Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/322929
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE M any longtime road-racing fans will remember "The Flying Pig Farmer" Dale Singleton, who famously held a baby pig in podium celebrations for the Daytona 200. Well it turns out old Dale wasn't the first rider who used a Piglet as a mascot. If you go back in the annals of motorcycle racing you'll find the rider who first made holding baby pigs at the winner's celebration famous was one factory Har- ley-Davidson racer, Ray Weishaar. Weishaar was one of the best-known and most popular motorcycle racing stars of the 1910s and 1920s. He rode the board and dirt tracks of the country on Harley-Da- vidsons and was a mem- ber of Harley-Davidson's original Wrecking Crew. Weishaar was not only one of the best racers in the country; he was in ad- dition a cheerful and respected team leader. Loved by fans and intensely loyal to Harley-Davidson, Weishaar gave the Milwaukee brand a face to its racing team in the teens and early 1920s. Born Lawrence Ray Weishaar on September 9, 1890 in Oklahoma, he grew up in Wichita, Kansas. When he was 9, his father died leaving the Weishaar family in financial peril. Weishaar had to go to work to help the family. In his late teens, Weishaar took a job with Bell Telephone and earned enough money to buy a motorcycle that, before the days of Ford's Model T, was the cheapest mode of transportation. It was as a teenager working for the phone company where Weishaar met Wells Bennett. The two would begin racing together and both would go on to fame in the sport. Racing on the half-mile county fair circuits of Kan- sas from 1908 to 1910, Weishaar was dubbed the "Kansas Cyclone." He earned the Kansas State Championship two years in a row. The second year, one side of his bike's handlebar broke off and he was still able to win the race, although it was duly noted that he didn't break his previous year's re- cord. Weishaar's performances on the Kansas Coun- try Fair circuit built a legacy that made those races legendary and would help provide good money for generations of riders in between the National events. By 1914, Weishaar began racing on the National circuit. His first big event was the National in Sa- vannah, Georgia. He ran with the leaders, but on the 24th lap his gas tank developed a leak and he was forced to retire from the race. A faulty spark plug fouled his chances at the 1915 Dodge City 300. That same year he won a 300-mile race at the Chicago Speedway and a 100-miler in Pratt, Kansas. Weishaar became part of the Harley-Davidson factory team in 1916. He finished third at Dodge City that year on what was advertised as a stock machine. His first big breakthrough win was at the FAM 100-Mile Championship in Detroit. Also that year he was offered a Harley-Davidson dealer- THE SHOWMAN P116 Ray Weishaar (second rider from the right) was part of Harley-Davidson's famous Wrecking Crew shown here in 1919.