BOARD TRACK RACING ON FILM

The Board Track motorcycle race course was a peculiarly American institution. The first banked wooden racing tracks (Velodromes) were used for bicycle racing in Europe and America over 110 years ago, and in fact, such tracks still exist for bicycle sport. Motorcycles were initially used as pacing machines to get the bicycles up to speed (see pic).

It became apparent early on that motorcycles were a logical choice to share the tracks at the dawn of the 20th Century, and it soon became apparent that they were much more exciting than bicycles! Crowds began to flock to these new races, and within a short time, entrepreneurial fellows saw Possibility. As well, during these Pioneer days of motorcycling, many of the rider/designer/manufacturers of the new motorcycles had been bicycle racers on Velodromes in their younger days, most notably both George M. Hendee and C. Oscar Hedstrom of Indian. By 1908, their company was perhaps to first to catalog a 'production racer' in both single and twin-cylinder variants (the 'Torpedo Tank' models - see below).

Indian, with it's founders experience with Velodrome racing, was perhaps also unique in building, in partnership with 'Jack' Prince (John Skillington Prince - an expat English race promoter - who had been a world champion bicyclist), their own Board Track in 1909 - Springfield Stadium (see pix below of the track under construction) - which was to serve as a test bed for their new racing models. The canny visionaries at Indian had the jump on the competition, but not for long, as a dozen other manufacturers were quickly making racers of their own.

The first purpose-built motorcycle Board Track (the Los Angeles Coliseum Motordrome) was opened on March 1909 in Playa Del Ray, CA, close to what became the LAX airport; it was 1.25 miles long (that's a lot of wood!). The track surface was made up of 2" x 4" boards, laid down lengthwise on the track surface, over a wooden framework.

'Jack' Prince (above) had no engineering or construction background, but would draw out his track, and walk around the proposed area placing stakes where the track would be sited, leaving the rest to the builders - and he was responsible for the majority of the Board Tracks in the US. While bicycle racing tracks used a regulation 25degree banking, the high speeds of the motorcycles and cars racing on boards made banks of up to 60degrees possible (which is about as steep as the top of Brooklands or Montlhery banking).


Length of the tracks varied from as short as 1/4 mile to as long as 2 miles, depending on the expected crowd able to repay the investment in such a large construction project. Board tracks sprang up in all manner of towns across the US, in or near big cities (like San Francisco - ours was near the Cow Palace), and small towns (such as Fresno, Beverly Hills, and Oakland CA).

By 1911, the Excelsior company had sorted out its own racers, with their 'pocket valve' v-twin engine (see above, and note the not-smooth surface of the banked track!). Jake de Rosier, the star rider of the day, had recently fallen out with his mentors at Indian (reportedly after a bad showing at the Isle of Man TT - subject for another post), and became unbeatable with the new Excelsior, setting a new record for the mile at 94mph in September, at Riverview Motordrome in Chicago. De Rosier was a real showman, and wore black tights and running shoes as his racing attire; a Sartorialist (see below)!

Board Track racing was exceptionally dangerous, as the riders wore virtually no protective clothing, the machines had no brakes or suspension, riding on skinny skid-prone tires, while race speeds crept ever closer to 100mph. The best a rider could hope for in the event of a crash was a body full of long and infection-prone splinters. Plenty of riders came off far worse for their adventures, and at times spectators fell victim as well, as safety barriers hadn't really been thought out - no one had hurtled a vehicle around a track at these speeds before. Often, spectators stood on a platform or bleachers ringing the track, watching the action from just above the top of the banking - a recipe for disaster, as an out-of-control motorcycle could head straight up the 'wall', due to effects of centrifugal force (see photo below, at the Springfield track; the audience leaning over the protective 'wall').

On Sep.8, 1912, racer Eddie Hasha's 8-valve Indian crashed in just such a manner at the New Jersey Motordrome near Atlantic City, killing Eddie and 4 boys who spectating, and injuring 10 more people. According to Dan Statnekov, Eddie was a rising star from Texas (the 'Texas Cyclone'), who had set the lap record at the Playa Del Ray Motordrome at 95mph in 1911. At the New Jersey race, he was in the lead, when a misfire directed his attention to his motor, where he reached down to adjust something (a loose plug wire?), bringing the machine back to full power instantly (see pic below of Eddie Hasha).

