 HP mini bike to my '76 Honda "Champion" framed XL350 I rode my last year as a Novice in the AMA pro series. Got hurt twice in the last few months of 1976 racing and just burned out! It always made my heart flutter when I first heard a Harley XR750 fire up in the '70s before I started as a Novice and then I heard "em all the time at tracks in Bedford, PA, Harrington, Del. and all the oher 1/2 miles we'd go to!! Thanks for all the positive answers here, guys!! I read all of the Gary Nixon link and it's awesome!
 
(quoted from post at 18:14:59 08/24/14) Man, I didn't have any idea there were so many dirt racing fans here! The first time I ever saw "On Any Sunday" was at the Eliz. City Mot. Club race track on an outdoor screen the year it came out! I still have five different bikes from a 6 HP mini bike to my '76 Honda "Champion" framed XL350 I rode my last year as a Novice in the AMA pro series. Got hurt twice in the last few months of 1976 racing and just burned out! It always made my heart flutter when I first heard a Harley XR750 fire up in the '70s before I started as a Novice and then I heard "em all the time at tracks in Bedford, PA, Harrington, Del. and all the oher 1/2 miles we'd go to!! Thanks for all the positive answers here, guys!! I read all of the Gary Nixon link and it's awesome!
Click to expand...

I saw On Any Sunday when it came out. I was campaigning first on Ossa and then Rokon riding enduros in new England in 1972 thru 1975. I had a friend that had a Kawasaki 500-3 Blue Streak. They called them widowmakers. Just stupid power with mediocre handling.
 
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