[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]Sorry for highjacking your thread supergwit. That was not intended.
I thought I would start another thread for anyone who has some old stories to tell, relating to racing.
Some of you wanted to hear how and why I switched from riding a BSA Gold Star to KRs.
As I had said in an earlier post, in 1962 I was a novice rider, based here in Texas. At that time I knew Everett Brashier pretty well and Everitt was still riding. EB was from the Beaumont TX area. He held National #25 at the time. This number would years later pass to the late Cal Rayburn. Rayburn came long after my time.
Just to get off the subject for a second.....
As far as I know, Everitt still lives in San Diego CA. He is getting on in years now but is an excellent golfer and can go out and do an 82 score from what I have heard. I last saw him at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Motorcycle event in 2001 out at Del Mar CA.
I also saw many of the legends I had ridden with/against form my earlier days. Bart Markle and George Roeder (Sr) among with many others. Reswebber started to show up a couple of years after that. Joe Leonard was there, Brad Andres was there, along with Sammy Tanner. Oh well, it was a long list. Leonard, Tanner, Andres and Reswebber I never had the pleasure to ride with.

Back to Everitt.... who was living in Louisiana at the time (1962). I never raced against him because he was an Expert and I a lowly Novice. Anyway, EB had a good friend who lived in Houston named Jack Ghoulson. Jack was 34 years old, was an Expert class rider, and carried National #34 at the time. His job was at Textsteam Industries here in Houston where he was some kind of engineer.
Jack was sponsered by Harry Stelter, the owner of Stelter's Harley Davidson in Houston. Harry's father had opened this shop in the 1920's, so it was like an institution around here.

Jack and Everitt would drop by the Harley shop from time to time and that is where I first got to know them, because even though I rode a BSA, I hung out at the HD shops in my spare time.
Back in those days the National Numbers were distributed by the AMA to riders who had been to a large number of National events around the country. I never had it explained exactly how this worked, perhaps politics were involved, but you did not have to be a winning rider to get one of these coveted plates, just show up on a regular basis. This was the case with Jack. We lived in the same town, but he was never at one single race that I was at.

The reason was because he only rode National events, and I was riding anywhere I could get to any race. Novice riders could become Amatuer, then they could ride in National events in their class. All novice, amatuer, or Experts (who did not have one of the 99 national numbers) had numbers ending with a letter. Mine was 73n. The letter was a designation of a particular area of the country. Texans got n's.

OK, so it is 1962 and there is a National flat track race coming up in the fall. This was the 5 Mile National being held at Lincoln IL. Another friend of mine, Bob Anglin, a few years older than me was an Amatuer and planned to go to Lincoln with Jack Ghoulson.
Bob had a BSA Gold Star and Jack of course had his KR. They loaded the pick up and left for Lincoln in Sept for the race being held on the 16th.
The track was very dusty, according to what Bob told me when he got back to Houston.
Practice was going on in the morning and there were quite a few riders out on the track. One of them fell and Jack Ghoulson went flying into that ball of dust. Jack went down also. Carrol Resweber also went down. I believe this was the last race Carrol Resweber ever rode. He was injured, but I do not recall how bad. It was a bad wreck though.

According to the newspaper clipping I still have, Jack's neck was broken. He died

Maybe you copy the other stories into this thread as well?

I remember reading about some of the guys you mention, like Markle--I got my first bike in about 65 at age twelve (first Harley four years later), but I was already a big fan by then. Devoured all the racing dope in the cycle magazines without really knowing what I was reading, just becasue it was about motorcycles and especially Harleys. There wasn't much going on in those days out here in the Pacific Northwest. It's exciting to me to have an exchange with someone who actually witneesed what I was reading about.

Did a little racing myself, but nothing like what you describe.

How long did you ride, Pinion, and what led you retire? What was the next chapter.

I started racing (scrambles, [color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]as it was called back then) when I turned 16 in 1960. Scrambles was similar to motocross, but the machines were 650cc, 500cc and Sportsters (on occasion). We did not have whoop-de-dos and the tracks were pretty fast.
At that time there was a sport going on in Europe that was called Motocross. This was done on lightweight 2 stroke motorcycles and as we all now know, involved jumps, bumps, and soft mushy terrain for the most part. Also, it was my perception that Motocross was a rather low speed event back in those days. We did not pay attention to it at all. Later when it came to the states it became a big thing of course.
Now, I write that from my perspective as it was in 1962.

My riding was done at a local track which included a ¼ oval and a track cut through the woods using a bulldozer. The man who built the track was named Dowain Beavers. Everyone called him Father. He was 40 years old in 1960, and ....as were a lot of the group back then, a genuine character.

