Why We Ride Page #2

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motorcycling and the club,

the club itself became

their entertainment.

And this club

with Fritzie running it,

there was all kinds

of things to do.

They were busy, you know,

four or five nights a week.

They went out

on these little rides.

It just went on and on.

And, of course,

back then you got dressed up.

You dress and act

like a gentleman, or you got fined.

And if you couldn't abide by the

rules... you're out.

And people are begging

to get in.

Always had a

waiting list for members.

And then once they started

with the auxiliary,

now it became joint affairs.

Now we had boys meeting girls.

And you know

how that works out.

After the Depression,

it was hard to keep those big factory

things kinda going in those years,

and the AMA got together

with the manufacturer and said,

"Let's create a form of racing that

would be more production bikes. "

So they started this thing

called Class C.

And it was a bike that was based

on production model bikes,

and it was basically built around

Indians and Harley-Davidsons.

You can't know about racing,

you can't know about Daytona,

and not know who Ed Kretz is.

What Ed was, was really

one of the first champions

of that Class C era.

He won all the big races.

He was always

known as "Iron Man Kretz. "

He was so determined, when he got on

he was either gonna break the damn thing

or win the race, that was it.

Kretz would not stand for

anything other than total victory,

and anything other

than that was a failure.

When you look at it that way,

that's when you get very successful.

Ed tried to pass everybody,

so in case anything went wrong,

you had time to fix it and still

win. That was his idea how to race.

When Ed Kretz

finished a race,

they actually had to pry his

fingers off of the handlebars,

because he physically

couldn't do it.

He'd been holding for so long,

for the last hundred miles,

going as fast as he could, they

had to pry him off the cycle.

Dad, when he would ride, he

would just do nothing but ride,

and you could tell by looking at

him, that that's all he was thinking.

One of the things that Ed

told me a long time ago

that really stuck in my mind,

first of all,

"When everybody else is letting

up to go into the corner,

I just grabbed a handful of throttle and

that's where I would pass everybody. "

And, boy, that just...

It sounded so hairy and so bold,

but that was Ed Kretz, man.

He was the Iron Man.

Dad had a job driving

a hay truck, truck and trailer.

That's where my dad

made his money.

He loaded it by himself

and he unloaded by himself.

That's what gave him all

this upper-body strength.

Not only was he in great

physical condition, but also mentally.

He'd do 18-hour days,

20-hour days,

and then go right back in

and do it again.

He would come over on his motorcycle

and he used to do a lot of stunts

and he would stand on his head

or stand on the seat,

and just kinda showing off in

front of her, you know, and...

That's how he met my mother,

on a motorcycle.

Race, race, race, every day.

When he wasn't on the truck,

he was on the motorcycle.

Oh, she was for it, she was

always with him, always with him.

He'd take Mom, they'd ride to

where the race was gonna be,

he'd take off the headlight,

he'd take everything

off the bike,

and have it just bare,

you know, so he could race.

And so Mom would just stand

there and watch the stuff

and Dad would race,

he'd put it all back together,

they'd get on it and head home.

My father was very business,

but when it came time

to be home, he was home.

He was just there any time

you needed something,

or he would go out of his way

to help ya, you know.

We had such a good time as kids.

So many cheerful rides.

I miss it terribly.

Ed Kretz did some

pretty amazing things,

and he did it basically on the same

motorcycle. It was a little Sport Scout.

With that same bike, he won

the last Savannah, Georgia race,

which, at the time,

was a massive race.

He won the first Laconia ever

on that bike,

which is a massive race,

and he won the first Daytona.

Ed Kretz and those guys racing

at Daytona, on the sand?

Seriously? Who does that?

I mean, and how do they go

that fast? I wanna know.

And then Daytona become the biggest

race of the year for motorcycling.

The real tough part

about Daytona,

which would put most of

the people out of the race,

was either coming down the straightaway

and going into the north turn,

you started getting into

the loose, chopped-up sand,

and then also transitioning

from the sand onto pavement,

you know, you got the little sandy

stretch there, where you've got pavement

with sand all over it and there's a lot

of guys spinning out, coming through that,

or where they'd stuck in a

little rut and everything,

and then same thing

at the other end.

The beach course went

from when Ed won in 1937

and it went through 1960.

Ed's winning Daytona,

it was a big deal.

From that point forward, that

beach has never been the same.

It's motorcycling history.

You know, I feel so fortunate

that I'm a person who was there,

when some of these fellas won,

riding on the beach.

Daytona kinda paved the way

that you were a road racer.

It's the

ultimate test of man and machine.

Two hundred miles, flat out,

as hard as you can go,

and may the best man win.

You know, you see it on TV and you

don't realize just how big that place is.

It's the first race of the year,

everyone's got all these expectations

of what's gonna happen.

That was the race, I mean,

if you could win Daytona, that was the race.

There's a certain air that

surrounds it that to me is a bit magical.

It's like you get to be a part of

something a lot bigger than yourself.

The history and the vibe

and the feel around the race track.

If you can get your name in that

history book, that's a pretty big deal.

Tradition is everything and

the Daytona 200 is one of those ones,

it's like you gotta chalk it up. You've

gotta win the Daytona 200, it's the ultimate.

It's every racer's dream

to get up on the banks of Daytona.

To sit in the grandstands and

feel those motorcycles fly by you,

then to hear their exhaust and

everyone cheering, and... It's a blast.

It was huge. I mean, I won the 200.

Not too many people can say they have.

My father won the race in 1948,

but to this day we still remain

the only father and son

to have won Daytona.

It's definitely my proudest

moment, winning the Daytona 200.

I was probably six years old

when I saw a minibike,

and, I mean, I was

hooked right then.

I saw somebody riding down the

road on a motorcycle, and I was,

as the Brits say, gobsmacked,

I just... and that was it.

My brother had a minibike when

he was about ten years old,

and I was forbidden to ride it,

and so I made it my life's mission

to be able to ride that bike.

I'm want to say that I was about ten or 11

the first time I put a leg over a minibike.

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