“Horst Leitner was an Austrian 500 GP rider with a boatload of ISDT medals, but he was actually an educated engineer.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/8899519/20121227_kkt_bb4_048.0.jpg "eddie gran bio")
Take any star of today and add 40 years and it equals this photo of the young and old Horst Leitner. Well, Horst is discussing them and Jody is thinking about what he will have for lunch.īefore Horst moved to America, his brothers and he were successful Austrian motorcycle racers in the glory days of the big British four-strokes. Jody and Horst discussing the engineering principles of modern suspension design at Saddleback in 1984. “In the ensuing years Feets taught me two things-how to fly aerobatic airplanes and to never try to pass him on the outside.” HORST LEITNER This is what Jody and Chuck did every Friday for over 30 years-or until the day he passed away. When I finally beat him I was as proud as punch (it didn’t matter to me that he was over 50 at the time).
EDDIE GRAN BIO PRO
When he was in his 40s he was still racing the Pro class at Saddleback. When I was still in elementary school he was winning the biggest races in America (including the 1956 Catalina Grand Prix). When I was wet behind the ears, Feets Minert was a factory BSA rider. “Sadly, you can’t see Feets Minert racing at Glen Helen anymore, he retired at 83 and passed away at 85, but over his 67-year racing career thousands of people got to see him race. Feets also went to England to race motocross back in the 1960s.Ĩ1-year-old Chuck “Feets” Minert standing behind the bike that BSA built to his specs in honor of his biggest win in 1956-the BSA Catalina Scrambler. This is a photo of Feets Minert at the 1970 Saddleback Trans-AMA. I’m paying for it.'” CHUCK “FEETS” MINERT If they complained, Tony would say, ‘Hey, that sticker cost me a dime. When a kid would ask for his autograph, Tony would hand them a sticker. So, instead of writing the fake signature, Tony had small decals made with his photo and the ad agency’s signature on them. The only problem was that it wasn’t Tony’s actual signature. “Three-time 250 Champion Tony D had a signature line of gear, boots and goggles. To be famous after the lime has dwindled from the footlights, you have to have been more than just special: you have to have been memorable. Victories can’t be compared across the schism of time.
How can that happen? Speed can’t be captured in a bottle. Those who are celebrated today might well be little more than footnotes to the next generation. Today’s modern heroes aren’t really bona fide icons until they stand the test of time. And strangely, the future determines the past. And in the last decade the sport celebrates Dungey, Villopoto, Tomac and Roczen. Then came the RC era which was punctuated by total dominance. The ’90s brought us the paradoxical mix of party boys (Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig) along with the dour (Jeff Stanton and Mike LaRocco). In the ’80s, it was the gang from the El Cajon Zone: Glover, Johnson and Lechien. In the ’70s, it was the Hurricane, the Pistol from Bristol and the Jammer. During the founding years of American motocross, it was the iron men of motocross: Adolf Weil, Roger DeCoster and Ake Jonsson. Jody at Saddleback-where he spent 5 days a week until the day it closed-and then moved to the next track to spend five days a week there.Įvery decade of motocross, it seems, produces a handful of people that epitomize the era, time, culture and sport.
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