[Land-speed] Non Land-speed In Memoriam

[ifixmgs at cox.net]

I remember that this  guy was a featured guest at an   ISDT event in northern California in 73 or 74  and I  watched him leave all us  young bucks with hung jaws - he made a borrowed bike do stuff  that  in retrospect was not that much different than what you might see on an episode of "Superbikes  Meets Supercross"   only he was riding dinosaur technology and was an "old man" in his 40's. 
             Bud Ekins, a pioneering off-road motorcycle racer best known for his work as Steve McQueen's stunt double, died at his Hollywood home Saturday, October 6. He was 77.    For years, movie fans thought McQueen jumped the barbed wire fence in 1963's "The Great Escape" and powered the Mustang through San Francisco in 1968's "Bullitt," but it was Ekins, who never spoke of it.       Ekins was a successful off-road motorcycle racer, winning four gold medals and a silver in the International Six Day Trials in the 1960s. He held the #1 plate in California for seven years and founded the Baja 1,000. Later in life he owned up to 150 vintage motorcycles, 54 of which were separate American makes.