Zoar Motopark September 1973
In the Late 1960s, motocross was just getting started in the United States. In fact, in the early days, what we know now as motocross was called Scrambles both here and abroad. As sad as it may seem, most of today’s younger racers have little knowledge or may not even care how our sport came about. But luckily for all of us that love this sport, there was a man by the name of Edison Dye who essentially brought motocross as we know it today to the US by putting on demonstrations of the sport with Europeans he brought over to the US that he met while he travelled overseas. Edison was the importer of Husqvarna motorcycles and wanted to help the sales of his product by showing off their supreme qualities to US customers. The demonstrations became events called Inter-Am (International-American) and became highly successful drawing large spectator crowds to the point that the AMA and FIM decided that they wanted a piece of that pie and initially with Dye, created the Trans-AMA race series with the apparent intent of taking over the success that Dye had created.
This brings us to a small Western New York town called Springville located about 30 miles south of Buffalo which became the location of a track called Zoar Moto Park. As a rider that started his racing in Western New York on the early 1970’s, I hold many great memories of motocross in that part of the country. I sat down with Dave Kessler, the “unofficial founder” of Zoar Moto Park and talked a little history.
“It all started with a $15 motorcycle.” Is how Dave started our conversation, he purchased a Harley Davidson 165 that didn’t run and after many unsuccessful attempts to get it going, his younger brother Doug started tinkering with it too and then his Father Don got involved and they came across a Harley 125 engine and put that in the bike to make it run.
Doug started riding the bike in their back yard and surrounding woods and then wanted to try racing. Don took Doug to the Harke Farm which was a local farm/scrambles track and, as so many did and still do, got hooked immediately. They raced on and off for a couple of seasons, Don got tired of traveling around and thought it would be a good idea to build his own track and let people come to him instead of him going to them.
While this was going on, Dave went out and bought a Harley 50cc step through scooter (that he says was pushed more than rode!) and found a great riding area that was full of hills to ride around. Don asked Dave if he knew of any place that would make a good track and Dave said, “Sure thing, right behind our house on the other side of the woods!” The land was on a neighbor’s property and Don went to talk to him about the possibility of putting a track on the land. As it turned out the owner of the land was having some financial troubles at the time and was unable to make his land tax payment so he made a deal with Don. That deal was made in the late spring of 1972. Don knew a friend with a bulldozer that agreed to help clear out the land which was filled with brush. Next, a club of eleven riders was created called MX Incorporated and they started to ride on the cleared land. In the fall of 72, a track was built and tested by a bunch of riders that all immediately fell in love with the place. The landscape surrounding the track held perfect natural terrain with rolling hills and large parking areas form the open farmland in front of the track. The famous Zoar 50 foot high announcing tower was hand built from large cut trees that were taken down for clearing the land and was placed above the sign up area. A used fire truck was purchased and placed at the bottom of one of the hills for an underground watering system which was unheard of back then. There were natural gas wells all over the property and a Natural gas powered generator was installed to power the tracks electrical systems. During the time that the track and tower was being built, Dave does not recall just how their paths crossed but - Don met Edison Dye who came to the track site and was so impressed with the location and layout that he set Don up with one of his international race before the track ever had an official event.
In the spring of 1973 the track opened. Honda had just released the CR250M, Suzuki had the TM series. Yamaha and Kawasaki along with brands like Husqvarna, CZ, Maico, Hodaka, Rickman and Penton were starting to fill the pits as the sport of motocross was just starting to flourish and becoming wildly popular throughout the country which made for perfect timing for the Kessler’s. Bikes were selling off the floors of dealers faster than they could be uncrated. The first two events ever held at Zoar were local races that got immediate attention from riders all over the Eastern US and Canada. From the very first opening race weekend, the large pit area of Zoar Moto Park was filled. The third race was the 1973 Trans-AMA International event featuring the likes of Roger DeCoster, Adolf Weil, Heikki Mikkola, Pierre Karsmarkers Gerrit Wolsnik, Gary Bailey, Jim Pomeroy, Marty Smith, Jimmy Weinert, Mickey Diamond and others. The Trans AMA race was an overwhelming success with over 10,000 spectators filling the mowed hayfield parking lot and the track received exceptional ratings by the Europeans and American riders with its natural terrain and large rolling hills. The event gave the track almost instant notoriety. After finishing off the 1973 season with more local races, in 1974, Zoar hosted a round of the Edison Dye promoted Inter-AM 250 and World Championship 125 series which also was very successful with thousands of spectators. The Western New York Sports Committee (now called Western New York Motocross Association) was just starting up as an rider run sanctioning organization and became involved with Zoar on and off over the rest of the tracks years running races and the AMA also was involved with sanctioning.
