VOL. 51 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 28, 2014
first known as Sonicweld then later marketed under the Trackmaster brand.
Perhaps even more importantly to the sport
Keen was a fierce advocate for rider safety. Coming up in an era when serious racing injuries and
deaths were considered part of the landscape,
Keen, as an official representative of professional
racers in the AMA Competition Congress, pushed
for safety measures, many of which were adopted
by the AMA and helped greatly improve the safety
of the sport.
Keen was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of
Fame in 2000.
According to his daughter Helen, Keen was set
to attend what his friends called his fifth annual
75th birthday party this past weekend in St. Louis,
when he fell ill and checked into St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake St. Louis, Missouri, and died
there Saturday morning (January 25).
In 1950, Keen bought a Harley-Davidson 125
and his competitive career began that same year
at a paved local stock car track called Peach Bowl
Speedway. "I was 16 – I was supposed to be 18
-- and I won the first race I ever entered, beating
older guys on big Harleys and Nortons," Keen recalls. Modestly, Keen attributes the victory only
partially to his riding ability.
"The little two-stroke was more suitable for the
track than the bigger machines," he says. But the
experience was enough to convince him that racing was something he wanted to do. In 1953, Keen
and a couple of friends headed out for California
in a new Ford convertible with a dismantled BSA
Gold Star flattracker in the trunk.
His first race in California was at Willow Springs
in 1954. He steadily progressed through the ranks
and also became known as one of the best upand-coming young tuners when he began building motors for West Coast racing legend George
Everett. But Everett was killed in 1959, a tragedy
which, oddly, turned Keen into a dedicated, fulltime professional racer.
"Jimmy Phillips became my mentor and taught
me how to race."
P23
Briefly...
AIMExpo Goes Four
Marketplace Events Motorcycle Group, the producer of the American
International
Motorcycle Expo (AIMExpo),
has announced the 2014
show will be a four-day
event held, October 1619, down from last year's
five-day event.
Champions Back On
The Yamaha Champions
Riding School (YCRS)
is back in business, according to Yamaha. The
school will work in conjunction with the New Jersey Motorsports Park in
Millville, New Jersey, with
lead instructors Nick Ienatsch and Ken Hill along
with Scott Russell and
Larry Pegram. For more
visit www.ridelikeachampion.com.
Energy For
Hayden And Co.
The Aspar Honda team
that Nicky Hayden will
ride for in the 2014 MotoGP World Championship will be sponsored by
Malaysian energy drink
Drive M7, according to
the team. The drink has
been selling in Malaysia
since 2011, but will now
expand to the Asian, European and North American
markets.
Signing At Malcolm's
A majority of the factory
Supercross riders will be
signing autographs at Malcolm Smith Motorsports
in Riverside, California,
on January 31 from 5 to 7
p.m.. Among those schedule to appear are Ryan
Villopoto, Ryan Dungey,
Jake Weimer, Davi Milsaps,
Jason Anderson, Ivan Tedesco, Andrew Short, Matt
Goerke, Zach Osborne,
Blake Baggett, Josh Hill,
Dean Wilson, Eli Tomac,
Wil Hahn, Josh Grant, Ken
Roczen… and many others.
Meen And
MotoSport.com
Meen Motorsports has
announced that they have
partnered with MotoSport.com for the upcoming 2014 AMA Pro Racing
Series. MotoSport.com
will be the title sponsor
of the team that features
Jake Lewis in the Daytona SportBike class.
Keen came into his own quickly on the fast surface of the legendary Ascot Park, winning the last
two races of the season in 1960. He continued that
success in 1961 by winning more than half the main
events of the 29-race season, riding Dennis Mahan's BSA. Keen was making a good living from the
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