CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
W
hen you hear motorcycle people
talk about getting older but refusing
to grow up, well, they're probably talking
about Triumph-riding TT legend Skip Van
Leeuwen.
Prior to turning professional in 1960,
Van Leeuwen was the archetypal South-
ern California motorcycle rowdie. So long
as nobody got hurt, Van Leeuwen liked to
have a good time. It was all in good fun.
"Guys like Dick Hammer and me, we
grew up in Bellflower, and we used to
drag race all over the streets of Bellflow-
er," Van Leeuwen says. "Dick Hammer
and I went to Catalina to watch the Cata-
lina Grand Prix in 1957," Van Leeuwen
added. "Before that, we would go to Gar-
dena Speedway and watch Jimmy Phillips
and Tex Luce and guys like that, and we
thought they were some sort of gods.
Then we went to Catalina and watched all
these other guys race, and we thought,
'Hell, we can do that,' so we both bought
Triumph Tiger Cubs and started racing.
We did good right away, [and] won a lot of
races."
But even that early success wasn't
enough to convince Van Leeuwen into
thinking that he could race full time and
make a living at it. He was having too
much fun doing things his way. Pro racing
was too serious.
"Dick Hammer and I decided that when
we turned Expert on the little bikes, we
could buy big bikes and go back to Ama-
teur on the big bikes, but then we won
everything right away again," Van Leeuwen
recalls. "We didn't get to stay amateur very
long, just a few months."
P108
SKIP VAN LEEUWEN: THE
Van Leeuwen still figured on quitting once he became
Expert in the heavyweight ranks.
"I didn't want to be a racer, and my family thought I
should be in church on Sunday anyway," Van Leeuwen
recounts. "But then Dick Hammer talked me into going
out to the District 37 Championship race at Acton [Cali-
fornia]. I loaded my bike up, and we went out there, and
Skip Van Leeuwen
was more into
winning races than
he was winning
championships.