Beavers built this track on public land along the bayou watershed. He would 'borrow' the heavy equipment on weekends from Harris County from a road project going on on 34th street at the time. This included a maintainer and a Caterpillar bulldozer. Of course the county did not know of the loan until one day the Caterpillar Grader got a flat while Beavers was using it to grade the oval off.
How he got away with this is unknown to me, but in 1960 this was a quite different world.
Beavers was also a very good motorcycle racer himself.
For anyone who may live in the Houston area, this track was located at the northwest corner of West 34th St and TC Jester Blvd. Today the area is small rolling flood terrain and White Oak Bayou runs through it. The group of trees still stand at the corner where the entrance to the track was located.

Beavers was riding professionally in 1952 and rode a WR back then. The story goes that he was banned from riding at Riverside in '52 because of his bashing other riders. Just what I heard about him, but knowing him as I did I do not doubt that the story was true.
Beavers carried a long scar on each of his forearms where he had been stiched up from a crash in his younger days. When I knew him he rode a Harley Davidson and always had it with him when he was building out the track. He would hop on it to make a few laps during the day and it was something to see that old man blast around the track!
His bike was a rigid frame 74 cubic inch panhead. A 1952 model as I recall. Ugly as sin. He had painted(?) it with a couple of spray cans making it red with yellow spots here and there. He called the bike 'The Jackrabbit".
The 34th street track lasted for a couple of years, then in 1962 Beavers bought himself some land and a house in Rose Hill Tx, just west of Houston. Always the promoter, Father cut a full half mile oval track out back. The infield had a pond (called a 'tank' here in TX).
He graded a sharp left turn at the end of the back straight away, that went through the infield alongside the tank. There was a 4ft rise you had to make before the tank. This was the scrambles course. The oval was the flat track course, and later Beavers put a right hand turn at the end of the front straight and this qualified it as a TT course under AMA rules. Now he was open for business!
Local farm people would come over and help make sandwiches that Beavers and his wife sold on race days. We ran many, many times around that track, and that is where I received my basic training.
I was still riding my BSA Spitfire Scrambler and had not gotten my Novice license yet (so that would be sometime in 1961) and there was a race held. We were running the half mile oval, then taking the 'shortcut' turnin

I raced the local scrambles and a quarter mile flat track on several bikes, never a Harley. A good friend, though, was doing hill climbs with his CH. That's how I met him in fact. There were miles of logging rods next to my house and a buddy came over one afternoon to say some nut was out trying to climb Big Sandy on a Sportster. Of course, I had to jump on my bike and check it out, as I considered that hill my private property.

That guy, who was a friend for many years, ended crashing a small racing airplane in a dry lake bed in Oregon. There's still debate as to whether it was an accident or intentional, but his body had begun breaking down, and I know he didn't relish the idea of a future in which he wasn't able to play with his toys.

Was somewhat like you, Pinion, in that I was a win or over-the-wall type rider, a character trait that caused my dad to sit me down for a year.

I loved the quarter mile dirt track best and won a few races on a pauper's budget, but the track wasn't around more than a couple years, before insurance problems (I think) closed it down. Ironically, my highschool coach didn't want me to race because he was afraid I'd injure myself, but I hurt myself twice in sports so I couldn't race but never hurt myself racing so I couldn't play.

I'm afraid I don't have any racing stories to match yours. Of course, I'm curious about your "sudden retirement."

When I was out in California in either 2001 or 2002, my brother (who lives there) and I went to Del Mar. That was where I ran into Everitt Brashier. He was with a friend who lived next door to him and played golf with Everitt.
It turns out I knew this guy well. I had not seen him in more than 30 yearsI His name is James Jackson and he came to Houston from Corpus Christi TX back in the early sixties and of course we rode against each other many times.

James and I got to talking about old times and the subject of Al Gunter came up. James asked me if I knew the story of what happened and I replied that I did not.
I never knew Al Gunter, but he was a very famous racer in his day. Al once worked for Bruce Bristol BSA in Houston, but was long gone when I worked there. Bruce related many stories about Al, and of course I had followed his racing in the magazines.
As he got older, he was a regular at Ascot Speedway, then run by JC Agajenian (incorrect spelling).

James told me the story.....Al was hurt very badly in a race there and in the hospital they had to remove both legs. Gunter had a friend smuggle a shotgun inside the hospital. He later then blew his brains out on the hospital bed.
If he would not ride again then he did not want to live. That story really shocked me! I had never heard of this incident, before or since, so I have to ask if anyone else has[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]?

I have a few stories about the Daytona events I rode in but will not relate all of them now.
I rode the first one as an Amature. I made a whole 7 laps and then ran my front wheel up between a riders rear number plate and frame and went down hard. That was the newspaper clip I posted earlier.

My second Daytona was a serious effort. We our engine built by a professional (Limey Hollingsworth) in St Augustine Florida. Limey was the St Augustine Harley dealer and had been a good friend of Pridgen's when Pridg was back in his home state of Georgia years before. We left Houston with a bare frame and installed the engine at the Harley shop in St Augustine.

I landed in the hospital with a concussion from colliding with George Roeder in a short track race in Jacksonville the week before the 200 National was to be run.

