Cycle News

VOLUME 58 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 19, 2021 P109 made the Sport Scout, an excel- lent sporting machine in its day. Motorcycle clubs all over the Northeast got together in June each year to celebrate the opening of summer in annual Gypsy Tours (so called because in those pre-motel days riders camped in large gatherings like gypsies). Riders from New York, Philadelphia, Montreal and Boston would converge on the Lakes Region starting as early as the late 1910s. Races were always part of the equation, but the AMA's new Class C TT races that started in the 1930s became a major destination of the tours. The Classic started in Swanzey, New Hampshire, and tempo- rarily moved to Old Orchard, Maine, before settling in Laconia and the Belknap Recreation Area in 1938. (Note: Belknap, now called Gunstock Mountain Resort, is actually located about seven miles east of Laconia in Gilford, New Hampshire.) From the very beginning, Laconia was a race that attracted the best riders from across the country. New England racers emerged as national stars by run- ning with and often beating the national stars. This would prove to be a reoccurring theme of Laconia and Loudon throughout the 60-plus-year history of the event. Babe Tancrede, the greatest rider Rhode Island ever pro- duced won the inaugural TT, held in Swanzey in 1934. Hometown hero Hanford Marshall won the race in '36. Aggressive rider Les- ter Hillbis of Reading, Pennsylva- nia, won the TT held in Orchard Park in 1937. Early Class C races were primarily made up of riders from the region of the racetrack. That all changed beginning in the late 1930s, when the coun- try began to recover from the Depression and factories began to pay riders to travel nationally to compete in the bigger events. The Classic went big-time when it moved to Laconia in 1938. To improve its chances of winning the growing-in-prestige event, Indian brought in Ed Kretz, Class C's first big star, who hailed from Pomona, California. Kretz was the first rider from outside the Northeast to win Laconia, beating out local up- and-comer Ben Campanale in the 1938 race. The event was changed forever. The Laconia TT was now a truly national happen- ing, right up there with Daytona. The Laconia Rally gradually became a weeklong event, with many motorcyclists arriving ear- lier in the week. After World War II, returning G.I.s were eager to get out and ride, and party. Local businesses dependent upon tourism became ardent supporters of the rally. It brought increased business during the early part of the relatively short tourist season, and residents and local governments embraced the event all the way to the bank through the mid-1960s, when the increasing rowdiness of the huge crowds, now numbering in the tens of thousands, started get- ting a bit out of hand. The Harley-Davidson/Indian wars reached a fever pitch at Laconia in the late 1940s, with Harley coming in and winning Indian's home National more often than not. Dick Klamfoth and Ed Fisher ushered in the Brit bikes with wins on Nortons and Triumphs in the early 1950s. Joe Leonard and Brad Andres had remarkable battles at Laconia in the mid-to-late 1950s. A riot during race weekend at Weirs Beach on Lake Winni- pesaukee in 1965 made na- tional headlines. That year, the

• Cover