The Delta Burnaby Conference Centre in British Columbia hosted the 13th annual Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Reunion on Saturday, November 17, with crowd of almost 300 on hand to meet this year’s group of new Hall arrivals. The event was hosted by veteran Canadian voices Pat Gonsalves and IM’s own Frank Wood.
The evening opened with the Presentation of the Bar and Hedy Hodgson Award, delivered by the 2017 Award recipient, Cycle Canada Magazine co-founder John Cooper. This year, the special award went to Peter Gagan, a leading light in the Vintage community and co-founder of the CVMG. Their first meeting back in 1968 was by invitation at Gagan’s home and now the prominent group now numbers 2.700 members.
“that was pretty impressive,” quipped Gagan after hearing his introduction. “We really have to work to keep people interested in old motorcycles; we need to keep promoting this, as the market changes, and the old bikes start to decrease in value. Now we need to get people in their 50s to get involved; they have nostalgia for the bikes and they have the money! We need to keep these young people coming up.”
Star of the Induction Show was the always-entertaining Steve Crevier, the six-time Canadian Superbike Champion, 1998 AMA SuperSport National Champion and hero of the long-lost Westwood, B.C. venue.
“Well, it was a lot of fun,” deadpanned Crevier after getting an award from 1978 F-750 road race World Champ Steve Baker, another ace who started at Westwood. “I was raised in Port Coquitlam, and as a kid I use to go and see people like Steve Baker and Jimmy Dunn race at Westwood.”
“My Dad would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, and I would say a motorcycle racer. He would suggest an engineer, and I would say I don’t want to drive a train! When I was 17 I bought an RZ350 and headed out to Westwood, because that is what I wanted to do anyway.”
“My first race, they put the Amateurs in the back row, behind the Pros, and it was raining and I did pretty good, fourth overall. Any they gave me a cheque for maybe $ 180 dollars, and in Motocross I never earned a penny. But they tell me if I ride Pro, I won’t get an Amateur title. And I said I just wanted to ride with the fast guys, give me my friggin’ cheque! I thought they wanted to take away my cheque!
“My heart is really in where I started, here in Westwood. Those were the best years, even though I was broke, so broke. Those years were hard, but the travelling was so exciting, really in that first year we went east, 1986. I was with Gary Goodfellow, Rick Hobbs, Steve Wyatt, a few others.
“We blew a head gasket in my van near Golden, rebuilt the van, got to Shannonville, didn’t know where the race track was, so we slept by Hwy 401, and Tom Walther slept in a lawn chair on the roof of the van! It was so exciting back then, the racing was so great, we started at Westwood and went from there.
“I feel like I haven’t really accomplished that much in life, except for four great children, and winning on a motorcycle – I couldn’t ask for any more from my life. This is truly an honor.
One-time Crevier tuner Rick Hobbs also joined the hall of Fame, and spoke about his extensive career wrenching for some of the top Canadian and American road racing stars. Hobbs went to the U.S. to join the Vance and Hines squad in 1993, where his first race involved helping Eddie Lawson to a win in the prestigious Daytona 200!
Currently, Hobbs is California-based, and still working for Yamaha in Superbike. Since 2014 Hobbs has headed the program for three time MotoAmerica overall Champion Cameron Beaubier, continuing an impressive string of successes for the popular builder.
Hall of Fame boss Paul Germain, the popular Manitoba-based racer, presented famed Moto Cross star Allan Dyck to the Hall, the long-time Yamaha and Honda rider know as “Too Trick.” His best season came in 1989, when Dyck pulled of the Triple Crown, earning 125, 250 and 500 National class Championships in one season. Only the legendary Ross Pederson has pulled off this difficult triple.
Since completing his riding career, Dyck has developed a chassis tuning and suspension business, and in the past season started his own Team on the National M/X tour, backed by Sky Helicopters and Holeshot Motorsports. His Honda riders earned eight overall in the two divisions of the National Championship tour.
Moving to Canada in 1965, famed Alberta Trails advocate Dave Rhodes became a fixture in Alberta with the Calgary Motorcycle Club, and the Trails boom involving Bultaco, Montessa and Ossa machinery. In 1971 he organized the first European-style Trials event in the foothills west of Calgary, and was soon a sales rep for Yamaha, and organized the first North American Trials World round in Alberta in 1975.
Dave and his family moved to the Okanagan in B.C. in 1981, and since then have run OUTLaw TrialSport- supporting, training and sponsoring observed trials and remained active in World Trials Canada.
B.C. organizer, writer and Competitor Wally Klammer was a popular fixture on the “Left Coast” until his death from Caner in 2014. A budget Enduro enthusiast, Klammer was soon organizing events and representing the off-road community at the Government level. Among Klammer’s many achievements were his work to secure the Chipmunk Creek Riding area with the CVMC as stewards.
Daniel Amor had a brief life but still managed to make quite an impression with the off road community before his untimely death in 1983, right before he was schedule to once again represent Canada in the International Six Day Enduro squad in Wales, GB. A regular at the premier Enduro event, he earned a Gold Medal in Austria in 1976 and was mentioned by most of the other inductees at the 13th annual Hall of Fame gathering.
Also joining the Hall where Vera and Joseph Godsall, long time prime movers in the British Columbia and International Motocross scene, and staunch Canadian Motorcycle Association supporters.
Al Perrett grew up as a serious skiing competitor, but soon switched to dirt bikes and opened his first bike shop for Suzuki in Richmond B.C. in 1966. Another strong ISDE competitor in the 1970s, Perrett was a successful Baja racer starting in 1990 and went on to run Kamloops Harley-Davidson from 1977 to 2016.
Support for the second Hall of Fame event held in B.C. came from Federated Insurance, BMW Motorrad Canada and Joe Rocket, with additional support provide by Yamaha, Husqvarna, Motorcyclelawyer.ca and Beta.
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