Walking around holding a piece of beefsteak on my swollen right eye the rest of the week allowed the swelling to go down enough to give me some vision with it.
George Roeder and Roger Rieman were camped in the St Augustine shop along with Pridgen and I. We road tested out on the highway with George and Ralph Bernt during the week.

That race was my best Daytona I ever had. I timed trialed at 119 point something mph. The faster time trial was turned by the rider for San Diego Harley Davidson at 129 point something mph. So I was not at the back of the pack, but not at the front either.

George had given me a very good demonstration of the difference in his KR and my KR out there on that highway. Limey had arranged for a pair of Florida State Troopers to close off a 5 mile stretch of highway near the shop. This is where we did our testing. It was really cool having a cop at each end of 'our test track'.

I was out there running flat out wide open and I heard George coming up behind me. He passed me with a good 6 to 7 mph more speed than I could muster. My old KR was turning 6600 rpm with a 4:1 gear ratio. I am sure George was pulling 3.90 :1, as he certainly had a stronger engine.
Pridgen urged me to go ask Ralph to look at my spark plugs. Ralph agreed to and told me to do a test run. I did the plug run and coasted up to a stop. Removed the plugs and Ralph puts his magnifier flash light down into each plug and then simply tells me, 'open your main jet one click.' Nothing else was said. I did that an

Here's part of a piece that mentions the suicide of Al Gunter from the Daytona Project website: http://www.restorenik.com/daytona/ (http://www.restorenik.com/daytona/)


(check this website out, Pinion--great stuff.)
One of the friendliest racers I met at Daytona was Al Gunter in 1953 and last saw him at Daytona in 1958 by which time he was a changed man. He had been terribly mutilated in various crashes although you saw flashes of the old Al Gunter in the smile and enthusiasm. He had tried to make a career out of motor cycle racing in the 50's, this was difficult and as he got older had to compete with many up and coming younger riders. Eventually he was confined to a wheelchair and in 1976 we heard of his suicide. Al Gunter had been a very enthusiastic racer of BSA's and co-operated a great deal in our experiments. In the mid '50's he was one of the fastest BSA men in the USA. The last time I talked with him, Al said he was getting over 50bhp at the back wheel of his Gold Star racer at 8000 RPM. Harman and Collins helped him in these experiments, using special cams and special push rods to aid higher revving. At 8000 RPM I did not expect a Gold Star to last very long, which Al confirmed and said the motor was only good for a short track. Dick Mann another BSA rider who was riding Harley Davidson at Daytona in 1958. One time he handed me a factory racing Harley 45 cu. inch, flathead twin and asked if I had ever had a ride on one. I had not and he suggested I have a go. This was in front of all the Harley people and their eyes were popping out. Before anyone could sBack to top me I hopped on and a rushed up the beach. It was fantastic and felt like a Manx Norton. It steered well, brakes were good, the motor pulled hard to 7400 RPM, then the power dropped right off and you went to the next gear. Torque was strong all the way. I don't know how our BSA riders ever competed with them.


And here's an image I found

http://www.prestoimages.com/store/rd2006/2006_pd1214888_1.jpg

Thanks for that post MW.
Great website and I bookmarked it so I can go back and look closer at it. Interesting stuff!
Although I had a BSA Shooting Star (1949) I have never seen another one since. The local dealer sold BSA Super Rockets, Golden Flashes, and a 500cc Flash, We never carried the Shooting Star. It seemed to be a model that was not imported at that time.
Just reading a short bit on the site I see names that I had forgot.....Hap Alzina, Rich Importers. These were the people who imported the BSA and Triumph MCs into the East and West Coasts and were the distributors of the bikes.

The article regarding Al Gunter's death is the only one I have ever seen, or heard of, and this is the first time I have seen this one. Thanks for finding it and posting it here. It is a little different than what James Jackson related to me, but the result was the same ending.
Oh yes, I see mention of Dick Mann, Dick Klamforth and others. Famous racers indeed.
Klamforth I believe ran his first race at Daytona in 1949 when it began, as far as I know anyway.
I tell you what, I remember when he pulled alongside my KR going down the back straight in 1964 with a big grin on his face. He was riding the single cylinder Matchless overhead cam 500cc bike that was a brand new model then. It was called the G50.
He and I ran for a couple of laps drafting off each other. Finally he was able to inch ahead of me and escape my draft with his Matchless. With out the extra cubic inches afforded to the flathead, the KRs would have had a hard time keeping up with some of those singles.
On shorter tracks (½ mile) KRs had no advantage over the British bikes.

