above: KEVIN SPENCER stylin over the top of the tunnel jump

right : SCREWY himself on fire on his sano YZ125

GARY OSBORNE Warm and Sunny skies greeted the 30 or so Evo riders at Washougal on Sunday!   Dirk Williams greeted everyone of the vintage guys at sign up...which went pretty easy, but with lots of paperwork to fill out...no big deal...as I was going to ride Washougal...   There were 48 entries in 3 totals classes, that combined all ability levels. Classes were 125, 250, Open and Open Age. Most of us rode at least 2 classes I think, just so we could say we raced vintage at Washougal 2 times or more. They interspersed us in between the Modern bikes. We ran heats 3, 5 and 8.   Just a note... All modern bikes are now so generic...they sound the same and look the same regardless of being 250 or 450's...If they were all the same color...you can barely tell which brand they are... Am I getting old? There are only a few 2 strokes left in all the modern heats. So where did they all go?   That is the beauty of vintage, all the bikes have character and personality.   The track was totally the same as the national track. No changes, we ran woops and all. It was fast and fun. The uphill was quite up and the ski jump was quite down...All in all, fun and tiring. Dirt was good. Dust was minimal. Four laps of racing was great and did make us sweat and drink gatorade and wish we were in our 20's..   I was going to ride my 78 250 magnum, but I think it broke a ring in practice, and I just redid the top end 2 races ago...thats not good.. Assessment coming. So I rode my 78 Maico 450 on its maiden voyage...I was not ready for that at all..Huge power, monster beast..I felt like a squid on the beat...Washougal was not a good track for me on the 450's 1st outing...It ate me up and spit me out...but I didn't eat dirt.. That was an awakening going from the 250 to 450...sheeesh....   I had fun as did everyone I think... They wanted to invite us back the announcer kept saying... Done racing and on the road home by 3pm..
  PHOTOS from GARY OSBORNE  Gary 41g

THOM GREEN What an awesome time we had, for all those who found a reason not to come.... real or imagined, you missed it. We rode on the national track and yes it was tough but it was fun... Last night when I got home I rewatched the National that was held there just a few weeks ago and wow was I really amazed to see how fast those guys really went as compared to us, but what the hay!! The down hill was great...I even survived the whoops. There really only a couple of sections that were a bit above our skill set and what made it rough was not so much the roughness of the track but the fact that there were no sections that you could just cruise......they really made a big deal about us being there and the annoucer said numerous times that they wanted us back.....And they thanked us over and over again...