Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOL. 56 ISSUE 17 APRIL 30, 2019 P125 in all of the country's motorcycle publications. Harley was now truly a racing company. Then in 1916, it was Janke who won Dodge City, the last major national before the outbreak of World War I. Janke was born in Milwaukee in 1896 and started riding motor- cycles when he was just 13 years old. By the time he was 17, he was one of the top up-and-coming mo- torcycle racers around Milwaukee. As soon as he turned 18, he turned pro and was often the youngest rider in the races he contested. His skills on a motorcycle from a young age earned him the dream job of any young motorcyclist—a test rider for Harley-Davidson. Janke's countless hours testing various Harley models obviously served him well in racing. Janke will go down in history as the first factory Harley-Davidson rider to earn a podium finish when he took third behind Indian's Lee Taylor and Excelsior's Joe Wolters, at the big FAM 300-Mile Road Race National in Savannah, Georgia, in November of 1914. In 1915, Janke won the motor- cycle division of the prestigious Uniontown (PA) Hillclimb for Harley in front of 30,000 spectators. Notably, Janke's time at Uniontown beat all the cars' times. The biggest win of his career came in the Dodge City 300 in 1916. It just happened to be the biggest race of the year. Harley entered an eight-rider team that year with Paul Gott, Clarence Johnson, Harry Crandall, Sam Correnti, Floyd Clymer and Ray Weishaar joining Janke on the squad. Indian had a powerful six- rider team featuring Morty Graves, Gene Walker and Don Johns. Excelsior featured seven riders led by Bob Perry and Joe Wolter. It was the best of the best. Johns won the pole with a circuit of the two-mile track at 1:24 in time trials. In the grueling 300-mile con- test held in 100-degree heat, pole setter Johns led early on a factory Indian, before being overtaken by Clymer. Then it was Clymer and Janke battling for the lead through- out the much of the race with Clymer leading most of the way. But then Clymer's bike failed after 220 miles of racing. Janke took over the lead at that point and went on to win the race. He finished more than two minutes ahead of Excelsior's Joe Wolter. Fellow Harley rider Weishaar took third, a full 10 minutes behind Janke. Janke's run in the 300-miler of three hours, 45 minutes and 36 seconds, smashed the old 300- mile record by 10 minutes and nine seconds, a testimony to not only Janke's riding ability, but the amazingly fast pit stops the Harley team was able to perform, and the speed of the new eight-valve Harley racer. He averaged 79.79 miles per hour, a remarkable feat for motorcycles of that era for that distance on a dirt track. Janke won $800 for his Dodge City victory, nearly $20,000 in today's dollars. World War I put motorcycle rac- ing on hold for a couple of years and by the time racing resumed in earnest in 1919, Janke had mostly retired from the sport. Janke, or "Yank" as his friends nicknamed him, eventually left Harley-Davidson and became a motorcycle police officer in Mil- waukee in the early 1920s, retiring as a deputy sheriff in 1954. In re- tirement, he moved to Florida and died in St. Petersburg in January of 1957. While a lesser known of the Harley Wrecking Crew, Janke should always be remembered for his 1916 Dodge City victory and for being the first national podium finisher on a Harley-Davidson. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives The entire original Wrecking Crew in 1916: (L-R) Paul Gott, Clarence Johnson, Harry Crandall, Sam Correnti, Irving Janke, Floyd Clymer and Ray Weishaar.