Old-school racers
On the hot, windswept motocross racetrack near Airway Heights, it wasn’t teenagers rounding the corners on loud dirt bikes Sunday afternoon.
It was middle-aged men such as Randy Skiver and Christopher “Siege” Jones competing against each other. And the bikes weren’t the shiny, shock-absorbent models of today – they rode on motorcycles almost as old as they are.
“This is a sport where a person with a modest income can find a bike in a barn, inspect it and come out and win,” Jones said as he took a break from loading up his trailer with 1960s-era motorcycles. “This is people experiencing the bikes they remember when they were kids.”
About 100 competitors – most 40 years or older – and their families dropped into the Spokane County ORV Park for a stop on the Novation Lumberjack Vintage MX series. Bikes such as Maicos and Jawa CZs and Montesas were lined up to race.
The typical motocross track was altered a bit, notably by reducing the size of the jumps. Suspensions of the 1960s aren’t the same as they are today.
“You can take those jumps with one of these bikes, but you’ll die,” Jones said. Instead, the course meanders through dirt and grass. A plethora of racing classes allows any rider from young to old and any bike from powerful to tiny to complete. People still take spills, and the racing is a bit slower than a modern competition. Points from the various races are totaled for a season championship at the end of the summer.
Some riders choose bikes based on what they rode when they were younger, and others just pick them by chance.
“Different guys have different interests,” Skiver said. People often find bikes by accident, noticing an old bike in a garage that needs a few repairs. Sometimes they’re a good deal.
“They range from free to top dollar,” he said. “Once people realize you’re looking for a bike, everyone looks for you.”
Skiver raced in three classes with his three motorcycles, a 1965 Honda 160, a 1963 350 BSA and a 1967 441 BSA. He won two of his races. He travels with his wife and five other couples to races all around the region, and they stay in RVs. Their group sat under a large tent and sipped drinks after the racing was done and the other competitors were pulling out of the parking lot.
The vintage motocross racers are a wide cross section. Skiver is 54 and lives in Snohomish. Others like Jones are artists. One racer is a guitarist for the Presidents of the United States of America, a rock band. New riders don’t come along too often; most of the racers travel from place to place on the tours.
But no matter who races, everyone acts as though they’re part of a large family.
“We don’t come to just race, we come to be around the people,” Skiver said. “It’s a friendly atmosphere and not many people take it too seriously.”