Huge Crowd Makes Donnie Shearer Benefit a Success - Part 1
at
Sage Cycle Park
Sunday February 23, 1975
By: SCM Staff
With an estimated 70 persons present Saturday night for a pre-race kickoff dinner and 2,500 on hand Sunday for the race, the Donnie Shearer Memorial Motocross Race weekend can only be described as a complete success. A week of prepartion, involving Ted Keep, publisher of SCM; Cliff Urseth, publisher of the Daily Independent in Ridgecrest; Dr. Robert M. Newsom; Jerry Shore, president of AME; and Mike Ayers, president of SPOREC (owners of Sage Park), netted the perfect-almost flawless-motocross benefit race. The event was supported by the entire business community, citizens, the City of Ridgecrest, Kern County Sheriffs Dept. and California Highway Patrol. With that kind of backing-along with the support of professionals such as Rex Staten, Ray Lopez, Kenny Zahrt, Randy Berkeley, Mike Todd, Jeff Wright, John DeSoto and Jeff Wecker-how could the event fail? The answer was simple, it didn't.
The sponsors of these riders were Holladay Cycles for Rex Staten; Bay Area Bultaco sponsored Kenny Zahrt; Mid-Valley sponsored Mike Todd and Jeff Wright; Ray Lopez from C.H. Industries. All these riders came out, many bringing their mechanics, to make sure that their bikes ran good all day long. The crowd really got a good show. Between motos, the pits were quite busy. The mechanics had to sort out the bikes and were working like crazy. There was no practice for the race, so that between motos, the bikes had to be sorted out as far as jetting, suspension and sprocket work was concerned.
Without practice, the motos were more thrilling, as they had to use all their talent to go fast for the first few laps. And the mechanics did a fine job of getting the bikes together between motos. Hats off to the guys you never read about. Action actually got underway Friday evening when Keep, Urseth and Newsome met at The Hideaway to finalize arrangements, rooms for the professional riders and the banquet. Rooms were donated by Miracle City Motel and Desert Motel, and they gave them the best they had, that-a-way to go Miracle City and Desert Motel, while The Hideaway donated 20 prime rib dinners.
Now we have all had prime rib, even at Lawrey's, but let me tell you that the Hideaway out-did themselves, and the girls that waited on the group were the most efficient I've seen. Now 20 people are not not hard to serve, but it was more like 120-so many people wanted to meet Staten, Zahrt, DeSoto, Todd, Wright, and Lopez, that it was asked if it could be opened to the public. The Shearer family was there and spent the night talking with the shoes that came up to the race. And to top things off, Pennzoil showed up with a couple of fine motocross films.
The Pros arrived in Ridgecrest by 7:30 p.m. several pulling in scant minutes before the pre-race banquet festivities got underway at Hideaway. It was an evening consisting of a great meal, getting to talk all the racing you wanted to, ears eager to listen, and for youngsters to meet and talk to the guys they normally only hear or read about. Long after the kids had gone home, certain race officials and competitors were seen shooting the breeze and just having a good time "on the town".
Saturday afternoon, the City of Ridgecrest sent its water truck and a driver, Bill Cordle, who donated his time, out to Sage Park to help with pre-race conditioning. The track sits 13 miles south of the city limits of Hwy. 395, so you can fully appreciate the close cooperation of the City Council, which voted to support the event by a 5-0 vote.
Sunday morning, the Ridgecrest water truck returned, again with a city driver donating his time; Tri-County Ambulance sent two ambulances to the park free and owner Sandy Poulin showed up himself-along with a crew of men you wouldn't believe (all professionals); the Kern County Sheriff's Dept. had men present (as did the CHP) no hassles, just help. Shore and company (AME) were out in force to be helpful. This race had a special AME sanction so that the riders would all be covered by the $3000 Medical coverage. The Sandblasters Motorcycle Club of Trona handled all the flagging chores; Pennzoil showed up; as well as Quaker State Oil; and there were prizes donated by local businessmen; and C.H. Industries.
According to race officials, 1148 paid at the gate, grossing $1,722. The same official said an equal number of persons spent the cold night camping out at the park-or came in after the park stopped charging. In addition, 132 riders showed up to compete for a $525 purse adding even more money to the Donnie Shearer Leukemia Fund. Preliminary estimates by park officials said the fund would probably net about $2,500 after expenses are deducted, but final figures will not be available for several days.
All but two of the expert contestants who won prize money donated their winnings directly to the Shearer family in a private presentation following the race. Staten, leading money winner of the day, passed on $180 to the Shearers, with Lopez adding $90, Zahrt and Berkeley adding $50 apiece, and Todd and Wright adding $35 each. This added up to $440 of the total purse. We hope the missing $85 will find its way back. Getting into the race program, minibikers (23 in all), hit the track first.
