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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE R on Wood's dreams must have been filled with ways to build racing motorcycles. How else could you explain the nearly inex- haustible mind that produced one innovative racing machine after the next? Wood, best known for his highly successful Wood-Rotax flat track racer, passed away July 22 at his home in Newport Beach, California. He was 90. Wood had a lot of friends and admirers; you could tell by the outpouring of condolences on social media after Wood's passing. Wood was born in Pasadena, California, in 1928. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Oregon, but at 20, Wood moved back to Southern California, ac- cording to his son Ron, to escape constant bouts of hay fever. By then, Wood was already riding all over the West Coast on his AJS, even using it at times as his daily driver. As a young man, Wood worked hard. Starting as a janitor at a lighting company, Wood eventu- ally opened his own commercial lighting company—Wood Lighting Fixture Co.—and he became a P128 WOOD'S GOOD MACHINES ported other riders in the series, as well. Yamaha was there too, as were Triumph and BSA, so merely being able to build bikes that could qualify for a national was a significant undertaking, to say the least. Many had tried and failed. And Ron being Ron, he didn't want to go the established route. After all, he'd learned the ropes building Ducati short track bikes for goodness sakes. It wouldn't be his style to simply do his take on a Harley or Yamaha flat track- er. No, Wood wanted something unique, so he went with Norton. Why Norton? Wood revealed that answer to Cycle World maga- zine's Steve Anderson in 1998. "At first the XRs weren't all that fast," Wood said. "Back then, Triumphs and Yamahas were winning a lot of dirt tracks, and there was no dominant choice. successful entrepreneur employing over 100 people. The company made Wood well off, and according to seven-time AMA Grand National Champion Chris Carr, inside the company's 50,000 square foot building, there was a little hobby area that always put a smile on Ron's face. "He partitioned off a part of his company, and ran his racing shop out of there," Carr said. "No doubt, I think he was happiest when he was working on the rac- ing side of the building." Wood had become a fan of flat track racing by watching the Friday night races at Ascot Park in Gardena. Early on, Wood began building Ducati short-track bikes. Those bikes were highly success- ful in regional West Coast flat-track racing, but Wood wanted to de- velop bigger bikes for AMA Grand National competition. This was the 1970s, the height of flat track racing in America, and the compe- tition was fierce. Harley-Davidson had a massive multi-rider factory team at that point, and it sup- Ron Wood standing with the Norton "Lightweight" that Alex "Jorgy" Jorgensen used to win the Ascot AMA Grand National in May of 1978. It was the last national ever won by a Norton.