Laconia
LACONIA
BOYD REYNOLDS
BEFORE THE RACE, a rider busies himself in the pits, caught up in a personal rhythm that tolerates no break. Unsmiling, he chats with friends or checks his mount over and over, finding small adjustments to make.
His motorcycle stands before him, each bolt, each instrument, intended for one purpose; speed. The rider too, is designed for speed, but being a man and not an inanimate object, he cannot stand placid and calm, waiting. He is alert, intent, his mind searching for thoughts of past races and of the uncertainty of what is to come.
At the steward’s command, his mechanic removes the stand and pushes his twowheeled speedster slowly away. Donning his jacket and vest he walks toward the line, puts on his helmet and sits quietly on his bike as the final minutes tick away.
In a few minutes the 100 Mile National Championship Road Race at Belknap Mountain Recreation Area near Laconia, New Hampshire will start. Several bikes are pushed to the front line. These favored positions were earned by the fastest time trial qualifiers of all 38 riders entered.
Five broke the existing track record. On the pole, Jim Koplinski (55:87 sec.) straddles his Triumph and cleans his plastic goggles. They were spotless before; they are spotless now. George Roeder (55:90 sec.) scans the competition on each side of his Harley-Davidson. The “Flying M” (the Matchless emblem) is pushed into position. For Dick Mann (55:90 sec.), a quiet redheaded Californian, it is time to go to work. Harley-Davidson mounted Roger Reiman (55:96 sec.) completes the record breakers champing on the line.
With his right hand, Daytona “200” winner Don Burnett jabs the throttle, working the revolutions up to the necessary level. Veteran Ohio rider, Dick Klamfoth, pulls in the clutch and thumps first gear into home position.
Dick Mann selects first gear and stares at starter Ray Patenaude, not even daring to blink. At the instant the flag falls, Mann engages the clutch and, simultaneously, opens the throttle. His motor erupts with a tortured, frenzied whine. The rear wheel spins furiously as the exhaust barks blue smoke.
He is off, roaring past the pits, shifting into second — other riders jump ahead — then shifting into third, every motion automatic. Cut for the inside — too slow — eight other riders got there first. Up the hill at just under 100 miles an hour. Down the back stretch, Jim Koplinski wraps the Triumph tight and shuts off for the hairpin turn. On this turn many riders have fallen, their hopes crushed in an instant. Jim does not hear noises behind him, but he feels the engine’s vibrations and sees the tachometer needle pass the red line. He is through the curves, leading the race down the hill — concentrating hard. He is in his element — can he stay there?
Checker’s turn coming up. Tires are screaming, melting the macadam surface. He is down into third, second, now he is at the turn; coming out he looks back quickly. He is staring into the face of Ralph White who is almost upon him and Reiman is beside him. Behind he sees bobbing, weaving riders across the turn. Next time around the “Flying M” moves from ninth to sixth and to fourth on the following lap. Klamfoth drops from fifth to eighth and Reiman goes from third to fourth to eighth by lap ten. Mann squeaks by White and thunders up on Koplinski. He makes a bid for first, but the Triumph rider isn’t going to give up and the try is unsuccessful. With the throttle wide open Jim stubbornly fights off the faster rider again and again. In the corner where the man, not the machine is the paramount factor, he holds a slight edge, but on the straight his spine must tingle, the big G-50 gets so close.
In the 11th lap, the Milwaukee rider starts his downward trend to a mean, sliding spill at the top of the hill on the 38th lap which sidelined him until the 51st lap.
Unchallenged Dick Mann went into the lead, never to be topped again for 88 laps. Winner in 1960 and second place finisher in 1958, Mann built up such a pace that young Jody Nicholas said he passed him like he was hooked to a tree.
Dick continued to pour the coal on as he wove in and out, sailing easily around riders in his quest for the checker. He lapped Klamfoth, who was fifth at the time, on the 25th lap. Jody Nicholas got by Roger Reiman on lap ten and then passed Don Burnett on the 12th time around. They reversed their order on the 13th and back again on the 18th. Don finally headed Jody on the 29th lap and stayed ahead. Don then passed second place man Ralph White on the 45th lap to chase Mann who was almost a lap ahead.
The leader roared on to lap Reiman on the 40th lap, Nicholas on the 47th lap, White on the 59th lap and the second place man, Burnett, on lap 66. He then increased his pace and lapped Reiman for the second time on lap 73, Nicholas on lap 77 and White on lap 90. He was only nine riders away from lapping Burnett for the second time at the finsh.
