Mr. Man has been a huge Speedway fan for years. He likes to tell me about back in the day when there was a speedway race any night of the week around Southern California. These days it’s a once or twice a year occasion for us to make it down to the Costa Mesa Speedway for some hot racing action.
A speedway motorbike is a little methanol-fueled missile. These bikes are f-a-s-t. And, no breaks! So, when they go around this little, oval dirt track, they have to skid out the back tire of the bike while holding the front wheel pointing in the direction they are trying to go to make the turn. Boy does the dirt fly! If you’re sitting in one of the turns, be sure to cover your beer. As soon as they get straightened out, they’re at the other end, throwing it sideways into the other turn.
The other week when we went they were running sidecars among other things. There was a lot of drama in the sidecar class with the #1 bike. It broke down in pretty much every heat and kept causing the races to be red-flagged. They somehow made it to the final round. Where they broke down again. At some point you’ve got to just get out of everyone else’s way, come on!
It was also “Knobby Night” where dirt bike riders race the speedway on their dirt bikes with grippy, off-road tires (hence the “knobby” designation). These races are pretty hilarious to watch because the bikes are not built to make those turns. They put out a “limiting” cone that the leader must pass to the outside of which means that the leader changes pretty much every lap. Everyone has a great time during these races, you can tell that the riders all laughing the whole time too.
The actual speedway class included some OGs of speedway racing: Bobby “Boogaloo” Schwartz and Sean “Mad Dog” McConnell. These guys are classic. Boogaloo’s leathers are all old and worn looking and Mad Dog has this matchy-matchy red-and-white checkerboard racing suit and bike and floppy dog ears attached to his helmet. They both are amazing racers. I can’t explain what it is, but they are so obviously better at what they do than their competition. It’s one of those things that is beautiful to watch.
This night, the final was something else. In the first turn, Mad Dog came up a little tight under Chris “The Kid” Manchester and the dude got flicked off. He flipped over the high side of the bike and landed flat on his back. His bike squirmed away from under him and crashed into the wall. I don’t remember ever seeing something like that before. It was a bummer to see him laying there on the track, fortunately, he was ok and once he caught his breath, he got up and walked off. In the time that it took to restart the race, he borrowed someone else’s bike, came out and won the whole thing!
Don’t you love a happy ending?