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My first exposure to Motocross was in 1969. I was 13 years old. My Dad (Wally Wallenberg) owned a TV shop and traded an 8 track tape player for a Honda 50cc bike. He immediately rekindled a love affair with motorcycles that he had had back in the 40's before he was in WWII. It didn't take long to outgrow the Honda so he upgraded to a used 1966 Suzuki X-6 Hustler. My Dad's buddy Carroll Erskine was a TV shop customer of his and it turned out he also had a Honda 50 and soon after they became riding buddies.
Not long after my Dad got the Suzuki, Carroll bought a Honda 305 to try and keep pace with my Dad. We spent the summer going to watch the flat track races at Santa Fe Speedway southwest of Chicago in a suburb called Hinsdale. There we got to see all the great local riders from that era like Bart Markel, Roger Reiman and Neil Keen. Santa Fe also hosted a National and we got to see the National champs like Dick Mann and Mert Lawill.
Once a month was TT night and there (aside from the movie The Great Escape) was my first exposure to watching a motorcycle jump, Oh I loved to watch that! I mowed lawns and earned the $75 price for my own Honda 50 as well. I rode that bike everyday in our tiny yard in the city pretending I was racing at Santa Fe... Read more
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