T
erry Kizer was a novice flat
track racer with dreams of
one day becoming AMA Grand
National Champion. A Texan
from the Houston area and an
up-and-coming young steel-
shoe ace traveling the country,
Kizer looked up to 1970s AMA
Grand National racing stars like
Jay Springsteen, Corky Keener,
Mert Lawwill and Kenny Roberts.
Of course, today, anyone who
has been around motorcycle
drag racing for any length of
time remembers Kizer as a drag
racing legend and winner of nine
national championships and set-
ter of countless records, but the
path to switching from going in
circles around dusty dirt tracks
to hammering down quarter-mile
drag strips in the blink of an eye
happened quite by accident.
One day
Kizer took his flat
track racing hauler van into a
pinstriping/lettering shop. Trav
Clifton, the shop owner, hap-
pened to be roommates with a
well-known local drag racer and
builder named Mo Parsons. As
CN
III ARCHIVES
P124
Kizer took his flat
track racing hauler van into a
pinstriping/lettering shop. Trav
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
(Above) Terry Kizer made the
cover of the program for the 1987
U.S. Nationals. (Below) Kizer
(near lane) at the IDBA MTC World
Finals in Baton Rouge in 1987.
PHOTO: CYCLE NEWS ARCHIVES
FLAT
TRACKER
TURNED
DRAG RACING
LEGEND
