By Brandon Bennett At the law enforcement briefing August 8th Brett Winsell, chairman of the Jackpine Gypsies was invited to talk a little about racing its roots in the rally. He began by giving a little history of the event and how motorcycle racing was the reason for the whole thing. “A lot of people think the rally is just Harley’s, long hair and things you see downtown . But it’s a lot bigger than that. It’s our rally, we originated the rally in 1936, the first official rally was in 1938 and we’ve never really stopped,” said Winsell. Monday morning August 10 is the pro hill climb. “ A lot of people from all over the world come to compete in the hill climb, which is one of most extreme in the country,” he Monday evening is the AFT short track race and is a championship race and counts for points. Winsell added short track races mean riders are banging handlebars at close range and is exciting. Tuesday night is the amateur short track race and Wednesday night is the verticross which attracts a lot of locals. Verticross is a cross between motocross,drag racing and hillclimb. Winsell stated it’s exciting to watch. Friday is the ProAm hillclimb. We asked Winsell about any plans for the historic half-mile track on Ball Park Road. “First of all, there really isn’t an adversarial relationship between the city and the Gypsies and AFT, there really isn’t. There’s some things being worked on very hard,” said Winsell. He added AFT would like to see a plan come to fruition but it’s getting something everyone is happy with.
