Ray Seymour, the California Wonder onboard his Thor twin at the Agriculture Park dirt track in Los Angeles, 1908
Part I: The California Wonder
For too long, the life and accomplishments of Ray Seymour, one of America’s most successful pioneer motorcycle racers, have gone unacknowledged. Like so much of the remarkable history of American motorcycle racing, Seymour’s story has largely been lost over time. Perhaps it is because of his steady and reserved personality compared to his more bombastic and temperamental contemporaries like Jacob DeRosier or Charlie Balke. Maybe his avoidance of tragedies like those that cut short the lives of countless young racers, like his close friend and teammate Eddie Hasha, shielded him from a similar infamy. Unlike later generations of professional racers like Jim Davis and Joe Petrali, Seymour was among the first class of motorcycle racers, long since out of the game by the time the sport reached its height. Still, he was in his prime at the height of the infamous age of board track motordromes and excelled because of his skill, athleticism, and temperament, outliving many of his pioneering friends and conquering nearly every podium and record of his time. Nevertheless, Ray Seymour, the quintessential Californian with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and sun-kissed skin, was once crowned the world’s champion, the fastest man on two wheels and he remains a true American icon.
Born on July 11, 1891, Raymond Earl Seymour grew up in San Francisco, “the Paris of the West,” during a time of rapid urbanization, but his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was still young. The oldest of four siblings, Ray was only 15 when his father, Percival, died suddenly of a stroke, leaving the teenager to assume responsibility for his family. He took work as a lithographer, but like so many young men in the LA area, bicycle racing was an exciting way to earn a bit of extra cash on the side. Seymour quickly built a reputation as a talented wheelman and was a frequent hang-around at the city’s active Agriculture Park track. There, the teenaged Seymour joined other fearless young cyclists in making the natural transition into racing motorcycles, what were then some of the first in the area. As early as 1906, Seymour began running against other local pioneers at Agriculture Park, like Charlie Balke, Paul Derkum, Morty Graves, and Will Risden, becoming a part of the first generation of motorcycle racers in the world.
The freckle-faced youngster became a staple at Agriculture Park, stretching his reputation across the tracks of Southern California and earning the nickname of the “California Wonder.” By the summer of 1908, the local Thor distributor took note of Seymour’s growing notoriety and arranged for him to ride a powerful stripped-stock Thor V-twin in hopes of drumming up sales. The plan worked as Seymour jockeyed his new Thor twin to a world speed record for 5 miles on the boards of the bicycle velodrome at Seal Gardens, filling the papers with his accomplishment. He then set another speed record at Agriculture Park in September, by which point a career racing motorcycles emerged. His natural riding skill helped land a deal to ride exclusively for Reading Standard, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer looking to edge in on Indian’s domination through a strong presence in the increasingly popular sport of racing.
Los Angeles had quickly grown into the epicenter for American motorcycle racing, and the young men who helped form the sport at Agriculture Park were now sponsored riders for brands like Indian, Thor, Excelsior, NSU, and Merkel. At that same moment, famed bicycle champion, track builder, and racing promoter Jack Prince resolved to try a new experiment, building off the success of his wooden bicycle velodromes to a scale more appropriate for motorcycles. The Los Angeles Coliseum was a 2/7th-mile banked oval constructed of wooden timbers similar to his earlier bicycle tracks. However, the motorcycles added an exhilarating new component and racing at the Coliseum quickly captivated the country with the spectacle of unrestricted speed. Seymour was there from the beginning and, in July 1909, set a new 1-mile record, hitting 76.6 mph on the timber strips of the LA Coliseum.
Motorcycling, and more specifically, motorcycle racing was gaining significant ground in America, but already the 17-year-old Ray Seymour had made a name for himself as one of the fastest, most naturally gifted riders in the country. He had conquered the various venues around California, including Prince’s sensational new motordrome, but it was time to take the show on the road. A star on the rise, Ray Seymour, “the California Wonder,” loaded up his Reading Standard twin and headed east, bound for yet another new type of track just breaking ground in Indiana.