You may have seen him in the motorcycle race movie called “ On Any Sunday ”. That movie , back in the early 70s inspired thousands of people like me to get a motorcycle and go racing all across the country most every weekend . When I met Dave , I told him thanks for all my pain and injuries over the years from watching that damn movie !…. He laughed hard and said I didn ’ t have to watch it . So we went to his race trailer and I got to see his “ on the road ” setup and He even took a picture of Me sitting on his Honda . I was in charge of the official autograph booth so we set up a time to do that and later on I did the official interview over at Charles Gerard ’ s Re-Cycle Barn parts booth and it went like this : Me : Why , at 67 years of age are You still out there on the race track ? Dave : I want to give something back to the sport and to the fans who came out to support us all thru the years . At first it was just a hobby for me , but then it became a profession . I lived with my Mom until I was 28 so I could afford to race . Me : What about the “ Skeleton ” leathers ? Dave answered something about the leathers , but I got the feeling that he ’ d rather be known more for His riding ability , than the iconic leathers . Me : Where are you living now and how many times a year do You race ? Dave : I live in Atlanta , Georgia and I race about eight to ten races a year on average . Me : How many injuries have you had ? Dave : Not too many but my worst one was a broken femur . Me : What bike are you racing now ? Dave : I have these Hondas . I bored and stroked one to over 500CCs . Then he went into some really cool stories about the old days when you could get away with some crazy stuff and his eyes would just light up and you could see just how happy he was about his past and in him an obvious feeling of having been blessed to have been chosen to be in the movie , where his fame took off like a rocket ship . Dave says that a lot of guys wanted to be in that movie . Steve McQueen , Malcolm Smith , Gene Romero , Bart Markel , Mert Lawwell , and many others like them were our two wheeled heroes back then , and inspired us to get out there and race our hearts out . Just to meet such a motorcycle icon and legend like him is a true honor .
Saturday road races went well despite the on and off showers , and the turn out of ARMA riders was huge . Overall I will say that even though the rain may have stopped some people from coming , the event was definitly bigger than last year . The Flat
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track races started earlier than expected so I missed the first practice and some heat races . When I got there I noticed the fans , and the riders were having a blast ! The excitement that flat track racing generates is unbelievable . The other heat races were pretty tight with Van Rayborn winning the first heat race and Dave Aldana taking second in His . Dave went down pretty hard in turn one in His second heat while running second calling out the restart flag . I guess that was lucky for Him because the restart gave Dave a chance to grab first place in that one . More riders went down fairly hard as everyone was trying to figure out what their bikes would do on a hard surface . As the night went on , everyone started to turn some very fast laps as they began to get more comfortable out there and their tires were squealing around the turns with sparks flying everywhere from steel hot shoes on the rough surface .. The crowd shrieked when Van Rayborn and Dave Aldana collided , sending Van flying thru the air and rolling across turn one stopping in a twisted heap with everyone wondering if He was O K . When Dave came back around to see if Van was O K , Van gave Dave a push to show his displeasure and then hobbled off to collect His Motorcycle . I noticed that everyone out there in the cold windy weather , had smiles , from ear to ear . Flat Track Racing just kind of does that to Ya ...
I headed home Saturday night after the Flat Track races , but the Pinup Girl contest and Berlesc show must have been a hoot . I saw that the Sunday races were a huge success and I hope that everyone can make it next year . Dave Aldana was the perfect guy for the Grand Marshall job and Thanks to ARMMA and Maurice Turgeau , and NOLA , and of course Woody McDaniels .