As a one time BSA rider, I always wanted to take a 650cc (40 cu inch) twin BSA engine and turn it into a 37½ inch engine. This was done with the A-10 engine (650cc) and install a cylinder barrel off of an A-7 engine (500cc). You would use the A-7 connecting rods but bore out the cylinders and fit the 650cc pistons in there. The result was an engine that was sized around 37½ cubic inches but having the large bore and short stroke.
Bruce Bristol always told me he had seen it done and it produced a very quick reving engine on a dirt track and the large bore made it an 'oversquare' design.
It was legal to run such a machine in Class C TT races only, not flat track, because the engine size exceeded the 30.50 limit for ohv engines.
Maybe that is why I never saw such an engine built, but I always wished I had done it. At one time, I had all of the equipment needed to do it, but alas, I let go of all that priceless equipment not knowing later in life that I would wish I still had it.
Thanks again for the post........pg

#3 AL GUNTER: My father took me to the AMA Flat Track races at Ascot Park beginning in the early 60's when I was about 5 years old. Al Gunter (R) became my hero with that big ol #3 on the bike and that leather face mask he wore. I've used the #3 to this day because of Al. Sadly he came out of retirement in the mid 70's, had a horrible crash and was paralized. He never came to terms with that and committed suicide about a year later.

AL GUNTER http://www.restorenik.com/daytona/gunter_head.gif Al Gunter
AMA no. 54
4th in 1954
riding a Shooting Star [hr]

A Texan, born in Houston in 1933 Al Gunter was not only a top rider who kept the Gold Star winning short track events into the 1960's. He was also a skilled tuner who was able, according to BSA development engineer Roland Pike, to get more power out of a Gold Star than BSA could.

As an individual he was more complicated, perhaps even contradictory. Described by Dick Mann as "... a great mechanic and one of the smartest and shrewdest riders he ever knew" he was also described by Neil Keen as "...handsome to a fault, as charming as a bird, and as eccentric as the March Hare." Yet he could also be very abrasive and would deliberately unsettle other riders by adjusting his gloves, goggles and bike position to delay the start of a race. http://www.restorenik.com/daytona/Gunter_and_Norm_Smith.gif Al Gunter and Norm Smith at Daytona 1954 Although starting with a Triumph dealer in Oakland, and sometimes rode Harleys, Gunter moved to BSA and made his name on that marque.

In 1952 he was the first person to win a National on a BSA, riding a 500cc Star Twin at Shreveport.

1952 was his first Daytona finishing 5th, In 1953 he didn't finish, Although he came 4th at Daytona in 1954 he won at Sturgis later that year. On the trip there he was accompanied by a young amateur he had taken under his wing, Dick Mann.

1957 not provided Gunter with his best result there but also one of the legendary Daytona stories.

During pre-race testing with Dick Mann they stopped for plug checks. Relations with the police at Daytona were not always good and on this occasion the sheriff turned-up and decided to arrest both for speeding, excessive noise and riding their bikes without lights or license plates. In response, Gunter took off! Pushing Mann into his car the sheriff took off in hot pursuit and called an APB for Gunter.

With many police now mobilised Gunter was finally tracked-down and arrested in his motel room where he was calmly watching television. Since the back road and the motel were in different counties, the BSA boss Ted Hodgson had to post bond and bail both out of two different county jails in time to compete next day. [align=center] http://www.restorenik.com/daytona/Gunter_star_twin.gif [align=center][b][color="#fffff

MW.....
What a great posting! Keep it coming. I perused the Bart Markle page regarding his passing last year. I did not know he had passed away. I saw him at one of the Del Mar Events several years ago when they had the 'Legends of MC Racing ' gathered.
Reading the Gunter I saw another name I had forgotten somewhat.....Neil Keen.

Keen was an Expert rider and carried National #10 plate on his bike. Seeing his name reminded me of another incident and a personal encounter with him.
I was an Amatuer and decided to ride the Dodge City Kansas race at the Rally that year.
Dennis Schoenfeldt was ready to go with me. I drove a beat up 1955 Ford at the time, but Dennis had just bought a brand new 1963 Corvette Stingray Convertable. We drove up to Kansas in the Vette, pulling the KRs on a trailer.

At the Dodge City half mile track, we were running practice laps. My KR was running well and the track was hard and fast. I noticed a fellow out by the track edge was standing there taking photos with his camera as I came sliding through the turn.
I also noticed this fellow was Neil Keen, another of my BSA heros who I had followed in the magazines. I thought, 'He's taking pictures of me?!'
I guess my slides impressed Neil. I finally fell going through the turn and went down hard. That carb hanging out on the left side of the engine got ripped off the bike.
The intake manifold and carb were torn off the engine, so I was done for the day.
Sitting in the pits, totally dejected, Keen came walking up and introduced himself. He asked me what the problem was and I showed him the parts. He said, wait a minute, I have a manifold. He came back in a few minutes and hands me an intake manifold for a KR. I tried to pay him something for it but he refused to take it.
I installed the manifold and the carb back on the bike. Finished good enough in the heat race to advance to the Amatuer final, but found myself on the far outside end of the starting line up.
The race started and I got into the first corner in a good position. Close to the end I was only in 2nd place, but my front wheel was right on the back of Buddy Elmore's Triumph who led.
Buddy's bike exploded in front of me. I dodged the junk flying up in the air and won the Amatuer final. I never saw Neil again that day, but needless to say I was very indebted to him for his generousity.................pg

You guys are making me wish I was born much earlier. I havn't heard of a single person you guys have mentioned but you do them a great honor to speak about your experiences with them. I'm honored to be on the same sitewith you and Ienjoy the history. Thanks for sharing. I just wish I had something to contribute. You ought to think about colaborating on a book together. Deffinately a great threat. Keep it up, please.

