PDA

View Full Version : 80's WA racer on board. old school.



erikweste
02-17-2010, 01:14 AM
Hey all, I ran across this site while browsing for photos of a specific ATC70. I noticed that there is indeed life on this board and after running across a thread with Mickey Dunlap posting, I thought man this might be fun to relive the old days a bit.

My name is Erik Westergaard, I raced 3 wheelers in WA state from 1984 - 1987. The sanctioning body was Coyote Racing and it was the best 3 years of my life... though it felt like so much longer than that. I mention Mickey Dunlap above as he may or may not remember me... but I watched and learned from him every chance I could. I can even say I beat him in a race on my 125, though it was just holding him off successfully for the last few laps... :)

I was a kid, and one thing I could do really well was ride a 3 wheeler. I won a lot of races, and even did fairly well at Nationals... but a couple hiccups and being a kid that didn't know how to handle that stuff may have limited where I went with it.

Anyways, I look forward to browsing around. I may not check in to the site a lot, but if I did race with anyone on the site, or if anyone even has any questions about back in the day I would be happy to hear from you.

Thanks
~Erik

circa 1986, Rainier, WA - 1983 CR250R 3-wheel conversion

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4mb9E52Aqkk/SxJ2hIgqP5I/AAAAAAAABO4/MwdeOU9Vx0E/CR250_3Wheel_Rainier.JPG

phantombiker
02-17-2010, 01:28 AM
cool to meet you, man. what was it that kept you from making it a career, if you dont mind me asking ?

Side Wayz
02-17-2010, 01:34 AM
Nice for you to drop in, and Gratz.

erikweste
02-17-2010, 01:35 AM
1987 was the year they got banned... so going after team Honda was a little tough after that if you weren't on a quad. Of course there was outlaw racing and I did a bunch of that... but wasn't the same. We didn't have much $$... even our quad was a 250R 3Wheeler with a quad conversion kit and that was no comparison other than short track stuff. I do wish I could have made a go of it on some levels... but then again I wouldn't be where I am now and I am content with it. Still plugged into the industry a bit, so its all good.

Side Wayz
02-17-2010, 01:40 AM
what where some trikes that you had and did you flat track and mx?

MonroeMike
02-17-2010, 03:11 AM
Welcome to the forum Erik.

oldskool83
02-17-2010, 09:48 AM
Welcome? what bike is the pic you posted? looks like a 250r but the forks are smaller and disk on the right side like a 200x front end?

erikweste
02-17-2010, 11:54 AM
Welcome? what bike is the pic you posted? looks like a 250r but the forks are smaller and disk on the right side like a 200x front end?

It is a 1983 CR250R (dirt bike) that we converted to a 3 wheeler. We used the stock CR frame, and my Dad modified it to have similar geometry to an 85 ATC 250R. If I remember correctly that the front end actually WAS off a 200X. I think the rear swingarm was ATC250R with frame modified to fit.

It had a left-side rearward kick starter, and NO counter balancer so it vibrated like crazy at idle. But that bike was so rediculously quick! The gearing put first gear somewhere between 1st and 2nd on a typical ATC250R (closer to 2nd), so starts were rediculous. We couldn't get the rear suspension linkage to work properly so it became strictly flat track and TT bike with a straight shock to the rear swinger... I just ran my Dads stock 85 ATC250R for MX events.

Someone in WA still owns the bike, not sure who though.

Thanks, I look forward to checking out the site.
~Erik

Bryan Raffa
02-18-2010, 09:16 AM
:welcome: to the site!!! hope you enjoy your stay.. try the search button there's been a bunch of bike conversions over the years.. thanks for posting :pics: Please post up more!:cool:

tulsamike3434
02-18-2010, 09:45 AM
Welcome! Do you have many of your race pictures, ribbons or trophy?

erikweste
02-18-2010, 01:10 PM
Welcome! Do you have many of your race pictures, ribbons or trophy?

Here are some photos I took while flipping through an old album a while back. There is one with my 125 and some trophies... that was the first year.

