Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 8, 2015 P83 "A young Italian engineer came up with a cam and my brother Al came up with a way to make the 38mm carburetor work on the Sprint. Dick O'Brien sent us that carb from the factory and told us that if we were going to have any chance to beat the two-cycles that we'd have to use that carb and my brother tinkered with it and the rest is history." Al Hollingsworth was the secret ingredient that Don had in his corner. Al had been a national novice champ in '64 and he had years of experi- ence with the Sprints. Interestingly he claims the particular bike that Don got his hands on from the Harley-Davidson factory was "immaculate," but the fact remains that having Al building his Sprint was one of the key ingredients to Don's success. Al shrugs at the thought he was such an impor- tant element. "If you do your homework and put in the hours every now and then it'll pay off," Al grins. At Daytona in March of '68, Hollingsworth sur- prised everyone by outdueling Louisianan David Townsley and his Yamaha to take the victory in the novice 80-miler. Townsley had a top-speed advantage, but Hollingsworth was able to gain an advantage on the tighter infield road course sec- tion using the broader powerband of the Harley to maximum effect. In the end the battle between the two pushed Hollingsworth to a new race record of 92.982 mph, bettering the mark of Walt Fulton set a couple of years earlier on a Suzuki. Then at Loudon, Hollingsworth again over- came the Yamahas of Doug Libby and Conrad Urbanowski to score the final road race victory for the 250cc Sprint. An illustration of how domi- nant the Yamaha was at that point showed in the Loudon results in which eight of the top-10 finish- ers were on Yamaha 250s. "I remember the rear suspension was a little too soft," Hollingsworth says of his bike in the '68 Loudon race. "I would go into the high-speed corners and the rear wheel would hop. A num- ber of lads on the Yamahas were getting through the corners quicker than I could, but the little ol' Sprint kept going and those guys crashed out and I ended up being the winner." Amazingly Al had the motor tuned and bal- anced so perfectly that Don could spin the little single-cylinder Sprint all the way up to 11,000 rpm—a remarkable feat for the late 1960s. It took running that motor up to such speeds to com- pete with the two-stroke twins, but it came at a cost. "We'd have to put a new lower end unit in every third or fourth race," Hollingsworth smiles. "That little engine was capable of 140 miles per hour and it really did an amazing job for its time." After his historic run in 1968 Hollingsworth was called to serve his country during Vietnam and was in the Air Force for four years. "By the time I came back Harley didn't really have anything that was competitive to run in road racing," said Hollingsworth, whose family owned a Harley-Davidson dealership in St. Augustine, Florida. "And we were primarily interested in rac- ing for advertising our dealership." So the Hollingsworth Sprint sat dormant in the shop for years until vintage racing emerged, giving the Hollingsworth brothers all the excuse they needed to get the machine going again. To- day in select vintage meets Don races the very same Sprint he won Loudon on in 1968 and it's still Al prepping the bike. At the Barber vintage Festival this fall fans walked by and often stopped to admire the beau- ty and craftsmanship of Don's Harley-Davidson 250 Sprint. It's likely that few knew the legacy of one of the most important Harley Sprints still in existence today. CN WINNER Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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