Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Nixon For President, Part I ary Nixon has probably had the longest professional career of any motorcycle racer on the planet. The carrot-topped Marylander roared out of the '60s, won two AMA Grand National Championships, played a major role in America's early efforts to succeed on the world road-racing stage ... and he hasn't quit since. For Nixon, it has been a long road - so long that it actually started in the sand. "I was a first-year Expert in 1960," Nixon says. "I rode the [Daytona] 200 at the beach, and I hit all the races through '62. Then in '63, [it] was when I kind of got known. I won Winber [Pennsylvania, road race]. I kind of got known as a hot dog about then." Even as a factory Triumph rider, Nixon's early existence was meager at best. Underflnanced and doing everything on his own in the early days, he barely made it from race to race. In fact, part of Nixon's early legend is a tale about a ratty lincoln purchased from fellow racer Everett Brashear, with which Nixon was going to tow his Triumphs on the tour. The car gave up the ghost almost immediately after the money changed hands, and Nixon spent most of the rest of the year talking his pals on the circuit into hauling his bike from race to race. "I don't remember it being that bad, but maybe it was:' Nixon says. Regardless of such inconveniences, Nixon's determination never waned. That Winber victory, coupled with another at the Santa Fe Short Track, helped him crack the top 10 for the first time in 1963. A lone win at the Sacramento Mile in 1964 contributed to another sixthplace finish in the points that season, but Nixon improved to third in '65, and he finished second, behind Bart Markel, in 1966. New machines in 1967 would prove to be just the boost Nixon needed to put him over the top. "Triumph brought the new bikes over from England, and we went and tested them:' Nixon says. "I got a good one and Dick Hammer got a good one, and then in the Daytona 200 he and 1had a hell of a race until he stopped for a pit stop, used a rag to wipe his face, and then put it between his legs and sat on it. The rag got sucked into the carburetor, and then he got the rag out and crashed while he was trying to catch me, so I won the race. I think '67 was my best year. I won five races that year. I won road races at Daytona and Loudon, and then I won the Portland Mile and the Santa Fe Short Track, and then the Carlsbad [California] road race. "The thing I remember about Carlsbad is that it was looking like it was going to rain, so we talked them into running the National first, which they did," Nixon recalls. "I won that, and then for the 250 race I had to wait for them to get my bike ready, and when I finally got it, I had to start on the back row. But the thing was running so fast, and I was passing people left and right. Later, I come to find out that they forgot to mix oil with the gas when they put it back together, so it seized and threw me off, and I broke my right thumb. We had one race left at Oklahoma City the next week, and I had to beat George Roeder for the championship. So they put a nail in my left thumb." With the pin in place, Nixon found out that he had a bigger problem than just the broken bone. "I found out I couldn't turn the damn throttle:' he remembers. "I could turn it off, but I couldn't turn it on. G 94 NOVEMBER 23, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS So [Triumph's] Dick Bender took an old farm-door spring, drilled a hole in the handlebar and a hole in the throttle, and then put the spring in and wound it backwards so that when you let go of the throttle, it would turn wide open. 50 then Neil Keen gave me a pill - we didn't have drug tests back then, and I never asked Neil what it was, but I wasn't hurtin' - and I went out and was running third, and then [Sammy] Tanner pulled over and let me by, so I finished second. "So I'm going down the back straightaway, and I'm like, 'Hey, I'm number one!'" Nixon continues. '~nd I did a wheelie, but we only had four inches of travel back then, and when 1 came down, I came down hard, and it really hurt my thumb. I was like, 'Damn, that hurt: and I took my hand off the throttle and, well, you can imagine what happened then. I went wide open into turn three and goddamn near ran into the fence before I got it shut off." Nixon got his title defense off to a good start by winning the inaugural Houston Astrodome Short Track, but unlike '67, when the factory Triumphs were the freshest horses on the track at Daytona, 1968 was to be a different story. Smarting from its loss of the title, HarleyDavidson had done its homework for the 200. Cal Rayborn won the race, and right away Nixon knew he was going to be in for a long year if he wanted to keep the number-one plate on his motorcycle. "We were running about 136 mph on the Triumphs, but Harley was running about I50 mph because they had put two carburetors on their bikes - one for each cylinder," Nixon remembers. "I told my guys, 'Why don't you just put mirrors on this damn thing so that I can see which side they're coming by me?' We didn't do anything at Daytona. I don't even think we finished the race." The battle for the 1968 AMA Grand National Championship ultimately came down to a fight between not Nixon and Rayborn, but rather between Nixon and another factory Harley-Davidson rider, Oklahoma's Fred Nix. "He had a killer-fast Harley on the miles and the half miles, but when we got to Columbus [Ohio, Half Mile], he was leading it and then he slid offthe groove on about the 13th lap, and I won it. That was the first [and only] half mile I ever won." But Nix won a total of six races to Nixon's two, and with the way the points shook out, the battle for the title turned into a sudden-death affair at the season-finale Ascot Half Mile. Nix clearly had the momentum, as he carried a two-race win streak into Ascot - haVing won the Sacramento Mile and the Oklahoma City Half Mile and Nixon didn't particularly care for the joint. '~cot was a scary place to me; I only won there once, and that was after 'Burrito' [Gene Romero] went into the corner and knocked everybody down," Nixon recalls. '" didn't even make the main there the week before the National, and Fred won it. Iwas staying at Walt Mahony's house, and I remember that I ran around the block about flve times that week. We never used to train. "So then we get to Ascot, and I go out and qualify 13th, and I'm thinking, 'Oh, f-k, unlucky 13.' But then in the main I got into the corn"r fOlllth or fif,i" and 1went for a tearoff, and it ripped off about halfway. so I could only see out of one eye. Ijust ran around d",re for the resr of the night, and in the pictures you can see old Fred was right there, man. A few other guys got in there and passed him, and 1 beat him by enough to win the championship." Nixon was number one again, but come 1969 and beyond, he would have more than his fair share of lumps coming. Check back next week for d1e rest of d1e story. CN

• Cover