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