Hi,
I was feeling nostalgic about my old racin' days and did some googling around. I found this forum and it looks pretty cool. Let me introduce myself.

My name is Don Archibald and I raced Odysseys/ Stadium Superlites /SCORE class 34 for about 13 years. (sounds like an AA beginning...)
I was based out of SoCal and pretty much was in the heart of the heyday of the sport.
I started out at a shop called KYSH 3X4. As part of that group we raced all the local L.A. area tracks from the famed Indian Dunes to Corona to the Ventura County Fairgrounds. My first car was a superstock class unsuspended odyssey. I won the #1 plate for the local club my first year. With KYSH I raced in the first ever Coyote (flat track) Nationals and Off Road Nationals. Eventually one of the KYSH racers, Ron Griffin opened up Pro-ATV and started building cars. I spent MANY hours with Ron as he built his first Phantom desert cars. The Pro-ATV team spent the third Sunday of every month at the ARA desert races in Lucerne/Barstow area. I finished first in points in the inaugural season of the ARA series in another class 2 (unsuspended) Pro-ATV chassis.

Ron worked with Sal Fish of SCORE and birthed the class 34 and 44 desert classes. Our first REAL desert race was the San Felipe 250. Team Phantom took about 10 cars down there and we set up pits every 25 miles over Baja to support the cars. In a Phantom 1 car, I was part of the team owned by Randy Smalley (eventual owner of H&R Fabrication) and Richie Dahn to be the first overall Odyssey and first class 34 car to finish the entire 250 mile race. I co-drove again with Randy to win the Parker 400 in class 34.

Eventually I was part of the first Odyssey race that was allowed to run with the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group Series. (MTEG). I worked with Ron and we built a special Phantom 350/4 that I successfully competed with for a few years. I won main events at the Rose Bowl and Indy Hoosierdome. I finished second in points that season. I also won two SCORE off-road world championship races at Riverside Raceway, (one in class 34 and one in an unsuspended class 24 car) We then built another special CV axle car with cantilever suspension for the next season. That car never worked well and Ron closed Pro-ATV (for other reasons).

I then moved over to start racing with Randy at H&R Fab. We raced all over the US with the MTEG series and at Glen Helen park locally in SoCal. We built cars, tested, raced and raced. Tons of fun and good memories. I had some great sponsors that supported me. Goodyear tires, Leckich Racing Engines, HPS lubricants, Loctite Permatex, Salisbury Clutches and a host of others. It was the best time of my life. Along the way I got to meet some great people. I got to be a test driver for the first FL350 when it came out for Dirt Wheels magazine.

My standing joke is that I gave Jimmy Johnson good practice passing people when I got to race against him. Man he and the Nature's Recipe (Briggsbuilt) team were strong.

I eventually had to move across the US to NC where I live today. The MTEG series had shutdown and I had to leave my cars with Bob Curtis (also a H&R fab team mate) He moved to Oklahoma so I believe he still has a couple of my old cars stashed somewhere. I have not talked to him for almost 20 years. Maybe someday I will see them again. My last one was pretty cool complete with a full carbon fiber body that I laid up myself.

I will post some pictures soon. I have to scan them in. Feel free to ask questions. I am sure I have forgotten most of it. It was a fast 13 years!

So here is a video from the 86 SCORE off road world championships. That is Rory Holiday in the HRD car in front of me for the first lap. That start was insane! Sorry for the ad in the beginning. Poor edit. It was on CBS sportsworld or something like that.

Cool video, if you have pictures please load them. Up close pictures of cars, suspension, Engine ,trans setups are scarce. Any pics from the class 34 races?
Bob

Ill look through and scan some pix. Hopefully Ill get some up tomorrow.

Nice to meet you Don ,Glad you found Hosers site.

Congrats on all your racing success and nice driving!

My hats (I don't really wear hats) off to you and the rest of the guys that can race in the desert in an un-suspended class! Real Iron men!

My only question is, what have you been up to since you moved to the east and are you still involved in any forms of racing?

Great question. I got married just before the move and have been raising the family since then. I am in the heart of NASCAR country now, but not involved in racing. I did do a Petty experience thing at Charlotte once. That was fun. I got into old two stroke Seadoos a couple years ago just to get my mechanical fix. They are tons of fun and really fly. 110 HP twin rotax. It would have been great to have that HP back in the day when I raced. I have three '96 skis now.
Yep, the hard tail cars were tough. I did have on car with shocks on the seat. That actually helped the car stop the bouncing and kept my back alive! I'll post pix of the hard tails as well. I had some interesting stuff.

Sweet welcome

Yes, welcome! You will find here about the only guys left that even know what a superlite is. Very glad you found the site and thanks for the '86 video, very, very cool. Will be watching for more of your posts.

OK, Here we go. First, thanks so much for the warm welcome. I have been out of this for about 20 years but going through the pictures made me really miss those times. And I REALLY miss driving them! I have tons more photos and some great magazine articles, so if you are looking for something, just ask.

The first ones are my first odyssey. No helmet on sand and snow! That car morphed into my first race car. I didn't even know they raced them. But I broke a dreaded chain and broke the cases. I ended up at KYSH and the great guys there talked me into coming out and racing at Indian Dunes.

So onto the next car. This was my first from Pro-ATV. It was a superstock 250cc. It had shocks on the seat that helped dampen the bouncing. ChezPort motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) with wing ports, worm ports and piston ports. Fun toy. Most of these pix were at a Coyote race in Big Bear CA. Also the desert and Riverside CA.





My car and a Phantom 3

And here I felt like the old racing veteran and now I have been shown up 10 fold!

