CN III ARCHIVES
P114
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
GEE'S JACK PINE
I
t's hard to imagine now, but perhaps
the second most popular and important motorcycle race in America in the
early 1950s was the Jack Pine Enduro.
The 500-mile endurance race first ran
in the early 1920s and it became the
granddaddy of all off-road races and by
mid-century it was the oldest continuous race in the country.
Tremendous organization by the
Lansing Motorcycle Club and support from the city of Lansing, Michigan, where riders started from the
middle of downtown (in front of the
headquarters of the Lansing State Journal), meant
the race became one of the top motorcycle races
in the country by the early 1950s - second only to
Daytona. So when the 25th Anniversary race came
around in 1951 many of the stars of the sport were
there. So high was the demand that the AMA, for
the first time, implemented a pre-entry requirement
to get into the race. Media from across Michigan
came to report on the event, as did Look magazine.
Riders from 20 states and Canada were represented at the Jack Pine that year. Among the
record 337 riders in the '51 Jack Pine was Joe
Gee. Gee was one of the elites in the sport of
enduro racing (then known as endurance runs).
He began racing enduros during the infancy of
the sport in the early 1930s and continued racing
in the woods until 1970. By the early '50s, Gee
already had a slew of endurance racing titles to
his credit, including being a multiple winner of
the prestigious Ohio State Endurance Championship.
The one race Gee wanted to win more than
anything though was the Jack Pine, but no matter
how hard he tried the race eluded him. Gee had
raced the event on and off since 1934, but Lady
Luck had not been with him and he'd never managed to finish the event. Now he was 37 and the
window of opportunity to win the prestigious race
