11TH ANNUAL BARBER VINTAGE FESTIVAL
P108
might call it, shade-tree mechanic) Pete did
much of the work with tools he carries with him
in his van.
Hokenstad's Kawasaki Superbike photo-
graphs beautifully, but he warned me not to get
too close. "It's a little rough when you look at it
up close, but the black paint disguises all the
blemishes pretty well doesn't it?"
Keepers of the Harley Sprints
Your neck tends to get sore at an AHRMA event
from swiveling back and forth trying to take in all
the cool historic motorcycles, but even among a
sea of great machines, the bright red Harley-Da-
vidson Sprints campaigned by the Hollingsworth
Race Team stand out. It turns out that not only
do the beautiful Harley race bikes have a great
story, so does the Hollingsworth family.
For over 60 years the Hollingsworths owned
the Harley-Davidson dealership in St. Augustine,
Florida, and for decades it was an annual hang-
out for many racers and racing teams leading up
to Daytona Bike Week. All three Hollingsworth
brothers (older brother Al, and twins Dick and
Don) were successful racers. Al was AMA Nov-
ice Road Race National champion in 1964 and
Don did the same in 1968.
Don also has the distinction of being the last
rider on a Harley-Davidson 250 Sprint to win a
national-level road race against the rapidly ris-
ing two-stroke racing machines, primarily from
Japan. It happened at Loudon, N.H. in June of
1968. By then it was getting very tough for the
four-stroke Aermacchi-built Harley's to hold off
the speedier and ever more reliable Yamaha
TD-1Cs, but thanks to his brother Al's tuning, Don
had a strong Sprint that ran nearly on equal foot-
ing with the Yamahas.
The tight and twisty Loudon circuit was the
perfect track for the precision handling Sprint
and even then Hollingsworth needed a little help
to be the last Harley 250 Sprint rider to beat the
two-strokes.
"A lot of those guys on the Yamaha crashed
or broke and my little old Sprint kept going and I
1 For his lifetime of achievement in vintage racing Dave
Roper was presented a painting by artist Gregg Bonelli.
2 The wife of the late John Britten, Kirsteen Britten,
and her family were on hand at the Vintage Festival to
celebrate the life of her husband and the beloved racing
motorcycle he created.
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