Return of the Wood Norton
RETURN OF THE WOOD NORTON
American Flyers
The only Commando ever to win a Half-Mile National has been rescued from the attic
WE’D LIKE TO TAKE most of the credit, but we can’t. The reason this piece of dirttrack history currently exists in this pristine, raceable form isn’t just because Cycle World ran an article on it last year. “No,” says owner Ron Wood, “the article inspired me, but it was more the people who’d ask, ‘Whatever happened to your Norton?’ I’d tell them it was in a box, and they’d ask, ‘Why don’t you put it back together?’ ” It was a good question, and this past fall and winter Wood set out to answer it. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. Wood runs an active racing shop, distributing Rotax single-cylinder race engines and parts, manufacturing dirt-track chassis and exhaust pipes for those engines, and selling hop-up parts for BMW Singles and Bombardier AT Vs powered by Rotax engines. That’s besides sponsoring WoodRotax bikes at dirt-tracks and roadraces, and it keeps him and his two employees very, very busy. So it was little surprise that the boxes-the ones containing the classic Wood Norton that had won so many races at Ascot Park-were buried deep in the attic.
But once Wood wrapped himself around the project, once the parts were cor-
ralled, once the dust was brushed aside, the task of putting the Norton back together
wasn’t entirely arduous. Its frame had only one race on a new coat of paint, and a thorough cleaning had it looking like new. Similarly, the gas tank-a modified aluminum Yamaha YZ part-had seen a fresh coat of Wood Red on it before being put away, and needed just pinstriping to be restored to original racing form. But the engine was more a challenge. The problem was simply in finding all of it. “Everything . in the engine , was custom made,” says Wood. “All the studs were changed for larger, stronger ones; the barrel was shortened by almost the thickness of the top fin; and 1 even had to ‘port’ the pushrod tunnels to make room for the more greatly angled pushrods.” And for awhile, he couldn’t find the cylinder head that he and C.R. Axtell had sweated over so many years ago. But a more thorough search finally produced a nondescript box hiding the custom racing head within. And so the engine began to go back together. “1 used to have every part in it magnafluxed or zygloed,” notes Wood, “and you could still see the dye stamps on most of the parts.”
Finally, only one thing was needed to complete the restoration: a rear Carlisle A RAX dirt-track tire. No other tire hooked up as well at Ascot, and it was the tire the Norton had worn the night it carried Rob Morrison to the national win. E3ut it had been a long time since you could buy one. “I couldn't find one anyplace,” says Wood, “so I put the word out among my customers. Finally, I was talking to (dirt-tracker) Donnie Estep’s father, and he had two of them in the attic.”
So the Norton now sits resplendently red and original, right down to its ARAX tire, its S&W shocks and its rear Preston Petty “Muder” fender. The gearing it carries is Ascot gearing.
“We’re ready to go,” says Wood, thinking about the racetrack that now exists only in memory, and the way the Norton lunged off the line and toward Turn 1. “We could still win Ascot with this thing.”
He looks at the tiny Norton fondly, sitting in a sheltered corner of his shop. “I don’t know what good it is,” he says, “but 1 just like to look at it.” Would he ever consider selling if? He thinks for a moment, shakes his head. “No, I don’t need the money.”
Steve Anderson
