BELIEVE IT OR NOT! THE NATIONAL WITH THE TREE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK

Jody’s friend Kent Taylor was intrigued by something Jody said about racing at Texas’ Rio Bravo Cycle Park in the old days. Jody said that there was a tree located in the track, not next to the track, not near the track, but actually on the racing surface off the track. The riders had to choose which way to go around the tree. Jody said that he always went to the narrow side on the right.

Kent, who produced the “BackTrack” video about the 1972 through 1979 seasons, searched through his old Rio Bravo footage and found proof that the tree actually existed (actually two trees). You can see it at the 20 second point of this Trans-AMA video. Kent slowed it down so that you can see Gary Jones (88) and Brad Lackey (7) split the tree (at around 20 seconds)…with Lackey taking Jody’s favorite side.