Does anyone remember or know anything about WSA? I was there in the 70's

I know everything!!!

...well...I know everything about WSA...other than that, I don't think I know anything.



I've got pictures and stories. Choose your poison...

I am Dennis Dain (Red Baron)

Who are you and who did you race against?


...oh yea, welcome aboard. You are about to waste a whole lot of time online...

I live across the street from the old track. It was gone by the time I moved to California. I wish I could see exactly where it was on the property, maybe a straight or berm is left. On the spot is some self storage buildings. But again I never saw the track so I dont know exactly where it was on the property.

I only rode WSA once, May 1975.

I have a pic some where here of me eating a load of dirt at WSA. I think it was 78?

Mike

The track was right behind the batting cages Erik, if you are able to tell where those were.


Give us some of those stories Red Baron. (Red Baron was the KING of Western Sports Arama!)

Hey Kevin, thanks for those kind words.

A quick (personal) story for Kevin, before the WSA stories. Two weeks ago there was a couple of get togethers here in SoCal. I had only been at the Bellflower gathering for a few minutes before someone walked up to me and said, "hello Kevin." I appologized for not being Kevin Harlow, he laughed and said "you two are some of the only guys who wear shorts that show your knees."

The next evening at Mike Franze's bike shop gathering in Fullerton, I had just finished telling that story to Stu when someone walks up to me and says, "hi Kevin." I swear, twice in one weekend!!!

Here you go Kevin, an add for DG with the picture from the 1st turn at WSA.

The batting cages are gone. I see trees and the huge Western Sports Arama sign in the pictures. Were those back up against the river or close to Lincoln? Along the street is the self storage units and next to them on one side apartments and on the other side a self storage car wash. Behind is kind where the old city dump was and they just filled that in and built homes on top.

Is that an R&R your racing there Dennis? I had one in 81 I bought used. I hated it lol.
I can tell you guys apart. If your fast on a 20 its Dennis if your fast on a cruiser its Kevin.

That's classic!

Hey Erick, I just did a Google Maps search to get an overhead view. I have not been by there lately but from what I remember and from what I can make out on the map I am sure there is nothing left of the track. I 'think' the track was located east of N. Berkeley st on the north side of the street. (where the storage place is)

The only building on the premises were near the street with the batting cages behind that and the track behind those. On the other side of the track was a gravel pit. (at that time) From what I see on the map the storage facility looks like it goes all the way back to where the gravel pit was.

You can see the gravel pit in the background of this next picture.

That was THE place to race in orange county. I remember they outlawed two pedal starts because they considered it cheating. I remember Dennis used to race in cut off Levis and it was ok.they never said a word. I also remember getting smoked by a girl for the first month or so. That girl was Kim Johnson who later was my teamate on SE for a while. Good times.

Rod, you were just a little whipper-snapper back then. It sure was a simpler time.

Hey Rod, did you hear that Kim showed up at Franze's bike shop gathering last month? She looked great! It was neat to see another WSA youngster re-surface. I'm sure you know all these characters.

Virgil Howard...

...enough said.

Apparently so, the thread died. I killed the thread....

Ya gotta love it when someone new shows up, asks a question, then disappears.

Oh well...

It was not you Rick.

Red a guy comes into my job alot. I know he has his two old DGs. Wont part with them Anyway he raced a couple times at WSA and said he remembered you. That you lived down the street from his boyhood home. He didnt race much his name is Russ. He said he knew you raced some MX like he did and then moved to Mexico he thought.

He did hook me up with an old Escape Country sticker

I do not remember anyone named Russ from my old neighborhood.

I'm not sure if I am reading that right but I never moved to Mexico...

...anyway, the world is a funny place. I have run into BMX people everywhere...just wear some kind of BMX related shirt. Never fails.

With that big-o UPS truck of yours I would imagine so....

His last name is Klatt I think he clearly seemed to remember you.
Today I spent an hour talking to a guy who came to my job. Turns out his family ran Power Strokers team and shop. He said his dad ran the gate at WSA alot and his mom did alot of scoring.
All three of the kids including him raced. His name is Scott Ryan.

He said his dad used to customize bikes and he still has his Suzuki he ran with an eliptical sprocket and some all aluminum solid disk mags and tons of his old stuff. His dad just moved to Ohio and took alot of their old stuff back though.
He said his dad also helped run Saddleback. He didnt remember WSA ever doing a newsletter but he said Saddleback did he thought and may even have one as he saved some newspapers from BITD.

He lives around the corner from me so I gave him my number.

Cant edit the post his name may have been Rob Ryan. I forget for sure. I cant edit my post above so sorry for the double post. Next time I see him ill try to better remember his name lol.

Yea, his name is Bob Ryan. I remember him. I will look tomorrow through my old papers for more specific stuff relating to him. For now I already had this in my stash.



I still don't remember a Russ Klatt though.

Cool picture, I think he said he still had the bike. That everything was custom made by his dad. That he had mad a custom tensioner for the chain and he still has it.
Just fate seems to have kept his dad from becoming as famous as Cooks or GT etc. His dad also invented the addicks sprocket, but gave the rights to it after a sponsorship deal went bad. He told me the whole story, very cool stuff, we talked forever.