Rich

Every time I see the next generation of riders come upon the scene, they look faster and wilder than the previous. That is the way it is supposed to progress.
I am an old guy now, but when I was younger I used to hear talk about the guys who had ridden WRs on the dirt tracks before me. I said the same thing Rich....'gosh, I never heard of any of them.'
I also never witnessed them ride the WRs either, because it was before my time. But I always had the greatest respect for those guys.
Just look at some of the photos and see the machines they rode around the dusty tracks in the early days. I rode a modern KR with good front shocks and a 4.00 x 19 inch wheel on front with a 4.00 x 18 on back. I could understand what it took to get that bike around the track.
But a WR? Not even a foot shift. The handle for the gear change was hanging along the left side of the gas tank. Front forks? What are those funny looking open springs on the front end of a WR?
Go back even further in time and you would get to see the long board tracks. Those riders were doing a good hundred miles an hour around the loop and were running what looks like bicycle tires to me.
I have always wondered about two things........When I was younger, could I have kept up with a modern day rider today? The other thought was.....When I was younger, could I have kept up with those earlier riders on that old equipment? Something I still think about, but will never get an answer.
Sorry the names do not ring a bell with you Rich, but these guys were just the finest riders in their day. Guys like Reswebber, Dick Mann, George Roeder and the lists go on and on were just unbeatable as racers. And most of them would help you out if you asked.
I used to write long hand letters to George Roeder who lived in Ohio. I would ask him questions about gearing at different tracks, questions about riding methods etc. George would always write me back with answers. Never once did he fail to answer a letter.
I finally got to meet him and race with him at Daytona in 1964. He was just a great man.......pg

I'm ready to hear the story of your last Daytona, Pinion. You've left us hanging.

I'm ready as well, Pinion!!!

Patrick

I'm with pyro here. I'm a young guy. I have never heard of any of these people, but it doesn't stop me from being overly intrigued by both piniongears and moon wolfs stories. I love em guys. Keep em coming.

Piniongear I know you probably don't have this laying around anywhere but I would be really interested to see, like I said you if you have one, a rules sheet for the races you were in. I know you mentioned in some other threads that you weren't allowed to downshift. Some of those odd rules I would like to see.

I did find on HD's site a story of all the racers you were talking about. Quite interesting.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/Racing/racing_history.jsp?locale=en_US

Randy.....
I wish I still had the rule book for AMA Class C competion but I lost mine many years back. I did find my competition license in a cigar box the other week though, along with some newspaper clippings I had saved.
Class A racing was Hill Climbing. This was done using the big cubic inch Harleys, sometimes burning fuel. I saw only one of those events when I was very young and it was awesome! The guys rode these beast of machines up steep hills, wide open with the front wheel straight up in the air. Many just went over backward.

Class C was for Flat Track events, both mile and half mile, Road Racing and TT racing.
Road racing required brakes front and back.
Engine displacement was limited to 30.50 cubic inches for OHV machines and 45 cubic inch (750cc) flathead (or called side valve) machines, This engine rule was in effect for all Class C, except for TT (Tourist Trophy) Class C races. TT allowed you to run your 40 cubic inch BSA or Triumph twin. Oh, this also allowed you to ride your XLCH of XLR if you had one in this open class of racing against those 40 inch British machines. The raw horse power of a 55 cubic inch XLR was something to behold.
The TT races had the requirement that the course must contain at least one right hand turn in it's layout. Many courses had a jump or two, but that was not a requirement as far as I ever knew.

[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]I once watched a Super 8 movie film taken in black and white that a fan had made of a TT race we had here in Houston back at Beavers old track in the early 60's.
I was riding a 1961 Sportster and most everyone else was on a Brit bike of some brand. A good mix of BSA, Triumph and Ariels.
The film showed this huge roostertail of dirt streaking down the back straightaway. I was in front of the roostertail and going into the next corner when the pack behind me were just getting onto the straight.
I could run that Sportster so hard into a turn the the front wheel would turn inwards toward the left and it would just push dirt sideways as both wheels slid through the turn. In addition to power, that machine just handled so well considering it was close to 400 lbs of iron.

You may wonder why the engine sizes were limited. Back in those days the Harley Davidson Motor Company controlled the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) and the AMA sanctioned all of the money paying racing. They set the rules and we rode by those rules, or we did not ride. This favored Harley by a large margin.
On the short tracks (½ mile and shorter) there was not a lot of advantage in riding a KR. On the longer tracks such as a mile track, and especially on a road race there was a great advantage. Cubic inches beats everything most of the time, providing you have enough pavement to put it to good use.

