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impressed with his abilities so before long they traded Encino Hills for Indian Dunes, a 600 acre motorcycle park where he could practice dune racing on the weekends. It was there that he won the first race he ever competed in. Eventually, Mike would become a member of the upper echelon of cycle racing; one of the top five mini-cycle racers in the United States!
    What did Kasey think of the sport? “I didn’t like it at first,” she told me. “It was muddy, and dirty, and LOUD. But after a while, I got tired of sitting there knitting and watching everything, so I went out and got a bike of my own!”
    Kasey’s first bike was a Honda 500-4; one that she first had trouble turning around in her own cul-de-sac. She started learning how to ride on a regular motocross track alongside a bunch of teenage boys, and in no time at all, was learning the “lingo”… phrases like “dump your clutch”; which, in layman’s terms means “put it in gear.” “Grab a handful” was when you’d “grab the handle and twist the accelerator,” and as Kasey would add, “You’d haul ass!”
    By Christmas, she treated herself to a 125cc dirt bike, and in 1972 began doing some serious racing of her own.
    It was also around this time that Kasey began writing a column for Modern Cycle Magazine called “Powder-Puff,” as well as a motorcycling column for the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Kasey remembered, “I had to be very careful. The article had to be a certain number of words. It would stop right where they said it would. So if your article came in just one word too long…”
    She loved every minute of it, and had a great story she liked to tell. “One day I was practicing out on the track, wearing white leathers, a white jersey, white helmet, and black boots. And no chest protector! We didn’t have them like they do now… And this big bike came up behind me revving its engine. So I let it go around, and then the rider really pissed me off because he gassed it, and I started getting pelted by all these rocks! So I finished my lap, pulled off the track, and took off my helmet so I could catch my breath.
    All of a sudden, the rider of the bike that shot around me drove up, pulled off his helmet, and said, “Kasey!! Oh my God! I didn’t know it was a girl. I didn’t know it was you !” That driver was Steve McQueen!”
    Kasey and Steve knew each other because they had worked together a few times on his TV show, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and had recently gotten re-acquainted around the track, as Steve was one great racer, and had two kids that used to race with Mike.
    Kasey loved that story, but the “girl” comment always stuck in her craw. She felt that girls could race just as well as guys, and should be taken more seriously in the sport.
    By 1974, Kasey proved just that by establishing the PURR (Powder-Puffs Unlimited Riders and Racers) Association and later that same year, the first Powder-Puff National.
    A year later, she approached the promoter of “the Superbowl of Motocross” to allow ten of the top women in racing to compete in a Women’s Invitational Trophy Dash. The man agreed and the event was a huge success, having been witnessed by some 80,000 spectators in the Los Angeles Coliseum. And one photo in particular of Sue Fish, wearing a halter top and leathers astride her bike went “viral” in a 1970s sort of way putting the event and women in moto-cross on the map!
    Kasey also planned and organized the International Women’s Motorcycle Championship, a successful race that boasted over 350 women from all over the United States.
    I always relished listening to Kasey when she talked about her Motocross days because you could see the excitement and passion in her eyes — much more than when she’d talk about her film and TV career.
    Every now and then, we used to go down to the Glen Helen Race Track when they were having motocross races and I’d practically have to hold her in her seat because she