Cleo Francis Pineau, Toledo Ohio, June 9, 1914.

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Fascinations can easily get away from you once you begin digging into the details of early American motorcycle racing. Those first decades overflow with icons and legends, unique characters with unbelievable lives and undeniable grit. It is this man however, a diminutive New Mexican with a quintessentially French name that I cannot seem to keep from studying. Cleo Francis Pineau was so eager to jump balls deep into life that he dropped out of school in 6th grade, dead set on beginning his remarkable adventure. He lead a life so full that it would take a Tolkienesque effort to recount his exploits, far to much to dig into in one of my little posts, but I hope to one day get to tell his story in full. 

Not only was he a pioneer of the dirt track and the motordrome, but he was also one of the earliest to thrill audiences inside attractions like the wall of death. He was a staple member of the Yellow Jackets, the competitive factory team of Flying Merkel in the early teens despite his career being interrupted at its peak by WWI. In yet another example of his continuous exceptionalism Pineau enlisted for service in the Royal Flying Corps when the war broke out and trained to be a pilot. With less than 100 flying hours under his belt he shipped out to France where, in less than a month of active combat he distinguished himself as one of the top pioneer fighter pilots in the world shooting down 6 enemy aircrafts. After becoming one of an extremely small group of American Ace’s Pineau was himself shot out of the sky only to survive and spend the remainder of the first world war in German POW camp.  

He returned to the states with a chest made heavy from medals from several different countries and jumped right back into the saddle. He later became an executive representative for Indian before starting his own steel company which is still in operation today. He spent the remainder of his life being counted among the close personal friends of American aviation icons like Wiley Post, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart. This man in the photo, Cleo Francis Pineau onboard his Flying Merkel factory racer, a blanked off OHV twin setup for the races in Toledo, OH, June, 1914, is in my opinion one of the most fascinating people in American history.

William Lawrence "Young" Stribling, Macon, GA, ca. 1930

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William Lawrence “Young” Stribling and his wife Clara onboard their cherished Indian motorcycles in Macon, GA, ca. 1930.

One of the greatest Heavy Weight Champions of all time, Georgia’s own William Lawrence Stribling was also a man infatuated with machines. An avid aviator and motorcycle enthusiast, “Young” Stribling as he was known was born in a small south Georgia town into a life of consumed with travel, so it is no wonder that he was drawn to all forms of transport. The son of a traveling vaudeville family, Strib grew up criss-crossing the globe performing balancing acts and gymnastics. His mother began training him and his younger brother to box before they could even walk, and the shows eventually featured the 4 year old Strib and his 2 year old brother sparing a round or two for the audience at the end of the show. By 17, the 6 foot tall, steely blue-eyed Stribling became an instant boxing sensation, fighting in no less than 75 professional bouts in his debut year. A devout and moral man, Strib led a clean life without smoking or drinking and insisted on promoting a fair and gentlemanly sport across the country. In 1925 he married the love of his life, Ms. Clara Kinney of Macon, GA, and together the would welcome 3 children into the world. Strib continued to be a wildly successful fighter and an icon in the sport, winning most of his matches by knockout within only two rounds. Out of his 286 professional fights, Young Stribling lost only 12, and only once by a TKO while on tour in Europe. 

On October 1st, 1933, while riding his beloved Indian 4the heavy weight champ was struck by an automobile as he returned to the hospital in Macon, GA to be with Clara and their newborn child. The young sensation, a celebrity in every sense of the word, a man who helped shape the sport of boxing into what it is today succumbed to his injuries two days later on October 3rd, 1933, his dying words were a loving greeting to his wife as she entered his room with their newborn son. 

Ascot Park, Nov. 30, 1919

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Nine of the finest motorcycle racers America has ever produced kicking up the dust at Los Angeles’ Ascot Park on November 30, 1919. This was the beginning of the great rebirth in American motorcycle racing, the years following WWI when the line between risk and reward became razor thin, and top speed was the name of the game. The era of the motordrome, the small circular board tracks which once enraptured America’s enthusiasts had vanished, having given way to enormous board track speedways and the hair raising hornet fights on the dirt mile. This was the age of 8-valves, fast tracks, and homeric stars; these were the glory days of the Harley-Davidson Wrecking Crew.

