Maldwyn Jones and Ray Weishaar, Toledo, Ohio, June 18, 1916.

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Two founding father’s of American motorcycle racing, and two exceptional purebred Harley-Davidson racers in the country’s heartland just over 100 years ago. The men are, quite simply put, legends and their machines are as rare as they come. Maldwyn Jones stands in the rear of the photo in his homemade, padded leather helmet next to his brand new Merkel/Harley hybrid, while Ray Weishaar, the “Kansas Cyclone” straddles one of two new experimental factory 4-Valve racers at the Toledo 1/2 mile track on June 18, 1916. 

Jones was a well established professional by 1916, however, waining factory support from Flying Merkel had driven the 25 year old Ohioan to leave the company with whom he had started his racing career back in 1910. Jones picked up a steady job in the U.S. Experimental Aviation Engines Department at McCook Field in Dayton, OH with the understanding that he could use his ample time off to continue racing. The visionary of the blossoming Harley-Davidson racing program, Bill Ottaway took note and made sure that the next jersey that jones pulled over bore the Milwaukee livery. The machine that you see next to Maldwyn is the only one ever built like it, a necessary accommodation for the union between Jones and Ottaway which paired Maldwyn’s specially constructed keystone chassis from his glory days at Merkel with a trimmed down, blanked off, 30.50ci single cylinder version of Ottaway’s recent experimentations with overhead valve setups. This race was the machine’s debut, and the first run of many that Maldwyn would make for Harley-Davidson for years to come. 

Ray Weishaar, (pronounced wisher) was the same age as Jones, but hadn’t been on the national stage for quite as long. However, Weihsaar was a veteran of the Harley-Davidson factory racing program having been one of the few selected to pilot their experimental 11K series as a member of the first fully supported factory team for the Savannah 300 mile road race on Thanksgiving Day, 1914. Though similar, the machine that Weishaar was competing on was a full on factory creation, one of two new low slung, short keystone framed, 4 valve single designs that Ottaway had only recently began developing. Weishaar, along with fellow factory rider B.B. Bivins debuted the two factory 1/2 mile machines at races held in Roanoke, VA on April 24, 1916. Weishaar swept the event on his new nimble and lightening fast 4 valve racking up victories in the 1, 3, and 10 mile and only losing to Indian’s “Shorty” Matthews after both his and Bivin’s machine’s blew tires in the 15 mile race.

Though the iconic men and unique machines make the moment captured in this photo quite interesting, the pair unfortunately didn’t fair too well that summer day in 1916. Neither man took the top spot in any heat, though in fairness their competition did include names like Ray Creviston, Cleo Pineau, and Lee Taylor. Weishaar was poised to take the big 25 mile race until his engine failed, allowing Indian’s Lee Taylor to take the victory while Jones was just barely nosed out of second place. Pushing their little 30.50 singles to upwards of 55 mph around the dirt 1/2 mile Weishaar pulled off a second place finish to Indian’s Shorty Matthews in the 10 mile race, what would be the Milwaukee team's best finish of the day. Nonetheless, this image remains a remarkable and unique moment captured in the evolution of American motorcycle racing history featuring two of the greatest racers to have ever thrown over a leg and their remarkably special motorcycles.

Jim Davis and Joe Ryan, Baltimore-Washington Speedway, Sept. 7, 1925.

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One of the last gentlemen of the storied Harley-Davidson Wrecking Crew era, a zebra-striped Jim Davis collects himself in the pits of the Baltimore-Washington Speedway on September 7, 1925. Originally from Columbus, OH, a young Davis began his illustrious racing career before WWI, and as such he is one of the only pioneer motorcycle racers to hold titles under each of the first sanctioning bodies in the country, the FAM, the M&ATA, and the AMA. A lifelong ambassador of the sport, Davis is without question one of the most beloved figures in American motorcycle racing history and yet another colorful character full of remarkable stories from those earliest days. 

Both Davis and Wrecking Crew new-comer Joe Petrali were on a war path for the 1925 season, racking up title after title and knocking down speed records on both dirt and boards throughout the country. Davis clinched the AMA 5 Mile National Championship title on the #3 Harley-Davidson Two Cam in this photo, setting a new record with an average speed of 111 mph. His teammate Smoking’ Joe Petrali, who had only joined the Harley-Davidson team after a mixup with his Indian factory racer at the Altoona track two months prior knocked down three new records as he took the top spot in the 10, 25, and 50 Mile championships. Another photograph from this event was featured in a post I did back in February as it featured fellow Harley man Bill Minnick holding a raccoon, a rather odd mascot while posing in victory lane with his Wrecking Crew teammates Davis, Petrali, and Eddie Brinck.