The Indian shot up the banking and at the top, 'rode the rail' (the safety railing protecting the spectators). Four boys had been craning their heads over the railing to see the action, and were killed by the bike instantly. The machine then struck a large post, and threw Hasha into the grandstands, where he died, and injured ten other spectators. The riderless Indian then dove back down the track to strike another rider, Johnny Albright, who slid with the two motorcycles in a heap for 240 feet. His injuries later claimed him in the hospital. The New Jersey authorities shortly afterwards closed the track permanently, and the short-track motordromes gained the nickname 'Murderdromes'. (In the photo below, of the Los Angeles Coliseum Motordrome, the crowd is 'protected' only by a single wooden rail.).

On Dec. 30th, 1912, Lee Humiston became the first rider to circle a mile track at 100mph, on a an Excelsior twin. One week later, he broke de Rosier's record for the 100-mile average by 7.5 minutes, and gained the name 'the Humiston Comet' (gotta love those Press names). Excelsior gained the reputation as the fastest motorcycle in the world (see photo below).

But of course, the Indian 8-valve racers were neck and neck with Excelsior for speed, although it must be said that the Indian engine was a Factory special, and had little relationship with their showroom models, while the Excelsior bore considerable kinship with their road model.



By 1913, Board Tracks under 1/3 mile lost sanctioning for Championship events. The Playa del Ray track closed. Cyclone introduced its amazing overhead-camshaft racer, which was instantly unbeatable in shorter races, but which lacked development to maintain full power over a 2 or 300 mile race. Lubrication issues are usually cited (see racer below, in the 'alternate' blue color).

Racing is never static, though, and the rivalry between the two giants gained a new competitor in 1914; Harley-Davidson, who had publicly eschewed racing of any sort, while hiring riders and sorting out a racing engine during the previous year, soon was a force to be reckoned with on the Boards. Also, Cyclone, Pope, Thor, and other manufacturers were making Board Track racers for sale to an eager cadre of riders willing to risk the dangers of the tracks, and the potential for a $20,000/year salary in winnings possible for a good rider (including advertising deals - see 'Oilzum' ad below - plus actual race winnings).

By 1916, the Harley 8-valve engine (which had been sorted-out in testing by none other than Harry Ricardo), became the engine to beat, and Indian and Excelsior traded places with H-D at every race. There was a lull in Board Track racing between 1916 and 1918 while most of the factories concentrated on war production, but every race department continued to develop their machines on the side (pic below shows a Harley 8-valve racer).


In 1918, Chicago's Speedway park and Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay tracks closed. By 1919, racing on short motordrome tracks was banned completely, and only track of 1 mile and longer were allowed to remain open. In an interesting speed contest on Daytona Beach, Florida, the Harley and Indian race teams spent alternate weeks with timing equipment and severaly types of their racing and road machines, to see who had the fastest motorcycles. The Harley 8-valve managed 112.61mph, while the Indian 8-valve hit 115.79mph. Not bad going for 1920 (although timed by the US sanctioning body, these speeds were not recognized internationally as the World's Fastest, due to political disagreements with the FIM. The first 'internationally recognized' speed record was in 1920, when an Indian was timed by the FIM at 104.12mph at Daytona beach. More on records in a future post).

By 1921, Otto Walker (above), riding a two-cam Harley sidevalve racer, became the first rider to average 100mph for a race, at the Fresno 1-mile Board Track, where he exceeded 107mph in a 1-mile time trial, and 101mph for the 50-mile main event. (This same model Harley became the first motorcycle to achieve 100mph over a timed course in England that year, with Douglas Davidson riding). Excelsior, who had lagged behind on development of their engines, was struggling to make their powerful overhead-cam v-twin engine last the distance, just as had happened with the futuristic Cyclone ohc racers a few years earlier (see below - the problem was inadequate oiling). Later that year, Indian recorded a mile record at an average speed of 110.67mph. Also that year, the Tacoma, WA, track closed.

In 1922, the American motorcycle racing sanctioning body granted National Championship status to the 500cc classs (30.50 cubic inch), as a response to the public outcry at the high speeds and frequent fatalities at the race tracks.

In 1924, the Beverley Hills and Kansas City tracks closed. In 1926, the 45 cubic inch (750cc) apacity class was recognized for National Championship status, and Indian and Excelsior twins were dominant in this class; by August, an Indian with a sv 750cc 'Altoona' motor (see above) had lapped a Board Track at 120.3mph. So much for dropping race speeds by shrinking the engines! This record would stand as the fastest speed ever recorded on a wooden track, as within two years, all motorcycle racing would cease on Board Tracks, although cars would continue to use them for another three years (until 1931).


