sidecar racer; Sel Narayana,
who helped bring KTM to
national prominence; and
Tom Seymour, founder of
Saddleman, who, before he
retired, went out of his way
over many years to promote
motorcycling and sponsor
so many and up-and-coming
riders.
The Earl and Lucille
Flanders Lifetime Achievement Award went
to Norm Bigelow, who, over the years at
Kawasaki, was responsible for mentoring and
assisting so many Kawasaki riders both on
the dirt and road racetracks. Bigelow is also
almost entirely responsible for saving so many
historic and significant Kawasaki race bikes
from the "crusher," building and continuing to
curate the Kawasaki Heritage Museum where
many of those bikes reside.
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 14 APRIL 5, 2022 P25
(Below L-R) Joe Hamby, Kim Hamby, Scott
Burnworth, Ed Scheidler, Broc Glover and hosts
Steve Storz and Don Emde (Trailblazers President)
helped honor one of the Trailblazers' newest Hall of
Fame members, the late Kenny Clark.
(Right) The Earl
and Lucille Flanders
Lifetime Achievement
Award went to Norm
Bigelow (center)
who is credited
for saving several
historic Kawasaki
motorcycles.
(Below right) Sue
Fish was inducted
into the Trailblazers'
Hall of Fame.
After a great dinner, the final
award of the night, the Dick
Hammer Award, for "Drive,
Determination and Desire" went
to Northern California's own
Mert Lawwill, AMA National
number-one in 1969, and one
of the stars of the first and finest
major movie about motorcycling,
Bruce Brown's On Any Sunday.
After retiring from active racing,
Lawwill didn't sit on his laurels.
Mert was asked by Chris Draay-
er, an ex-racer who lost a hand
in a racing accident to make an
artificial hand that would allow
him to continue racing and rid-
ing. Lawwill, who is an engineer-
ing genius in his own right, did
it. Along the way, he became
a pioneering manufacturer of
artificial hands that allow am-
putees to ride motorcycles and
mountain bikes, starting his own
business, Mert's Hands. Today,
Lawwill continues to develop in-
novative products to assist those
amputees with unique prob-
lems, and is the inventor and
designer of suspension systems
for mountain bikes that have
been adopted by several bicycle
manufacturers.
Richard T. Haight
