Cycle News

A lavish new two-mile mo- tordrome had been built in the Sheepshead Bay region of Brooklyn, New York. The FAM hosted a National Championship event at Sheepshead Bay in 1916 on the same date as the Dodge City Classic. Harley-Davidson decided to send boardtrack expert Parkhurst to New York instead of Dodge City. Parkhurst easily won the 100-mile FAM National Championship in front of the massive grandstands that were packed with 18,000 fans— perhaps the largest crowd to see a motorcycle race up to that point. In magazine articles, Parkhurst was often noted as always hav- ing a big smile and being one of the crowd favorites. He was said to shine on rough tracks. At 6-foot-4-inches tall, topped by a thick head of red hair (thus, the nickname "Red"), he cut a rather imposing image when stand- ing next to the mainly diminutive community of motorcycle racers. Harley-Davidson used images of a smiling Parkhurst in countless race ads during the mid-to-late 1910s. He became a true sports celebrity. One of Parkhurst's good friends and biggest fans was fellow Coloradoan Jack Dempsey, the World Heavy- weight Boxing Champion. During World War I, Parkhurst stayed in Milwaukee and worked as a truck mechanic. After the war, Parkhurst was asked to rejoin Harley-Davidson's racing team. One of the first big nationals after the war was the 200-miler held in June of 1919 at Ascot Park in Los Angeles. Parkhurst made a solid return to the track with a second-place finish behind teammate Ralph Hepburn. In September of that year, Parkhurst earned his biggest victory in the 200-mile road race held in Marion, Indiana. With the Dodge City race not held in 1919, the Marion race (now run under the auspices of the newly formed Motorcycle and Allied Trades Association—M&ATA—tak- ing over from the defunct FAM) became the biggest race of the year, with 18 factory riders from Harley-Davidson, Indian and Ex- celsior. Parkhurst took over the lead of the race from teammate Otto Walker just past the halfway point. Indian's Teddy Carroll threatened his lead late in the event, but Carroll's bike broke a valve with just two laps to go and Parkhurst went on to victory. Hepburn and Walker took sec- ond and third to make it a clean sweep for Harley-Davidson. In February of 1920, Harley- Davidson went to Daytona Beach and Parkhurst set a number of short-lived speed records. In June of that year, Harley-David- son rented the Sheepshead Bay track (considered the fastest board track in the country) to attempt a 24-hour solo record. Parkhurst set a new distance record for 24 hours, covering 1452.75 miles, despite having to wait out two hours of hard rain, then riding on a very slick track as the boards dried out. Exhaust- ed by the solo run, Parkhurst broke the existing mileage re- cord with over an hour to go and could have pulled in, but bravely held on to complete 24 hours. In 1921, Parkhurst took a job offer from Excelsior and became a Midwest sales rep for the com- pany and raced for them, much to the chagrin of Harley loyal- ists. He had a miserable season with Excelsior and returned to racing Harleys in 1922. By this time, Parkhurst had a family and was no longer racing full time. He continued to race sporadi- cally through 1924, earning a couple of podium finishes on his adopted hometown track, the Milwaukee Mile, at M&ATA and AMA Nationals held there in 1923 and '24. After retiring from racing, Parkhurst continued working in sales for companies such as Firestone and Valvoline. He retired in the 1960s and died in 1972 while living in Washington State. He was 76. CN This Archives edition is reprinted from the August 5, 2009 issue. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many des- tined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happen- ing, in the future, we will be revisit- ing past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor CN III ARCHIVES P110

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