TEN YEARS AGO TODAY: DEAN WILSON JOINS THE BIG HAPPY FAMILY

Dean Wilson came to REM to test his new knees before returning to the AMA Nationals in two weeks. He not only won the 450 Pro class, but REM let him race a second unclassified class so that he could get in four hard motos.

Photos by Debbie Tamietti, Dan Alamangos, Jody Weisel and Rich Stuelke

There is no local race series more insular than the Saturday morning motocross races at Glen Helen. They have their own separate racetrack, they have their own homegrown stars, they have a unique place in SoCal motocross, everybody has their own private place in the pits, it is like one big happy family and it is the race that injured factory riders come to when they think they they are ready to race again—just not in the Big Show! This is the race that KTM factory rider Dean Wilson came to ten years ago when he was testing out his new knees. It is a race where “Everyone knows your name!”

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that MXA’s Dennis Stapleton (98) holeshot the first 450 Pro moto on MXA’s Factory Edition ahead of Wilson’s KTM works bike. What powered Stapleton’s 450SXF? An R&D Genius throttle body. Dennis would win the Vet Pro class and Wilson would go on his merry way after dispatching with Dennis.

Dominic Desimone (595) used a 3-2 to take second in the 450 Pro class. Here, he checks his six, but it looks more like his 3.

Trevor Stewart’s 2-3 got nipped for second overall in the 450 Pro class by Desimone’s 3-2.

Brazilian Vinnie Angelini wanted to ride the American competition into the ground, but, in this case, the ground won. 

This week’s winner of the “Greg Groom Creative Line Award” goes to Tristian Higgins (411), who cut this corner so many times that we lost count. It wasn’t that he cut it to gain ground, because he wasn’t catching anyone. He just couldn’t stay on the track.

MXA’s John Basher (86) is giving up his beloved Yamaha YZ125, so he came to Glen Helen to race it one more. John will head MXA’s East Coast division starting next month, but he wanted to race with his buddies at Glen Helen’s local REM one final time.

As always, Jody Weisel (62) raced a different bike in each moto—the first on a 2016 Honda CRF450 and the second on a 2016 KTM 450SXF. He was one of four MXA test riders who swapped bikes during the day.

The MXA gang spent all day Thursday testing set ups at Glen Helen on the 2016 RM-Z450, YZ450F, 450SXF, KTM 125SX and Honda CRF450, then came to REM on Saturday to race the bikes. Stapleton was testing maps with R&D’s Dean Dickenson.

This is an amazing photo. On the left is Terry Varner, who went into cardiac arrest in the pits six months ago. Terry was lucky that racer Rick Parker (right) was at the track. Parker, a fireman, jumped in to give CPR to Varner while the ambulance crew shocked him five times. Varner actually died, but was brought back to life on the drive to the hospital. Parker stayed with him from the moment he collapsed until he was in the emergency room. This week’s Saturday race was the first time that got back together same race. Note the quadruple bypass scar on Terry’s chest.

AME Grips’ Bob Rutten won the Over-60 Expert race. With 20 Over-60 riders on the gate this week, Rutten had his hands full with a top ten of Will Harper (2-2), John Alden (4-3), Ken Ehlers (5-4), Mic Rodgers (7-5), Mitch Evans (6-6), Mike Marion (3-9), Lyle Sweeter (8-7), Kent Reed (9-10) and Bill Maxim (13-8).

Proof positive that you don’t need a new bike to be succesfull. Josh Fout (26) raced his ancient Honda CRF250 to second overall in the 250 Beginner class.

Pete Vetrano does his signature freestyle trick. It’s called “one hand six inches off the bars.” Pete was second in the Over-40 Novices and 7th in the Over-50 Intermediates.

REM is always packed with foreign riders. Ten years ago,  Ryusei Otsuka (above) and Kai Okumura came from Japan and were joined by riders from Sweden, Kuwait, Australia, England, Russia, Holland, Mexico and Ireland. And that isn’t counting Scotland’s Dean Wilson.

Unless Maxx Murphy (256) knows one of Greg Groom’s secret shortcuts, he has this straight all messed up.