The film below has been floating around the internet for a while, but it's worth having here as the footage is remarkable. The attribution is the Czech importer of Indian Motocycles, a Mr. Frantisek Marik, who made the films during a trip to the USA in 1920, presumably to visit the Springfield, MA, home of Indian. The video claims that Daytona, FL, is the location of this Board Track, but there was never such a track there, only sand racing. It will be difficult to sort out the actual track location without a proper hi-res copy of the film to find sponsor's ads and such on the stands.




Many thanks to Dan Statnekov for his fascinating online history, 'Pioneers of American Motorcycle Racing'. Also, to Steve Wright's 'American Racer 1900-1940' (Megden, 1979), Jerry Hatfield's 'American Racing Motorcycles' (Haynes, 1982), and Alan Girdler's 'Harley Davidson and Indian Wars (Motorbooks International, 1997)

APPALLING RACE SURFACES

We tend to think of important international-level race courses in the pre-war era as being similar to the tracks we see today, only with stone walls, and no run-off areas or hay bales. In fact, smooth and well-paved race tracks were the exception, and only purpose-built tracks such as Brooklands, Montlhery, Avus, and Monza had really good pavement. The rest of the 'road' courses tended to have a mix of tarmac, gravel, cobblestones, and occasionally dirt, unless we're talking about races in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or South America, where the racing courses were entirely dirt, or even sand. Thus, our favorite racing motorcycles were treated to the great indignity of breathing hard through a dirty haze, unless they were out in front of the pack, and only one motorcycle per race got such satisfaction.

My great contributor Dave Martin, miffed at the suggestion that racing motorcycles were meant for smooth pavement, sent along a few choice examples of famous race courses in the day. The top pic is of course Daytona beach in Florida, where the cream of American and European racers were treated to an invigorating salt scrub. With the poor cambox sealing on those ohc Norton 30M racers, I can't imagine what the rocker box looked like at the end of the race. Yet, sand racing was very popular from the 'teens through the 50's, and legendary battles were fought at venues such as Pendine and Southport Sands, and Invarcargill in New Zealand.

The second photo shows the Ulster GP around 1933; Dave says, 'wot, no yellow flag for cow pats?'. Obviously a wet day, with unprotected spectators lining the outside of a very messy corner, and water-filled potholes in evidence. And for many years the 'Ulster' was the fastest road race in the world!

The third pic shows Wal Handley at the most famous course of all, the Isle of Man TT, in 1929, which is clearly a packed gravel road at this juncture. The Mountain course underwent a gradual series of improvements over the decades since that first race (on an oiled gravel and dirt road) in 1907. By the mid-20's, much of the course was paved, but certainly not all. Even in the 30's, there was quite a lot of gravel to be found on this very fast road race, making 90mph laps all the more impressive.

In the US, all of our race courses, since the disappearance of the fearsome Board Tracks, were dirt, or sand, combined perhaps with a short bit of pavement. Most of the races were held on 1-or 2-mile oval dirt tracks, on which machines could be held flat out for long stretches, before sliding around the (sometimes banked) corners at either end. These two photos, from my own archive, show the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, track in 1942 (yes, Yanks were still racing, but not for much longer!). The photo above shows racer Jack Kulan on his '39 Rudge Ulster 500cc four-valve, preparing for a race against a mixed field of Harley and Indian 750cc sidevalves, and a few 500cc Triumph Tiger 100's and Ariel Red Hunters thrown into the mix (click on the photo - you can see Jack is revving his engine, as the primary chain is blurred). Cedar Rapids was a massive track with a very large grandstand, although only a few hundred attended the race on this day. The track itself looks as if an earth grader scraped a smooth oval out of the adjacent corn fields, and that's exactly how it was made. The photo below shows Jack at speed, rounding the corner at full bore, probably 90mph. A water truck usually circulated between heats to damp down the dust, hence the darkened surface, and lack of a large rooster tail of dirt.

Thus, the best riders certainly were well-versed in the vagaries of loose surface control, and the motorcycles were regularly dismantled and cleaned out!

