Cool Story that I would like to share

John250

John250

PR Founding Father
I remember some great races back in the day at Dirt Country. Greg Rand, Chucky Reed, Steel, all used to go at it back in the day there and fly! Some guy named Knox used to race there too.
 
Original44

Original44

PR Addict
kevin849 said:
Knox started a thread in MX forum about how you started racing and I would like to tell a little story here, you vintage guys will like the ending. I am not a writer but here we go. I grew up in Waverly Ohio in the country and had a great place to ride,my mom always tried to keep me a motorcycle because she know how much I liked riding. MX was all I dreamed about, most of my bikes were not designed for that. Suzuki TS's and DS's and even a Harley 90. I had an older friend, Greg Howard who I rode with and he talked my mom into letting me race. In 1979 mom took me to Barches Suzuki and bought a brand new RM 80. After practicing for a little while Greg and I loaded up the trailer and headed to Gleneste speedway for my first race. We made it to Washington CH and had a flat on the trailer and of course we had no spare, we unhooked the trailer and I waited until Greg come back and away we went. My first race was a big learning experience, Gleneste was the place in the 70's, the gate was full and I was scared to death but I survived and I have been hooked ever since. Greg and I raced just about every weekend in 1979 and 80. Gleneste, Dirt Country, Happy Hollow, Brimstone, Honda Hills, Albany just to name a few tracks, what great memories. Sadly Greg was killed in a car accident in 1981, I have keep in touch with his parents through the years and his motorcycle has sat in there garage on a stand for 33 years. Years ago his dad told me he would like for me to have it, I left it there because I was not sure that they really wanted it gone. Well today I went and picked it up. I am gone to get it running and ride the vintage series in memory of Greg, because its his fault that I am hooked on bikes. It is a 1980 RM 125. I will try to post pictures soon.
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That is a awesome story. If you need help finding parts please let me know.
 
K

kevin849

PR Member
I believe it was the year before Loretta Lynns started, the National was in South Carolina and Conkel won the championship in mini Sr. There were several guys that raced D-11 that could do well, I will never forget the full gates of 125a riders at Gleneste and Dirt Country. Watts, Maddox, Bias, Sheppard, Porter, Todd Duncan, Gibson, man that was some great racing.
 
ck1racerx

ck1racerx

PR Addict
kevin849 said:
I believe it was the year before Loretta Lynns started, the National was in South Carolina and Conkel won the championship in mini Sr. There were several guys that raced D-11 that could do well, I will never forget the full gates of 125a riders at Gleneste and Dirt Country. Watts, Maddox, Bias, Sheppard, Porter, Todd Duncan, Gibson, man that was some great racing.
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Gleneste was a fun place to race. Forward falling gate that if timed right you could use as a jump.
And the National in 81 was in Reedsville North Carolina. I broke my arm 2 weeks before that race. We went anyway and cut my cast back so I could twist the throttle. Hurt so bad in practice that I had to skip the moto's. Another fun fact'o about that race. If you were in a "stock" class, at tech inspection they painted an orange line on the engine from the head to the cases to make sure no one did any work to the bike after tech. How do you think that would fly now?
 
evomx244

evomx244

PR Addict
Didn't Conkel and John Simpson (another name that dissappeared) make it to the Yamaha ROC like 1980 ish ?
 
K

kevin849

PR Member
I forgot about Simpson, Yes I remember seeing a photo of the riders and there was a couple of Ohio guys in that group, but I can not remember who they were.
 
Mosher

Mosher

PR Founding Father
kevin849 said:
I believe it was the year before Loretta Lynns started, the National was in South Carolina and Conkel won the championship in mini Sr. There were several guys that raced D-11 that could do well, I will never forget the full gates of 125a riders at Gleneste and Dirt Country. Watts, Maddox, Bias, Sheppard, Porter, Todd Duncan, Gibson, man that was some great racing.
Click to expand...

Those were the days. I absolutely loved going to that place....lots of great memories and friends.
 
K

kbrown22

Noob
By the early 80's, I had started doing mostly cross country, but went mx-ing on open weekends. One of the guys I became
friends with at the time was Brett Rader. Anyone got scoop on him? Also was the Porter name mentioned a kid named Tony?
If so, we went to school together, and the he worked for my dad for quite a while. KB
 
evomx244

evomx244

PR Addict
kbrown22 said:
By the early 80's, I had started doing mostly cross country, but went mx-ing on open weekends. One of the guys I became
friends with at the time was Brett Rader. Anyone got scoop on him? Also was the Porter name mentioned a kid named Tony?
If so, we went to school together, and the he worked for my dad for quite a while. KB
Click to expand...

I was good friends with Brett back in 82-84 he was a fixture at Husky Of Dayton, He could pull a holeshot like nobody I've ever seen. Brett had a factory support Husky deal thru Flipper in 84, I had a dealer support deal on the first water cooled Husky 125. Flipper took us both down to gainesville, FL for the winter series. Brett was standing by me before the start of the 125 expert moto (40 guys on the line) he gave me a few pointers on how to time the gate and I almost pulled the holeshot ! I believe I was 2nd into the first turn on a pretty slow husky 125.

I talked to him a few years ago. He's married with a daughter and doing well, he owns chartered waters in Missouri. He also mention that he walked away from the sport back in 1985 after tearing up his knee at DMC.


http://www.charteredwaters.com/bio.html
 
K

kevin849

PR Member
078.jpg080.jpg082.jpg
Here is the bike as it has sat for 33 years. I am going to get started on it in the next couple of weeks. Any suggestions on rebuild kit for the shocks?
 
tb901

tb901

PR Addict
kevin849 said:
I remember a Phil Pummel, but not Plummer.
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I raced with Phil in +30 class through the mid 90's. I hope I'm not mistaken, but maybe around '97, I think he told me he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor or something like that. I didn't see him around after that. I always wondered how things went.
 
K

kevin849

PR Member
Just about got the RM ready for Action Sports. Engine rebuilt and started today for the first time since 1980, am trying to leave as close to stock as I can but I may have to put a silencer on it as the stock one is very loud and non repackable. Any suggestions? The motor sounds really good. Rebuilt the fox shocks and am going to try to ride soon to set it up. I am way ahead of schedule, kinda proud of myself as I usually finish projects up at the last minute. Just have a few small things to finish up and it will be ready.
 
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