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1975 Bastedo. “Jan-Eric made the most but there were at least 15 other guys making a good living racing in Canada at that time.” But how could this be, you may be wondering? Bastedo explains, “Throughout the ‘70s, motorcycle sales in Canada were skyrocketing. The Japanese manufacturers went from selling 30 thousand units in 1970 to 100 thousand by 1979. The industry has never seen growth like that before or since.” Bastedo goes on to explain that the Japanese business philosophy back then was based more on volume rather than profit. “That changed in the ‘80s, but during the ‘70s they just wanted to flood the market with their bikes and they were not as concerned so much with making huge profits. That explains in part why they were willing to spend big money on racing. Of course, our overhead was nothing like it is today either,” explains Bastedo. “Back then with Kawasaki we had a van, and people thought we were being extravagant. Look at the pits at a National today. It’s not too hard to tell where all the money goes.” So, the ‘70s really were a wild and wonderful time in Canadian motocross. “Electric” is a word that could be used to describe the moto scene at the time. And it all seemed to culminate with the running of the Canadian 500cc GP at Copetown. Copetown was no stranger to holding big races. As early as 1970, the track was playing host to Inter-Am and Trans-AMA races, which featured top riders from Europe and America along with our Canadian hopefuls. Always organized and prepared by Hamilton’s Steel City Riders, a club that has remained active to this day, the Copetown stop was always a favourite of the top European riders on the circuit. All the big-name riders of the day were in attendance. The list of Euro stars included 4-time World Champion, Suzuki’s Roger Decoster, and Gerrit Wolsink. Defending World Champion Heikki Mikkola was on the factory Husqvarna and Pierre Karsmakers was the lone USA Honda entry. Bengt Aberg was there representing Bultaco
HOMEGROWN HERO. IN A FIELD THAT WAS DOMINATED BY PREDOMINATELY FOREIGN RIDERS, BC’S LARRY MCKENZIE STOOD OUT. HERE LARRY DEMONSTRATES THE CLASSIC CROSS-UP ON BOARD HIS FACTORY YAMAHA.
along with Americans Brad Lackey Husqvarna, Tony DiStefano – Suzuki, and Steve Stackable - Maico. Canada’s hopes of course lay with Swedish import Jan-Eric Sallqvist on the Kawasaki, although the term Kawasaki may be a bit of a misnomer in this case, which is just the beginning of another great and colourful story surrounding this event. You see, Sallqvist, prior to coming to Canada, was a factory Husqvarna rider back in his native Sweden. Jan-Eric was not happy with his KX 500 that season so his mechanic, Cliff White, in an attempt to make the bike more competitive, converted the factory Kawasaki into what became affectionately known in the pits as the “Kawavarna.” The legend of the Kawavarna was recently confirmed to me by Bill Fullerton, who was close friends with Sallqvist’s mechanic Cliff White back in those days. “Both Cliff and Jan-Eric were not impressed with the amount of horsepower the Kawasaki was producing. They didn’t feel the bike was competitive,” remembers Fullerton. “The bike Cliff built for Jan-Eric had a Kawi bottom end with modified cases and a Husqvarna top end on it. Cliff was a real perfectionist so the build was immaculate. He hand-made a beautiful pipe for it, of course, and it also had Husky forks and wheels on it as well.”
Fullerton goes on to add that, “while they didn’t advertise the fact that the bike was in large part a Husqvarna, everybody knew it, but that’s just the way things were back then.” Jan-Eric was able put the Kawavarna into the top 10 overall that day, carding 11-9 moto scores for 9th overall. In an interesting side note, Canadian Kawasaki was the title sponsor of the GP event that year, and in, I guess you could say, an ironic twist, their top guy was out on the track riding what essentially amounted to a green Husqvarna. Classic! As a ten-year-old motocross fanatic at the time, the Copetown GP race weekend was like a dream come true for me, so, for that reason, I thought I would relay a story that captures some of my experiences from that memorable weekend. My father was helping out an Ontario Pro/Expert Rider named Brian Forsyth, who was racing the 250cc support class on a YZ 250, so I got to go along and hang out in the pits all weekend. Can you say Heaven! Armed with my scrapbook filled with photos I had painstakingly cut out of a Popular Cycling magazine (what a nerd), I cruised the paddock on Saturday afternoon checking out the legendary figures of motocross and securing a few key autographs. Steve Stackable, a long, tall Texan who raced for Factory Maico USA, was the
first to sign for me. I was lucky to get him because it was hot that weekend and when he wasn’t on the track he seemed to spend most of his time sleeping under his van. My dad was a hardcore Maico man so he approved of that autograph. Next on my list was Bengt Aberg. The Bultaco factory rider and two-time World Champion was parked right beside us in a van…by himself. Things were a little different back then. Unfortunately, I had not included Bengt in my scrapbook but he graciously agreed and signed his name beside a photo of American Bultaco rider Jim Pomeroy. Things were going well and by the end of the day I had landed signatures from most of the big players including the current champ Heikki Mikkola, fellow Husky factory pilot Brad Lackey, and American Suzuki aces Toney DiStefano and Billy Grossi. I was quite pleased and having the time of my life yet the Holey Grail of MX autographs still eluded me. The Suzuki squad was the only team that had any semblance of security around their pits and DeCoster had been elusive on Saturday. In fact, I had only caught a couple of glimpses of him lurking around the back of the Ryder rental box trucks the team was using. Sunday morning got off to a less than stellar start. My dad’s guy, Brian, got his foot run over in practise by American hot-shoe Frank Stacey.
64 // MOTOCROSS PERFORMANCE · MXPMAG.COM
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