American Federation of Motorcyclists -- 2

More two-wheeler action.   There are great stories to tell here but they're not my stories.  Others who lived this era  might consider putting together their photos & memories and creating a new site dedicated to west coast motorcycle road racing in the 1960s and 1970s. 
 
Santa Barbara, Sept. 3, 1961.  The beginning of the end for the "one-lungers".  #2 Don Vesco on a 4 cylinder 250cc. Honda RC161 leads #25 John McLaughlin on a 500cc. Matchless G50.  Vesco and Salvador Soto on another RC161 ran away from the suddenly antiquated British machinery. 

Bill Cleghorn corrects and adds to this information:  "Don Vesco is shown on a Honda RC-160.  American Honda Motors had, I believe,  two Honda-4 250s at that particular moment.  One was a 1960 RC-160 that had CHROME Megaphones
and a slightly different fairing and seat back.  (That bike was eventually heavily chromed and detailed and sent to Bill Harrah's Automobile Collection/Museum).  The other bike, the one Soto must have been riding, was the newer 1961 RC-161 with BLACK megaphones and fully enclosed fairing (w/belly pan).

I remember watching these bikes race at other locations, the time I remember the most was the SCCA race at the Oakland Airport just before it opened for operations.  Bill Krause won the big car race in a Birdcage Maserati.  Buddy Parriott had a spirited race on his 500cc Norton Manx vs. Ed Kretz Jr. on the AHM RC-161 Honda-4 250, which was so
fast they made it start with the 500s instead of on the 2nd grid of 250s & under!  It was Parriott at the flag, but just barely....the 250 Honda would always lead through the tight, twisty turns only to be passed back just before the start/finish line!"
 
Later in the 1960s and 70s the AFM ran their own events.  #39 Bill Cleghorn leads my brother, Tip McPartland, at Vaca Valley Raceway on July 4, 1970.  Both are riding 250cc. Bultaco Metrallas.
 
 
Bill Cleghorn describes this race:

"That was the last or next to last lap of the 1970 AFM "4th of July 250 Mile Production Race".  What was so interesting and fun about that is that your brother's Bultaco and I really "got into it" for a number of laps towards the end of the race. 

Scoring was pretty "iffy" at those races...so many bikes and 4 classes all racing at the same time, etc.  So we did our own "unofficial" scoring to have some semblance of an idea as to "where" we were in the overall scheme of things.  Actually we only really cared about where we were in class as we
were racing for that position instead of an overall win!

Towards this end my team (the owner, Eric Leighton and I and "the crew") determined that we might be behind the other Metralla...in any case, no sense taking any "chances"...we HAD to get ahead of that machine as far as we knew.

My co-rider, Eric Leighton, was at that time an AFM "Junior" rider (something they experimented with for 1 season, as I recall), and not really as quick as the more experienced riders.  But, he had this really good Metralla, that I'd been invited to co-ride, so it was decided that he would ride about 1/3 of the laps and I would ride about 2/3rds of the race if we were to have any chance of scoring high up.

I rode almost the entire last half of the race, having ridden 1 gas stop's worth earlier in the event.  Towards the end there I got on that other Bultaco's tail and he looked back and saw me behind him and wicked things up pretty well...  Knowing that the race was close to being done (we really DIDN'T know until the last lap flag, because the race's finish was being determined by some 750's placing to complete 250 miles!), I knew I had to do something pretty quickly.  I ended up following Tip for almost 5 laps and could get right up on his rear wheel, but couldn't get around him...we were that CLOSE on
speed and performance. 

Finally, somewhere on one of the turns, I decided "this has got to be it", and either outbraked him or ran through the corner faster and passed exiting (don't remember!) and I was ahead!  Then it was just a matter of holding him off, as he had been doing me, for 1 or 2 more laps!  Tip tried to overtake me I think, but I just kept things screwed WFO as much as I could and ended up 1st at the flag. 

Later, scoring ended up showing that the 2nd place Bultaco was actually 1 Lap and 1 Place down on us.  In any case that was a race I'll never forget, and I won't forget the McPartland Bultaco and I'm sure they won't forget me!

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