Charlie Fearless Balke onboard a Indian Big Base 8-Valve at the Los Angeles Motordrome at playa Del Rey, 1913.
Did you mis Part I of the Archive Icon biography of Charlie Balke, check the Link Here.
Part II: The Speed Streak
Still a teenager in his first year of competition, Charlie Fearless Balke had experienced both the thrill of victory and the tragic potential of the perilous sport. His reputation at Agriculture Park had been firmly established. Even though the sport had only begun to take shape, the money he earned justified leaving his job at the Diamond Rubber Company to pursue life as one of America's original speed kings. Agriculture Park soon became a hotbed for racing in its earliest days, and riders across the country came to Los Angeles to compete. Charlie Balke, the scrappy and diminutive local sensation, was the man to beat.
In February 1909, one of the new faces appearing in L.A. was America's first professional racer, Jacob DeRosier. A native of Quebec, the seasoned and talented DeRosier came to L.A. to make his presence known and drum up some publicity for his sponsor, Indian Motocycles. As a veteran bicycle racer, DeRosier was no stranger to the board track velodromes of cycling's heyday, having begun his racing career at 17 years old in 1897. The progenitor of the motorcycle itself, Henri Fournier, first introduced the motorized bicycle to DeRosier the following year in 1898, hiring the young Canadian to pace his cycle races onboard one of his motorized pacing machines. Soon, DeRosier would mount the new motor pacers to become one of the first to enter into motor-cycle exhibition matches at the more prominent bicycle races.
DeRosier's reputation for being one rugged and quick bastard, coupled with the novelty of the early motor-pacers captured the attention of America's early motorcycle pioneers, including fellow cycling champion and co-founder of Indian Motocycles Carl Oscar Hedstrom. He took a position as one of the first employees at Indian and became a champion for the marque as the machines, and subsequently, the sport took shape. The new century brought a flurry of development in motorcycling, with dozens of manufacturers springing out of the bicycling industry with more consumer-friendly, road-going motorcycles. The culture caught on like wildfire, with Indian and its star rider DeRosier at the forefront. Amid the buzzing new motorcycle culture in those first years came another big idea from another cycling icon, the prolific velodrome builder and race promoter Jack Prince.
Prince, a former high-wheel bicycle champion in England, helped shape the cycling craze in America from the start. With the increased popularity and capability of road-going motorcycles came a need for a proper venue, as the cycling velodromes were too small to accommodate such speed. In 1908, just outside Paterson, New Jersey, Prince constructed a larger version of his wooden velodrome tracks at Clifton to test the waters of motorcycle competition. Always the avid supporter of a good race, Hedstrom sent Springfield's best to Clifton, but it was DeRosier who took to the boards and demolished the standing motorcycle speed records. Prince's idea to enlarge the older wooden velodrome tracks to accommodate motorcycles was a sensation. The track at Clifton was a proof of concept but needed to be bigger for serious motorcycle competition, and the northeast climate abbreviated any potential racing season. Prince ventured to fair-weathered Los Angeles in late 1908 to build his next iteration of a board track motordrome, and Indian's Jacob DeRosier wasn't far behind.
Meanwhile, Charlie Balke had been leveling the competition in Los Angeles, running for Merkel and Thor and chalking up win after win. Young and hungry, Charlie was ready and waiting to greet Prince, DeRosier, and Indian once they arrived in L.A. In February, just a few blocks south of Agriculture Park, Prince broke ground on his first real motorcycle board track, The Los Angeles Coliseum at 63rd and Main. The oval-shaped track measured 2/7ths of a mile long, about 3.5 laps a mile, with corners banked at 45 degrees and relatively short, flat straights. On March 14th, 1909, motorcyclists lined up for the first time on an American motordrome. Indian's Jacob DeRosier led the professional pack at record speeds of just over 80 M.P.H. The young Charlie Balke mounted on a Thor, took command of the amateur class. Charlie took to the boards as naturally as he had to the dirt at Agriculture Park, splitting the day's amateur records with Indian's young Fred Huyck and retaining his positions as a local favorite for his scrappy determination. Charlie’s name was now filling pages in the national press alongside DeRosier, the most famous of the pioneer motorcycle racers. As the 1909 season continued in Los Angeles, Charlie Fearless Balke had proven that he deserved his place at the top of the ranks.
With the L.A. Coliseum, Prince's new motordrome concept had proven its potential, and for the next five years, he would crisscross the country erecting the famed wooden saucers at a terrific pace. Still, a handful of pioneering entrepreneurs had ideas of their own regarding the ideal racing venue. In Atlanta, Coca-Cola's Asa Candler constructed a massive 2-mile speedway to host automobile and motorcycle competitions, motivated in part by a similar track built in Indiana by another titan of American industry. Hailing from Indianapolis, Carl Fisher broke ground on a 2.5-mile oval known the world over as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Unlike Candler's Atlanta Speedway, which was surfaced in red Georgia clay, Fisher's track was first surfaced in an early version of asphalt, a combination of crushed gravel, limestone, and tar. To open his venue, Fisher invited the best motorcycle racers in the country to compete, and as his name was now on that list, Charlie Balke boarded a train to race for the first time outside of L.A.