An interesting story that Dave recalls is that during the week of the ‘73 Trans Am he was prepping the starting line with a bulldozer and noticed this rider observing him while he was moving some dirt. The guy seemed to be really curious as to how the dozer worked so Dave stopped and asked if he wanted to jump up and help. The rider couldn’t speak much English so Dave used some hand gestures to get him up and onto the dozer. Dave showed him how to run the dozer and next thing you know, Roger DeCoster was prepping the track at Zoar! DeCoster was later interviewed for either a Dirt Bike or Dirt Rider magazine article and was asked where the best track in the USA was: Was it Carlsbad? Was it Saddleback? DeCoster back then said “No. It is Zoar Moto Park”. Dave still has that magazine article somewhere in his archives.
While most other tracks throughout the country at that time used either a rubber band or flagged start, Zoar was among the first tracks on the East Coast to have a Drop Gate start which was part of the deal Don made with Edison. “You can run the race here and put in a gate, but the gate stays.” Said Dave as he recalled the conversation between his dad and Dye at the kitchen table of their home.
In its first five or so years of existence, the Zoar Moto Park’s local weekend’s events would consistently host in the area of 3000 spectators and over 600 competitor entries says Kessler. These weekend attendance figures remained steady until the 1979 gas crisis when the rider count began to drop slightly and spectator numbers dropped as well. At one point the number of Canadians making the trek to Zoar was over 200 per weekend. The track held an annual Eastern Canada/NY State Championship that drew an extra-large contingent of riders from up north.
In 1976 Don took to liking off road car racing and as Dave recalls, somehow got involved with S.C.O.R.E. President Sal Fish and the track expanded its MX layout to host a S.C.O.R.E. East series event with names like Mickey Thompson, Malcom Smith and JD Brand Racing attending. The renowned off-road racer Curt Leduc raced his very first car at Zoar Moto Park. The SCORE events co-existed with the existing motocross series. Zoar also introduced BMX to the WNY area with a specially made track alongside the motocross track that had a famous downhill starting area that brought many thrills to the riders back then.
The gate entry fee was $3.00 from the time the track opened until its last event 10 years later and the amateur entry fee was never over $6.00. At the height of the tracks popularity, The 125 and 250 amateur classes would have over 150 entries each and the 100 class would have over 125 entries on a regular basis. The expert classes would bring enough entry fees in to make the purse large enough for a weekly paycheck for the winners even with an expert entry fee of just 10.00.
The two most notable announcers at the track throughout its years were Phil Johnson who also was the promoter of the motocross track at the Bluemont ski resort in nearby Arcade NY as well as Brian Adams.
The track at Zoar helped to produce many national caliber riders back in the seventies and into the early eighties such as Jimmy Massara, the Wilson Brothers (Marvin, Leo and Ward), Chris Berg, Frank and Andy Stacy, Carl Dedrick and many others.
After losing his brother Doug in a car accident and his dad becoming very ill, Dave was left with the track and in 1983 decided to close the track. Frank Stacy and Brian Adams made some attempts to keep the track going with little success as the track was wearing out and was in need of major reworking that the promoters could not do because of lack of funds. When asked if the track could ever come back to life,
Back in the days of Zoar, to see a motorhome was to see big money. The vast majority of riders came to races in a pickup truck or van and slept in it or in a tent. Dealers back then were very much involved with racing and had large teams of riders and those that had the strongest at Zoar that come to mind were Don George’s Yamaha, Sheridan Suzuki with Bob Weaver, Dean's with Walt Stacy, Bar-Chels’ George Decker, Pioneer Motorsports Ken Armstrong and Williamsville Welding with the late Al Gillen. These dealers as well as others were heavily involved with the actual weekend events with their teams and were making motocross history in Western New York by helping thousands of riders create everlasting memories.
As we were ending our conversation, Dave stated that in the 10 years that he was involved with Zoar Moto Park he developed his longest lasting memories and best friends in life based on relationships made at this track.
My experience has shown that in all of the years that we live, it can be said with certainty that as racers, we have our fondest memories from the friends and times we have had with our racing family.
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