Cycle News

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 30 JULY 30, 2019 P117 A friend of the family happened to be a butcher, and he hired young Red as a delivery boy. While Red didn't particularly enjoy his delivery job, he was able to save enough money to buy a used single-cylinder, rigid-frame Indian from his buddies at the factory. Even though it was a used machine, the factory mechanics, knowing Red well, made sure the machine was in tip-top shape. He even found his new machine helped him make his deliveries more efficiently. Hour upon hour of riding his little single-cylinder Indian, wit- nessed a teenaged Red become a solid rider in his own right. One day while watching the race team testers at the stadium, Red mustered up the courage to ask if he could do a lap or two on the racing bike. To his delight, his wish was granted. Straddling the powerful twin-cylinder racer, Red, at first wondered what he'd gotten himself into, but after a few laps around the boards, he gained enough confidence to open the bike up. He then turned a 50-mph lap on the tiny velodrome. But the joy of that first factory test ride was short-lived. He lost control and crashed. He suffered just a few splinters in his arms and ripped clothes. Instead of deterring Red, the accident made him even more resolute to become a factory racer. Soon after he applied for and was given a job at the Indian factory in 1913, this came during the peak of the factory's produc- tion. Red was all of 16 years old. While working at the factory, Red purchased his first new ma- chine, a twin-cylinder model, and he continued improving his riding skills. The accident on the board track was still in his mind, and he had a newfound respect for his machine and tried not to push it beyond his limits. For the next two years, Red toiled on the factory floor. Weekends and holidays would find him taking off for long trips exploring the hills of New England on his motorcycle. Finally, in 1915, when he was 17, Red got his first chance to enter races. The first events he entered were on a dirt track in Norwich, CT. He didn't win, but he gave the local track champ Bill Burdick a solid run for his money. He continued racing locally, although racing, in general, slowed down considerably during World War I. Red also began contesting city- to-city endurance runs for Indian, important events for the factories in those days. He quickly became a leading endurance rider. In 1919, he won one of the most significant endurance runs of the year, the 12th annual Endurance Run of New Jersey, sponsored by the New Jersey Motorcycle Club. The victory was big for Indian since rival Harley-Davidson sent a powerful three-rider factory squad to the New Jersey event. Red's win over his Indian teammates "Cap" Constant and Orie Steele, was heavily advertised in the motor- cycle magazines of the day, and he instantly became one of the most recognizable racers of his era. As a reward for his outstanding performance in New Jersey, Indian entered Red as one of its official riders in that year's national cham- pionship road race in Marion, Indi- ana. Red could hardly believe his luck when he lined up for the start of the national with all the cheers and accolades given to factory riders. Red did fine at Marion. He kept his nose clean and finished a respectable 11th. But he real- ized at that point that, even though he loved racing and had admired the factory riders his whole life, he understood that, realistically, he didn't quite have the talent to be a national-level track racer. He decided to keep his focus on the more casual and gentlemanly endurance events and his growing responsibilities at the track. But at least for that one shin- ing moment, Baxter "Red" Potter finally attained his dream of being announced at a national as a fac- tory rider. That was good enough for him. After his sudden passing, the industry and his fellow riders lav- ished Potter with memorials and remembrances during his funeral, and afterward. The little underdog kid from Springfield who longingly watched Indians being tested as a child and later made his way to become a factory racer for the company—his story seemed to touch an entire generation of motorcyclists. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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