HOTROD SIDEVALVE SINGLES

The 'humble' side-valve single was officially rendered obsolete in 1922, when Sunbeam won the last TT with this type of engine. Not.
Although the flathead single never again won the TT, dogged tuners continued to cultivate speed through the 1930's and beyond.
Everyone knows, or should know, that Norton singles were considered the ne plus ultra of racing singles in the Pioneer and early Vintage era, thanks mainly to the exploits and tuning skills of Don O'Donovan (top photo), who worked for Norton until the mid-1920's, tuning their BS (Brooklands Special - an example of which he is astride) and BRS (Brooklands Road Special) 500cc models. Each machine was timed at the eponymous track and guaranteed to have reached 75mph. On June 14, 1915, this photo was snapped after taking the flying-start kilometer record at 82.85mph. This is a single-speed, direct belt drive machine, with no clutch and almost no suspension - quite a feat. After he was married and had a child, D.R. O'Donovan gave up racing, and took up tuning Nortons for others, including Rex Judd, Albert Denly, and Chris Staniland, all of whom took important speed records on the machines he tuned.

This charming photo from July 9, 1921, shows O'Donovan in the saddle, with his protege Rex Judd in the lightweight sidecar. The racing team is standing under a Japonism-era paper parasol (a rare hot day in Byfleet), with Judd resting on his elbow, looking 3 decades out of place among the Edwardian gents, with his black turtleneck and casual air. Judd would have lain prone in the chair during the race, as passengers were essentially ballast at Brooklands, unlike the 'monkey' antics of sidecar road racing. Very few of these 'chairs' survive in original condition, as they were built solely with light weight in mind, and the wood or canvas or paper cladding didn't last long. I had an aluminum chair of this general layout, which weighed less than 100lbs - one with a canvas skin might only be 65lbs total. And yes, the sidecars were pretty wobbly when that pared down - only the TT Hughes (with 6 chassis fixing points and a full cage of tubing around the passenger) handled well over Brookland's bumps.

After O'Donovans retreat into development, Judd became Norton's works tester. Interestingly, only the engines on the BS and BRS models were tested, not the whole motorcycle. The engines were placed serially in O'Donovans belt-drive 'hack', nicknamed 'Old Miracle'; something like 25 engines per month were so tested.
Here is Judd on the new 16H model, distinguished by a 3 speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox and clutch.
The date is March 29, 1921, and he has just won 35 Guineas for having covered the flying kilo at 92.44 mph.

[I'm still looking for a photo of A.L. Loweth's 1930's 16H, with which he recorded an all-time sv lap record at Brooklands in 1934. Anyone have one?]

We're skipping ahead in time now to the mid-30's, where legendary tuner Laurence Hartley has turned his attention to a 1926 Model A Ariel. Hartley was famous for tuning up sv and ohv Ariels to go indecently fast, and his machines were winning races and astonishing riders of 'superior' machines into the 1950's (a gentleman named Ferbrache especially loved to goad the 'ton-up boys' at the Ace Cafe with his ancient and filthy Hartley Ariel, winning many bets on point-to-point races).

The machine in these two photos was property of Jock West, later well known for racing works Nortons and coming second at the '39 TT on a supercharged BMW, behind George Meier.

This Ariel Model A lapped Brooklands at over 80mph, and was timed over the flying kilo at 95.54mph. Reputedly Jock took this machine to 97.7mph in 1957, which was the highest speed ever attained by a sidevalve single at that date. It's set up for the street in these pics, with an Enfield 8" front brake and full mudguards. Hartley's machines always seemed the opposite of, say, the immaculate all-nickel bikes of Bill Lacey - in photos they're gloriously scruffy. Note the sheet behind the bike in the second photo; as mentioned in an earlier post, sheets were often waggled behind a motorcycle in a photograph, in order to ease the re-toucher's job, for publishing the bike on a white background in a magazine.

Last photos are from an article in Classic Bike (November 2001), and show a 500cc BSA M20 which has been radically tuned by owner Bill Gough of Australia. Gough, in typical Aussie fashion, built amazing hotrods from humble origins, and decided to break 100mph on a flathead. Compression was limited to 6:1 by the combustion chamber shape, the flywheels were homemade but the rod and piston were standard, the crank was balanced at 66%, and the 2.5" inlet valve was fed by two 1 1/8" Amal TT carbs (!) for maximum breathing potential, helping it to rev to 9000 rpm in the low gears. In February 1960, the bike was timed at 104.6mph on the beach.
He made additional tuning efforts using a 1935 BSA M20, which had a better combustion chamber shape (enabling 8.5:1 compression), and he estimated a top speed in the 120mph range on a harder surface than sand, although I don't know if he was successful.

