He's raced dirt bikes for 35 years, not all in a row. In 1968, he started wearing a blue-and-white rugby-striped shirt; the next year, for some reason, he glued a frog to the top of his helmet. "If I don't have one on there, I feel funny," the white-haired rider said. "The kids got a big kick out of it - the kids that would come out and watch us riding. Now those kids have all grown up now, and they have kids."

Then he added for accuracy's sake, "This is not the original frog. This is probably the third. The others fell off or rotted."

In 1976 Rice took a 20-year hiatus from the sport. He returned in 1996 at the behest of another friend from California, Keith Collins. Now Collins lives in Cody, Wyo., and made the trip to Billings for his first meeting with Rice in some six years.

This event got its genesis from Ron Omo, who was one of the fore-runners in adapting the MetraPark fairgrounds for motorsports. The former owner of the Billings RimRockers professional basketball team is also a former "flat-tracker" - he rode one of those big four-stroke BSA bikes while growing up in Richmond, Calif. - and liked the idea of getting big motorcycle races to the Magic City. He's got them, although a change of venue came about when his rent at the Metra went from $2,600 last year to $10,999 this year. "You can quote me," Omo said of those figures.

"I always wanted to see a half-mile in Billings," Omo added. "And I came to the Metra board six years ago and supported (then-director Bill) Chiesa in making that a race track for other than just horses. And really we were just getting the races going there, and then they run my a- off. You know how much money I've invested in the Metra. A lot of money."

Last year he and Mark Lenhardt, a BMA member who directed Sunday's motocross, decided to make this a full weekend for the riders. They added the national points trials to the flat-track races, and 170 bikes showed up. "Then sadly, they just jacked the rent up on us," Lenhardt said. "He (Omo) was writing a check at the end of each event anyway."

Last year rain washed out one day of racing at Metra. The weather was perfect this year, and the venue had a much lower overhead. "Hell, I lost $9,000 last year," Omo said. "I'd already been losing $3,000, which I didn't mind. The races are for these guys. This motocross, we didn't do it for spectator income. This is really set up for these guys. They travel all over the Western U.S. to do this every weekend, and no money is involved. Just some trophies."

Dick Mann, one of the originators of the AHRMA, flew in last week and helped tone down the motocross track. The riders - most of them younger than Rice, who cruised through to the win in his first 60+/70+ heat Sunday - weren't catching much air.

Rice, who found a sponsor in High Desert Cycle Salvage and Mike McGregor, was hoping to find one more friend when he got to Billings - Monte Darling, a guy he raced with some 40 years ago. Darling couldn't make the trip from Couer d'Alene, Idaho. Maybe at the next AHRMA event, then.

Rice has worked for Douglas Aircraft, the El Toro Water Co., and as a motorcycle mechanic and an over-the-road trucker. During his hiatus from motorbikes he rode in endurance horse races. "I rode endurance horses for a solid 18 years," he said. "You know, 50 miles, 100 miles."

"You probably don't even have any horses anymore, do you?" Collins asked.

"I've still got my horses, but I don't ride 'em," Rice replied. "I got hooked on this again." Then he tinked with his 1973 XL350 Honda four-stroke, which he "punched out" to 412cc's, in preparation for his second heat.

John R, age 67, is back. And so is his frog.