VOL. 51 ISSUE 16 APRIL 22, 2014 P133
to head south on a long "straightaway" (which had
a couple of jogs in it) parallel to the Pacific Coast
Highway (now Torrey Pines Boulevard). Today, that
straightaway is occupied by a small practice range,
parking lots, the Torrey Pines Lodge, a Hilton hotel
and many office buildings. The final loop crossed
somewhere along the ninth and 15th holes.
Motorcycle races began there at first as side-
shows of the club auto races, but by 1952 there
were stand-alone motorcycle races. Jimmy Phillips
was one of the top racers at Torrey Pines. He used
a Triumph Thunderbird to win the first big local mo-
torcycle event at the track and said with his gearing
(two-teeth over standard) he reached a top speed
of 113 mph. The Hi-Boots Motorcycle Club promot-
ed the races at Torrey Pines and garnered approval
from the community when it donated profits from its
first event to a Polio Charity.
By all reports it was one of the most scenic race
courses ever devised. Atop a wind-swept mesa,
highlighted by the jagged pines, overlooking the
Pacific, the imagination runs wild as to what the fa-
cility might have become had it survived as a road
race circuit.
But it was not to be. In 1955 the city of San Di-
ego announced it would convert the raceway into
a 36-hole golf course. The final motorcycle event
there was an AMA National on October 9, 1955.
It was won by local hero and expert rookie Brad
Andres over fellow Harley-Davidson riders Billy
Meier and John Gibson. Andres
was just 19 years old at the time
and clinched that year's AMA
Grand National Championship
with the victory.
Riders drew randomly for
starting position and Andres
unluckily drew a starting spot
on the final row of the 125-Mile
Road Race National. One of the
pre-race favorites Ed Kretz, was out before the
race began after suffering a hard crash in prac-
tice. Joe Leonard, another San Diego native,
took the early lead on his Harley-Davidson, but
troubles during a pit stop dropped Leonard from
the leaderboard.
Andres' pit stop, orchestrated by his famous
mechanic father Leonard, was the fastest of the
race and helped him move to the front of the
field. After taking the lead about halfway through
the race Andres never lost it. In the closing laps
Meier pulled out all the stops in an effort to catch
Andres. Meier was running a pace two-seconds a
lap faster than Andres. Andres' dad held out a pit
board with two laps to go that simply read: "Go!"
The fans crowded the border of the track to catch
a glimpse of the closing battle as Andres man-
aged to just hold off Meier by a couple of sec-
onds at the checkered flag.
It proved to be a red-letter day in the career of
Andres. He would go on to win many more Nation-
als in his career, but it was hard to beat winning the
National Championship at your home race and at a
setting as beautiful as Torrey Pines. CN
TORREY PINES – THE MOTORCYCLE ROAD RACE COURSE
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The top two
riders from the
1955 AMA Na-
tional at Torrey
Pines. Billy Mei-
ers (24Y) with his
mother and Brad
Andres (11R) with
his parents.