VINTAGE DIRT-TRACK RACING

The sports of Speedway and American Flat-Track racing (mile and half-mile Grand Nationals) owe a debt to Australian promoters who developed the form in the 1920's. The Australians invented the broadsliding style of racing, on 'borrowed' dirt horse tracks, where the rear wheel is allowed to slide out on corners - this makes for spectacular viewing, as the riders struggle to control the machines solely by use of throttle and lean angle, as the rear wheel kicks up a rooster tail of dirt.

On December 15, 1923, 'Roaring' Johnnie Hoskins brought the first dirt-track race to the Hunter River Agricultural and Horticultural Society's mid-summer (for Australia) Electric Light Carnival. Says Hoskins, "The competitors stripped down their precious models. Off came mudguards and lamps and they were ready to go. One or two riders had helmets which would have sent today's referees into a fit. Most had none. Gloves were considered superfluous. They just trook off their coats, rolled up their sleeves and wheeled their assorted racing jobs on to the track." This seminal event exploded the sport into the public eye, and huge crowds attended these first meetings in Australia. Rules began to develop, the bikes shed their 'inside' footrest as they kept digging into the dirt at inopportune moments, protective gear was mandated. The day Charlie Spinks flung his motorcycle through the paltry chain link fence 'protecting' the crowd was the beginning of proper wooden crowd protection.

The first race in England was held on May 7, 1927, at Camberley, Surrey. Motor Cycling billed it as 'the first British Dirt Track Meeting." Fay Taylour won the unlimited class final. Women wouldn't be banned from racing until 1930.


The motorcycles had no brakes, and usually no gearbox, just a single speed countershaft and a clutch (although the earliest racers had no clutch and 'paced' each other around the track to arrive at the starting line together, for a rolling start).


The Australians had found that the Douglas racing machines (the RA and TT models) were ideal for sliding, as they had a very low center of gravity due to their boxer engine laid flat on the frame.


The Douglas factory was quick to capitalize on the craze, and developed the legendary DT model (Dirt Track, of course), which was available in 500cc and 600cc variants (DT5 and 6). In the second photo, Fay Taylour is straddling a DT5 at a track in New Zealand (see my post on her), where she had come from England on a demonstration tour of NZ and Australia (and kicked butt, apparently). There were several competitive women on the dirt track circuit in the 20's

Douglas' predominance on the sport lasted only 3 years, when Rudge and JAP-engined machines with much more compact frames were developed. By 1928, most manufacturers offered a 'dirt track' model, including Norton, Sunbeam, Panther, and Velocette.

The Harley Davidson 'peashooter' (pic 4), while effective on American tracks, didn't prove so useful while sliding, nor did most of the competition, but the Rudge and JAP machines came to the fore, and the JAP speedway bike was eventually the 'must have' machine until the 1960's, when JAWA and Weslake engined racers were developed.


In the States, our oval track dirt sports, called Flat-Track racing, took a more serious and powerful form, as our tracks were much longer then the usual European oval, and their engine capaicty was limited to 500cc. Our racers eventually settled on 750cc (45 cubic inch) as the engine size, and Harley and Indian side-valvve v-twins vied for top honors - machines from across the pond didn't make serious inroads until the 1950's and 60's, when Norton, Triumph, Velocette, and Matchless flat-trackers began to win races. Harley finally brought out their ohv XR750, which is truly an amazing motorcycle, and which held the top shelf of flat-tracking for many years (but that's another post).

Photos; 1. Dirt track rider protected from flying cinders. 2. AJS K10 500cc with chain-driving ohc makes for an unusual DT bike. 3. Rudge four-valve 500cc machine in New Zealand, where silencers were compulsory 4. Harley Peashooter, rated at 30:50 cu.i. (500cc), also in NZ. 5. Fay Taylour on her DT5 Douggie, with 500cc ohv flat-twin engine 6. Sunbeam DT90 - this machine is for sale currently 7. Norton ES2-engined bike in NZ. 8. Rudge catalog photo, ca 1929 9. Velocette KDT - a variant of the KSS - overbored to 410cc, with an alcohol piston 10. Ooops! Rudge engine in what looks like a Cotton frame.