Here is American motorcycle racing icon Jim Davis in his black and white striped jersey at the Baltimore-Washington Board Track Speedway in Laurel, MD, Sept. 7, 1925. Master mechanic and longtime head of Harley-Davidson’s Service School Joseph Ray Ryan stands besides Davis’ #3 Two Cam mount in coveralls, an empty Coke bottle on the track, and shipping crates litter the background.

Don and Irene Klark, Detroit Motordrome, Summer 1913

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Indian motorcycle star Don Klark, Captain of the Detroit Motordrome team posing with his lovely bride Irene inside the Motor City saucer in the summer of 1913. A veteran of the Indian factory team, the 24 year old Klark was selected to lead the “home” team of racers contracted to ride in Detroit, Jack Prince’s latest board track motordrome. The first of 8 new motordromes built in 1913, the 1/4 mile stadium in Detroit was completed in May with an intense banking of 60 degrees, making it one of the steepest of these tracks ever built. Shortly after the gates opened tragedy struck, as it so often did on these tracks and a young aspiring racer, an Austrian pilot by the name of Emil Haloubek became yet another victim of the sport. Klark had arranged for Haloubek to make a few laps around the new saucer on June 5th so that he could evaluate his abilities for potential placement on the team, but the inexperienced Austrian lost control of the machine. Haloubek’s death, which increased the number of fatalities on American boards to over a dozen inspired a scathing editorial in the Detroit News. The highly critical article featured a now famous cartoon entitled “A Pagan Holiday” in which Death, with his sickle and a shield bearing a dollar sign stands with a rider beneath his foot at the center of a motordrome, the crowd giving a unanimous thumbs down as if spectators in a Roman coliseum. However, despite the growing public distaste the Detroit Motordrome insisted that the accident was a simple abnormality and continued hosting races until ultimately, poor attendance forced it to close its doors the next season.  As the gates were closing at the Detroit Motordrome in the fall of 1914 Klark and Irene welcomed a daughter, Ruth into their family. Klark continued racing for a time and was considered to be one of the best in country, but he eventually retired into a cushy and far less perilous position at Packard. Unlike so many of his fellow gentlemen racers, Don Klark enjoyed all of the thrills and triumphs of a racers youth as well as the treasured wisdom of old age, passing away just before his 86th birthday in 1976.

Archive Icon: A.F. Van Order

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The man himself, Mr. Ashley Franklin Van Order posted up on his good friend Otto Walker’s factory racer at Ascot Park, January 1920. A child of the great American midwest, Van moved his family to the sun-rich land of Los Angeles in 1911 in order to pursue a life on two wheels. A tenacious yet easy going man, Van was driven to immerse himself in the bustling motorcycle culture of southern California at the turn of the century, and as such became a staple player in the very creation of American motorcycle culture. A master rider, novice racer, and successful salesman, Van’s life was quickly consumed with all things motorcycling. He became an officer of the LAMC, coordinating countless rides and races, often acting in whatever role was lacking at the event. Sometimes he was an official for the FAM, or manned the flags and stopwatches, if needed he even held things down in the pit crew for his professional racer pals. 

The first half of Van’s life was spent in the saddle pursuing good times, that familiar motivation in which we all share a stake. Van then dedicated his remaining years to preserving and sharing the stories of those early days so that future generations would know right where they came from. By the 1930’s Van had begun trying his hand at journalism, recounting the glory days of American motorcycle racing for Motorcyclist Magazine, illustrating his articles with images snapped and collected over the years past. It is those images, amassed by Van Order over decades, combined with his drive to preserve the stories of his culture that has given us such a rich understanding of our heritage. His collection of photographs define the spirit of American motorcycling and his efforts as the first great champion of our culture have earned him his place amongst the founding fathers of our sport.

I have been honored with the opportunity to tell Van’s story and share his remarkable collection of photographs in my next book. His is a legacy to which we are all indebted and I am excited to move into the next phase of this project, hopefully having a release date in the middle of next year. Until then keep an eye out for #TheVanOrderCollection tag in my IG posts for an exclusive peek at the iconic photographs from the project.