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Last week I got together with around 1000 close friends to say goodbye to Malcolm Smith. His family put together a wonderful tribute at Malcolm Smith Motorsports, the motorcycle shop that Malcolm founded in Riverside California. In an incredible effort, they cleared the entire showroom of motorcycles, ATVs and side-by-sides and brought in seating and a huge projection screen that allowed some of Malcolm’s closest friends to speak. The event spilled out into the parking lot and dominated most of the block. Malcolm touched the lives of thousands in one way or another. He inspired a lot of us in “On Any Sunday.” For others, he provided education and an escape from poverty through the Malcolm Smith Motorsports Foundation.

Scot.jpgScot Harden

Mark Mitchell and Adrian Cotton started things up, then Joel Smith, Malcolm’s oldest son, gave some opening remarks. Then Bud Feldcamp, Troy Lee, Don Mackey, Mucho Bill Wheeler, Frank Esposito, Ray Mungenast, Scot Harden, Mitch Boehm, Roger DeCoster and finally Alexander Smith all spoke.

Bud.jpgBud Feldcamp

All of them had great Malcolm stories to tell. One of the most entertaining was Bud Feldcamp, who was co-driver when he and Malcolm won the Baja 1000 and 500. He told of a race where Malcolm broke down near the finish in a VW-powered buggy and actually talked a spectator into giving up the motor from his Baja Bug and installed it on the trail. The throttle linkage apparently didn’t work, so Malcolm had to drive it wide open all the way in, turning the ignition switch on and off to manage speed. He won.

caR.jpgBud and Malcolm’s race car

I have Malcolm stories of my own, of course, collected over the last 40 years or so. Most are very hard to put into words. I attempted to convey what he meant to me in the February, 2025 column in Dirt Bike. Here it is, with apologies to Frank Capra.

MalcolmSpitzlowres.jpgCycle World’s 1973 spread

 

SADDLE

A life without Malcolm

It was about 1 a.m. when I staggered into Martini’s bar. I didn’t have any money, but if Nick was in a good mood, he might let me stay a while. There had been times when he kicked me out before I could even sit down, but this time he just sighed and shook his head.
“You really need to get your life together,” he said. “What would your parole officer say if he knew you were here?”
“I’m good, really,” I said. “I don’t even want a drink. I just want someone to talk to.”
Nick looked skeptical. Business was slow and he was bored, so he just started wiping the counter. “You had that dream again, didn’t you?” he asked shortly. “I can always tell. You get all melancholy and act like you want to change.”
He knew me well. “It was more vivid than ever,” I said. “My life was great! I had a house, a family and this great job. I was a well-respected journalist.”
“What was it, some kind of motorcycle publication or something?”
“Yeah, just like before,” I said, straining to retrieve the details. “It was just amazing. I had all these dirt bikes in my garage. The manufacturers would just give them to me to ride and test. And, Nick, I got to see the world. I would travel to exotic places, ride expensive motorcycles, visit factories like some kind of VIP.”
“It’s like you’re someone else completely, huh?”
“No, that’s just it,” I said, slowly standing up.” It’s me in this dream—me! But, with a different backstory. The big difference is that I was inspired early in my life, and that changed everything. You could trace it all back to one character that’s always in the dream.”
“Malcolm, right?”
“Yeah, Malcolm,” I said. “Sometimes I dream about when I was a kid and I saw him in a movie. He wasn’t a star or anything. Just the opposite. He was a real guy, friendly and accessible to everyone. But, he got to do all those things, like ride motorcycles in exotic places. In my dream, I wanted to be just like him.
“In other dreams I’m all grown up and I get to go riding with this Malcolm guy. At one point, we’re both riding in the Peruvian Andes, high above the Amazon rainforest.”
Nick let a chuckle slip out. “The Peruvian Andes, huh?”
“Yeah. Malcolm and I are in this wild 10-day motorcycle race, and even though he’s almost 20 years my senior, he’s blowing my doors off. But, instead of rubbing it in, he’s giving me advice, like how to save my brakes, conserve energy, and stuff like that.
“Then he appears in other parts of my life. At one point, we’re in Mexico riding a section of the Baja peninsula that he and his buddy Jimmy had only surveyed from the air. We were the first to actually go there on motorcycles. That was one very interesting thing about this character. His life was filled with one adventure after another, but that didn’t seem to matter to him. What he really enjoyed was sharing those adventures with other people. In my dreams, I got to be one of those riders, time after time.”
Nick just smiled. “So, the real difference in this alternate universe boils down to just one man? You think that if this one guy actually existed, he could have had such a profound influence in your life that your current ‘situation’ could have been avoided?”
“Yeah, that might be kinda far-fetched,” I said, sitting back down. Then Nick opened his mouth wide and emitted a noise that sounded exactly like the alarm on my phone. I jumped out of bed. It was a dream within a dream? Really? What kind of crazy nonsense is this?
Real life, it turns out, is alternate universe number three. My life is wonderful just like the one I told Nick about. I got to do all those things, including those experiences with Malcolm Smith. In this reality, though, Malcolm had just passed away after a long illness. I really don’t know how things would have played out in a world where he wasn’t there to inspire me and provide an example of how to behave. I’m just glad he was.

RandyMitchJim.jpgJim Perry, Mitch Hawkins, Randy Hawkins PaulBobDaveDon.jpgPaul Thede, Bob Weber, Davey Coombs, Don Emde. MalcolmIncas-1.jpgMalcolm and Joyce at the Incas Rally in 1988. Photo by Chris Wimpy. RonDancing-smallest-1.gif–Ron Lawson

 

The post MALCOLM SMITH CELEBRATION OF LIFE: THE WRAP appeared first on Dirt Bike Magazine.

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