This shot of Bottema and Dennis is really cool. early bikes and throwing it around (verse NS racing). Thumbs up.



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i love that pic! now i miss my zf-1 too.

I remember that bike but I think the sprocket on that bike is one of Roger Durham's (Bullseye) elliptical sprocket.

wow, i raced wsa for 2 years 13x & 14x back in the utterback days (also my best friend then).
last time i was by there it was all gone(been many years)
still have my mongoose from the 70`s.
wish i had my whitney marine indy 500.

This might be Jeff Utterback in the lead. I'm not sure, but it might be Roger Strickland in second.

Either way it's the 1st turn at WSA...

yeah, thats utterback #23, i remember strickland.
i raced a mainly friday nights and sum saturday 2 lappers.
thanks for the pic. due you have any more?
thanx dennis, (i remember you)
mike brinkley

Dude...you have no idea!

I'll throw in a few that I have in my file(s) for now, then when I get a chance I'll look thru my old papers for any of you.

Here is a picture of me holding my 2nd place trophy from the 3 lap enduro race at WSA. That is Stu in the white shirt directly behind me and Robert Fehd in the blue and white jersey with white helmet.



Here is a BX Weekly cover of the first straight...

the saturday night enduros, i won the turkey day silvercup in 13x in 1975? i believe.

Mike, do me a favor. When you are responding in a thread, use the 'ADD REPLY' tab at the bottom of the page instead of the "REPLY" tab you have been using. That way you don't duplicate the whole previous response.

will do, sorry

It's all good Mike. Just showin you the ropes.

Any of your friends in here?

dennis, you always post the coolest stuff!!!! thanks fire

wow thats awesome, that you kept everything from all the years.wish i had!
i do remember the davidows,strickland,hill,thompson and you.
i grew up in LB around the corner from utterback,(i still remember jeff telling me he was going on tour w/ scott b. in the bus) we raced our first race @ bums.
wish i would have stuck with it,instead i raced mx.
thanx for the memorys.
if you have more i would appreciate you posting them.
thanx again

btw, nice saddleback & corona pics in your gallery,i raced them a couple of times.
i think my bro. in law still has a few pics of me from saddleback

Wow Mike, small world. I grew up in Long Beach also. North Long Beach, up towards the 91 fwy by Downey ave. While you guys were racing at BUMS, I had no idea that was going on as I was riding my Schwinn down PCH with my surfboard tucked under my arm heading towards Seal Beach.

I cannot build a WSA thread without posting these next scans. Mike, were you at this BMX 500 on Memorial Weekend in 75?

This is Mel Stoutsenberger going BIG at the 'jumping contest' we had during the big race. Here are 3 different pictures of the same jump. How cool is that?

LB, we lived off spring and magnolia by birney elementry.
went to hughes jr. high.

i dont know if i was at the 500 but do remember the jump comps.

surfing, ditched school many times to surf seal and bolsa chica.

do you remember bob bike shop? he had 2 brothers that rode for him(for the life of me i cant think of their names) you migh remember them.

is that david clinton w/ the kawasaki in the last pic?

I was there, I saw Mel try that jump I think 3 times and he came crashing down like a ton of bricks everytime, never landed any of them that day, most insane thing I had seen at that point.

I can always count on Spike to chime in on anything involved with 70s BMX. Here is a picture I 'borrowed' from Spike. That's Spike off the front straight jump on his frieght train frame, followed by John Wells.

One of the things I like about home style pictures is what you get to see in the background. This pic was taken the day before the BMX 500 Memorial weekend race in 75 and you can see someone doing some repair work on the bleechers and you can see the batting cages in the background.

Cool stuff...

Did the Bob's riders wear red jerseys? I believe the brothers you are thinking of are the Abbotts.

(I may be thinking of Bikeland)

Yes, I believe that is David Clinton in the Mel photo.

the only thing i remember is one of them ran a 2 speed rear hub
maybe that will help.

Hey Dennis..... Funny to read through some of these posts. I used to race at WSA from 75 to 78. I got started by being coaxed by Dan Loftus... I ended up racing for Steve (peddle Power then Powerlite). I never though to look online for this. I still have the second powerlite frame that steve hand welded up in his shop in 77 i believe... My number or pie plate for 2 years was 756. I ended up getting 3rd in the first nationals in Azuza i believe this was 77 as well. My new permenant number was 13X... lol.

Good to see a few have carried on the WSA and BMX racing history.... I also have my original racing bike from the day. Unfortunatly I have modified it for the my kids. So most of the OLD stuff is long gone.

One note... I am the creator of the bent back seat post. The story behind that was, I was famous for breaking bars ALL THE TIME. Mostly on the table top at WSA. (I was always trying to clear it like you!) I eventually did on a regular basis... Since the cross bar was the main break point I decided one day I just cut the bars at the bottom bend. Stuck it into my seat post and bolted the seat on... To my surprise it took off. I soon saw a few big players making them for sale. I think powerlite was the first to produce them. I know DG had a few styles...

I worked in steves shop off and on... during my riding days... Lots of stories! tons...of stories...

Chris Franklin