I will check with my sister if she has any pics with more detail of the bikes.

http://picasaweb.google.com/erikweste/3Wheelin?feat=directlink

Side Wayz
02-18-2010, 01:30 PM
Cool pics nice ride thx.

leviblue
02-18-2010, 05:24 PM
OH VERY COOL...love the 125 and the news artical......Gotta say nics legs guys

KASEY
02-18-2010, 05:35 PM
man i know Doug richards!! i have many many miles of racing on the rainer flat track.. your just a year to late to have raced with me.. i lived in olympia raced at thurston county orv park,, i ran the #1 plate in 81 and 82 in the 200cc class... so you started when i was having kids and winding down,,,, EVER SEE ONE OF THESE?????

http://i45.tinypic.com/nmnpqo.jpg

shortline10
02-18-2010, 05:36 PM
Nice to see another old racer come out of the bushes .

KASEY
02-18-2010, 05:38 PM
SO YOU RACED AGAINST JEFF HARTLINE TOO,,, he still has his 125 racer too... i have been trying to buy it for a long time,,, my wife raced against jill too...

inv3ctiv3
02-18-2010, 07:19 PM
Wow those old photos rule!

erikweste
02-18-2010, 11:06 PM
man i know Doug richards!! i have many many miles of racing on the rainer flat track.. your just a year to late to have raced with me.. i lived in olympia raced at thurston county orv park,, i ran the #1 plate in 81 and 82 in the 200cc class... so you started when i was having kids and winding down,,,, EVER SEE ONE OF THESE?????

http://i45.tinypic.com/nmnpqo.jpg

Hell Yeah!! I had one for 125 class in 1985 I think it was. Most of our stuff like that was lost in a house fire unfortunately. I did race with Jeff Hartline, very cool and fast kid. We had a blast racing together.

I think he was the first person to show up at the track with a 200x at Shelton fairgrounds and we all stood around with our jaws on the floor drooling. Always fun to watch him on that suspended 70 (err... 100cc... whatever it was). The last time I saw him was at Octobugfest in the late 90's pulling a car back from the drags with a 250R.

Good stuff.

bigpimpin
02-19-2010, 10:37 PM
welcome to the board. If you have more pics please post them!

erikweste
02-19-2010, 11:29 PM
Not sure if any of you watched a show on CMT called "Trick My Truck", but the original season (not sure about subsequent) had Rod and Kevin Pickett as two of the main guys. The kid in the far left of this photo (next to me) is Rod and the photo was taken at Porterville. We used to battle all the time, he was really fast and I had to step up my game when he came along.

Jeff Hartline spoken about above, is 2nd guy from the right with the glasses.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4mb9E52Aqkk/SxJwJCKgKMI/AAAAAAAABOI/fvKnsJkrCg4/s144/15943_1187746179059_1390455786_30626090_5664612_n. jpg

small photo... here is a link to the full size.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6zXRduPl_esWwP8wBpGmcg?feat=directlink

HondaHarry
02-20-2010, 12:05 AM
right on. awesome pics!!, thanks for sharing! Rod Pickett a triker? who'da thunk it? They build some cool stuff, alot of the stuff on the show isnt exactly my taste, but their personal rides are awesome.
Bought one of their exhaust systems for a 93 Peterbilt Daycab I restored/customized a while back. HH

dcreel
02-20-2010, 12:06 AM
Great pictures.. I used to watch Trick my truck religiously. I actually bought things at 4 state trucks in Joplin where they filmed the show.

Billy Golightly
02-20-2010, 09:03 AM
Man I love reading these stories from the oldschool racers and seeing the pictures, VERY cool stuff. Welcome to 3WW!

Mr. Noodz
02-23-2010, 01:00 PM
WOW! Welcome. Love the blast from the past!

powerslide250R
02-23-2010, 02:47 PM
The race pictures were great.... love to look back at the day and think of a time with very little responsibility... gas, places and time to ride.. Also brings back memories of my first three wheeler race age 11 on a 82 250R on a moto track in Slinger Wisconsin. I might have weighed a buck O five but had nuts the size of cue balls. Hats off to the site !! Matt

erikweste
02-24-2010, 07:23 PM
Glad you guys like the pics! Since you are fans of some of the old-school stories, I have one for you.

I still remember an endurance race up in WA at Grays Harbor ORV, now called Straddleline... 1985 if I remember right. I believe Wax and Sundahl were there for Team Honda and it may have been one event in a series that they were going for points, details are fuzzy.

