Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

National Series. The garment fetched $375. Emde interviewed the BMW Legends, who attempted to outdo each other in injury reports. Six-time World Champion jim Redman was the featured speaker, and he .reminisced about riding such exotic machines as a five-cylinder Honda 125 in the early 1960s. . "You never really felt like you were in control of it," Redman said of that and some of the other multis. Redman and others dazzled the crowd with the sound of the Team Obsolete Honda six and MY Agusta multis during demonstration laps Saturday and Sunday. Though the auction on Saturday afternoon contained. a smattering of antiques, this was a crowd eager for Harleys and ridable British machines, said auctioneer Jerry Wood. Bidding on a 1912 Indian twin failed to' reach the reserve price, as did offers for a 1913 Thor, a 1920 Triumph Model H and a Norton Manx with a reasonable racing history. The highest price paid was $14,000 for a 1941 Indian Sport Scout, a sal~ which was negotiated after the bidding fell short of the reserve. There were (Above) Buzz Walneck showed off his "Roadog" motorcycle-contraption-lIkething at the vintage bike show. (Lett) Yvon DuHamel (77) chases Dave Aldane (13) In BMW Battle of the Legends action. DuHamel took the Legends' overall win with 3-2 placlnga during the _kend. also plenty of clean British and Japanese motorcycles that went for affordable prices. What sold best in the sweltering tent, however, were Milwaukee twins. "The crowd was huge, but it was really Harley-oriented," Wood observed, noting that mos.t of these machines fetched real-world prices for a marque that buyers tend to overprice because of the demand for new models. For example, a 1992 FLHTC went for $12,100, while a '73 FLH brought $8,500 and a '74 of the same model sold for $7,250. One 1977 XLCR Cafe Racer couldn't reach the reserve price, but' another sold for $7,500. "Overall, it was a good event, a lot of strong sales," Wood said. Approximately 80 percent of the machines in the auction were sold, with a portion of the proceeds going to the American Motorcycle Heritage Foundation. Out in the sun-baked swap-meet aisles, vendors were selling everything from rusty gas tanks to motorcycles nicer than those under the auction tent. Magazine publisher Buzz Walneck drew a continuous crowd with the bizarre Roadog, a huge sort of twowheeled car. Nearby, a Henderson-four fanatic was talking trash about Indian four-cylinders as an elderly man fondly ogled the well-used Henderson before him. Other displays proved that there's a club for virtually every motorcycle interest: Set up next to the Sears Allstate Motorcycle Owners Oub was the Kawasaki Triples Club next to the Ohio Valley BSA Owners Club. Truxal! said many of the vendors in the Will Stoner-organized meet report-· ed that they had sold out by the end of the day on Sunday. "If swap-meet vendors are not grumbling, that usually means they're happy," Truxal! said. "I actually heard compliments from a lot of them." The bike show attracted about 75 entries for Saturday's American and European show and around 70 on Sunday, when English and Japapese brands were featured. The AMA's Mark Mederski said entries were up by 40-50 percent. "We've always had a strong contingent of British and American machines," Mederski·said of the Vintage Motorcycle Days show. "But this year we attracted more European stuff. That's where the growth was." ON THE TRACK There was just a half day of racing on Saturday, so that auctioneers wouldn't have to compete with the sound and attraction of the race bikes. First up was the combined 200 Grand Prix/Pre-1940 event. Among the 200s, Craig Morrison worked his 1964 Bultaco into the lead, leaving class champ James Kirby and Phillip Sprain in a spirited dispute over second position. The runner-up spot went to Kirby. In Pre-'40, number-one-plate holder Blake Wilson got his hand-shifting Indian Racing Products-backed '37 Sport Scout around Gordon Menzie's '39 Triumph 500. Despite a challenge from Doc Batsleer on a '36 Indian, Menzie hung onto second. Also having little difficulty with the competition in the next race was For- mula 250cc champion Rick Merhar on his Yamaha TD3. At the same time, James McGregor was running away with the Sportsman 350cc portion of the race while Donald Rutkowski displaced Tim Stancill for second. The top eight 350cc riders all were aboard Honda twins, which have become the hot ticket in this class. As Menzie and his '51 Triumph earned a Class C win over Erich Bley, the 250cc GP riders were involved in a close battle. Jay Richardson's '66 Du~ati 250cc hung onto the lead for the entire race, chased by John Stephens, Norbert Nickel and Morrison. Debuting a new fleet of dark-blue BMW Rll00RSs, the BMW Battle of the Legends participants raced in a tight pack separated by under two seconds. Depending on where you stood along the track at any given time, the leader could have been Walt Fulton, Roger Reiman, David Aldana, Gary Nixon or Chris Draayer. Draayer was a national contender who lost his left arm in a 1967 racing accident. Today he uses a special prosthetic that fits to a control on the left handlebar. After a few laps of practice he was riding as fast as any of the other Legends and was clearly pumped by al! the attention from fans who indeed remembered his brief Expert career. The other new Legend at Mid-Ohio was 1972 Grand National Champion Mark Brelsford. Aldana was leading on the way to the checkered flag, but Reiman snatched away the win at the last instant. DuHamel was credited with third and Draayer fourth. One of AHRMA's modern Sound of Singles races came next, but the Formula Two win went by a tremendous margin to a smooth-riding Mathews on a '62 Matchless 500. Among the twostroke singles the competition was closer, with Sven Bley coming up vic-

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