Quote:
Originally Posted by Top-Water
There were a couple of years that it was canceled probably a few years were lost during WWII, and more notably the (1966 or 1967?) races were canceled due to the riots the previous years.
The races / original weekend event drastically changed after the riot in the mid 60's. I casually followed motor cycle racing back then when I was a teen and attended some of those races.
The states response to the riot was to bring in a huge and overwhelming law enforcement presence and completely eliminate off road side camping. No mater what you were driving back then if you stopped " anywhere" even for a " minute" on the side of the road (after the riot year) even if you were broken down they would tow you away to eliminate large motorcycle clubs gathering that usually fought with each other from forming that they knew they could not control. A lot of effort was to made to make sure anyone who came and planed to stay overnight or any length of time had to have a paid place to stay.
Some great old newspaper articles here at weirsbeach.com
http://www.weirsbeach.com/Largejpgs/weirsriot.html
A few weeks latter article from LIFE magazine. July 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=T1...page&q&f=false
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My sister was at the Weirs back then with my parents car. The bikers kept rocking it back and forth. Everything ended well though.