There was no down shifting allowed after you got into 4th gear on the flat tracks.
Also, brakes were not allowed on the machines. Everyone was in the same boat and so there were no crashes because someone jammed on the brakes in front of you. It was my favorite type of racing because it was so simple. Just the throttle was all you had to think about regarding the machine.
The rule stating no down shifting was not a big deal either, and it also kept things simple. What you did is to gear the machine so that just at the end of a straightaway when you backed off the throttle going into the turn, your tach would be sitting at redline....7000 rpms or thereabouts. This gave you maxium speed and kept you up on the cam range.
The last thing you wanted was a brake. Just rolling off the throttle was enough to brake you going in and you had better be back on that throttle before you came off the tur

Do you have any footage you could get up on you-tube?

Rich

I cant begin to tell you how much I am enjoying the stories.
I am also just a little too young (just barerly) to have first hand knowledge of the people you have mentioned. However,I have read about some of them and do recogize several names. It is great to hear first hand accounts of the races and racers. In my oppion, the pioneers of the sport. Guys that knew the bikes and worked on their own.
Please keep them comming. "Thank you for the entertainment."
I feel like we should all be sitting around a garage someplace having a drink and swaping stories.

Not anything Rich. If I did, I would post it for sure......pg

Eh, you want some footage???

Have a look at these, it's the AMA National Laconia Road Race (and Amateur race as well) in 1960...

All the great are there, Roger Reiman, Carrol Resweber, Al Gunter, Dick Mann, Joe Leonard, Brad Andresetc... Gold Stars and KR galore...

It's footage off a CBS show from the period, ads included "Drink Schlitz" from Milwaukee!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfLiSAmKijw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st2415BbnNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juV-j6MlYpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFk3TRlWkvE

Pinion, thanks again for the memories!!!

All the best from Patrick

Hey Patrick......
What a great collection of racing from the days of old! Thanks for posting it. I have only looked through a short section so far, but will return to see it all later.
It had me laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair! I am referring to the crash shown in the Expert race where the old hearst looking ambulance goes roaring down the track with the sirens going as the racers fly past it.
Man, that is how it was done in the 'good old days' boys and girls. Notice all of the riders stick out their legs as they go around the turns. That is because of dirt track experience where you had a steel shoe on your left foot to slide around the dirt tracks.
We wore smooth bottom boots for road racing (no heel) and stuck out the foot around turns because that is what we did on the dirt. If you had let the boot drag on the pavement, it would catch and break your leg as it was yanked over the rear fender. Still, we had a better sense of balance I guess.
Feet on the pegs riding was still about 5 years in the future when we began to imitate the european riders, who for road racing, were light years ahead of us at that time..........pg

Right now I'm budy as a two-peckered billy boat with work, but first break I get I'm going to check out the video. Thanks for posting the links, Patrick.

I'm glad to see this thread is so popular. I'm pretty much like all the rest of the guys that have been reading and not posting much. Most of this stuff is out of my league, but I love reading it.

Looking forward to the Daytona tale.

Looking forward to the Daytona tale.

It's coming, it's coming, I promise........pg

I'm bumping this thread. Still waiting on the next installment.

Moon Wolf....
I am going to try to post it later tonight or tomorrow morning..........pg

Also waiting patiently. Looking forward to the next installment.

One thing and another keeps jumping up at me here, but I will post it as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay......pg

ORIGINAL: piniongear

.
Feet on the pegs riding was still about 5 years in the future when we began to imitate the european riders, who for road racing, were light years ahead of us at that time..........pg



I was in Germany (Army) in the late '60s and attended the GPs as often as I could. It was at Hockenhiem ring that I witnessed the battle between Skip Askland and Giacamo Agostini. Ago with the traditional smooth, tires on the track style vs Skips squared off corners and wheelie out American style. Skip took the checkered. The younger Europeans pick up on that type of riding real quick and later Kenny Roberts(my hero) showed everyone how it was done.
No doubt racers are adaptable and will innovate to get those split seconds required to win.
Hell, even the street racers emulate their favorite winners (I did on my RD400) and modern bikes make it easy to go faster than any sane person should, off the track.
I first saw bikes race at the Springfield State Fair in the early '50s, too young to know the names,
but it influenced my future as a biker.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk205/mwaggoner_01/marksbike2-1.jpg

ORIGINAL: piniongear

One thing and another keeps jumping up at me here, but I will post it as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay......pg


Which was it this time? Nap time or beer time? ;) I think you're drawing it out on purpose to add to the anticipation. As for me, I'll continue to wait as fast as I can.

Rich

[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]Well, I am just going to make the time to get this last post down regarding my last ride at Daytona.
The year was 1965 and I would turn 21 years old.that year. Having left home at age 16, I felt like a very old man at the time, having spent the last 5 years scrabbling to make it on my own.

As I related before, 1964 looked like the year that I would be able to do something at Daytona but as it turned out, the broken chain dashed all hopes of that.
More importantly, it had soured Pridgen on spending any more money on racing. He continued to furnish parts when needed and told me to take the KRs anywhere I wanted, but that I was on my own. He was not going to travel any more. That made it very difficult for me to travel because I had depended on his funding to do so in the past.