The race was 90 minutes plus a lap, and consisted of some of the local field, some of the MX track, some fire roads and trails, back onto the MX track... etc. I don't recall how many miles per lap... but I think it was about 20-25 minutes. I was going to race it, and as mentioned in a previous post above... I ran my Dads stock 85 ATC250R for MX events. Well, I don't remember what happened, but for some reason my Dads bike was out of commission and I was without a ride. I was bummed, but some racing friends stepped in and offered me their bone-stock Kawasaki Tecate. I just wanted to race and didn't care what... so I took them up on it. Up to that point, I had never even thrown a leg over a Tecate to ride... possibly only sitting on one in the pits at the most. I never realized what a pig those stock bikes were as far as handling. It felt like I had another rear tire on the front... which I guess is basically what it was. That being said, I still had a blast.

Well, with the length of laps we even had pits setup for fuel if needed. Honda ruled that portion with their quick-dump cans and gas caps. I remember it being pretty dusty at the start, Honda jumped out in the lead as expected and the rest of us were scrambling for position. I had a lot of trail experience in the few years I had been racing because thats what we did all year on family vacations... that and dunes. Well, about the 3rd lap I stopped for gas and realizing that this stock bike was still 1/2 full that we could go the rest of the race without pits. My Dad tells me that I am in 3rd place behind the 2 Honda riders and actually made up some time from the previous lap and if I didn't have to stop for fuel, and they did... I would be in really good shape (getting comfortable with the bike is partially where I improved my time, also the fact that Honda was fueling and I was basically stop and go).

So, I decided to step up the pace a little where I could and see if it was possible... but still felt pretty content with 3rd behind those guys. Running up through a singletrack trail along a hillside... I caught a tree root with my right rear tire and it threw me over the bars and off the edge of the hill, bike too. I was about 10' from the trail... and about 4' down... probably good thing the trees were there to stop me. I had to wrestle the bike back onto the trail and finally finished the lap. Stopped to tell Dad what happened since I lost a couple minutes... all was good so I took off! Think I dropped to 4th or 5th by this point... made my way back up to 3rd and on the last lap I hit that Effing root again.

I was able to salvage 4th or 5th by the end of the race, but DAMN I wanted be on the box with them!

Anyways... thats one of my stories... I have more. Some are far bigger bummers than that one. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Thanks for keeping the 3wheelers alive! Love the site!

Side Wayz
02-24-2010, 10:07 PM
LOL glad you where ok, but that is a bummer. Still shows you could of gotten a top 3 without the damn root, but its a great camp fire story and i'm looking forward to hear more and im sure the rest of us are too. Well I'm off in a few to run with the fellow members over in Ohio at Summit indoor. Gonna have a blast and meet some more members that I havent met yet and learn a few things. Looks like a great turn out.You'll see it on you tube.

CoryDunlap
12-09-2011, 10:37 PM
Member me I was the dirty blond head kid tuning around Rainer flat track on Friday nite and ORV MX on sat my dad was Mickey Dunlap and my grandpa was Doug Richards

CoryDunlap
12-09-2011, 10:47 PM
Member me I was the dirty blond head kid tuning around Rainer flat track on Friday nite and ORV MX on sat my dad was Mickey Dunlap and my grandpa was Doug Richards. I Remeber sleepin over at the Heartlines they had a real pinball game in there house. Remeber when Jeff got hit by the car while riding his trike. I Remeber the first race my grandpa had at shelton a group of people showed up with a tractor trail or full of bikes. I prob spent two years of my life at that track watering, riding, draging and draging tires

3wheely
12-09-2011, 10:59 PM
Very cool pics. Thanks for sharing and welcome! If we could only relive the 80's.

hondajohn
12-10-2011, 02:05 AM
I like reading about the WA races. I am in Gig Harbor, between Bremerton and Tacoma. I remember watching moto races in the Tacoma Dome! I have ridden at Tahuya, Thurston county ORV, Capitol Forest, trails up near Hannegan speedway, etc. I liked your article in the News Tribune too. My uncle used to race motocross, he was sponsored by Bellevue Suzuki for a bit. We went to Washougal 4 or 5 times to watch him race there in the late 80s. Lots of fun, lots of memories. Thanks for posting! BTW Erik, do you still have a 3 wheeler?