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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128121
T~MIE RJEM\IEMBIERJED those days, we figured out that it was about 12 pounds to one horse. Joe Leonard damage was done, and Andres prevailed in the points battle, claiming five wins and consistent finishes on In other words, if I was 12 pounds heavier than you, then I needed one more horsepower to run with you. the year to Brashear's six wins and spotty performances. Leonard fin- Most of those guys I raced, like Paul Goldsmith and them, they were 140 pounds. I had 20 pounds on them. Leonard rode Sifton-tuned ished with 53 points - one behind Brashear - to place third in the standings that season. To this day, though, he believes that there was Harleys to his first three National wins in 1953, taking the mile at San Mateo, California, a half mile at Sturgis, South Dakota, and the Peoria TT. When it was announced that the National Championship would be determined by a points series for the first time in 1954, the duo hit one small mistake that he and Sifton made at the beginning of the season that may have affected its outcome. "We sold that '54 engine of mine to Leonard Andres [Brad's father] like fools," Leonard recounts. "I told Tom that we shouldn't sell it, but he the trail loaded for bear, winning back-to-back road races in Laconia, Ne'w Hampshire, and Wilmot, Wis- didn't think that Leonard [Andres] would be able to keep it up that well anyways, and Tom told me that we'd build a better one. We never consin, claiming another San Mateo mile, and then stringing together four-straight wins late in the season - two of them in the 45-inch and 80-inch classes at the Peoria TT on the same day. Aided by those eight wins in 18 events, Joe Leonard was crowned as the AMA's first Grand National Champion in 1954. "When I won those classes at Peoria, that's when I knew that I was a racer," Leonard says. "I beat did. That engine was so good that when Brad got hurt in '57, I got to use it again, and I won Daytona and Laconia with it that year. Selling that engine wasn't too smart a move. I always regretted that, but that's the way it goes." Worse yet, Leonard parted company with Sifton at the end of '55, as Sifton decided to sell his HarleyDavidson dealership and get into the motorcycle finance business. It Jimmy Phillips, my friend and my idol. I also beat Roger Soderstrom, a great big farm boy who had won that thing for several years. That could have meant the end, but Leonard was once again fortunate to hook up with Charlie West, a sort Daytona again, and posting three straight wins at Laconia, San Jose and Springfield. The season would also mark the first time that Leonard failed to win at least one of the two main events at the Peoria TT, as BSA riders AI Gunter and George Everett each stood atop the podium there. When he started out by winning the Daytona 200 again while wearing the number-one plate at the start of the 1958 season, it seemed as though he would stay the course toward number one again. Leonard ran into one small problem, however, in the form of a Leonard won his USAC title in 1971. He also won the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway that year. He was forced to retire from racing after a crash at the same track in 1974. at Daytona not too long ago, and I told him, 'You know, I didn't like you very much when you first started out, but it was the best thing in the world for me. You made me realize that I can't be messing with little 01' skinny runts out of the polio ward on these bikes.' So I went to cars. Resweber, he was a natural package, maybe the best I've ever seen. rt was pretty good, I thought, but I never really got to be a braggart or anything because the guys I was with didn't go for that. Besides, of Sifton disciple with some good equipment of his own. With help from the factory, Leonard took the change in stride. stage some epic points battles over realized when I was real young, my grandfather used to tell me, 'Jody, do you know why God gave you two ears "Charlie was a retired racer, and I knew that he had good power because he'd get Tom's stuff and the next several seasons, but no matter what Leonard did, Resweber always did him one better. Though although, actually, becoming a prodream of his long before he ever and two eyes and only one mouth? The reason is because you're supposed to listen twice as much and look twice as much as you talk. You then massage it himself," Leonard Leonard won his share races over met Jimmy Phillips or Tom Sifton. recalls. Leonard and West rebounded in '56, taking advantage of an abbrevi- the next four years, Resweber always brought home the champi- take me to the midget races, and onship, scoring a then-unprece- that was really my first love, really never learn anything when you're talking, that's stuff that you already know.' That didn't make sense ated, seven-race series, posting wins at the San Mateo Mile and also again at Peoria to out-point Andres and reclaim the Grand National title. Brashear also picked up another win that year, but finished fourth, behind AI Gunter, in the series standings. It was sweet revenge for Leonard, to dented four-straight titles from 1958-61. "That little fart was my biggest menace," Leonard says. "I saw him what I had always wanted to do," when I was young, but that kept hitting me like a big flashcard the further I went along in racing." Going into 1955, Leonard and Sifton found that the number-one plate was much harder to defend be sure, although he mainta.ins that he never really held anyone rider as than it was to win, as a multitude of competitors stepped up to make the title chase a tug-of-war. Brad Andres, Leonard's fellow San Die- a rival. '" wanted to beat all of them," Leonard says, "but one of my gan, claimed the Daytona beach race, with Everett Brashear claiming the next half miles on the schedule before Andres backed Daytona up with road race wins at Laconia, and Dodge City, Kansas. Leonard finally got into the win column with a road race victory at toughest competitors was Everett Brashear. Everett didn't have real good equipment, but between him and Paul Goldsmith, they were tough. I can remember being with the the factory at Springfield in '55, and I never even made the main event, but Everett, he won the thing." Leonard successfully defended Windber, Pennsylvania. He would later claim the Milwaukee Half Mile and a repeat win in Peoria. But the 40 SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 • cue I his plate in 1957 with West, winning n e _ s • 120-pound Texan by the name of Carroll Resweber. The two would It was 1964 when Leonard finally that career change, fessional race driver had been a "My grandfather always used to Leonard says. "I used to watch Billy Vukovich, Johnny Parsons, Jimmy Bryan... As they all progressed and While Joe Leonard is a plausible starting place, the three-time AMA Grand National and 1971 USAC Indycar Champion isn't the only one to ever have traded in his steel shoe for a firesuit. In fact, there are several connections between .the two worlds, from both past and present. Here are but a few: Gene Romero dabbled with USAC Midgets during his racing career in the '70s. Swede Savage was a solid-running So Cal motorcycle star who made it all the way to the big show at Indy, meeting with an untimely passing while leading the race in 1973. Steve Butler, a hot-riding flat-tracker in his native Indiana, went on to win USAC championships in both the Sprint Car and Silver Crown divisions in the late '80s. Around that time. Steve Morehead stepped off his motorcycle and into a 410 cubic-inch Outlaw sprinter to contest the AlI·Star Circuit of Champions and limited World of Outlaws meetings. Financial woes forced Morehead to retum to bikes. Another Indiana boy, veteran USAC runner Terry Pletch was a formidable flat-tracker back in the '70s. Today, there are still a few connections between open wheels and flat track. Current Team Harley-Davidson mechanic Craig Lager races his own Outlaw sprint car with the Interstate Racing Association (IRA) in and around the Wisconsin area on his few off weekends. Lager has also been known to tear the wing off and head into Indiana once in a while. Out west, former flat-tracker tumed sprint-car-racer tumed magazine editor Paul Dean is partnered up with custom Harley-Davidson builder Bruce Fisher to field a sprint car in the wingless Sprint Car Racing Association.