RACEGUY & RIVERGLADE

Looking Back on the Day
September 21, 2011

“Back in the day” --- Now THERE’S an expression that can get an old fart in a heap of hurt. “Back in the day” is a phrase that most often means its user has a problem letting go of the past. I try to shy away from it like the plague, but every once in a while, old-fartitis causes one to trip over the term and find it necessary to slip it in somewhere.

Thinking about all the work that has already gone into making this Saturday’s series finale at Riverglade something far beyond just another motocross raceday, makes me proud to be part of this sport. Thinking about what the weekend will hold for you in memories that will last a lifetime, makes me think about the so-called “good ole days” and how much it meant to those of us who got to share the experience.

Today, we enjoy a professionally managed and highly structured raceday that is a continuous nine hours, with very little, if any, downtime. Today, we still get to enjoy the moto-moms’ legacy, which is now a chilli dinner, but I’m sure, a lot of the “fun” we used to have, has been toned down a bit, due to the risks of being caught on cell-phone pics or video, and the threat of it all ending up on Facebook, You Tube or Twitter.

The tradition of the “moto-moms’” continues. The night-before party is still one of the best social events anywhere, raceday morning pancakes date back to the era of Gord Close and Harry Lord. The racing will be as intense as ever, as always, and – just like the good ole days - there will be plenty of riders changing everything from class number-plates, to bikes, to the classes they will ride on raceday. Oh, yeah…the banquet tickets will be on sale…another traditional Riverglade Finale feature.

The season finale has always given us the unexpected as well. Kyle Elliott was the master of that discipline. When Kyle suited-up to go to the line…Kyle suited up. I still feel the sting of the loss of Kyle Elliott, but I hope someone with a sense of humour will pay tribute of Kyle this weekend and keep a tradition alive. We miss you Kyle. It would take one helluva man to even TRY to fill your sumo suit.

Now, we get into the part where things have changed or been lost altogether. I know I will miss things on this list, but here is just a very small sample of what always made the Riverglade season finale so incredibly unique as a whole package.

Back in the day, (There! I said it!!), this race drew dozens of “strangers” who’s yearly race calendar included ONLY this event. We also had a pretty consistent turn-out of riders from Quebec. Often, we’d have a one-off rides by local legends who had “retired” but needed a fix. Throw on some of your old gear, (the stuff that you can still get into), borrow a ride for the day, buy a jug of fuel, and hit the grin factory.

Again, looking at ancient history, one race never failed to captivate the crowd and always more received more help and encouragement than any other class. Ask your favorite old fart about “The Mechanics Race”. You could write a book on the antics of mechanic-riders, their mechanics, the families and friends, the pranks and practical jokes, the bikes…DAMN  I miss “The Mechanics Race”. Possibly more than once, we also ran a two-up or tandem race. If you were to Google “peeing your pants laughing”, I’m pretty sure there would be a link to a motocross two-up tangle. Then, of course, there’s always the “Dads on pee-wee bikes” sprint race, even a “moms only” event at least once, if my memory isn’t mixing reality with hallucination together again.

At one point in time, the most important place you could have your name immortalized was the “Team Trophy”. The “Team Race” consisted of three-rider teams that included one Junior, one Intermediate, and one Pro, with a draw to determine who raced with whom. Scoring was MXdN format, with the team scoring the LEAST number of points after adding the points of all three riders. This race was a straight-up 100% payback, so the winning team got more than just their names on that magnificent trophy.

My favorite thing about the “Team” trophy is that there are teams engraved on there that include home-grown local boys teamed with Canadian champions. Having your name and Marco Dube engraved as team mates has to be a helluva feeling.

Alas, as the class structure grew and grew, schedules became tighter and tighter, and time for anything other than accepted classes became non-existent.

One more thing I am missing. While there are some folks still using the season finale as a showroom to sell off their excess and used “stuff”, in the 70s and 80s, that race was like a HUGE flea-market or garage-sale. This alone added to the crowd as it drew out a whole herd of off-roaders, play-riders, budget racers, and poseurs, all with cash-in-hand ready to snatch up your worn out Gaernes, or buy out your entire stock of leftover tear-offs.

As I said, we still have some people taking advantage of a captive audience, but just imagine the difference if we organized and promoted a huge flea-market/swap-meet at the final race of the year.

OK. Time to get my head out of the past and back to reality. We WILL have another weekend to remember at Riverglade. We WILL have drama and excitement GUARANTEED, due to a lot of close championship chases and scores to be settled. We just won’t have “a few of my favourite things” as mentioned above.

You know what? I guess this makes me kind of glad I was there “back in the day”.

See everyone at “The Glade”. Bring along your grin liniment.

**I’m working on pictures right now, but Photo Bucket is totally messed up. I’ll add ‘em when that $^##^&@*% web site lets me at them. Check back.

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