Today in motorcycle history, July 26, 1959

 


 

  Westwood, the first purpose-built road racing circuit in Canada opens.

 

  Built, owned and operated by the racers themselves. With land acquired on the southern slope of Eagle Mountain (aka Eagle Ridge) in Coquitlam, British Columbia, the SCCBC (Sports Car Club of British Columbia) members went about building a 1.8 mile track that has been described as one of the four best tracks in the world.  Home to car, motorcycle and kart racing.  A spectacular track that saw legends of the sport of motorcycle racing such as Ted Havens, Dave "Teabags" Wildman and Vern Amor, to name but a few. 

 

  Unfortunately after 30+ glorious racing seasons the need for condo's and golf courses in the Greater Vancouver area outweighed the need for a racetrack, good times and green space.  Westwood closed in 1990.

Today in motorcycle history, July 24, 1905

 


                                     

  Moto Guzzi madman, Omobono "The Black Devil" Tenni is born in Tirano, Italy.

 

 

  Omobono won his first race at 19 on a borrowed Moto Guzzi.  For the next several years he would continue racing borrowed two-wheeler's.  Then in 1931 a local motorcycle racing club pooled their money and bought him a Velocette KTP 350.   Tenni paid them back by a third place finish at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix followed by a victory at the Grand Prix Reale of Rome.

  In 1932, he won a race at Rapallo against Moto Guzzi's star rider, Pietro Ghersi.  His gutsy performance earned him a spot on the Moto Guzzi team for the 1933 season.  For the 1934 season, Moto Guzzi developed a new 500cc V-twin and Tenni rode it to victory at the Italian Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate Stanley Woods.  He would go on to win the 1934 Italian 500cc National Championship. 

  At Tenni's first Isle of Man TT in 1935 he was fighting with the course, riding hard, closing in on his team-mate Woods, when he crashed in a fog bank on the mountain section.  He picked up his bike, pulled off his helmet and, whamm-o!, his hair comes bursting out.  It was here that he came to be known as the Black Devil referring both to the color of his hair and his maniacal riding style.  He would again capture the 500cc Italian National Championship in 1935.

  The highlight of his career was winning the Lightweight at the 1937 Isle of Man TT, becoming the first Italian to win the TT.

  He suffered serious injuries in the 1938 and 1940 seasons then his racing career was put on hold by World War II.  After the war, he began racing again, claiming his fourth Italian 500cc Championship for Moto Guzzi in 1947. 

  Omobono Tenni had 47 victories racing for Moto Guzzi in the period from 1933 to 1948.

                                         

                                

Today in motorcycle history, July 23, 1972

                                       

  July 23, 1972 at Lakeland International Speedway in Memphis, Tennessee, daredevil Bob Gill, also known as the man with really big balls, jumps 130 feet without a landing ramp.  Upon landing his front wheel collapses and he does a major-league digger, sliding an estimated 125 feet on the pavement.

 

  Almost a year later, on July 17, 1973, in front of 20,000 somewhat drunk fans at Seattle International Raceway, Bob sets a new World Record.  The people from Guinness witness him jump 22 cars, 171 feet without a ramp.

 

  May 10, 1973, Bob jumped the entire fleet of Ryder Rent-a-Truck vehicles.  This jump was the first jump featured in a television commercial.  The ad aired during Super Bowl VIII and over 140 million people watched in on January 13, 1974. (The Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in case you were wondering.)  This television commercial was voted the "Number One Action Commercial of the Year" and helped propel Ryder to the #1 truck rental company. 

 

  The Great Jump - On August 18, 1974, he attempts to clear a 200' gap over the Appalachia Lake in Bruceton, West Virginia.  Sadly, he came up 3' short and crashed hard, ultimately putting an end to his jumping career. 

                                                   

Today in motorcycle history, July 22, 1967

  

 

 

  On July 22, 1967, Skip Van Leeuwen wins his first AMA National – the Ascot Park TT National Steeplechase in Gardena, California.  After the race, it was discovered that a fuel line on his No. 59 Triumph had broken.  He would have been lucky to make it another 75 feet, never mind to make another lap.

 

  In the highly under-rated, but uber entertaining (yet sadly under-attended) sport,  Skip Van Leeuwen was one of the best Tourist Trophy Steeplechase riders in the history of AMA racing.  Skip dominated AMA TT competition in the 1960's, winning four nationals on the small dirt-track circuits that featured a jump, water obstructions and both left-hand and right-hand turns.

 

  He won AMA National TT races at the Astrodome in Houston,Texas, at Castle Rock, Washington, and at his home track of Ascot Park in Gardena, California.  He also won numerous West Coast regional championships, often competing against his high school friend (and west coast legend) Dick Hammer.

 

  After retiring from racing in the early 1970s, Van Leeuwen went on to launch a highly successful motorcycle accessories business.