The El Sobrante, Californian covered the 100 miles in 1 hour, 36 minutes, 15:12 seconds for an average speed of 62:33 mph.
50 MILE AMATEUR: A field of 43 eager amateurs were on the line at 1:00 p.m. awaiting the flag to start 50 laps around the New Hampshire mountain circuit. This was truly a race to the flag as pole position rider Larry Martin of Kenosha, Wisconsin (H-D) finished only scant feet ahead of Pennsylvanian William Burkholder (BSA). Martin led all but 10 laps from the start and Burkholder was close by most of the time. James Varnes had a momentary rise to glory, though; he came from 5th place in the first lap to lead from lap 8 to 18 before going by the wayside on lap 24.
Third place rider Don Shiftlett (H-D) was in third position at the end of lap one and was passed by Varnes and Wally Brown (BSA) on lap 2 and by Bud Stubbs (H-D) on lap 4. Varnes dropped out as did Brown in lap 30 with Shiftlett then right behind him. He repassed Stubbs on lap 15 and merely had to keep going to capture a place in the money.
Burkholder made a last ditch effort to catch Martin in the final 2000 feet of the race and came a wheel length from succeeding. Had he been able to get inside Martin on the last turn he could have won, but although he was going faster, riding the outside of the turn proved a little too much.
35 MILE NOVICE: The largest entry of Novices ever to gather at Laconia put on a sparkling show Saturday. With the advent of lightweight racing, more riders have been introduced to road racing and several past lightweight winners were out in the Novice ranks at Belknap this year.
Four qualifying heats were run, each with over twenty riders. Following these came two semi-finals. Howard Utsey, Denver, Colorado, BSA rider captured the first one and lightweight star Tony Woodman of Far Hills, New Jersey won the second on a Matchless.
Heat winner and second place man behind Woodman went on to win the 35 mile final. James McMurren (H-D) of Nestor, California placed ahead of Bill Lloyd (Tri.) of Langley Park, Maryland who was also a heat winner and took second behind Utsey in the semi-final. Third was Mike Moran, Jr. (BSA) of Windsor, Connecticut who took a second in the heats and third in the semi-finals.
Thursday’s and Friday’s Lightweight Races put on almost as thrilling a show as did Sunday’s feature. The main difference was that spectators were rather limited even though the show was free.
Experts Cliff Guild and Tony Woodman were the feature winners on Triumph and Parilia. The Volkmar boys were there again to show the youngsters true professional riding style and some real red hot Harley-Davidson 165’s. Don Kiger put his Triumph into the Class 4 winner’s circle following Dennis Kane (Zundapp), the Class 3 winner. In the little cc classes, it seems that Montesa was a unanimous winner — and where were the Honda’s? Novice winner James McMurren also rode in the lightweights and from here he got his winning style on a Motobi.
Times turned by these little engines are something to make one wonder, especially if you can remember the first two-stroke lightweights. Tony Woodman turned the mountain circuit at an average of 57 mph, only 2.47 mph slower than the (at that time) existing track record set by Joe Leonard in 1961. This is rather remarkable considering that Woodman’s Parilia engine is less than half the size of the record holding motor.
As usual, the different distributors had the recreation building all decked out displaying their wares. Perhaps the most popular attraction, at least from a curiosity viewpoint, was the Ocelot motorcycle.
“Babe” Ames and Frank Theim had their two McCulloch-engined scramblers polished to a high luster and they beamed just as brightly before a barrage of questions.
Laconia has always been designed more for the motorcycle enthusiast than the motorcycle spectator. This is evident in thé planned program of games, contests and functions designed for the average road rider. Marva Van Dyke of Pompton Lakes, New Jersey was chosen National Tour Queen and popular Bunny Wrin of Worcester, Massachusets, Miss New England Tour Queen, In the uniform club judging contest a local New Hampshire Club, The Merrimack Riders of Manchester, was awarded top honors for the third consecutive year.
Special nods of appreciation are dué Bill Scheitinger, tireless sparkplug of the sponsoring New England Motorcycle Dealers Association, and hard-working Fritzie Baer, who handled the publicity. In addition to nation-wide coverage of the event, Robin Still added an International flavor with his British Broadcasting System movie camera, as did Annie Thinesse, representing a widely-read French newspaper, Le Figaro.
Following Saturday’s racing events, a field meet was held which went on until 9:00 p.m. officially, and 6:00 a.m. unofficially. Drag racing, barrel rolling, plank riding, and a twist contest or two, for the young in spirit, completed the greatest Laconia event of all time. •
