CZ World Championships
Photos By Bill Evans
The CZ World Championships were held last weekend at Prairie City instead of Est. because of the high tides caused by the Oroville dam. Bill Evans called me Saturday morning about our club pop-up he thought it would be a good idea to have our club represented. So did I, so I took the 10x20 club pop-up out and helped set it up. We were in a great spot next to where riders entered the track.
I got there mid morning and in a large open area up front was set up for riders to display their bikes. Most of them were CZ’s but there also were Hodoka’s, Bultaco’s and some Macio’s, it was a great thing to see all those old classic bikes. Some were in better than new condition and you could see the hours and hours of effort put into these classics. The old bikes offer their owners the opportunity to be innovated to a degree in how they go about fixing them up, some were as stock as they can be and others were heavily modified.
A lot of those bikes had their own sort or unique sound so a lot of them sounded like they did back in the day, but there were a lot that sounded unlike anything back then a very solid modern two stroke sound.
The track looked perfect for those old bikes (The Armstrong’s did a great job I thought) one of the things that impressed me the most was the cornering speed they are low and just railed the corners. (In the right hands of course)
I don’t know how many riders there were my guess would be between two to three hundred a lot of riders had several bikes they rode. They came from all over the country and world for that matter. Some of the old names we remember (Or at least me) John Desoto, Rex Staten, Brad Lackey, Danny Turner etc.
I liked what I saw Saturday and decided to come back Sunday and watch the races. I thoroughly enjoyed them and will go again for sure.
Doug 21J