On July 29, 1966, Fourth Street goes positively nuts when word gets out that Bob Dylan wrecked his treasured Triumph on Striebel Road on the outskirts of Woodstock, New York.
After achieving his early stardom and moving to Woodstock, New York from Greenwich Village in 1963, Dylan bought a 1964 500cc Triumph Trophy T100, much to the dismay of his manager, Albert Grossman. It was his first bike since a Harley-Davidson 45 when he was 19 and the Trophy soon became his main form of transportation for the next several years.
Nobody really knows what caused the wreck other than Dylan and his wife Sara Lowndes, who was driving behind him after leaving Grossman's house in nearby West Saugherties. Whatever happened, the crash ended up cracking a vertebra and giving Dylan some serious road rash. With the whole thing shrouded in secrecy, the rumor mill went batshit, with fans churning out gossip that said everything from Dylan lost a hand and could never play guitar again to he hit his head and suffered permanent brain damage to he was just plain dead.
In her autobiography, Joan Baez recalled, “He used to hang on that thing like sack of flour (huh?). I always had the feeling it was driving him, and if we were lucky we'd lean the right way and the motorcycle would turn the corner. If not, it would be the end of both of us.”
In his memoir Chronicles, Dylan wrote, “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race...."
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.
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.
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.
