Flashback: 1967 Sacramento Road Race

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The Sacramento Road Race map.
The Sacramento Road Race map.
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Suggesting a world-class event, a poster showed world champ Phil Read (#42). He wasn't there.
Suggesting a world-class event, a poster showed world champ Phil Read (#42). He wasn't there.

The Isle of Man TT and Ireland’s North West 200 take place on public roadways, but for the most part “road races” are not road races at all. They’re closed-circuit races held on dedicated courses resembling public roads.

But in 1967 a group of enthusiastic California closed-circuit racers who normally competed in AFM (American Federation of Motorcyclists) club races at Cotati and Vacaville race tracks got the notion to promote a road race through the streets of the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. It would be known, according to AFM literature of the time, as a “Grand Prix Road Race.”

The July 2, 1967, race was part of the Sacramento Motorcycle Festival and Safety Fair, a two-day cycling carnival featuring field events, a bike show, a midway sprinkled with vendor and dealer booths, motorcycle safety demonstrations, and of course the motorcycle road race held on Sunday. Pre-event publicity promised that the festival would have “everything for the two wheel enthusiast.”

One pre-race flyer’s hyperbole touted the festival as a don’t-miss spectacular. Beyond its grammatical errors and misspelled words, it read: “On Sunday, July 2, the AFM will compete for over 1,000.00 dollars in prize money in a European style Road Race on the California State Fair Grounds Grand Prix Circuit. The grounds facilities at the Fair site are excellent for this type of event — there are many good viewing areas and lots of shaded picnic spots, as well as snack bars, drinking fountains and regular rest rooms.” Admission was $3 for the weekend; $2 for Sunday only.

The 2-mile course looped in a counterclockwise direction through the fairgrounds, utilizing a series of short and narrow connector and service streets, plus sections of parking lots, all lined with hay bales and construction sawhorses for safety and crowd-control purposes. The road surface had slippery manhole covers and nasty curbs.

  • Published on Dec 20, 2016
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