Blast From the Past:
Articles about ATV racing (Circa 1972)

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 1
5

Don Burrows sent us a NATVA (National All Terrain Vehicle Assocation) program form 1973 He said "I soon got the NATVA racing bug and started racing. I found a copy of the "Official Souvenir Program for the NATVA Grand Nationals in 1973". It makes for interesting reading. Incidently, I finished 1st in A STOCK class and a friend of mine finished 2nd in B STOCK. We both ran stock Max machines".

Thanks Don!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A note from Lloyd Brown about who the people are in Page
12 the group in second row right is 'The Factory Race Team' that retired unbeaten. In front you see various racing trophies from National Races. The longer bodied racer is "Deek's Triple Threat" Show but no GO. Deek Scott [Driver]is leaning against it.Back row is four various racers{ can't reconise which is which]The white lab coat on far right is Howard Gerber,Plant Mgr &good Boss, next is Bill Neely, foreman Next white coat is Bob Haser, repair shop foreman, next in white is Jay Wilker, Machinist, Far left is Lloyd Brown, engine builder,me. In far left racer is Howard Bohnert, sub-foreman. The picture was taken at North Park: an Allegheny county Park . It was titled "The R&D Team has a Field Day.

Thank You,Lloyd Brown


Sorry for the poor quality, but it will give you a idea about the old racing days.

 

 

 

 

PHOTO 1












NATVA RACING ACTION FROM Atlantic City,1970

Sent in from Marc Stobinsski: "I came across your site and it brought back a lot of fine memories. In the late 60's my father and I started snowmobiling and later saw our first ATV at a SkiDoo dealer. We knew we needed, had to have,couldn't leave without one and purchased our Scrambler. It didn't take long before a snowmobile engine replaced the 8hp Briggs. We entered our first NATVA event at Great Gorge ski area in NJ. We at least finished the event and went on to other races in Ohio, VT, and Tenn. We later meet Charley Baldwin and family (they always had something wild at an event). The Atlantic City event (photo) was about the wildest weekend. Charley demonstrated a 640 cc 4 wheel drive Scrambler by wheel standing down a side street outside a Boardwalk Hotel. This was before the casinos and the town was pretty dead in the winter. Can you imagine 6 wheelers infesting the Atlantic City boardwalk and beach. The racing was hot and heavy with allot of modified classes and a combined race as a grand finale. My Scrambler in the photo had a modified 275 cc Sachs 2 stroke that liked to rev to about 7500 rpm. (Great for racing but totally useless for trail ridding) The photo was taken as I was coming out of a sand hole smoking and slipping the clutches to keep the hp/revs up. One lap later I had to push it out of the hole because the rod broke at the wrist pin. After disassembling the engine later I found the rod stuck in the piston skirt. Next stop Kawasaki snowmobile engine,(more later)"

Regional race 1972 Cooperstown
Regional race May 1972
Regional race 1974 Cooperstown
Local Race 1974 PHOTO 1
Local Race 1974 PHOTO 2
Local Race 1974 PHOTO 3
Winternationals 1974 PHOTO 1
Winternationals 1974 PHOTO 2
Trophies from long ago

Thanks again DON KINYON
RACING ACTION from Don Kinyon

In 1972, when I was 14, my sister and her husband got interested in racing 6-wheeled AATVs. At the time, 6-wheelers were just about the only thing going by the name ATV. I was lucky enough to be included in the treks to weekend rallies, and even started racing in the Jr. class. I wasn't very good, but my brother-in-laws old Attex was fast and I usually ended up doing well. In 1973 and 74 They let me run classes A and B stock with the big boys, and I even did well enough to lead in the A stock point standings for a while.

Anyone that was into the races at that time will remember names like Scotty Slonaker, Larry Smith, and Larry Shorts, and the wild machines that came in from Motion Development and Sperry-Rand.The fully suspended units were really radical, along with aluminum-tub bodied modifieds and a stretched-out Attex about eight feet long. There was a team that raced Scramblers, Fisher Racing I think, that came in with a Tractor-trailer full of six-wheel racers and a mobile workshop. Saturday night drag races and the smell of 2-stroke oil (and nitro) are still vivid memories thirty years later. I can't start up my weedwacker without being taken back.
RACING ACTION PHOTOS from Don Kinyon

A T V Races from Leroy Houptley

Photo # 1
The National Point Champion for 1976 MC Class was Dave Johnson of Birdsboro, Pa. Driving a attex 2nd was Bud Fischer of Ashtabula, Ohio driving A Scrambler 3rd was LeroyHouptley of Fleetwood, Pa. Driving A Argo.

Photo #2
Is A rear engine Argo Built by R&M Recreation Equipment and Leroy Houptley it has 433 factory Modified Yamaha engine and was capable of 80 MPH.

Photo #3, #4, #5
Is a photo of what we call a springier it had all individual suspension making them very hard to beat. They only can runin the Super Modified Class.

Photo # 6
Is a Photo of A Six Wheeler jumping over three car.

PHOTO SET 1

PHOTO SET 2

RACING ACTION PHOTOS
Hi Richard: Here are some pic from when my father(Jeff Laughlin) and uncle's(Dave Bures) family used to race in the 80s in Ashtabula OH. My uncle still has most of the machines and my father just finished rebuilding the Tru Way Racing Springe) Mike Laughlin
JUMPING ATTEX
Visited your site today. Think its great. I like your blast from the past pics, brings back lots of memories. I've got some pic's you can add I hope. photo #6 from Larry Houptly needs to be corrected. That idiot who jumped the cars was me & It was 4 cars not 3. Here's a couple pic's from that day. My name is Alan Will . Whipper was my nickname and still is. Hope you can post these pics.I,ve got about 2 hrs of super 8 movies I'd love to share , but I need to figure out how to get them on a DVD. My wife & I were able to find ourselves in (2) of the pics posted on your website.Glad to see people are at least still getting together some how with their ATV's since they don't race anymore. Those were good times.Thanks ,"Whipper" Will.
   

 

 

Check back often for new additions.

I f have a cool article about ATV's please e-mail brief information:

Home | About This Site | New Toys | Information Bank | What's New | Blast From The Past | Museum | Tips | Photo Gallery | How To | FAQ'S | Memory Lane | Classifieds | Discussion Boards | Cartoon | Events | Shoppe | Parts for ATV's | Owner Registry | Links

Webmaster: For questions or comments