Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

went down in the first comer. I pitched my bike off into the infield to keep from .running over Chuck becau se it looked : like he was hurt bad enough wit hout me ),runn ing over him. " With solid backing a nd rel iable machiner y, Tuman continued to se t the moto rcycle-racing scene on fire. During 1948 and 1949, Tuman kept on a roll , compiling an amazing 192 win s, 72 sect ond places, a nd 21 th irds. An accomplished m a chini st , Tum an was al s o ) responsible for the design and fabricat ion of many raci ng-mo to rcycle p arts a nd com po nents. Although he prided himself on being a d irt tracker, Tuman occasio nally tried his hand at the road race cou rs- es, ge nera lly aboard a cycle bearin g the , marque of Norton , w hich was th en a satellite of the Indian Corp. "I didn 't d o mu ch ro ad ra ci ng ," Tuma n says. "W he n Indian ca me o u t with the verti cal tw in, I rod e it at Laconia. I don't remember how I finished, but the verti cal twin wasn't too reliable, and I was probably one o f the few w ho fin"ished on the Indian. A lot of the othe r Indian rid ers were having engine a nd gearbox troubl es and gas tanks splitting . I backed mine down and tried to save it. I had to stop once for a new wheel and a set of brakes, but I did finish the race." Despite a glorious 'a nd brilliant career, one race continued to elude Tuman. That ' race was the 25-lap Springfield Mile - a mil estone which would determine the number -one motorcycle racer in the Unit- ed Sta tes . In 1953, thi s prestigiou s rac e would pay the winner a whopping $1200 share of the purse. With Bobby Hill sit ting on the pol e po sition and p red icted to win his third Springfield in a row, the pressure was clearl y on Tuman. As the flag dropped, Hill sped off ahead of a cluster of rid ers, which included Tuman, Papl Gold smith, Al Gu nt er , Don Hawl ey and Joe Leon ard . Unfortu natel y fo r Hill , h is eng ine let go on the eighth lap , and the battle for first now intensified as the five front-runners swa pped the lead back and forth. Hard luck then struc k Gunter on the 11th lap, as he slipped 'off the mark and dropped to the back of the lead pack, which now consisted of Tuma n, Hawley, Leonard and Gol ds mith. By th e end of the 18th mile, Tuman had taken the lead, witha very determined Gu nter moving back up to second, while Hawley and Leonard remain ed in hot pursuit. Gunter made another run at Tuman on the 21st lap, only to go wi de and drop back to fourth . Gu n ter, det ermined to risk eve ry thing , ga ssed th e bike hard a gain, an d on th e 23rd la p h e p assed Leon ard and H awley, and then se t his s igh ts on Tuman. G u n te r a pp lied th e pr essure on the final lap, but he could n't match th e s peed o f Tuman ' s Ind ian Scout , which was tight to the rail with a slim lead. When the checkered flag fell, Tuman was the winner by ju st a few hundredths of a seco nd. Some things never change at Springfield. "G un ter had more horsepower than anybod y e lse, but he didn't u se hi s head ," Tuman reflects. "He should have won the race. The part tha t nobody knew was tha t, in the heat race, som ebody ran into me from behind and ben t my number plate in against the tire. It was just li ke puttin g th e brakes on, because I cou ld n' t go. During the (heat) race, the thing heated up a nd melted the ti re. Coming into the last lap, I was in last place off the comer and onto the straightw ay . The re was a line of gu ys and no place to go. I had dropped back a little bit in the comer so I cou ld get a run at them coming out. 1 kept it cranked on, and a gap opened up between (Dick) Klamfoth and somebod y else, with eno ug h space for me to get my front wheel in, so I took m y hand off th e handleb ars a nd w ent throu gh . I go t the las t transfer position. 111at put me into the race for the final." Tuman defended his plate in 1954, bu t the Indi an factory had gone belly-up by then , and the aging Scou ts gave way to the newer Harley-David son KRs and the ever-improving BSA Gold Stars . Though he failed to win a single Nati ona l event, Tuman am assed 20 poin ts - good enou gh for seventh place in the series standings. Tu ma n ret ir ed from racing in 1955. For the nex t three years he se rved the mot orcycle com mu nity as a road agent for BSA, and then owned and operated a Hond a s hop in Rock Is land , Illinois, before moving it up the road to Moline. For 18 years, the shop grew to be one of The Indian Wrecking Crew: Emie Beckman (55), Bobby Hill (1) and Bill Tuman (51) pose, along with Milt Lassiter. the largest in the area . Tuman and his wife, Betty, raised five children and wer e blessed with seven gra ndchild ren and four great-grandchildren. Bill Tuman Jr. even followed in his father' s raci ng footsteps before retiring in 1984. The Ind ian Scou t motorcycle that was ridden to victory at Springfield in 1953 no w proudly s its in Tuman's garage. Occasio n ally , th e mach in e is fir ed up during intermission at nearby d irt track races and ridden a lap or tw o by its master. Tu man has stayed in tou ch over the years with Hill and Ern ie Beckman, the other two-thirds of the "Ind ian Wrecking Crew," and he main tains a close friendsh ip wi th them . To say that Tuman has had a brillia nt ca reer is a great underst at em ent. The man sim ply had it all. Wh en one motorcycle- rela ted cha p ter of his life closed, an other chap ter would open. From his early da ys as a mech an ic to his later da ys as a motorcycl e- shop o w ne r, Tuman nev er lost his passion for excellence in his profession. This excellence carried over into a v ery divers e ca re er, wh ich s p a n ne d an a m az in g fou r decades . Thanks to one day in 1953, Bill Tuman the racer will always be reme mbe red. But for that and so much mo re, Bill Tuman the ma n will always be respected . I~ 00 0\ 0\ ,..... -.::l'~ I-< OJ "E OJ ~ o z 25

• Cover