| Story by Michael Terry AHRMA
Southeast Region
MTerry27t@netzero.com
I was unable to attend the AHRMA National at Diamond Don’s this year,
but that didn’t keep me from sneaking a peek at the results and I saw a
name that was very familiar to me. But, before I tell you about his
extraordinarily kind person I need to rewind the clocks back to 1972.
Many of you may not remember (for heaven’s sake some of you were not
even born in 1972) when the Trans-AM series visited Rio Bravo in Houston
in the fall of 1972.
I was a wide-eyed 12-year old motorcycle addict from a little town in
Louisiana and my parents were kind enough to haul my older brother and a
bunch of us to watch the Europeans "school" the best Americans. Keep in
mind in those days the crowds were incredible (kinda like a Woodstock).
The factory teams were very much in their infancy (check out Team
Yamaha).
But as I tried to squeeze between people around the snow fence to see
the practice my mouth dropped as a very a familiar face came whizzing by
in practice.
Rick Jordan at Rio Bravo in 1972
I remember the first time I saw him ride. For those who did not know,
in the 70’s Rick was a regular at many of the tracks in Mississippi and
Louisiana since he lived in Little Rock. At a fairly large track just
outside McComb, Miss. Rick came down for what I believe was the
Mississippi State Championships. The very best in regional racers were
there and I remember how Rick floated that CZ around that pine
tree-lined circuit making it look so easy. He was (and I understand
still is) an incredibly gifted rider, but what I most remember was he
took time to talk to a bunch of kids that saw him as bigger than life.
Whenever Dad gave us a little break between prepping our own bikes
between heats (yes, we called them "heats" then) we would hang out
around Rick’s pits and watch him prep those CZ’s. Not once did he tell
us to scram or ignore us and I’m certain we were pestering him.
I remember at that same race there was a 90 °
turn right before the finish line and Rick’s pits were directly across
the track. As Rick came around the turn he wheelied all the way through
the turn and down the straight. He even took time to flash us a little
peace sign and to this date I still remember that incident.
I hope you have enjoyed my little walk back in time and I thought you
might want a little background about a great guy you have in your
region. If you get a chance the next time you see him, shake his hand
and give him a kind pat on the back. He is a great ambassador of our
wonderful sport and don’t forget to call him by what the PA announcers
called him in those days "The Arkansas Flash".
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