 

  Skip Van Leeuwen was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 1999.

 

  By the way, Ascot Park was also the site of 4 successful jumps by Evel Knievel in 1967.  Thought you should know this.

                           

Today in motorcycle history, July 19, 1936

                     

  Bob Feller makes his major league debut. What does this have to do with a motorcycle? What? Huh? I don't get it. Sit down, Mary, don't get your panties in a bunch.
In the summer of 1940 former-major leaguer Lew Fonseca catches "The Heater from Van Meter" on film beating a cop on a 1939 Harley-Davidson knucklehead to a target. Ball vs bike. I am hoping I can get this video somehow in sync so you can see this feat. No mound, no real wind-up, just throw it.
  When it was all over, it was estimated to be 104mph, though there are lots of arguments. One thing not argued about is this was pretty damn cool.

  If you click on the icon with my bike and look at "about me" that is where it got downloaded to.  Sorry, I know about bikes, computers not so much. 

  If you have time check it out.  Or go to YouTube and look at Cavalcade of Sports: Bob Feller Before Radar Guns.

                                         

Today in motorcycle history, July 18, 1969

  

The Honda Dream CB750 Four, which hit the market in July 1969

 

  Honda succeeds again.  The Dream CB750 Four hits the market. 

 

  Slaps it in the face is more like it.  Under development for only a year, the CB750 offered two unprecedented features, a front disc brake and a transverse straight-4 engine with an overhead cam, neither of which was previously available on a mainstream, affordable production bike.  These two features alone were brain-rattling but, with the introductory price of only $1,495 it gave the CB750 a considerable advantage over its competition, particularly British rivals, i.e. Triumph, Norton and BSA.

  On July 18, even the somewhat snotty Cycle magazine called the CB750 "the most sophisticated production bike ever" upon its introduction.  Then, not to be left out, Cycle World called it a masterpiece, highlighting Honda's painstaking durability testing, the bike's 120 mph top speed, the fade-free performance of the braking, the comfortable ride and easy to read gauges.

 The CB750 was the first modern four-cylinder machine from a mainstream manufacturer, and the term superbike was coined to describe it.  The bike offered other important features that gave you a twitching in your loins: an electric start, kill switch, dual mirrors, flashing turn signals, easily maintained valves and overall smoothness and freedom from vibration both underway and at a standing.  It seemed the biggest complaints were that the bike was difficult to get on its center stand (so don't use it) and it had a habit of spitting chain oil onto the muffler (carry a rag like the rest of us).

  The Dream CB750 model is included in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame of Classic Bikes, the Discovery Channel's "Greatest Motorcycles Ever," and was in The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition, and is in the UK National Motor Museum.

   In fact, it gave birth to a new category known in Japan as "Nanahan" (Nanahan meaning 750 in Japanese, the term was used by the development staff to maintain the confidentiality of their new model).

   Meanwhile on the racing circuit...

   The in-house racing team at Honda R&D brought their CB750 Fours to compete in the Suzuka 10-Hour Endurance Race scheduled to be held in August 1969, soon after the model's commercial launch.  Honda dominated the race with a one-two finish by Blue Helmet MSC.  The team of Morio Sumiya and Tetsuya Hishiki took first place, while the pairing of Yoichi Oguma and Minoru Sato came in a close second.

   Veteran rider Dick Mann, meanwhile, streaked to victory on his CB750 Four at the AMA Daytona 200-Mile Race in March 1970.  It was a ride that sent customers throughout the States running to their Honda dealers. 

 

Today in motorcycle history, July 17, 1949

 


                     

 

  Freddie Frith wins the Belgian Grand Prix,  Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, aboard a Velocette.  It is his fourth consecutive win enroute to becoming the 1949 World Champion in the first-ever 350cc Class.  Freddie would win all five races in the inaugural class,  Isle of Man, Swiss Grand Prix, Dutch TT, Belgian Grand Prix and the Ulster Grand Prix.

   Known as a Norton rider for whom he won the 1935 Junior Manx Grand Prix and then in 1936 he won the Junior TT and had a dramatic second-place finish to Jimmie Guthrie in the Senior TT as well as winning the 350cc European Championship .  In 1937 he went one better in the Senior with a brilliant win over Jimmie Guthrie and setting the first 90 mph plus lap of the Snaefell Mountain Course.  Freddie would eventually leave Norton for Velocette in 1948 and would win the Junior Race, putting notice to all that Velocette was no to be taken lightly. 

                                                           ****

  Alongside other riders from BSA, Ariel and Matchless Works teams, he served in the army during World War II at the Infantry Driving & Maintenance School stationed at Keswick.  They taught officers and NCOs how to ride cross-country.  Sgt. Freddie Frith taught teams of four on Norton 500cc motorcycles riding over Skiddaw Mountain in the Lake District National Park in England in all types of weather conditions.