Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE H e's long forgotten by now, but a good case could be made for Joe Petrali being one of the true candidates when discuss- ing the great American motorcycle racers of all time. He was certainly the most versatile and winning racer of his era, which spanned the mid-1920s to the mid-'30s. How good was Petrali? Consider this— he was one of the last great Class A racing stars who competed in board track racing, dirt track, speed records and hillclimbs, won an amazing 49 AMA national championship races, a mark that would not be surpassed for 55 years, until 1992, when Scott Parker won his 50th AMA national. Petrali was born in San Francisco on February 22, 1904, although his birth certificate had been lost in the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Petrali grew up just blocks away from the state fairgrounds and the famous Sacramento Mile. Neighborhood kids would loosen up a few boards on the fence surrounding the mile oval when they knew a race was coming to town. Petrali loved to watch the Class A stars of the 1910s. As soon as someone would hire him, Petrali was eager to work around motorcycles. He found a summer job as a parts washer in a local Sac- ramento motorcycle shop owned by Archie Rife. There, Petrali began learning the mechanical skills that would ultimately earn him a good living for the rest of his life. At the age of 13, Petrali saved enough money to buy his first bike, a four-year-old 30.50-inch (500cc) Indian Standard for which he paid $35. His first taste of competition came a year later when the 14-year-old entered an economy run put on at the fairgrounds by the local motorcycle club. His big break came in 1921. A Pacific Coast championship race was held in Fresno, California. Shrimp Burns had tragically died at a race in Toledo, Ohio, the week before and Indian agreed to let Petrali have a tryout on a machine that was being prepped in California for Burns, since the bike would have gone unused otherwise. Petrali, who was just 17 at the time, fudged on his age and entered the race, which featured all of the top stars of the day. Never short on confidence, Petrali was not awed by his competition and fully expected to win his first big event. He nearly did. The Fresno race did not prove to be the breakthrough Petrali had hoped for. He contin- ued struggling along for another couple of years, suffering a spate of bad luck along the way. His luck finally took a turn for the better on July 4, 1925 in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Altoona's mile-plus-long board track was the site of that SMOKIN' JOE P92

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