a social organization of pioneer motorcycle enthusiasts

When I took the stage at the Carson Center on Saturday night (4/2/22) to emcee the 2022 Trailblazers banquet, it had been 216 days since the last one, which was held Anaheim in August of 2021. Normally we have a full year to get everything ready for our long-running event, but thanks to Covid we had moved the previous event to August and now wanted to get back to our old event date in April. 

Despite the reduced schedule and many hours of work to prepare and produce all the necessary materials, I have to say personally that I have never felt as satisfied with the result of our Trailblazers banquet as I am right now. Sure, in the coming weeks, the Board of Directors will have a "shake down" meeting to discuss what is often called "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Based on my own observations as well as the many other Facebook reports I have seen already, I don't think there was too much, if anything, that went bad, and I certainly am not aware of anything ugly. 

First, a word of thanks to those Trailblazers Directors Ernie Aragon, Norm Bigelow, Joe Colombero, Kathy Cruz, Nancy Emde-Steward, Kevin Foley, Paul Flanders, Bill Getty, Tom Horton, Keith Lynas, Steve Storz, Tom Seymour, Devon Sowell and Duane Teevans. This banquet would not have happened without their time and hard work since that last banquet. Also, thanks to Lee Durlach of the Motorcycle Industry Council for his assistance with my stage and video presentations, plus sponsors including Colleen Barnett-Taylor and her husband Mike Taylor from Barnett Engineering, Chris Carter from Motion Pro and motorcycle manufacturers Honda, Husqvarna, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha. There were many more who pitched in with assistance, including Rod Lake, Mark and Randy Zimmerman, Chris Steward, Gail Waller and Vickie Green, Kenny Buchanan, John Flanders, Debbie Bailey, Brian and Evan Bell, Todd Peterson, singer Sandi Johnson-Weidler, Luke Colombero, Morgan Williams, Jeff Emde, and thanks to Todd Huffman for use of a short clip from On Any Sunday. 

We had a great contingent of veteran photographers in the house. Thanks to Denis Suter, Jim Gianatsis, Howie Zechner, Mitch Friedman, Richard Haight and Scott Heidbrink.  And as he did last year for Eddie Mulder, artist Dave Maestrejuan again made a painting of the Dick Hammer Award recipient Mert Lawwill. I feel that this is now becoming one of our banquet traditions and we thank Dave for his generous contribution to the event. 

With the last of the LA County Covid restrictions being lifted just the day before, it was nice to finally be able be close with our old friends, shake hands, even get a hug or two. I was inside the banquet hall most of the afternoon preparing my presentations, so I was not able to be out at bike show very much but did enjoy one lap around and saw a lot of you. As always, we had some unique and notable motorcycles brought for the show, which was presented this year by Tom White's Early Years of Motocross Museum. Great to have the family of our dear-departed friend Tom White involved again with the Trailblazers. Most of the other Trailblazers board members were hard at work at the many stations outside to cover the activities going on, including badge Will Call, bike show judging, the Silent Auction, T-shirt sales and more. And thanks again to all of them for their dedication to our purpose and giving up their own opportunities to go hang out with their friends. 

Attendance this year was intentionally lower than our last banquet at the Carson Center in 2019 when we had a record 800 attendees. Even without factoring any "social distancing," it was felt back then that 80 tables of 10 was just too tight and over- crowded. So, this year we changed to 76 of the smaller 8-seat tables which totaled 608 seats. I think everyone would agree it was much more comfortable. There are always a few no-shows of people who had bought tickets, but I would estimate there were probably about 575 in attendance, still a nice size party. 

Like it was at the first Trailblazers banquet in 1940 when motorcycle racing greats such as Ralph Hepburn and Freddie Ludlow were in the house, this year was amazing. In addition to Mert Lawwill and the other 2022 honorees, we had racers from all aspects of the sport including Roger DeCoster, Brad Lackey, Broc Glover, David Aldana, Chuck Miller, Jeff Ward, Mitch Payton, Danny LaPorte, Jim Odom, Chuck Sun, Donny Emler, Ralph White, Jim Wilson, Thad Wolff, Dave Hansen, Sonny Nutter, Keith Mashburn, Mercedes Gonzales (Natvig), Bob Bailey, Eddie Wirth, Mike Bast, Harry Klinzmann, Chuck Palmgren, Chance Darling, Scott Burnworth, Rob Morrison, Chris Carter, Rod Lake, Eddie Castro,Tom Clark, Don Dudek, Bryon Farnsworth, Walt Fulton, Bryar Holcomb, Mark Homchick, Tom Horton, Chip Howell, Mike Konle, Debbie Matthews, Shawn McConnell, Bruce McDougal, Danny Perkins, Goat Brekker, Todd Peterson, Chris Steward, Buddy Stubbs and more who I am surely forgetting (my apologies). There were of course many other friends and families, journalists, and both current and former race tuners, mechanics and managers in the house including Dennis Mahan, Ron Heben, Rob Muzzy, Ed Scheidler, Jim Perry and Jim "Bones" Bacon, to name a few. 

I was very proud to make the award presentations to this year's group of honorees. The awards started with the bike show winners and a special presentation to Rod Lake of the Trailblazers President's trophy. His support of the motorcycle sport is quite unique  and far-reaching, and it was presented as a thank you for all that he has done for others. 

The sadness of the passing of Kenny Clark at the end of 2021 was made a little brighter for his daughter and attending family when Broc Glover, Scott Burnworth and Ed Scheidler joined us on stage and had some nice reflections of their times working with Kenny. The others were all in attendance, including Norm Bigelow who received the Earl and Lucile Flanders Award, plus Hall of Fame honorees Sue Fish, Donnie Hansen, Sel Narayana, Reg Pridmore, Tom Seymour and our final award presentation to Mert Lawwill for our highest honor, the Dick Hammer Award. 

What a night. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 1st, 2023 and we'll back at the Carson Center for the 78th annual Trailblazers banquet and bike show. We'll have reports throughout the year on my Facebook page and also the Trailblazers page, plus the website at: www.trailblazersmc.org.