Still reveling in his victory after becoming the 2-Mile National Champion, having hit 96 mph on the boards of Sheepshead Bay just a few weeks before, Harley-Davidson’s Otto Walker took the top spot at Ascot that day during the 50-Mile America’s All-Star Motorcycle Sweepstakes race, his young teammate and Wrecking Crew team rival Shrimp Burns just behind him in second. As the pack flew by the grandstands, which were still draped in star-spangled banners from the country’s first ever Veterans Day celebration, Walker is easily spotted front and center due to his distinctive crested German aviators helmet, a trophy collected during his own service as an aviation mechanic in France the year before. Not only did 1919 mark the return of professional motorcycle racing in America, but it was the year that Harley-Davidson, determined to stake their claim as America’s greatest motorcycle manufacturer simply dominated at the track, racking up wins, national titles, and new speed records at Marion, Ascot Park, and Sheepshead Bay. A new era of professional motorcycle racing in America had begun, and Harley-Davidson was leading the way.

Ray Weishaar, Harley-Davidson 11KR, Savannah 300 1914

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Ray Weishaar and his Harley-Davidson 11KR factory road racer in Savannah, Georgia on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1914.

In celebration of the 1914 Thanksgiving Day American Classic Championship, also known as the 2nd Annual Savannah 300, this week’s posts will cover a bit more detail on that historic event. The daunting 300-mile road race took place beneath the eerie canopy of Savannah’s centuries-old oak trees which drip with Spanish moss onto the sandy roads of Savannah’s Grand Prize circuit. Covered in numerous articles at ArchiveMoto.com as well as detailed in the pages of Georgia Motorcycle History, the event marked a turning point in the course of American motorcycle racing history as it was the event chosen by the now quintessentially American motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson to debut their first officiall factory racing program featuring their newly developed purebred factory racer, the 11K.

Having been steadily making a name for himself since 1908, Lawrence Ray Weishaar arose out of the county fair 1/2-mile circuit in Kansas and onto the national stage. By the Fall of 1914 the “Kansas Cyclone,” as he became known was a solid choice for Harley-Davidson’s factory racing program director Bill Ottoway to recruit for the debut Savannah team. Weishaar had ridden Indians and Excelsiors to great success, but his debut with the powerful and nimble new factory 11K machine solidified his relationship with Harley-Davidson, one which would last the rest of his days, turning both Weihsaar and Harley-Davidson into American icons.

For a new professional on a new factory team running a new prototype racer Weishaar exploded off of the line in Savannah to the delight of the crowd. His first laps were among the fastest in the pack, but by his third lap his time had more than doubled, believing that he had snapped a valve or valve spring Weishaar pulled into the pits. Valves and springs all checked out, but the valve seat of Ray’s front cylinder was covered in molten glass, the result of shards from a busted sparkplug having made their way onto the seat and melting. The repairs that were possible were made and Weishaar charged the course once again. Throughout the new H-D team spark plugs proved a constant issue, the hot and fast motors of the 11K were melting glass plugs every few laps, but despite numerous stops for plugs, oil, and fuel Weishaar consistently shaved time off of each lap hitting average speeds of 72mph on Savannah’s soft sandy roads. He was so effortlessly fast that a bystander was quoted as saying that he could have easily taken first place had the event been a 500 mile rather than a 300. However, on the 24th lap, with only 3 laps remaining Weishaar pitted with a leaking ding in his fuel tank and was flagged out due to concerns over fire. His teammate Irving Janke went on to claim 3rd place, coming in behind Excelsior’s Joe Wolters in 2nd and Indian’s Lee Taylor in 1st, but the result was the first of countless podium positions to come for Harley-Davidson after having officially tossed their hat into the professional racing game on Thanksgiving Day, Novemeber 26, 1914.