Today in motorcycle history, March 10, 2005

  
 

  

  The 2005 AMA/Prostar: Dynojet Horsepower Challenge is held in Valdosta, Georgia.

   And the winner is..... 

  In the Import Unlimited class - Hank Booth of Great Falls, Montana. Hank's highly modified 1999 Suzuki 1300GSXR Hayabusa with an NLR turbocharger cranked out a mind-boggling 701.32 horsepower.

  Richard Peppler, of Ontario, Canada came in second with 559.02 horses, and Glen Bertagnoli coming in third with a 445.16. All of the top three competitors were using the Suzuki Hayabusa engine.



  Highlights of other classes were Kent Stotz with 210 bhp on a turbo powered Honda in the Imported V-Twin Cruiser Open class while Don Smith tweaked his 600cc Suzuki to produce a respectable 118 bhp.




  Bragging rights in the Domestic Motorcycle Class went to Weston, Florida resident Kevin Kelly who managed to get his Harley to produce 247 bhp in the V-twin Unlimited category, narrowly ahead of Nick Trask of Phoenix, Arizona whose Harley generated 228 bhp.

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Today in motorcycle history, March 9, 1958

  

  

   

  Riding for Harley-Davidson, Joe Leonard wins his second consecutive Daytona 200.

  Joe Leonard was the first champion of the AMA Grand National Series which was initiated in 1954.  For many years the National Champion was crowned on the basis of a single race, the Springfield (Illinois) Mile.  Beginning in 1954, riders had to compete in a variety of racing disciplines at race tracks around the country.  Leonard, then a second year expert, won 8 of the 18 Grand National races on his Tom Sifton-tuned (He, of Sifton cams) Harley-Davidson, dominating the inaugural championship series.


   Leonard would go on to ride a factory supported H-D after the '56 season.  With Harley's factory support ($$)  Joe tore it up, winning at Daytona, Laconia, San Jose, Sturgis and Springfield to clinch National Championship number three. 


   In his career, he would amass 27 National wins split between the disciplines of TT, Mile, Half-Mile and Road Racing.  Winning the Daytona 200 twice, the Laconia Classic three times and the Peoria TT a remarkable seven times.



  Joe Leonard was inducted in the AMA Hall of Fame in 1998.





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Today in motorcycle history, March 6, 1993

 


     

  


  


  

The 21st Big Daddy Rat's Hole Custom Motorcycle Show takes placed from 8:00am until dusk at Daytona's Ocean Center.

  Started by Karl "Big Daddy Rat" Smith in 1967, the Rat’s Hole show is legendary, no trip to Daytona's Bike Week is complete without checking out the latest custom creation's from some of the best minds in bikedom. A trophy from Rat’s Hole confers instant bragging rights. 


  Karl Smith Jr. said when his dad first visited Bike Week in 1963, he "fell in love with Daytona." He started in business on Main Street in a 12-by-16-foot shop aptly named The Rat's Hole. Later, Big Daddy Rat's businesses grew to include seven shops in Daytona Beach, a gift shop in Las Vegas and the bike shows. His son, Karl Jr. said, "My dad was one of the very first to airbrush designs on T-shirts." A man of contradictions, he projected the image of a burly biker, but he was also a graduate with a degree in fine arts from Ohio's Wittenburg College. 


  And at Rat's Hole, from that loin-tingling panhead chop you're still wettin' yourself over to those can't-believe-it's-still-runnin' ratbikes, they're all there.




  One of my personal highlights has always been the 1946 knucklehead rat owned and ridden by Conrad "Smitty" Smith.  Smitty, of Flat Lick, Kentucky is well-known in biker circles, and by the Rat's Hole trophy presenters, he’s been coming to Daytona since 1971, riding the knuckle there since 1979.


  His rat is a collection a collection of bits and pieces, “donated by people I’ve met and places I’ve been.” A true rat bike, the Knucklehead motor is the bike’s original, rebuilt for the first time in 2011. The motorcycle shows 40,000 miles, but Smitty doesn’t know its true mileage. “It was wore out when I got it, and I’ve put at least 40,000 miles on it since then."                                                                                                                                               
   

                                                      
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Today in motorcycle history, March 4, 1953

  

  Former Grand Prix racer Reinhold Roth is born in Essen, Germany.

