Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 19, 2014 P133 in motorcycling. At the age of 14, young Jimmy be- gan taking occasional rides on his older brother's Indian Scout. By the time he was 19, Chann be- gan entering his first races. Steve and Jimmy took up Class A short-track racing in the 1930s. Jimmy began to make a name for himself on the tracks of New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., and eastern Pennsylvania, and by the late-1930s he was starting to race professionally. The 1940 season was the first big year for Chann on the AMA Class C circuit. He traveled west and raced in the Oakland (California) 200 where he finished a respectable 13th, even though his bike experienced mechanical problems. Back East, Chann really caught the attention of the rac- ing world when he finished second in the popular Langhorne (Pennsylvania) 100. Just when Chann's career was beginning to take off, World War II put a hold on his and hun- dreds of other racers' careers across the country. Chann went to work in the shipyards during the war, a trade he would come back to after his rac- ing years. After the war, Chann immediately became one of the country's top racers. He won his first Na- tional, the Springfield Mile, in 1947. The Spring- field win gave Chann the coveted AMA number- one plate. Chann would stubbornly hold on to that plate for three years in a row by winning Spring- field two more times. Chann had a dream season in 1949. He start- ed out the season as runner-up at the Five-Mile National held in Troy, Ohio. He matched that fin- ish again in Atlanta at the 10-Mile Championship. Then he put together a three-race National win streak starting at Springfield, continuing on the Milwaukee Mile and culminating with a victory at Langhorne. With his 1949 Springfield victory, Chann became the first rider to win that event three times. In recognition of his incredible sea- son in 1949, Chann was honored with the AMA Most Popular Rider of the Year Award. Chann called winning that award the high point of his racing career. Chann, who at the time worked at a Harley- Davidson dealership owned by his brother, took on much of Harley's research and development on the racetrack during the early 1950s. Being a tester for new parts had its advantages and dis- advantages. At times, Chan would have a new engine part that would make his bike the fastest in the field. On the other hand, sometimes new parts still needed further development work, and as a result, reliability of his racing mounts often suffered. One of the most famous near-wins for Chann came during the 1950 Langhorne 100. Late in the race, Chann had a comfortable lead on the rest of the field. In fact, with the exception of second-place Billy Huber, who was on the lead lap, Chann had a two-lap lead on the field. With just eight laps to go in the race, Chann's Harley- Davidson broke a chain. He was able to roll into the pits for a new chain and still finish third. Early in the 1953 Daytona 200, Chann was running at top speed down the paved side of the beach-road course. Ahead, a spectator started to cross the track. A fellow racer hit the spectator and Chann swerved to avoid the two, crashing to the pavement hard. He was critically injured. While Chann eventually made a full recovery, he would never race seriously again. He left the motorcycle business and took a position at the shipyards building submarines. He and his wife, Elaine, had two boys. Chann will always be remembered as a heady rider of considerable talent. His three consecu- tive victories at the Springfield Mile will go down in history as one of the great accomplishments in AMA Class C racing history. Chann was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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