History

History RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Leaders of the Track

The Indian men with the trophies. Even their nicknames have devolved into legend: Iron Man, Cannonball, Speck, Silvers, Fearless, Millionaire Morty. Even the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, raced Indians when he wasn't busy chasing bad guys around the rocks in Lone Pine, California.

And then there was Burt Munro.

"At the Salt in 1967 we were going like a bomb," Munro recalled. "To slow her down I sat up. The wind tore my goggles off and the blast forced my eyeballs back into my head. We were so far off the black line that we missed a steel marker stake by inches. I put her down -- a few scratches all round but nothing much else."

What makes the story both poignant and typical of the dedication and love Indian racers had for their bikes is this: New Zealander Munro was a 68-year-old grandfather in 1967 and he was "going like a bomb" at 206 miles an hour on a 40-something Indian Scout at the time.

Today's motorcycle enthusiasts can learn all about Burt Munro and the race wins and land-speed records he racked up on that Scout by renting a DVD of the 2006 Anthony Hopkins film "World's Fastest Indian." You have to look a bit further -- but not very far -- to find the rest of the story. The story of the most dominant motorcycle in the golden age of motorcycle racing. A time when every decent-sized city in America hosted either board track, dirt track, paved oval, hill climb, TT, or endurance motorcycle competitions.

Detailing Indian's street-and-track competition triumphs would require a book (or three or four), but it owns one winning record that will never be surpassed. In 1911, the American Federation of Motorcyclists published statistics showing the top winners in 126 categories of motorcycle racing. Indian topped the list in every category.

New math or old, winning 126 out of 126 classes equals 100 percent. That record may someday be tied, but it can't be broken.

From 1902 through Burt Munro's class-setting land-speed records in the 1960s, Indians carried factory riders, semi-pro privateers, and "just plain folks" to uncounted thousands of local, national and international winners' circles. To the right are just a few of the highlights.

Racing Highlights

1902
Indian enters three first-year models in the Boston-New York Marathon race. All three finish with perfect scores.

1906
George Holder and Louis Muller ride an Indian from San Francisco to New York City in 31 days, breaking the existing record by 18 days.

1908
Erwin "Cannonball" Baker rides an Indian to victory in the first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

1908
Indian Rider Jake DeRosier sets a quarter-mile board track record of 68.2 mph at the Paterson, New Jersey velodrome. DeRosier goes on to set dozens of records and win hundreds of races on his Indian.

1911
Indian finishes first, second, third, fifth, and sixth in the world's most prestigious road race, the Isle of Man TT.

1914
Cannonball Baker breaks Holder and Muller's cross-country speed record by an astounding 20 days, riding his Indian from San Diego to New York in 11 days, 12 hours, and ten minutes.

1927
to
1929
Bob Armstrong wins three consecutive national hill-climbing championships on an Indian

1936
Fred Ludlow, riding a Sport Scout, wins the Los Angeles Speed Trials on Muroc Dry Lake with an average of 128.57 mph. Now integrated into Edwards Air Force Base, Murdoc Dry Lake is currently the high-speed landing strip for the Space Shuttle.

1937
Indian factory rider Ed "Iron Man" Kretz wins the first Daytona 200 by over a lap. Continuing to race into the 1950s, the Iron Man -- who trained recruits to ride purpose-built Indian 841 desert-fighter bikes during World War II -- racked up nine AMA National titles, numerous West Coast titles, and hundreds of Indian victories.

1948
Floyd Emde rides a 1947 Indian Scout to victory over 152 other competitors (including five former winners) in the Daytona 200. Leading from flag to flag, Emde sets a new race record of more than 84 miles per hour.

1967
Herbert "Burt" Munro rides his self-modified 1920 Scout to an under-1000cc land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Forty years later, Munro and his Indian's record still stands.