On The Pegs May 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 5 | Page 86

On The Pegs
86
Leadville. The local Bultaco dealer wanted to show the Sherpa T’s he was selling
could compete against the Montesa Cota, which was dominating all the events
out there. Bultaco gave me a call, and asked me if I would be willing to fly out
to Colorado to ride a Trial by the request of the local dealer? Fly to a Trial, Really!
Nobody flys to a Trial, except maybe Mick Andrews or Sammy Miller, but hey, I will
try, so I flew out, borrowed a bike and won that event also. I still didn’t collect any
win money, I was still too guilty to give them a bill for riding a trail.
At that point in my Trials career, I figured that’s about all I could do on a Trials
bike, I was ready for my next adventure in racing. So I decided to go car racing,
so I stopped practicing and began to think of other things. Then the phone rings
again, and it’s Bultaco once again. They ask if I was planning on going to El Trial
#2, and I said no. They said, we think you should but they didn’t tell me exactly
why. Turns out, Bultaco was providing a Free Trip to Spain for the 10th San Anto-
nia Trial at the Bulto family ranch. So I went down and rode, winning the trial and
a free trip to Spain from Bultaco, which was amazing. All the newspapers covered
this story, including the Oakland Tribune which made Bultaco extremely happy,
and me a hot property as a Trial rider, but I was still planning of quitting riding
and going Sports Car racing, because there simply were NO professional Trials
riders at that time, and to carry on riding trials seemed like a foolish return on my
investment of time.
The the Phone rings once again, and Bultaco was on the line. They asked me
if I was planning on going to Saddleback Park that weekend to ride against the
Montesa Factory rider, Rob Edwards from Europe who they have sent for a pro-
motional tour of the USA. I said no! And they requested me to go and represent
Bultaco once again.
I had actually retired from Trials but I decided lets do this one more time. Then
once again I had a good ride and would have beaten Rob Edwards at SaddleBack,
but the organizers realizing I was going to win, simply because Rob was behind
on time and didn’t have the time to finish his 3rd loop in time.
So the organizers, just abruptly dropped the 3rd loop just as I was racing in to
collect my 3rd lap scorecard, which enabled Rob to finish on time, just beating
my score.
Not bad for my last trial I thought! Almost beating the Factory rider from Eu-
rope, and I would have if the organizers had not pulled the “Fast One” on me.
Tuesday afternoon I’m back at work at GM, and I get a call once again and its
Bultaco on the line. They ask me to come down to the importer in San Jose, not
far from my home in Pleasanton, they want to discuss something with me. So