Bud Ekins

[2] Despite riding on muddy circuits that were much rougher than he was accustomed to, he managed to earn his senior license and turned in some respectable results to finish the season in ranked 15th in the world.

[2][5] In 1955 Ekins won the Catalina Grand Prix, and in 1959 became the third three-time winner of the prestigious Big Bear Hare & Hound desert race, which at the time was the largest off-road event in the country.

[2][6][7][8] Ekins 1959 Big Bear victory was made notable when his motorcycle suffered a flat tire and a broken wheel while he was leading the race at the halfway point of the 153-mile course.

[2][7] By the mid-1960s, Ekins owned a Triumph motorcycle dealership in Sherman Oaks, CA, near Hollywood, which became a popular destination for many young film actors including Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood.

[2] Ekins also represented the United States at the International Six Days Trial, a form of off-road motorcycle Olympics which, is the oldest annual competition sanctioned by the FIM dating back to 1913.

He received a gold medal at the 1962 International Six Days Trials in East Germany, and was part of the 1964 U.S. ISDT team with his brother, Dave Ekins, John Steen, Cliff Coleman and McQueen.

[citation needed] He worked with fellow Off-Road Hall of Fame Inductee, Vic Hickey for five years, helping him to build the Baja Boot racer.

[2] Throughout the 1990s Ekins was on screen in movies and TV as a character actor, and can be seen in films such as Pacific Heights, Mac and Me, The Karate Kid series, The Specialist (1994), and Vegas Vacation (1997).