The inaugural race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway brought the nation's elite pioneer motorcycle racers to the massive new track. Indian's stable of riders was by far the most expansive, led, of course, by Jacob DeRosier. He was joined by northeastern veterans Walter George and Arthur Chapple, the young L.A. amateurs Freddy Huyck and Morty Graves, and a pre-cannonball Erwin Baker. Also from Los Angeles were Ray Seymour, still running for Reading-Standard, and Eddie Lingenfelder, an N.S.U. rider who had risen quickly, given his innate ability to beat-up on DeRosier at the L.A. Coliseum. Charlie Balke had teamed up with another northeastern pioneer and Indian alum, Stanley Kellogg, to run for Flying Merkel. The racing was far from ideal, and the early asphalt surface proved exceedingly dangerous. Many of the 100 entrants refused to run, and for those that did, Chapple, Huyck, and Lingenfelder came out on top. Balke's best result came in the 5-mile sprint, finishing second behind Huyck. As was often the case, Jacob DeRosier took a tremendous spill, tumbling across the rough track surface after hitting a pothole during the 10-mile dual with Lingenfelder, which had him in the hospital for 11 days. The event was a disaster for Fisher, prompting him to resurface the entire track with bricks shortly thereafter. Still, for Charlie, the race further demonstrated his talents in the face of terrible conditions, and determination to win at any cost. Perhaps most importantly, his efforts were made in front of the watchful eyes back in Springfield.
Charlie soon returned to Los Angeles to continue running at the Prince's Coliseum. Record runs and match races became the flavor of the moment, and as the Coliseum stood as the capital of speed in the U.S., the ranks of America's best racers swelled in L.A. Charlie continued to dominate the competition in the amateur class, riding for both Merkel and Thor. Los Angeles was home for the young star. Still, for the remainder of 1909, Fearless Balke bounced around California, running on the boards of the Coliseum and dirt tracks like Ascot Park while traveling to run in Santa Rosa and San Francisco. As 1910 approached, Charlie Balke was undoubtedly one of the top motorcycle racers in the world, and come summer; he would take the next big leap in his career.
After completing his first motorcycle board track, the L.A. Coliseum, Jack Prince traveled east to build the next experiment in track design. The Springfield Motordrome was opened in July 1909. It was the first to feature a circular, consistently-banked shape, leaving the oval layout of the Coliseum with its odd flat straightaways behind. Next came a test of scale back in Los Angeles as Prince oversaw the construction of the motordrome at Playa Del Rey in April 1910. The "Pie Pan" at Playa was built with consideration for automobile races, circular but a full mile around, with shallow banking of only 20 degrees. Still, it wasn't until July 1910 that Prince perfected the formula of the motorcycle board track. His new motordrome in Salt Lake would be a venue where America's best racers, especially Charlie Balke, would define the motordrome era.
Erected inside Salt Lake's Wandamere Resort, the circular Wandamere motordrome measured 1/3-mile around, with continuous 42-degree banking, arc lighting for night races, and grandstands circling the perimeter atop the track. Salt Lake had a long history as one of America's cycling epicenters, and so on the opening night of Prince's new motordrome, nearly 10,000 eager spectators packed into the saucer to catch the spectacle. Charlie was on handling with Jake DeRosier, Ray Seymour, Arthur Mitchel, Lon Claflin, Fred Whittler, and the local Samuelson brothers. The races at Wandamere were a sensation, with Charlie and DeRosier sharing the spotlight as the best on the boards. Trade magazines and newspapers across the country reported that Salt Lake City was now the world's new capital of speed, and the competition was the best in the history of motorsport. Charlie continued to ride and win at Wandamere until, in August, several racers boarded a train for the F.A.M. National meet in Philadelphia for races held at the Point Breeze dirt track. On August 12th and 13th, Indian's Jake DeRosier put Ray Seymour and Charlie Balke onboard his seven-horsepower Indian twin for a few test laps in Philly. The two young amateurs from Los Angeles had made animus for themselves over the past year, and the brass in Springfield had been keeping a close eye on them. As the pack of riders returned to Salt Lake a few days after the Philly meet, Seymour and Charlie had been recruited to ride for the mighty WigWam as amateur trade riders.
Charlie Balke was now racing for the world's most prominent motorcycle manufacturer as a part of its prolific factory racing program. Still, controversy would soon follow as on August 30th, during a 5-mile race, Charlie refused to run after a squabble with one of the F.A.M. officials. He was suspended indefinitely initially, but after a heavy protest, his suspension was limited to 6 weeks. Not one for sitting idly by, Charlie found his way to the starting line of a dirt track race in San Jose a couple of weeks later, which saw his suspension return to its original indefinite status. After a few telegrams from influential people were dispatched, along with a handshake here and there, Charlie’s status was reinstated, and he returned to Los Angeles to once again put his front tire on the line. After a triumphant run throughout 1910, Charlie was now a member of the world's most dominant factory racing programs and, with Springfield at his back, smashed a handful of records at Agriculture Park in early October. For the first time, national advertisements for Indian motorcycles featured Charlie Balke's name in bold right alongside the great Jake DeRosier.
On November 29th, Charlie took DeRosier's No. 21 racer to the 1-mile saucer at Playa Del Rey to have a crack at the standing amateur speed records to cap off a phenomenal year. One right after another, from 2 to 20 miles, Charlie smashed every amateur record before retiring with the sun for the last time in 1910. Unfortunately, despite locking his machine up for inspection the following day, the F.A.M. did not allow Charlie's records, given issues initially verifying his machine's displacement. It was a setback, but not one that would keep him down for long. In just three years since he first threw a leg over a motorcycle, Charlie Fearless Balke became one of America's most renowned racers. Charlie Balke had the nation's attention, a ride from Indian, a mentor in DeRosier, and a bright future as one of the most notable amateurs in American motorcycle racing in 1910; still, 1911 would be an even greater year for the teenaged motorcycle star.
Stay tuned for Part III of the Archive Icon: Charlie "Fearless" Balke story, coming next week, exclusively at ArchiveMoto.com.
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