Fake Pit Passes

Here’s the original story of how the fake pit pass story got to be in MXA

Since I worked at Motocross Action Magazine in 1976, we got Carlsbad Grand Prix parking passes, pit passes, and that VIP card to go into the Bel Ray tent. All the media materials showed up early in the week before the big race. I was only 19 at the time, but besides my cartooning skills, I was also a graphic artist. I used my design skills to forge a bunch of parking passes and VIP passes for all my surfing buddies. This wasn’t easy back then when there were no computers, I had to use xerox copy machines, press type, and my hand drawing abilities. The only rule for my slacker friends who I gave the passes to was they had to NOT acknowledge me in any way during the event while I was working. Plus I didn’t want to be associated with them at the race. The day of USGP arrived, and I see all these beater cars with surf racks in the restricted parking area right near the entry gate and get this big smirk. All day long my buddies were up in that Bel Ray tent eating their fried chicken and drinking all their beer. Nobody knew who they were and how they were connected to the moto industry, and they all got pretty sloshed. LOL. Luckily, they all did a good job of ignoring me, but I still thought I was gonna get in trouble. After the weekend, when the pressure was off, I shared this with the Bazzer. He thought it was hilarious and came up with the idea for the article. Of course, it should’ve been obvious not to print the real AMA passes at the correct size in the magazine. And yes, we got some heavy heat for it. Dick Miller the editor wasn’t happy, but we had already had our fun.