CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
I
t's very rare in motorcycle racing where a tuner
is so good that he gains a reputation as building
racing machines better than the factories. The
legendary tuner Tom Sifton was one such tuner.
Sifton was one of the most remarkable engine
builders in the history of motorcycle racing in the
U.S. Sifton-tuned engines powered numerous rid-
ers to victory in AMA nationals from the mid-1930s
to the early 1970s. His deigns were so innovative
that they were copied by factory teams and later
issued as standard racing modification parts by
those factories. Some of the top riders who rode
for Sifton included fellow Motorcycle Hall of Fame
members Sam Arena, Kenny Eggers, Larry Head-
rick and Joe Leonard. Sifton also
owned a motorcycle dealership
in San Jose, California, and later
ran a successful finance busi-
ness and a performance parts
business.
Born John Thomas Clifford
Sifton on September 11, 1903 in
Ebenezer, New York, Sifton grew
up on a farm and rode a pony to
school every day as a youngster. He and his sis-
ter moved from New York to San Francisco with
their father after their mother tragically died.
At the age of 16, Sifton entered a night trade
school and learned to be a tool maker. His first
job was repairing typewriters and he later took
a job at Dud Perkins Harley-Davidson in San
Francisco. Sifton began racing in the mid-1920s
and became one of the top hillclimb racers on
the West Coast. By 1929, the hard-working
Sifton was given the chance to run a subsidiary
dealership for Perkins and in 1933 he opened
his own Sifton's Harley-Davidson in San Jose.
The country was in the middle of the Depression
when Sifton opened his dealership. Sales to the
Better Than Factory
P122
(Left) A young
Tom Sifton.
Photography
courtesy The
Don Emde
Collection.
(Above) Sifton
(in hat) with
racers Floyd
Emde and Joe
Leonard.