  Reinhold Roth won the French Grand Prix in 1987, finishing the season in second place behind fellow countryman, Anton Mang, and in 1989 Roth won the Dutch and Czechoslovakian GP's and finished second to Spain's Sito Pons for the 250cc World Championship.

  During the 1990 250cc Yugoslavian Grand Prix, a hard rain forced the race to be stopped 2 laps before the end, but the riders continued to race full throttle due to bad coordination between the marshals, with red flags that didn't appear to the leaders. Australia's Darren Milner apparently saw the red flag, but he was one lap behind the leaders. Milner began slowing his Yamaha but, Roth, still going at full speed, smashed into him resulting in a chaotic scene involving racers, emergency personnel and spectator's.

  Reinhold Roth was air-lifted to the hospital with severe head injuries. He would recover, but the injuries forced him to retire from competition.

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Today in motorcycle history, March 3, 1972

      

  

  The "Performers Curse" at the Cow Palace begins as America's favorite daredevil, Evel Knievel, breaks his back after what appears to be clean jump of fifteen cars.

  At the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, after making a successful jump, Evel Knievel is forced into coming to a quick stop due to the short landing area. Knievel suffers a broken back and a Grade Two concussion after getting thrown off of and then run over by his Harley-Davidson XR-750 motorcycle.




  During a show by The Who on November 20, 1973, Keith Moon is rushed to the hospital after an alleged overdose of horse tranquilizers, (Moon was replaced on drums by audience member Scott Halpin).


  On New Years Eve, 1978-early morning New Years Day, 1979, after a vicious fight The Runaways performed their last concert ever before their break up in April.



  In February 1979, Neil Diamond fell on the Cow Palace stage and couldn't get himself up. Less than two days later, he underwent 14 hours of touch-and-go surgery to remove a nonmalignant tumor located dangerously close to his spine.




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Today in motorcycle history, March 2, 1972

  

  





  On Occtober 17, 2010 Bonhams auctions a 1972 Colin Seeley-Trident 750cc race bike.  The bike sells for $18,204 ( approx £11,845). 

  Colin Seeley's lightweight, rigid chassis proved an effective means of prolonging the competitiveness of British four-stroke singles into the late 1960's, leading to requests for frames to accommodate other engines such as the twin-cylinder Norton Commando and BSA/Triumph triple.  One of the first customers for a 'multi-cylinder' chassis was Stan Shenton, head of Boyer of Bromley, one of Britain's biggest and best Triumph dealers.  Shenton requested a Seeley frame to suit a Triumph triple, which was designed and drawn by Bob Cakebread and built by Jack Wren.  Colin Seeley Racing Developments would eventually build fourteen frames for Boyer.




  Bonhams had the frame authenticated by Colin Seeley himself, it was supplied to Boyer on  March 2, 1972.  The bike's racing history was not known, other than the fact that it was loaned in to Mick Grant in 1973, who rode it at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park. 











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Today in motorcycle history, February 27, 1929

  

  

  

  The legend that is Les Archer Jr is born in his grandfather's garage in Farnham, Surrey.

  Les Archer Jr starts his life story off, "I was born with a "Silver Spoon in my mouth". How else do you describe a kid born into a family so dedicated to our sport. My grandfather competed in motorcycle events on the actual ground where the first motocross took place in 1924. Follow this with a father who won his first race on a 250cc New Imperial at Brooklands in 1926. Little wonder that my first memories are of the roar of racing engines coupled with the smell of Castrol 'R'..."




  Les was known for competing in long distance speed trials, road racing and scrambles (motocross), riding/racing/winning in Algiers, France, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and, of course, England.



  Archer rode in the 1947 Isle of Man TT, the 1950 International Six Days Trial (ISDT) as a member of the British Army team. He competed alongside his travelling companion Eric Cheney (Aerial), who went on to become one of the top British motorcycle designers. Archer was also a member of the victorious British team at the 1953 Motocross des Nations. Winner of the 1956 F.I.M. 500cc European Motocross Championship on a highly modified Manx Norton. He would help further the development of the Manx Norton with the famed motorman, Ray Petty.

  Les Archer Jr has some of his winning motorcycles featured at The National Motorcycle Museum (Solihull, West Midlands), Sammy Millers Motorcycle Museum (New Milton, Hampshire) and the AMA Motorcycle Museum (Pickerington, Ohio USA). Plan a trip.

















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