Random 1980s racing pictures

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Going through my photos and picked out some nice ones for your Friday enjoyment

(1) Staging area at Watsonville, you can see Mickey on his 85 250r (the very first one i had ever seen and it was love at first sight). It was so new Mickey was still bolting on hop up parts the morning of the race, including a flat track tank kit and that sweet cone pipe.

You can see Tommy sitting next to Mickey and Chris White on the #14 behind them, i am #26 on my Franks Rotax 250


(2) George on his Franks KTM 250 sitting between Mike Coe #23 and Marty Hart #7, i am not sure who the Tecate rider is. This was a invitational race held in Alaska that i did not go to. I have more photos from it ill up load later.
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(3)Starting line for the Grand Prix of the Big Bear held at Big Bear Lake in 1984. Mickey is #19, Jimmy #31 and Chris White is #40 with me #26 between them. I think this is a heat race for the 250 class.


(4)Staging at Pomona for Mickey Thompson race in 84, how many of those riders can you name?


(5)Start at Big Bear, #53 is Donnie Luce, #34 is Dean Sundahl, i am in white on the KTM


(6)Pomona Mickey Thompson start in 84, i am in white on the far right and i see #15 is Mike Bergman (sp?) and #7 is Marty Hart on the far left and #3 behind him is Paul Woods.


(7) Random Odyssey at the Mint 400...have to be nuts to race one of those in a SCORE desert race.


(8) 250 class start at a random Argyle park race, you can see Jimmy with #31 on his helmet on the left. I am in the back on my 200 in white, third from the right.


(9) Curtis Sparks was pure style, here on his 200x at Big Bear.


(10)Stevie Wright at Big Bear on the gas and on the edge...as always. Stevie did not win a lot of races but he always put in 100% effort.


(11) Tommy Gaien on his 200x at Big Bear


(12)Starting line for the 1982 Score World Championships at Riverside raceway. George is on the far left walking to his Nickolson XR500 with Mike Coe next to him. Id have to look closely to see who the other guys are but you can make out Eddie Sanders Nickolson frame RM250 powered bike over on the right side, in yellow of course.


(13)Start of some random fairgrounds race, i like this shot cause you can see #43 is Curtis Sparks on a 250R, he did not often race 250s so nice to get a pic of him on one. George is number #74 and i think #9 is Chris White.


(14)Random shot at Fremont Raceway...gotta dig that old school ambulance.


(15)Not sure who the rider is but how sweet is this YZ powered three wheeler? This is the open class at San Jose in 82 so that is either a Yz400 or Yz465 engine...i am just behind him on my Can-Am 400 powered bike my Dad had custom made..i got a lot more shots of that bike coming later.I believe i got sixth with this chap finishing one spot ahead of me.


Ok that is all for today but i got a lots more so stay tuned.

*edit for spelling error*

[Mickey Dunlap]

The pic I'm in with Tommy, it looks like he's talking to my little brother Ralph that was riding one of my 200x's #191. Looks like he has all my riding gear on too.

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

Its funny to say now but back then there was a number of riders George and i called "The Mickey Clones" cause they had a white 200x and had gear just like yours.

[barnett468]

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John, you are the man . . You have the only known photo of me racing a 3 wheeler . . You were probably lined up close to me if not next to me for the start . . I am on the Tecate between Donnie and “The King” Dean Sundal in the photo below . . I can’t express how happy I am to have even just one photo of me racing, because unfortunately, all my photos are gone, so now I at least have something to show the kids…and grand kids . . yes, that race was a few years ago, lol.

I think I ended up 5th or maybe one or two further back . . Heck, it might have even been 10th . . I was in desert doing testing with Kawi the week before the race so I drove up the back side to get there and had a bit too much “fun’ the night before, so I was a bit “tired” for the race shall we say . . I think the only reason I didn’t quit was because James Degaine kept cheering me on every lap, so there is no way I could have quit with him there doing that . . I think he kept yelling some lie to me like “You’re catching up to them” or something which I knew was bull, lol . . A day or so later at work, our lovely personnel manager named Bonnie, told me that I was in the Team Green results for that race, so James apparently though it would be amusing to make me an honorary Team Green rider for the day . . Until then, I had no idea where I finished and didn’t really care, simply because I was so happy to just have finished at all, lol.

Notice how sideways Dean is on the start . . Mike Coe said the Hondas had poor traction on some terrain because Honda made them use Ohtsu tires, and even though they were special made, they basically sucked.

[Mickey Dunlap]

Its funny to say now but back then there was a number of riders George and i called "The Mickey Clones" cause they had a white 200x and had gear just like yours.