Ireland’s David O’Connor (30) and Hollywood stuntman Pasha Afshar (7) fight for room in the Vet Novice class. O’Connor would go on to finish second overall with a 3-2 behind winner Steve Lindwall.

Hollywood stuntman Will Harper (7) came home from six months in Australia, where he was working on “Pirate of the Carribean 5” to race with his buddies. They greeted him with open arms as Phil Dowell (23) and Steve Pfaff (612) say hello with some aggressive riding.

If you think that the bump that Randy Skinner is bouncing over is bad, look ahead to the one that is blowing Dan Alamangos’ feet of his pegs.

For some reason Glen Helen’s Saturday racers love to fly in formation. You could shoot this style of photo in virtually every moto. Here, Val Tamietti (31), Ron Shuler (33), Mark Hall (62) and Randy Skinner (52) sweep through…what else, a sweeper in the Over-50 Expert class

As a celebratory tribute to MXA’s Feets Minert, who celebrated his 84th birthday on Thursday, there were BSA T-Shirts printed up to honor the Catalina Grand Prix winner and BSA factory rider. Photo: Rich Stuelke

Feet’s birthday card. Photo: Rich Stuelke

Tom White (52) leads Bill Seifert (37). They were engaged in an all-out duel to make the top 10 in the Over-60 Expert class along with Jody Weisel. In the end Jody went 11-12, Bill 10-14 and Tom 14-11, And none of them made the top 10 as three-time Over-60 World Champion Bill Maxim took the tenth spot with a 13-8.

Jon Ortner (65) won the Over-50 Elite class on MXA’s 2016 Yamaha YZ450F. How did he do it? Someone suggested to him that perhaps he should press Yamaha’s all-new launch control button for the second moto. REM has a concrete start. Ortner went 2-1 over Ian Fitz-Gibbon’s 1-2.

Dave Eropkin (811) leads the fast Over-50 Conga Line with Ian Fitz-Gibbon (21) and Ron Shuler (33) in pursuit. Believe it or not, the rider who would eventually take the overall win in this class, Jon Ortner (65), is the blue Yamaha at the back of the long conga line. This was the moto before he discovered that the 2016 YZ450F has launch control for concrete starts. Photo: Rich Stuelke

Rich Stuelke was a High School Principle, but after he retired he thought he’d like to be a motorcycle racer. Now he is.

NOTE: This Saturday race at Glen Helen was shot 10 years ago. Since then, Dean Wilson is still a Pro, but has elected to stick to the World Supercross series and the Australian Nationals for 2025. Sadly, Tom White and Feets Minert both passed away. Dennis Stapleton is still an MXA guy—he was 33 at he race above. Josh Fout is now a Vet Expert and doesn’t have to race beater bikes any more because he is an integral part of the MXA gang, while MXA’s John Basher moved to North Carolina and now works at Joe Gibbs NASCAR team, but he took his beloved YZ125 with him. Mark Hall moved to Boise to work for WPS. David O’Connor works for the GasGas factory team building their race engines. Bob Rutten still works for A’me grips, but he moved to New Harmony, Utah, (but he makes the long drive from Utah for SoCal to a couple time sa month to race with his old buddies). Pasha Afshar has found fame as the promoter of the “Pasha 125 Pro” events at the World Two-Stroke and World Vet Championships. Pete Vetrano, who was been the TM, LEM, Vertemati and SWM importer is now the Scalvini cone pipe importer. Jody Weisel (1998), Randy Skinner (2001 and 2012), Jon Ortner (2013-2015), Val Tamietti (2017-2018) and Dave Eropkin (2019) all went on to win Glen Helen’s number one plate and, as amazing, as it may seem almost everyone shown racing back in 2015 at Glen Helen’s Saturday races is still racing today. Oh yeah, the concrete start was taken out a few years ago.

However, Frank and Myra Thomason retired from promoting the REM Saturday races after 30 years, but Glen Helen’s Lori Wilson picked up the baton and kept the “Saturday at the Glen” tradition going. To learn more about the “Saturday and the Glen” races, go to www.glenhelen.com.