Cycle News

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 26 JULY 2, 2019 P111 During World War II, Pennell served in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific. When the war was over, he and Bee Gee settled in Columbus, Ohio. Pennell took up racing himself. In fact, he recalls spending his honeymoon at a race meet in Lancaster, Ohio. Pennell suffered a crash at a race in Dayton, Ohio, in October of 1949, resulting in extensive nerve damage to his left side. The accident left Pennell's left arm immobile, but that didn't de- ter him from racing. Even though he gave up flat track racing, Pennell still competed for years in off-road enduros. "I moved the clutch over to the right side of the handlebar, along with the front brake, and propped my left hand on the bar and rode," Pennell said matter of factly. "Ev- ery once in a while, my left arm would fall off and I would have to stop and put it back on the bar." Pennell became AMA district referee Joe Gee's assistant in the early 1950s. Under Gee, Pennell served about every function as an AMA race official from timing and scoring, to referee to starter. Pennell also worked with legend- ary racer Jim Davis, who became the AMA chief starter after his racing career. Pennell cites Davis and Indy 500 starter Pat Vidan as major influences in his career. "I was smart enough to copy some of the things they did," he says. Pennell's real job was an administrator at the Columbus Police Department. His job was perfect in that he had 30 days of vacation per year. He used most of that vacation traveling to the races all across the country. In addition to serving as starter, Pennell also drove the AMA equipment transporter to the events. He worked all types of events from flat track to road rac- ing to motocross. Pennell developed a unique style of flagging. Once, a pho- tographer told Pennell he could never get a photo of him with the checkered flag fully displayed. So, Pennell worked on a tech- nique of cocking his wrist at a particular angle that allowed for the flag to be fully unfurled as he waved it. He also learned to be incredibly still before flagging the start of a race. "Riders would study a starter and find little giveaways that they were going to drop the green flag," Pennell explained. "Once a rider came up to me and said he could always get the jump on me because I dipped my knees just before I dropped the flag." Pennell worked in all kinds of conditions, flagging races in heat, cold, rain, dust and once even in snow at a race in Florida of all places. In addition to the aforemen- tioned flag flying off the pole, Duke also grinned remembering once when a European racer had a big lead, but pulled into the pits after getting the white flag. "His crew asked him what was wrong," Pennell recalls. "He said, 'Nothing, they threw the flag.' In his country, they didn't throw white flags to signal one lap to go and he thought the race was over." In addition to the tough condi- tions and long days as a starter, Pennell also experienced some close encounters with the speed- ing racers. In one race, two rid- ers battling for the win took odd lines exiting the final turn and one rider zipped underneath Pennell as he waved the checkered flag while the other went around him on the outside. Pennell began starting before the era when radios were used to communicate with the corner workers. "You look back on it and won- dered how we managed without radios," he said. "That was a big improvement in the safety of the races when we started using radios." Pennell's wife, Bee Gee, passed away in 1990 and he re- tired to Florida a few years later. He lived just a few miles from Daytona International Speedway and took up golf in retirement. Even using just one arm, Pennell was proud of the fact that he oc- casionally could get 150 yards on a drive off the tee. Pennell died on December 2, 2007. Fortunately, he lived long enough to see his induction into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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