FLASHBACK: ONE VERY WEIRD ’70S START

One Very Weird ’70s Start

By Mitch Boehm

While running through some late ’70s dirt track photos I got from my old – and, unfortunately, late – friend Mary Grothe, I stumbled across this one from her husband Ron, who often shot alongside her despite doing a lot of actual racing at road racing venues.

It’s obviously the start of a Grand National Championship race, though at presstime we weren’t able to positively identify the venue. But what’s really weird is the way the bikes are arrayed, and we can’t tell if it’s a restart or simply the individual-row start of a heat, semi or Main.

Grand National historian and AFT announcer Scottie Deubler took a look and said the venue looked like Louisville ’79, as did Bert Sumner. “I believe this is a Louisville 1979 heat race,” Sumner told Deubler. “Eight of the 11 visible made the main. A 12th rider may be out in front of 32, as a rooster tail is visible next to Jackie Mitchell’s (32) front wheel.”

Bob Herrick thought it was the start of the Main of the 5/27/79 Laurel, Md., Half-Mile.

Wherever it is, the bikes and riders look as if they all started in a line, from track edge to track edge. I shot the image over to Kenny Roberts just before we went to press, and he said it looked like it might be a restart of some sort, but when I asked Deubler about that, he said restarts back then were staggered nose-to-tail, as they are today. And this for sure ain’t a nose-to-tail restart.

The lineup here is a veritable who’s who of late-’70s dirt track racing royalty: Left to right is Jay Springsteen (1), the late Ted Boody (12), Corky Keener (62), Scotty Parker (40x), Randy Goss (13), Steve Eklund (11), Bill Shaefer (96), Tommy Duma (26), Jackie Mitchell (32), Marty Bushman (81, in black helmet) and Steve Morehead (42, partially hidden).

Herrick says that Springer won the Main over Garth Brow (not shown) in that Laurel, Md., which moved Springer from 7th to 3rd in points as he looked for his 4th GNC title. Eklund eventually won the championship in ’79.

It’s also interesting to note that every bike pictured is a Harley-Davidson XR750, which proves the point that the current competitive situation surrounding Indian’s now-dominant FTR750 isn’t without precedent. We have been here before.

What I’m mostly left with as I look at this very cool photo is the buzz of being transported back to 1979 and the Grand National Championship chase. A dozen 90-horsepower dirt track racebikes lined up for a start on an (obviously) slick front straight…how cool is that?

Thanks, guys, for the time-machine trip.