CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
C
lass A, that's what they
called factory racing back in
the earliest years of professional
motorcycle racing. Stretching
from the beginnings of motor-
cycle competition in the early
1900s with the Federation of
American Motorcyclist (FAM),
through to the mid-1930s when,
brought on by the Great Depres-
sion and the closing of nearly all
the motorcycle makers except
for Harley-Davidson and Indian,
the AMA decided to start tran-
sitioning to Class C (Production
racing) as the main national
championship events. It was the
FAM's way to cut costs. That's
about the time Fred Toscani was
coming onto the racing scene.
Toscani was square in the middle
of two eras, and he was perhaps
one of the last great stars of the
original Class A.
Toscani, a native of Garfield,
New Jersey, won numerous
Class A National Championship
races riding Indian and later JAP-
powered motorcycles. One of
the top stars of his era, Toscani,
won nine national championship
races during his short, six-year
professional racing career. He
was recognized as AMA National
Champion in 1938. Toscani is
often referred to as the last Class
P108
CLASS A'S
LAST CHAMPION
cation to racing began to pay
dividends. He won the New
Jersey 25-Mile Amateur Cham-
pionship in 1929. In addition to
racing, Toscani also enjoyed
other types of riding. In 1930,
he was recognized for setting a
motorcycle world-record broad
jump of 54 feet, three inches. He
set the record riding a 45-cubic-
inch Indian and launching from
A Champion, outside of hillclimb-
ing. Class A faded out, and Class
C (production) racing was recog-
nized as the national champion-
ships by the late 1930s.
Alfred Toscani was born in Pat-
terson, New Jersey, on Novem-
ber 1, 1908. He began riding as
a teen and quickly became a top
amateur rider in his region. Fred
was also a promising amateur
boxer who fought under the name
of Freddie Rivers and compiled a
14-1 record. He gave up boxing to
pursue racing.
By the late 1920s, his dedi-
Fred Toscani was the last great
star of Class A racing, factory
racing that experienced its
heyday in the 1910s.
