Wayne Hosaka 1948-2011 IN MEMORY


deep on each side. The track was impassable so I helped the track workers extricate riders from the “pit.” It was kind of sadistically hilarious seeing the tangle of riders and bikes; arms and legs intertwined with handlebars and wheels; the colorful language and livid eyes peering from the depths.


Reprinted from October 1996 issue


Bob Gooding’s first bike was an Army surplus Hand Shift Indian in 1948. He would explore the Borrego desert on it back when most of the roads were unpaved. After serving in the Navy during the Korean War, he married Carol, produced a daughter, Carol Ann, and son, Mark, and settled in the North County. Bob’s interest stayed in motorcycles and in 1955 he participated in the Catalina Grand Prix as a pitman. Names he mentioned were Bud Ekins, Feets Minert and Chick Dimond, Butch Roland and Stanley Cole. He also traveled to Carrell Speedway to watch the Class C races.


Wayne Hosaka’s professional flattrack career was cut short in 1971 when he was paralyzed in a motorcycle racing accident. He lived the next 40 years of his life as a quadriplegic. Wayne passed away in January 2011 at the age of 62. As a tribute to him and for the enjoyment of our readers we are reprinting articles over that he shared with us when he wrote “Old Dirt” in the


1990’s. Wayne is #55 in the photo above. I


t was around 1965 when the Sagehoppper Motorcycle Club started throwing scrambles races in the Encinitas, California area. One of their favorite areas was at the old city dump, land so rutty and overgrown with sagebrush no one cared if a few dozen motorcycles raced around on a Sunday afternoon.


The Sagehoppers were led by the Gooding family. Bob Gooding was the president and his wife Carol, son Mark, and daughter Carol Ann raced. Bob would lay out the racetracks and enjoyed laying out the most treacherous, demanding, yet fun scrambles course.


The terrain in that area is much


different than others in San Diego County. I was used to the rolling foothills of East County and the South Bay; hard packed dirt roads, loose boulders, and grass covered hills. Along the North County Coast, the terrain is much more abrupt. Erosion has cut through the sandstone creating deep crevices exposing gnarly, serpentine sagebrush roots which seem to be reaching out trying to rip you off your motorcycle. Bob loved this kind of terrain. One course led us up a nice winding dirt road which he had graded and watered. Very nice. Then, just as you started to feel racy, the track went off a 40-foot cliff, undercut by erosion, with sagebrush and roots along each side of the track. Great stuff for my Hodaka and it’s two inches of


www.SS-OffRoadMagazine.com - JANUARY 2012 - S&S OFF ROAD MAGAZINE 11


suspension travel. If you balked at the top, Bob was there to egg you on. He always got on us TT specialists as being pansies. Another time, Bob started us in a big, wide pasture. There must have been about 50 of us all straddling our front wheels waiting for the flag to fall. When it did, we all leaped over our saddles and raced towards the mesa where the track funneled onto a 10 foot wide trail. The dust was thick as I reached the mesa and followed the pack. Good old Bob had a surprise for us. He had bulldozed a five foot wide path across an eight-foot wide, five foot deep crevice. The first few riders made it through but someone stalled on the dirt bridge and the action began. Rider after rider, blinded by the dust, began falling into the crevice. When I got there, riders were piled three


Bob started a refrigerator business and moved to Cardiff. He started sponsoring local riders and, when Mark was 13, in 1963, they started racing at the El Toro Speedway, Dick Cochran’s Ranch in Santee, Tecate, Alpine, Dehesa, Prado Park and in the desert. El Cajon Speedway was going big about then. He recalls how Jack Simmons used to come down here from Los Angeles along with Skip Van Leween and Steve Scott.


“I had a business. Had a pickup and I could afford to sponsor them once in awhile or give them a ride on a bike. I wanted to give some of the boys around here a bit of a boost, a bit of a chance. Pretty soon the guys wanted to go out to the desert—so we hauled the bikes out to the desert races,” Bob said.


About then, he became involved with the San Diego Sports Committee, which was made up of all the local motorcycle clubs who were sanctioning AMA racing in San Diego County. Motorcycle off road racing was becoming very popular with the arrival of small motorcycles from Japan. Clubs like the El Cajon MC, Hi Boots MC, Sod Busters, Brush Barons, Los Ancianos, and the Titans were going strong. Bob


formed the Sagehoppers and began throwing races throughout the area. Besides their Encinitas tracks, the Sagehoppers sanctioned races at Coyote Wells in the desert; Miramar, El Cajon, and Barona in San Diego; and Tecate, Rosarito Beach, and Rodriguez Dam in Mexico. Most of the top dirt riders in Southern California participated in the Sagehoppers events.


Arkie and Donna Gunn were quite active back then. I remember Arkie as the District 38 referee when I started racing. Others who were involved in motorcycle racing back then included: Albert and Don Finan with the Hi Boots, Grant Brown was very well known by everyone, Elmo built the greatest track facilities, George Hendrickson, Leo St. Germain, Gil Vaden, Stan Bryant, Dr. Gualda, the Emde family, Earl Roloff, Sr., Niles Ussery, Bill Silverthorn, Lars Larsson, Mits Hosaka who built the Hodaka for Carol and Claude who ran the gas station in Ocotillo Wells. Mark Gooding, Bob’s son, became one of the best in San Diego County. He specialized in desert racing where he was second overall in 1967. The following year he enlisted in the Navy and served in Vietnam.


Carol Gooding was instrumental in starting the Powder Puff class in San Diego. She held the number one plate for many years in both desert racing and TT. She participated in the Elsinore Grand Prix, and often traveled to the Mojave Desert to duel the Los Angeles women. She was the Womans Mexican National Champion. Her trademark was her long braided ponytail trailing from her helmet as she sped by. “When I was riding, I rode everything:


motocross, TT, and desert. Your Uncle Mits built me a Hodaka with a 21” front wheel. The bike never broke! Mits knew just how to gear it and we ran it almost stock,” Carol told me. Finally, after over three hours of absolutely wonderful conversation and reminiscing, I had to say good-bye to one of the nicest couples I have ever met. Bob and Carol Gooding had a great influence on motorcycle racing in San Diego County. 


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