ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE WAS AT THE 1973 TRANS-AMA EVENT AT RIO BRAVO.  AS A RACER, I LIKED RIO BRAVO.  I LOVED THE WOODSY SETTING AND WAS ENAMORED BY A GIANT TREE LOCATED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK.

Perhaps one of the best days of my life was at the 1973 Trans-AMA event at Rio Bravo Cycle Park, just north of Houston. As a racer, I liked Rio Bravo. I loved the woodsy setting and was enamored by a giant tree located in the middle of the back straight. Okay, the tree wasn’t in the center of the straight, but there was room to go on either side of it. I was a chicken and almost always went to the wider left side up the hill.

By the time the 1973 Trans-AMA circus had settled into Rio Bravo, the rain had started to fall. Not a heavy “frog strangler,” as they say in Texas, but a steady drizzle producing deep puddles and an oozy surface that made riding like roller skating.

All the big guns of the sport had come to Rio Bravo, and all the big guns in 1973 were Europeans. The American riders were pea shooters compared to Roger DeCoster, Adolf Weil, Arne Kring, Willy Bauer, Gerrit Wolsink, Sylvain Geboers and Pierre Karsmakers (not yet a Dutch émigré). The Euros had never been beaten in a Trans-AMA event...ever. The score was Euros 35, Americans 0. Rio Bravo was about to change that.

Although Jammin’ Jimmy Weinert was a bona fide American star, he had never won a Trans-AMA event (and would only win one more in his lifetime). Whatever possessed Jimmy in the Texas mud, it was a powerful force. Jimmy holeshot the first moto and led until Maico’s Adolf Weil ran him down. I admit that I, and every other drenched fan, expected Jimmy to get passed, and when he did, there was a collective sigh (with a Texas twang). But, Jimmy passed Adolf back! Texan and American hopes rose, but then Jimmy fell in the mud, letting Weil and Kring by. Hey, third isn’t bad.

If you’ve ever raced in the swampy land near Houston, you know that whenever the rain lets up, the earth steams like a British tea kettle. Between motos, Rio Bravo steamed, and so did Jammin’ Jimmy. He couldn’t believe that he lost the first good chance he ever had to win a Trans-AMA.

A fourth-place start in moto two soon resulted in Jimmy chasing German Willy Bauer for the lead. Bauer broke, Weil broke and the guy who finished behind Jimmy in moto one was behind him again. Weinert did some quick math and let Pierre Karsmakers by on the last lap (Karsmakers had DNF’ed moto one).

Weinert’s 3-2 gave him the first American win on American soil. It was about time, but it wasn’t the start of an American dynasty. No American would win again for two years (when Marty Smith, Jim Pomeroy, Tony Distefano and Jim Weinert would beat the Euros in six out of ten races).