I can feel for you racing a non suspended Ody. I raced FL250 Odyssey Racing Club of America circle traack in Bakersfield back in the early 80's. I've actually gone over several times from rear wheel hop and getting "T" boned. We were using Harley Davidson Golf Cart tires which we cut every other lug out of for traction. That made for no suspension at all in the rear end! I used to bounce so bad I wore a kidney belt.

Here's a picture of the old Cal Kern Express!

Rand

Awesome. You see that I LIVED in a kidney belt and neck brace! Don't know what I was thinking. I too had MANY hard bounce endos! I have been upside down so many times I could never count them. I only broke my wrist once in all my crashes. Hit so hard I folded a steel steering wheel 90 degrees. Bob Briggs broke his neck. Ouch.

So the next car was the one that gave me the most success. It is a Pro-ATV Phantom 350/4. It had a full water cooled Leckich racing 360cc motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )), along with a Bill's Pipe. Clutch stall somewhere about 7000 rpm with close to 11000 rpm max. It started as a desert car, and then we slowly converted it to a stadium car. This is the car that won Riverside in the vid. Eventually the CV car technology beat it out, but for a long time, this car was one of the top of the field. And it was bullet proof. It did run the FL250 gear box, so that was a weak point. I must have put in 25 chains over the years, but never broke one in this car. Also no reverse was a drag.

Here she is in her first desert race


Glen Helen. Love the look from the flag guy. Notice the multi link steering to keep it away from rocks. Eventually moved back to normal tie rods for short course.


And Riverside I think.

The next was the flop. Looked great, but was not strong enough. And then was too heavy. Only raced 1/2 season, then I cut it up.

Great pics Don!
Its a shame the rear suspension wasn't just a little better! The front looked pretty good and probably outclassed the rear? Crazy camber change on the rear! Living in NJ, I had no access to this stuff, but I did ride bikes. I would see the Pro atv ads in the mags and only dream of racing out west.

Woops, I posted while you posted. I meant the pre-flop car.

Hard to tell whats going on with the rear on the flop car. This is the cantilever you mentioned?

Then I moved over to H&R Fabrication. May not have had the best success there, but Randy is a great guy and we had tons of fun traveling the US. This one got a "Blurton" gear box with VW rabbit axles and CVs. We used a VW differential in the box. We had lots of box problems over the years and I kick myself today for not working on that part harder. The car was too light on the nose it pushed too much. We wanted to use steering brakes but they outlawed them. In the early days we used a Zbar to add spring rate on big jumps. We eventually got rid of it and revalved the Works Performance Shocks. (Another GREAT sponsor of mine). It had 4trax brakes in the front and adjustable bias.

OK, This is the last car. It is a second gen H&R car. We got it right on this one. The weight was much better and it flew. But the gearbox was still trouble and it never got the front brakes. The MTEG series died shortly after we built it and we never totally got the car dialed in. And this is where it ended. The car had a full carbon fiber body. Light and fast.

Great history trail to follow. Pictures are awesome. Do you have any or remember any specifics on that Burton trans? Where it came from, specifics etc?

The Blurton box came out of some golf cart or Cushman scooter type thing. I never heard exactly where. We had about 40 of them stacked in the shop. They were called Burton boxes because Phil Blurton (on the Pro-ATV team) found them and bought them out. They came with differentials in them, but they were really weak. Some had wider ring gears which made them stronger. I opened up dozens of them to find the ones with big gears. Some had 4 gears in the diff and some had only 2. If I remember, the gear reduction was 7:1 which was a little too tall. We put rabbit diffs in them with limited slip. I kick myself for not having us try to regear it, or move to a larger driven clutch. Also smaller tires would have helped. The cars had great top end (65 or so) but in short course we needed more pull out of the hole. That is why we kept the stall so high on the clutch. (powerblock). I took a million apart but I don't have pix in my main album.

Thank you for the info. I have two of those boxes and can't find any info on them and the
Last spare parts I found took over a year to come across. I don't want to derail this thread
But here are some pics of mine. It looks like the one in your pic. I have heard of the rabbit
Diffs being used in them and know where one is but the guy isn't selling it. I also have
Questions about a driven clutch I was told was aftermarket. It has multiple adjustments for the
Spring tension(?) I can't find any info on it but have pics. I have a ton of pics
Of my cars on fb if you are on that then check them out if you are interested. Maybe we can start another thread about the cars so this one stays in track.
Bob

wow great pics and a great story. only wish i could of been around to watch this stuff. so its nice to see pics and vids.

I am glad you got your account working thanks for bringing us the pictures and the information it looks like you were able to live the dream many of us were not able to live.

If you have more to share please do.

Was the converted Chevy Luv yours?

Welcome to the site. I'm loving the history you have provided thus far. It would be awesome if the series or one like it was still running. Maybe the future holds some nostalgia type series.
Your posts have been very interesting, great driving in that race. Keep the posts coming.
Welcome and regards
Steve

I have more pix and vids I will be posting. I did not want to wear out my welcome.

That LUV truck was one of my buddies. He put in the 4WD in from an old Jeep. Then dropped in a 350 Chevy motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? ))! It was a fun truck. That was before the first Toyota 4WD mini trucks.

I just got off the phone with Randy Smalley from H&R Fab. He is going to check out the site. He is the true doctor of many of these cars. He did tell me that when he closed down his shop, he scrapped out a big pile of those gear boxes..... Sorry. But we may be able to remember (cobwebs...) the parts in the diff. You can open a thread on that.

Don

No worries for the pictures and you're not wearing out your welcome. We all love these machines and the more pictures and information we can get the better we like it!

Rand