Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P118 BY LARRY LAWRENCE INDY'S FORGOTTEN RACE I n motorcycle racing circles Indianapolis is primarily known for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, the Indy Supercross and the Indy Mile (and to a lesser extent drag racing's U.S. Nationals). One national event that took place four times in Indianapolis is now largely forgotten and merely a footnote in the history books. That race was the AMA Road Race National at Indianapolis Raceway Park (now called Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis), held in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While most fans today weren't aware of the race's existence, the fact that a legendary rider won all four IRP events perhaps makes the memories of the race for those who attended even more mythical. The race also spanned an era when road-racing machines were undergoing a radical change. In 1958, led by Tom Binford, Frank Dickie, Roger Ward and Howard Fieger, 15 Indianapolis area businessmen and racing professionals invested $5000 each to fund the development of what would become Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP). The group purchased a 267-acre farm about seven miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and developed a multipurpose auto racing facility. The original intention in creating IRP was to design a 15-turn, 2.5-mile road course. Nearly as an afterthought, and as an insurance measure against economic problems, the investment group decided to incorporate a quarter-mile drag strip into the long straightaway of the 2.5-mile long road course design. That decision would become the major influence on the future of the facility. Motorcycle races in the 1960s were often feared by local municipalities due to high profile, but often exaggerated incidents of disorder by various motorcycle gangs who often clashed when they came together for national races of the era. Perhaps that was one of the reasons IRP didn't get around to hosting an AMA National until seven years after it was built. In August of 1967 IRP finally got its first AMA road race National. Floyd Clymer, flush with cash from his sale of Cycle Magazine to New York City-based Ziff-Davis Publications, promoted the event. Triumph's Gary Nixon took the lead in the first Indianapolis 110-Mile Road Race National. In 1967 the evolution to two-stroke Japanese road race bikes was well underway in the 250cc class, but hadn't yet taken hold in the big bike class. Instead there was a Triumph versus Harley-Davidson battle. Triumph was surging quickly partially on the strength of Nixon's riding, but also because Harley's KR racer was long in the tooth. Triumph and Nixon had won both the National road races preceding Indy. Harley's racing boss Dick O'Brien responded by ordering major updates on the KRTT. Indianapolis was the first appearance of these updated Harley road racers, which sported a completely new "low boy" frame, which was 2 ½ inches lower at the steering head and had a seat height of 27.5 inches compared to 30 inches for the previous version. The bikes also sported updated Ceriani forks, double-leading-shoe brakes and Girling shocks. Rayborn and Mert Lawwill got the new Low Boy Harley's and they worked beautifully.

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