sideblog: Mark Brelsford

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Yamaha Silver Cup, Long Beach, CA

Great old clip, posted by Superbike Planet, of early-1970s indoor short track on concrete. Nixon, Mashburn and Brelsford are all interviewed. The track looks like ice, definitely no Coke syrup down to make that more tacky. I'm pretty sure it's 1971, or late 1970. A bit of digging showed that Jim Odom won it (the rider from the Trophy Queen page of Sideburn 10).

As the presenter explains, the series also went to the famous Madison Square Gardens for the NY round in January 1971. A reported 17,000 turned up, on a Monday night!, the iconic venue sold out and spectators were turned away, according to an AMA report from the time. I wonder how many will go to the first US Superprestigio in Vegas on November 20-21? Two who will be there are Ben and me. Travis the poet too! Whose coming?

Click the 'Carpet Shoes' label below for more post about indoor concrete short track, or the 'indoors' label for more indoor short track in general.

Thanks to Roger for bringing it to our attention. G

Friday, 28 November 2014

In search of Mark Brelsford

Mark Brelsford is no easy man to track down, but we got him after a saga of midnight transatlantic phone calls, messages relayed up mountains by friends and futile emails lost mysteriously to the ether. After big crashes in 1973 and '74 the 1972 Grand National champion quit racing and moved to the great open spaces of Alaska. 'I'd had the last rites two times in the last two years and I thought I'd better get out while I'm still able to walk and talk.' In the new issue of Sideburn, (#19, available now), we hear Mark's memories of racing at Ascot Park in 1969, his first year as a Harley-Davidson team rider. David and Goliath even get a mention. He's shown a year or two later in the shot above - unknown photographer please drop us a line. MP