After Daytona 1964, Dennis Schoenfeldt and I traveled together, splitting the expenses.
Dennis was always a better manager of money than I, and he could stretch a dollar much further.

There comes to mind a race that was being held in northeastern Alabama on an Easter Sunday weekend. Let me detour for a second. The race was 757 miles from Houston. This was a half mile dirt track event.
Dennis wanted to go, but he told me.....'Let's take your car. I am getting too many miles on mine.' I said OK.
Now Dennis had a 1963 Corvette Stingray Convertible that he bought new the year before for $5700. I drove a very beaten up 1955 Ford. We pulled out of Houston on Saturday afternoon with a small trail of oil coming out the Ford's transmission. Going through Louisiana that night a headlight burned out. The next thing to happen was the other light burned out a filament. Now I could put the high beams on and all lights were off! Out in the middle on Nowhere LA, it was really dark when I did that.
We had a few good laughs rolling down the highway by moonlight and got replacements at the first auto parts we came to the next day.

We got to the track Sunday morning, and raced that day. Dennis was an Amatuer and I an Expert. I think Dennis took a 3rd place in his final and I took 2nd place in mine. So, we had a couple of dollars in our pocket and I remember thinking we had done quite well for ourselves.

We headed back home after the races. Going through Mississippi the old Ford suddenly lurched to the left. I caught it before the car went head on into oncoming traffic. Dennis, who had been sleeping, was now wide awake. Crossing a bridge the Ford suddenly did the same thing and I was just barely able to keep it in the right lane. Now the front end was shaking badly though.

We pulled off the highway and into a Texaco station. Parking off to the side we inspected the front end. The left wheel bearing was comepletely gone. The wheel just wobbled and most of the rollers were missing as the cage had come apart. We asked the station owner if there was a parts house close by?
His answer went something like this......'If there was a parts store in town I would not even call them or let you use my phone to call them! You G** D**n motorcycle bums!'
Wow, this guy did not like motorcycles or motorcycle riders for some reason.

This was Easter Sunday weekend and nothing was open. We had Monday off from work, but had to be there for Tuesday and we were a long way from home and in a real fix. This was well before cell phones or even CB radio and we were stuck. Could not even ride the KRs into town because they had no brakes, being flat track bikes.

Dennis and I decided to walk over the overpass we saw down the highway, just to see if there was another business there where we might get a phone. Coming over the hill I still remember what we found. An auto junk yard!

Now it was closed for business, but we decided we had little choice but to open it up. Going back to the Ford we grabbed a couple of

Thank you very much, Pinion. Great stuff!

Very nice indeed.

So what happened to the machines? Did you not put yours back together or did Dennis' engine stay in your frame from then on? Any chance you could get it back to restore and ride? The bike I learned to ride on was a 82 Honda 450C. I sold it to a friend some years ago. It has a good bit of personal history and, from time to time, I wouldn't mind having it back. I may ask him one day if he would be willing to part with it.

Thanks for sharing and I hope this is not the last story in your collection.

Rich

Many many thanks, Pinion, what memories!!!

Patrick

I have to say I really enjoyed all of these stories. Even back when they were in the prior thread. It was addictive to read these. You told (or maybe I should say typed) the stories well that it kept me and everyone here keep coming back for more!

Mr. Perry if you don't mind me asking what did you do after you stopped racing? I mean obviously you worked or are still working. But I guess I mean what profession did you take after this? Rocket Scientist, Neurosurgeon, Engineer, etc.?

And I'm interested like Rich up there. What exactly did you do with the bikes after the race? Did you take your parts rebuild it and keep it or did you just leave it and move on?

Randy.....
When I stopped racing in 1965 I had been working for Union Carbide Corporation for 3 years at that time.
I had worked at Bruce Bristols BSA dealership in Houston before that for 2 years. In 1962 I quit my job as a mechanic at Bristol's and went to work at Union Carbide as a mail boy. The motorcycle shop paid me $85 a week and I worked Monday thru Friday and a half day on Saturday.
The job at Union Carbide paid $1.50 an hour and my take home pay was $47 a week. But it was like I was on vacation that first year! Where I had worn uniforms to work before and spent my time covered with grease, now I wore a sport shirt and slacks and never got dirty. I worked Monday -Friday 8am to 5pm. I never knew people had it so good!

When I quit racing I went back and got my GED right away. Working around Engineers and not having finished high school was something I wanted to fix as quick as I could.
My intent was to become a draftsman at that time. This is a job that could provide a good salary and an engineering degree was not required back then. Today, that is not the case.
I started night school and completed math classes, typing. and some other courses that would allow me to move up into the drafting department.

During my time at Carbide, I had been working in the piping design department when the Engineering Center was opened around 1965. When this was going to open, I was assigned to work on the building floor plans for the piping department, and I saw an area on the plan called a Model Shop. Being curious, I asked what is that? The Model Shop made plastic scale models of the chemical plants that Union Carbide built. Having some experience building things and a lot using wrenches, I asked if I could get into that group. As it worked out, I was the first 'model man' in the shop, but I had much to learn. And by that I mean much more to learn.

