Greetings family, friends, and neighbors! Today's little story is about an evening nearly fifty years ago when a famous showman came to our little corner of the world....Bill
Greetings family, friends, and neighbors! Today's little story is about an evening nearly fifty years ago when a famous showman came to our little corner of the world....Bill
Nostalgic Ramblings
THE EVENING EVIL KNIEVEL FLEW IN FREMONT
It was a cool Saturday evening in April of 1974 and thousands of
excited spectators turned out at Fremont’s Baylands Raceway to
witness the iconic daredevil motorcyclist perform one of his highly
promoted signature jumps. The day’s races had concluded, the
flood lights had taken full effect and the bleachers were packed.
Hundreds more people lined the quarter mile drag strip hopeful for
a closeup view. Anxiety was high for the widely promoted special
event and the appearance of the world famous cyclist. At last, the
deep rumbling of his custom prepared Harley Davidson XR-750
could be heard from behind his colorful transport trailer, eliciting a
huge roar from the adoring crowd. After a few minutes of gunning
the Harley, the white suited rider with the red, white and blue
helmet made his appearance by zooming back and forth on the
drag strip and riding to the crest of the specially constructed
portable ramp for a last minute check. Between the take-off and
landing ramps were ten tightly packed brand new Mac trucks,
undoubtedly provided by a local dealer hopeful in sharing publicity
with the star of the show. After more showboating and whipping
the assembled crowd in to a frenzy the rider positioned himself
down the track at a carefully predetermined spot, gunned the
cycle to full RPM, released the brake and took off toward the ramp.
Evil Knievel cleared all ten trucks with space to spare and
immediately began celebrating in front of the wildly cheering
crowd, racing back and forth performing wheelies, riding with his
hands in the air and standing on the seat of the Harley.
Evil Knievel attempted more than seventy five motorcycle jumps
over cars, buses, trucks (and rattle snakes) in a fifteen year career
beginning in 1965, making most of them but also suffering
countless injuries and fractures. Five months after performing his
stunt in Fremont, Knievel suffered minor injuries when his X-2
Skycycle Stream Powered Rocket crashed into Idaho’s Snake
River Canyon.
The Drag Strip is gone as are the oval tracks of Baylands
Raceway, Gliderport, and twin screen Nimitz Drive-In, all replaced
by Pacific Commons and Auto Mall Parkway, where one evening
nearly fifty years ago….Evil Knievel flew in Fremont.
-Bill 10/23