Hall Of Famer
Passes
A
MA Motorcycle Hall of Famer
Ed Fisher, a leading national
road racer of the 1950s and a
World War II veteran, passed
away on August 4. He was 97.
Fisher won the Laconia
Classic in 1953 and was a top
contender at many of the other
road races of the era. Fisher
was an Indian factory rider, but
when Indian's racing program
was trimmed, he became one of
Triumph's first East Coast factory
riders. Fisher's son, Gary, also
became a leading road racer in
the 1970s.
Born in June of 1925, Fisher
was raised in Gap, Pennsylvania.
At the time, Eastern Pennsylvania
was a hotbed of motorcycling.
He served in the U.S. Army's
82nd Airborne Division during
World War II and fought in the
Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
When he returned from Europe,
Fisher bought an Indian Chief.
"It was one of the few new
motorcycles you could buy right
after the war," Fisher told the
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
He also went to work as a me-
chanic in an Indian dealership in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and be-
gan racing, becoming an Indian
flat track factory rider in 1949.
For the 1952 Daytona 200,
Triumph brought in Fisher, who
found himself on one of the rare
Triumph factory specials at Day-
tona. In the race, Fisher ran up
front early, but a broken oil line
quickly sidelined him.
His biggest win came at Laconia
in 1953. In the closest race in the
history of the event, the top four
riders finished within three sec-
onds of each other. It took hours of
checking and rechecking scoring
tabulations after the race before
Fisher was determined as the
winner. Even then, the race was
protested, and he was not officially
credited with the victory until De-
cember during the AMA competi-
tion committee meetings.
"I found out I officially won the
race when I got the check in the
mail," Fisher said. He added that
winning Laconia in 1953 was
worth $1000.
While Fisher was best known
as a road racer, he turned
in some solid results on the
dirt-track circuits, as well. He
finished second in the famous
Langhorne (Pennsylvania) 100
Mile National in 1953.
Fisher raced professionally
through the 1957 season, until
family and business responsibili-
ties took top priority.
Fisher's son, Gary, followed
in his father's footsteps and
became one of the leading road
racers in the country. In 1972, 19
years after his father had accom-
plished the feat on the old Laco-
nia track, Gary won the Loudon
Classic, making the Fishers the
only father-and-son combination
to win the classic road race.
Fisher retired to a home in the
mountains in 1998 and turned to
maintaining his fleet of more than
50 vintage motorcycles.
Fisher was inducted into the
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in
2002.
CN
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 23, 2022 P33
Hall of Famer Ed Fisher passed away at
the age of 94.
PHOTO: AMA HALL OF FAME