[color="#0000ff"][size="3"][font="microsoft sans serif"]In 1970, Union Carbide's Engineering Center in Houston was suddenly closed, and we were all told that we would be laid off. In 1970 there were no jobs to be had in Houston Texas. The engineering business is always either up or down, and at that time it was down. A more cyclical business I have never known.

However, there was a company that was relocating their world headquarters from New York City to Houston at that time, and that was the MW Kellogg Co. (this was not the cornflakes cereal company).
Today the MW Kellogg Co is known as KBR ( Kellogg/Brown & Root). I am sure anyone who reads the political news will recognise that name. They were building across the driveway from Carbide and they were hiring people in 1970. I got on there as a model builder/piping designer, and the job lasted another 24 years.

During that time we expanded and a second model shop was opened in 1979 and I was given the job as manager of the 2nd shop. In 1983 the original manager (who had hired me) was laid off and I was given the manager's position over the whole shop operation.
I met my future wife there who came to work as a model builder in 1979. She still works there today as a piping design supervisor.
In 1994, the hand writing was hard to ignore. The computer was going to eliminate the model business soon, and either I had to retrain or get out.
Being 50 years old and quite a hardhead as far as being adaptable to retraining, I just walked in and quit one morning.
That was a pretty scary time for me. I had no idea of what I was too do.
I took a job at an REI outdoor store that opened in Houston in 1996, working in the bicycle shop. That is actually where I learned to build wheels (for bicycles) but the motorcycle is the same, just larger.
This was also the time when I decided to pull my old Sportster put of my salt

ORIGINAL: piniongear


Well, you just got most of my life story. Sorry to run on so............pg



A very interesting life I would say. Feel free to run on as much and as often as you like. Like Randy said, you tell it very well. The only thing that could make them better is if you were telling them in person around a camp fire with a frosty beverage.

I wish I had as much to tell but I have so many interests and have jumped around to different things so much that I feel like just a chapter or footnote in someone else's life.

Thanks again for story time.

Rich

Blake I think you deserve this......... [sm=hail.gif]

Thanks Randy, but I do not deserve that.
I'm just glad to be able to share some stories with you guys, so thanks for staying tuned.
I wish some of the really big time racers would stumble onto this site and do some sharing of their stories before they are all gone. The ranks are thinning fast. I was surprised to learn Bart Markle has passed away. That guy was so tough I thought he would live forever...........pg

Blake,

I was watching the video's above that thefrenchowl posted. The second one has a person in it about half way through of a man that looks very similar to you. Check this out. Is this you?

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll208/supr2nr/Untitled.jpg

Good God! I have to ask you......is that me?
It sure looks like it was, except the gent has a 'haircut' like I do today. That is too say, just a bit on the thin side. Back in the racing days I had a full head of curly hair.
Anyway, the image shook me up so that I had to grab the camera just now and take a similar shot of myself. I did it in black and white so that it would compare easier. What do you think?
I never rode Laconia, but if the videos were at another location I need to look them over myself. Uncanny resembalance............pg

edit note to Randy:
I just went back and watched the film. That photo happened to be taken at the riders meeting at Laconia, so it was not me. I looked just like that back then, but with hair. Wow, you had me convinced for a second there.......Blake


local://upfiles/8331/C94F05B5448E4DE1A679C7F5493496FC.jpg

ORIGINAL: piniongear

My intent was to become a draftsman at that time. This is a job that could provide a good salary and an engineering degree was not required back then.

I have a very similar work background and this statement caught my eye. While the majority of my early work was as an R&D mechanical tech/modelmaker at the Ill. Inst. of Tech.,Abbott Labs, Texas Instruments and Compaq Computer, I also had previously worked a year as a Suzuki mechanic at a dealer, raced Amateur MX in Japan, and built composite bodies for the Formula 5000 UOP Shadow racing team. I started working with AutoCAD software in '84 at Compaq and when my lab position was phased out with the advent of CAD/CAM giving engineers the capabilities for virtual prototyping and testing, I had to fall back on drafting for a living.
I did find Cad useful when I designed and built my chopper. Was able to provide full scale templates for the bender and fabricator. Do to a recent wreck, the frame is at the same shop being straightened (after 14 yrs). Although I attended Univ for a couple years, I never got a degree. Although the income hasn't been great, I've enjoyed my work(good thing, with this economy I'll never afford to retire).
Thanks a lot for taking me back and stirring up some good memories, Mark
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk205/mwaggoner_01/marksbike-1.jpg

ORIGINAL: piniongear
local://upfiles/8331/C94F05B5448E4DE1A679C7F5493496FC.jpg


I think I just found your twin!

I've read through this entire thread twice now. Pinion, you tell a a good yarn. Thanks for the posts. I truly enjoyed them.