VOLUME 59 ISSUE 47 NOVEMBER 22, 2022 P107
fered a ride. And when he finally
got the opportunity to ride one,
motorcycles became his youth-
ful obsession. He would hang
around the local shop for hours,
listening to the tall tales the mo-
torcyclists would talk about their
adventures.
Another bicycle dealer in
town was offered a motorcycle
franchise, and the owner, not
knowing anything about the
newfangled motorcycle, asked
Bennett if he would uncrate and
assemble the first machine. Ben-
nett gladly put the motorcycle
together and got it running. To
his delight, the shop owner told
him to ride it around town, and, if
he could get people to buy them,
he would get a commission. This
was in the first years of the new-
fangled motorcycle and people
didn't yet know what to make of
them. The 13-year-old could not
believe his luck. Soon, Bennett
entered his first motorcycle con-
test, a sand-riding event where
the object was to see who could
ride the furthest in soft sand
before bogging down or tipping
over. Young Bennett won the
contest.
By the time Bennett was 15,
he fudged his age so that he
could enter a local road race.
He said his bike was far from
the fastest, but he was able to
ride the rutted turns better and
won the race. Some of the first
dirt-track races Bennett com-
peted in were free-for-all events
pitting motorcycles and cars
racing at the same time around
the ovals.
By the time he was 21, Ben-
nett was well established as one
of the leading dirt-track racers in
Kansas. In 1912, he saw his first
board-track race in Denver. At
first, he was intimidated by the
speed and apparent danger of
the boards, but after a race, he
went to the pits and met a few of
the racers. They'd heard of Ben-
nett's dirt-track success and that
bolstered his confidence.
Later that day, there was a
race for single-cylinder ma-
chines. Bennett asked if it was
too late to enter. The promoter
gladly let him in the race, intro-
ducing him as the Champion of
Kansas.
"Even though I'd been in
hundreds of motorcycle races
by then, I felt odd jumping into
my first board-track race without
even as much as a lap of prac-
tice," Bennett said. "I managed
to win the race, but later real-
ized how lucky I was to survive
unscathed after riding with no
training or experience. I saw
many a good boy killed in that
same way."
In the winter of 1912, Bennett
traveled to Los Angeles to com-
pete on the lucrative board-track
circuit. From 1912 to the outbreak
of World War I, Bennett traveled
the country racing board-track
events and making as much
as $200 to $300 per week, a
princely sum in those days.
In 1914, he signed with Excel-
sior. Like many riders of the day,
Bennett found it difficult to hold
on to the money he earned. He
put it in polite terms in a 1921
interview: "I made good money
Wells Bennett
