Motors who were, at the
time, [Western States] Sales
Manager and General Manager
of [American] Honda Motor
Company; that would be Walt
Fulton and Jack McCormack,"
Dave Ekins remembers. "They
said, 'That's a hell of a good
idea, Bud! Let's go do that."
But Johnson Motors balked
at the thought of one of its
dealers riding a non-Triumph
brand in something likely to
draw lots of attention, so it flatly
forbade Bud Ekins from riding.
Undaunted, the Ekins
brothers pursued a different
possibility. Dave had an in
with a new company called
American Honda. He was
their first sponsored racer,
had been racing a prototype
of the CL72 for more than a
year, and one of his friends
Bill Robertson, Jr. happened
to have a father who owned a
Honda dealership in Hollywood.
Thus, the foundation of the
plan started coming together
with two guys, and two bikes.
Mind you, neither had actually
been to Baja. In fact, the first
THE EKINS BROTHERS
TRIED TO BEAT THE
ORIGINAL TIME ALBEIT
VIA A DIFFERENT AND
SLIGHTLY EASIER ROUTE
ON TRIUMPHS IN 1966.
PICTURED AS THEY'RE
ABOUT TO CROSS THE
BORDER FROM SAN DIEGO
INTO TIJUANA ARE (FROM
LEFT) EDDIE MULDER, DAVE
EKINS, BUD EKINS AND
CLIFF COLEMANN. VARIOUS
ISSUES PREVENTED THEM
FROM BREAKING THE
RECORD, BUT ALL FOUR
EVENTUALLY MADE IT.
049
SCORE JOURNAL
