Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE E arly in his career as an AMA starter, Duke Pennell once threw the green flag to start a race and the flag flew off the pole and blew right into the path of the riders blasting off the line. Lesson learned. After that, Duke always kept his thumb on the flag, no matter how securely it was stapled to the pole. Duke flagged nearly every major AMA National from the late 1940s to the late 1990s. He drove his own vehicles to the races and carried supplies for the AMA. In his later years, he even bought his own tractor-trailer rig to carry the ever-increasing gadgetry it took to put on a National. Pennell was a motorcycle enthu- siast and a professional through and through. He was almost always the first to arrive at the track and the last to leave. Mentored by the late, great Jim Davis, the famous Class A racer who served as the AMA starter in the 1930s and 40s, Duke passed down the knowledge he gained to current AMA road-racing starter Bobby Lemming, who first appren- ticed under Duke's tutelage when Bobby was still a teenager. Pennell brought a unique flair to his position. Instead of wear- ing the traditional white starter clothes, Pennell was the first to wear colorful, tailor-made outfits P 124 THE CHECKERED FLAG FOR DUKE "I paid a quarter here and nickel there," Pennell remem- bered with a smile. Pennell joined the local motor- cycle club in Athens and began working as an assistant at the club-sponsored local AMA races. His first job was working as pit steward for local half mile races in Athens in 1939. During World War II, Pennell served in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific. When the war was over, he and Bee Gee settled in Columbus, Ohio, and that's where Pennell started taking to the tracks as a racer. In fact, he recalled spending his honeymoon at a race meet in Lancaster, Ohio. Pennell suffered a crash at a race in Dayton, Ohio, in October of 1949, and it was a bad one that left him with extensive nerve dam- age to his left side. The accident left Pennell's left arm immobile, but that didn't deter him from racing. that added a splash of color to the race meets. His wife, Bee Gee, made most of the flags Pen- nell used during his career, and she was also an AMA employee for more than 30 years. In 1987, the Pennell's were presented the prestigious Dud Perkins Award for their dedication to motorcycling. George Pennell was born in Ath- ens, Ohio, on February 10, 1921, and that was the beginning of a tough childhood. His mother aban- doned the family when he was a young boy, and his father, unable to deal with raising the children alone, turned Duke and his two sisters over to an orphanage. The siblings were raised separately, although they reconnected later in life. When he was 17, a friend of- fered to sell Pennell his Harley- Davidson for five dollars. Pennell didn't have the money, so his buddy gave him the bike anyway and let him pay it off over time. "I paid a quarter here and that added a splash of color to Duke Pennell waves the checkered flag to Cal Rayborn at a 1969 AMA National road race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.