Yea when I found my Team Honda 200x the guy made it blue and white, Powroll was the king in Washington and Oregon so everyone wanted bikes that looked like mine, not Team Honda.

[Joseph Farrow]

Great Stuff!
I appreciate you sharing Early West Coast ATC Racing History.

[onformula1]

Thank you for sharing and taking the time out, I love the vintage stuff!

[Jmoozy27]

The pic I'm in with Tommy, it looks like he's talking to my little brother Ralph that was riding one of my 200x's #191. Looks like he has all my riding gear on too.

Mickey, my first glance at this thread and I thought "what the he'll is #19 doing on a 2 stroke".

[onformula1]

Mickey, my first glance at this thread and I thought "what the he'll is #19 doing on a 2 stroke".

He did ride a 2 stroke in his career.

If I remember correctly a 200 and a 250r.

[onformula1]

LOL at the term "The Mickey Clones" they were everywhere in parts of southern California and all over Arizona, especially at Glamis & the Cinders

[Mickey Dunlap]

Mickey, my first glance at this thread and I thought "what the he'll is #19 doing on a 2 stroke".

I asked my self that a few times too! lol

[Mickey Dunlap]

LOL at the term "The Mickey Clones" they were everywhere in parts of southern California and all over Arizona, especially at Glamis & the Cinders

Really, I never heard anyone say that before. When I raced in Alaska they introduced me and the crowed applauded, but when they did the same with the Team Honda riders they got booed! I was getting help at that time from Honda, but it made me think twice about riding for them. Even when I did race for them I didn't like how we would get to ride tracks a few days before a race when no one else got to do that. It's not like we needed to do that, I just didn't like it, it wasn't fair.

[Joseph Farrow]

(12)Starting line for the 1982 Score World Championships at Riverside raceway. George is on the far left walking to his Nickolson XR500 with Mike Coe next to him. Id have to look closely to see who the other guys are but you can make out Eddie Sanders Nickolson frame RM250 powered bike over on the right side, in yellow of course.
Click image for larger version. Name: img033.jpg Views: 18 Size: 298.4 KB ID: 217860


Hey John do you have any better pic's of Georges Nicholson 500. My brother and I are building a Nicholson 500 period correct Racer bike. Want to model it after the early style 500's (wide tire).





There was a guy who ran out of Evan's Honda in Paducah Kentucky a Nich 500 in our area. I always wanted one. Ran up on a bike in Florida a little while back and was able to get it. It was a "Custom" bike but we are going to convert it back over to a full out race bike, like it should be.

Here is a pic of the bike from Kentucky. I pulled it from an old VHS taped race I found. He mainly raced it on large flat track and TT tracks.


Here is the bike we are starting with "Big Moe"


We're taking Big Moe from four to two....


Sorry for hijacking the tread. Just if you have any info or pics on the Nicholson 500 race bike I would be interested in seeing.
Thanks again for posting past racing history!

[3WW Star-John_Neary]

@Joseph - Feel free to hijack away, if anyone has photos or comments they wanna add by all means go for it.

I found one photo of the XR500 Nickolson bike on our trailer along with my Curtis Sparks build XR200 Nickolson bike in the pits at Saddleback in 82, no idea why i am making such a funny face.

The XR500 was a bike i never raced so i have no race shots of it but ill likely find a bunch of photos of it once i get started on George's photo albums.

[barnett468]

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@Joseph - Feel free to hijack away, if anyone has photos or comments they wanna add by all means go for it.

Ok, cool, thanks for letting us post comments on your thread . . I didn’t want to post any more than I had so as not to clutter up your thread.

I actually liked your white bike and your riding gear because of the white . . I was tired of seeing green and red bikes all the time so you stood out and were easy to see.

As far as the Big Bear race goes, Jimmy hole shot that one and I think he won it.

I posted some of the following questions on your other thread but you might not have seen them . . It would be great if you had the time to answer any of them.

Did you race the LA Coliseum, or San Diego Sports Arena races or the last short track race at Saddleback or the 3 hour long GP mud fest at Perris Raceway, these were all 84-85?

If so, do you have any photos of those races?

Do you have any of the results from those races or the Big Bear race? . . I’m curious where I and the others ended up for certain . . I know where I finished in the LA Coliseum and Saddleback and Perris races, but am still curious where others finished . . I never kept track of that stuff because I never really cared that much, I was just happy to race because it was fun, but now I kinda wish I had.

Anyway, as the others have mentioned, thanks for taking the time to post the photos.