The Man In Black
THE MAN IN BLACK
Dale Earnhardt, one year after
BROCK YATES
AS WE WATCH THE LATE DALE Earnhardt ascend into the Elvisland of fable and legend, I keep trying to recall if the great race driver spent a whole lot of time on a motorcycle. I'm sure he owned some-no doubt Harleys, because he was an All-American kind of guy-but I tend to think of him more behind the wheel of a Chevy pickup with a gun rack than hauling ass on a big humper from Milwaukee.
But so what? If the Intimidator never got closer to a Harley-Davidson than a 15-speed mountain bike, it doesn’t make any difference. The connection is made. Dale Earnhardt was Harley-certified, whether he was a hard rider or not. He had Harley-Davidson written all over him; independent, tough, free-spirited, intense, loyal, rough-edged and on the loud side-especially when he was hammering his No. 3 Chevy around a racetrack at 200 per.
There has never been a death in motorsports that had the tragic impact of Earnhardt’s. He died in the presence of millions of his fans, both at Daytona and at home on television. He died at almost the same moment his son, the rising star Dale Jr., or “Little E,” was battling with friend and teammate Michael Waltrip for the Daytona 500 win. The moment will be riveted in the brains of stockcar fans forever; motor racing’s equivalent of the Kennedy assassination, the moon landing and September 11th.
Earnhardt Sr. had already achieved legendary status prior to his death. He was the last of the good ol’ boy stockcar drivers, carrying the torch of superstars like Richard Petty, Curtis Turner, Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, et al, who had risen out of the Piedmont Plateau to achieve greatness in high-speed fender-bashing duels across the South. Earnhardt held fast to the traditions as Yankee interlopers like Alan Kulwicki and Geoff Bodine, then Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart roared onto the hallowed turf. He drove with a relentless fury, giving no quarter and asking none, an attitude that transcended his beloved sport and represented a kind of redneck rebelliousness that fights for survival in an increasingly androgynous South.
Dale Earnhardt touched nerves across America. His "3"
can be seen on pickups in every corner of the nation and the Earnhardt souvenir industry booms a year after his passing. So why not a motorcycle to commemorate the man?
And if such a motorcycle were to be created, would it be a screaming café-racer? A haughty BMW? A tubby tourer with stereo? A small-displacement motocrosser? Not quite. If there were to be a Dale Earnhardt motorcycle, it would have to be a Harley-Davidson, a hammer-hard, Hell-fire Harley looking like it belongs in a police lineup rather than a bike-shop showroom. A badass motorcycle. In black. With a big No. 3 on the gas tank.
That is, in fact, what Paul Yaffe has designed. Low and lethal. Willie G. couldn’t have done it better himself. They talk about building only 333 of them (which may be stretching the symbolism a bit). It’ll be a single-seat chopper. No room for bitches on the back, because Earnhardt would have been a lone rider, the man who chose his own road, outside the Sunday charity rides, Sturgis blowouts and HOG picnics.
You may not be one of the chosen to actually own an Intimidator, but you’ll sure as hell have a shot at a scale model if Action Performance boss Fred Wagenhals has any say. He’s the guy who commissioned the machine in the first place and he’s the guy who’ll flood the nation with miniature versions available in every K-mart, Wal-Mart, toy store, mailorder catalogue, souvenir shop and stop-n-rob in the nation.
The Intimidator Harley-Davidson is sure to be a hit, now that its namesake has ascended to legendary status. All that awaits us now is a blaring headline in the Enquirer announcing that Earnhardt has been spotted outside a Krispy Kreme somewhere in South Carolina. Riding a jet-black Harley-Davidson, of course.
Brock Yates, longtime editor-at-large for Car and Driver magazine, is the author of Outlaw Machine: HarlevDavidson and the Search for the American Soul, currently available in hard-cover and paperback.
