Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 27 JULY 8, 2014 P131 Belmont, California. In his first full season at Bel- mont he finished second in the points to Shorty Tompkins. His short track racing success got Headrick noticed. His big opportunity came when Tom Sift- on asked him to race for him for the 1950 season. Another one of Sifton's riders, Al Rudy, had been severely injured in a street accident. Ironically, a year later it would be Headrick himself who was forced to retire after a street accident. One of the first big races of the season was the AMA national on the Bay Meadows mile in San Mateo, California. Headrick found himself on a great bike, yet no one expected him to be a con- tender against the star-studded field that included riders such as Floyd Emde, Paul Goldsmith, three- time national champ Jimmy Chann and others. "There hadn't been an AMA National in Califor- nia for a couple of years before the race at Bay Meadows," Headrick recalls. "Everyone was re- ally geared up for that race. A lot of the riders from back East showed up and of course all the best West Coast riders. It was the first mile track I had ever raced, but that wasn't unusual in California back then. We mainly raced on half-miles and short tracks." Headrick started on the front row, but got off to a poor start. As the race progressed, Headrick began making his way through the field. On the final lap, the race came down to a two-way battle between Headrick and Paul Albrecht. Headrick caught a perfect drive out of the final turn and forged ahead to the checkered flag beating Al- brecht by two bike lengths. Headrick's victory was a surprise to say the least. It was Headrick's first national win, but the season was just beginning. A few weeks after his Bay Meadows victory, Headrick won a Pacific Coast race in Portland. It was at that point that Sifton made the decision to have Headrick go East and race for the national title at Springfield. Headrick loaded up with Ken- ny Eggers and Bob Chaves and headed cross- country for Springfield. Despite his Bay Meadows victory two months earlier, Headrick was still a long shot at winning the number-one plate. At Springfield, Paul Gold- smith took the early lead in the 25-mile final on the factory Harley with Headrick closely follow- ing. At one point, Headrick said that Goldsmith tried to shake him off by intentionally running the high groove and pelting him with a thick rooster- tail of dirt. Then Goldsmith's bike broke an axle and Headrick found himself in the lead. Head- rick faced one more challenge when Bobby Hill came past and put his Indian into the lead. Late in the race, Hill's bike began to slow and Head- rick slipped by to earn the win and with it the 1950 AMA National Championship. Headrick not only became the first West Coast rider to win the Springfield Mile, he was very likely the rider with the least experience to ever win the national championship title. A week later, Headrick proved his Springfield Mile win was no fluke when he came out on top again at the Milwaukee Mile. Headrick had practi- cally come out of nowhere to win three of the big- gest races of the year. It is one of the great stories of "overnight success" in AMA racing history. Headrick's chance of winning the only other mile on the schedule late that year in Lang- horne, Pennsylvania, was thwarted when his wife, Dorothy, had an illness back in San Jose, forcing him to return to California. Unfortunately, a few months later, Headrick was involved in the street accident and at 30 years old with a bad leg and four children to feed, Headrick decided to give up racing. Headrick faded into history, but will always be remembered for that one shining season in 1950 when he was the best rider in the country. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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