Motorcyclists recall 1960s heydays and a four-decade bond that
was cast in dirt and blood
It is common to see motorcyclists take advantage of the weekdays
when Hollister Hills is relatively quiet and unpopulated.
For Gilroy riders Don Naccaratto, Wayne Head and Fred Evans,
this was the perfect time for them to meet at the old TT track for
a little racing.
”
It’s a ritual,
”
said Evans.
It is also history.
Motorcyclists recall 1960s heydays and a four-decade bond that was cast in dirt and blood
It is common to see motorcyclists take advantage of the weekdays when Hollister Hills is relatively quiet and unpopulated.
For Gilroy riders Don Naccaratto, Wayne Head and Fred Evans, this was the perfect time for them to meet at the old TT track for a little racing.
“It’s a ritual,” said Evans.
It is also history.
Naccaratto, Head and Evans (known as Spook to his riding buddies), all in their mid-60s, helped to build the TT track at Hollister Hills. Since all three had recently retired it was natural for them to pick up where they left off; meeting at the U-shaped dirt track and racing each other.
“It is very physical. We love it and God knows we need it,” said 65-year-old Head who started riding when he was 17.
“We can’t get it out of our blood,” Head said. “We spend more time on the mend than on our bikes.”
Naccaratto, who started riding at 23, was reminded how much more fragile he is at 66.
When he slammed down on his right shoulder last year it meant two months off the saddle as he healed from breaking three ribs and collarbone. He had to ride another 2-3 miles to get to his truck after the spill happened on one of the more remote trails.
“This is our Heaven,” said Naccaratto about riding with Head and Spook. “I had a heart attack in December [04]. The doctors always want to give me an appointment on Monday but I say ‘no way.'”
When the men were healthy you could find them riding their mid-80s, Japanese-manufactured bikes. “Everything we’ve got is old enough to vote,” Head said. One glance at their gloves, riding boots, helmets and other protective gear easily confirms that they originated from a bygone decade.
“Did you steal that from your grandkid,” said Spook, teasing Naccaratto about his new chest protector. The shiny, neon-green, plastic highlights stood out against the rest of his drab, faded and dirty riding gear.
Some days Spook, who started riding at 13, pulls up in his 1950 GMC truck. “It went from junk to classic and back to junk,” he said as he pulled his bike around the front of the truck that had seen better days.
The three men met through the South County Motorcycle Club, which came about in 1962. Naccaratto was a charter member and the other two men joined within a couple of years.
The first home of the club was in Uvas Canyon where the riders would meet on the property of Bill Hall. Charlie Haines, a tenant at Hall’s ranch and employee of Hall’s clothing store in downtown Gilroy, would help organize and run the race days.
“It was work. But it was a pleasure doing it,” Haines said.
Riders from Campbell, Los Gatos, San Jose and San Francisco came down to ride on the tracks that Haines bulldozed. The Hall’s Ranch motorcycle track may have been one of the first motorcycle OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) courses in the country, Haines said, and has been asked to manage a dozen other courses since then.
“I think Wayne Head was the first casualty up here,” Haines said. “He broke his leg and they snuck him out because they knew that if I knew I’d of stopped the whole thing.”
Naccaratto, Head and Spook would busy themselves with running the races as all the members of the SCMC would have to help out running the concessions stand and organize the races.
Hall’s son, George, sold motorcycles in Gilroy, such as the stripped down 650 Triumphs that were raced in those days, so giving the locals a place to race was in his interest.
The club raced on Hall’s ranch from1962 till about 1967 when the club moved on.
The club wound up riding at the Harris Ranch, what is now Hollister Hills. The club had regular hill climb events up the mountain and would ride all day on Sundays. The nonprofit also sponsored three or four events a year and would sometimes attract 2,000 riders.
Don Castro, owner of Racer’s Edge in Tres Pinos, first started hanging out with the club when they built the TT Track. At 15 Castro remembers being too young to help in the building of the track. “I got to test ride the track,” he said.
Though Castro never actually joined the SCMC, he learned the art of racing on its track. He took his skills to professional circuits for 20 years, racing for Triumph, Yamaha and BMW.
“I remember Howard Harris and his wife used to collect money in his front yard,” said Castro as he reminisced about the SCMC events. “These guys would get dead tired and at the end of the day the families would come and they would have a barbecue and have a few drinks.”
In 1979 Castro went to work for the Hollister Hills State Recreation Area for six years. He helped to establish trails and implement a sign program to make everything one-way.
He could be found occasionally meeting up with the Head, Naccaratto and Spook for a few laps around the old TT racetrack.
Sometimes fellow SCMC member Bill Anderson, who was pushing 80-years-old, met up with Head, Naccaratto and Spook at the old TT track.
“You guys shouldn’t be riding these things, they’re dangerous,” teased Anderson.
“Forty years we’ve been playing on this track … come to think of it this is where I met my wife,” said Anderson, who at one time was the president of the now-defunct club.
Anderson reminisced how the races at the Harris ranch were family affairs. “Sack races, throwing eggs … It was just good times. Everyone was working, married, had children and lived to race.”
Though the riders love to reminisce about the heydays of the club it is a bitter sweet – many of the 40 or so members have died. Lately, a year doesn’t go by when the three haven’t heard of one of their old riding buddies dying. But the TT track will continue into the future as a legacy of the local pioneers of off-road dirt bikes.
Update: Wayne Head is losing a fight with cancer and hopes every day to ride his bike one more time with Don and “Spook.” Head’s granddaughter, who will most likely be taught to ride a motorcycle to the chagrin of her grandmothers, is due to be born this month. This story is dedicated to Head and all the riders South County Motorcycle Club past and present.
