Welcome to the Murderdrome | A Brief History of Board Track Racing

a couple of weeks ago we released our chat with Dave Southall about his classic board track racer billed as a bit of a follow-up to that we thought we might shine a light on a little of the history of these races of old [Music] in 1885 the first combustion engine motorcycle was made but surprisingly it took until 1897 for the first motorcycle race to take place that was at Xin house in Richmond it soon caught on after that with the early races being simple events held on open roads and even on dirt tracks meant for horse racing here in the UK road racing won out with the inaugural Isle of Man TT race taking place in 1907 over the pond however there was a very different story let me interview Dave about his board tracker he told us they had named it after one John Shillington Prince and under his chosen moniker of Jack Prince he helped to popularize the fledgling sport in the u.s. Prince was a racer himself in his day however his day was back in the 1880s so the bikes he raced were solely of the pedal-powered variety Jack went to the States to race and never left setting up a successful business building and promoting velodromes during his race days he met with one Frederic Moscow vyx who had the idea to build velodromes large and sturdy enough to race not only motorcycles but also cars these became known as motor drones seeing an opportunity Jack set to building and promoting them across the States with princes help the board track racing seemed exploded with tracks being built all across the country some tracks only taken two weeks to complete the first of these was the Los Angeles motor Drome a mile circumference that track was reported to have 300 miles of 2x4 and construction there were 16 tons of nails used also and the bank was at 15 degrees some tracks would employ even steeper banks up to 50 degrees and that would encourage even more incredible speeds for the day at its peak there were over 24 tracks across the states with the races and events pulling in as many as 80,000 spectators the development of the race bikes were also progressing at a pace with some ringing out speeds of close to 90 mile an hour from there 7 horsepower engines [Music] some of the manufacturers having success on the board tracks were their likes of Excelsior Thor cyclone NSU and of course Indian harley-davidson were late to the party as Arthur Davidson was staunchly against racing of any kind but he specially bought track racing he would eventually be overruled with Harley Davidson seeing massive success with their all-star wrecking crew race team this period saw the rise of the first heroes of motorcycle racing riders like Albert shrimp burns Eddie brink Otto Walker Ralph Hepburn and Ray Vasia ever wondered why harley-davidson are known as hogs well they're wrecking crude teams mascot at the time was Vice ours pet piglet which he would take around the track with him on victory laps of course these names weren't registered with many people today but you have to remember that he's death-defying people were the Marquez and Rossi of their day and though I'm also sure that many of them would have been in the race is simply for the thrill and the fame it's important to remember that they could earn up to 20,000 pound a year which in today's money is half a million pounds some may consider the pay danger money as the machines they rode as beautiful as they are weren't quite as refined as the ones we used to today the large but inefficient engines would regularly burst into flame but even the perfect one still only had a single gear with no brakes or clutch and we'll run with carbs wide open remember also that the bikes that they were using had a total loss system which meant that as they went round they had to pump oil periodically into the engine to keep it lubricated and when that engine was finished with that oil it dumped it on the track that created an unbelievably perilous place to be riding a bike these riders knew the risk however and were made of tough stuff famously Albert shrimp burns crashed at 107 miles an hour during one 25 mile event at the Los Angeles Motor Speedway he was rushed to hospital but bandaged and bruised he returned to the track later the same day and won the 15 mile event another early star of the flat track was Eddie Hacha nicknamed the cyclone born and Waco Texas hasha took to motorcycle racing at an early age and at 19 he was already a well-known dirt track racer it wasn't long before he made the move over to board track racing joining Indians wigwam raced team with them sumin trusting him with their latest machine the big bass eight valve a 1000 cc leap forward in racing Hacha and teammate Ray Seymour they dominated the scene they set new records wherever they raced they even eclipsed the once dominant accel sir it was an astronomical rise for the young Texan but do remember as the saying goes the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long despite seemingly having a very promising career ahead of himself those close to Hacha were eager for him to call it a day in fact he had briefly stepped away from racing before hitting the boards working at a Harley dealership before the bug that him once more he knew that every time he stepped onto the tracks that he was playing a dangerous game to that end he had planned to see the season out before calling a day and had already turned down the chance to race in Cuba later in the year on the morning of September the 8th and 1912 Eddie's father received a letter back home in Texas from his son stating that he was going to hang up his racing boots and join him back home in his contracting business sadly those were plans that would never be fulfilled later on that same day at the Vailsburg Motordrome New Jersey Eddie would once more take to the track on his big bass 8-valve Indian unbeknownst to him it would be for the last time after the main race had finished hasha took part in a five-mile handicap race with five other riders four of the riders had a one lap headstart the other pair were hasha and see more on their all conquering Indians see more holding the record for that distance at the time Hacha was keen to make it is it began well with hasha holding a slim lead for the first couple of laps then on lap 3 things took a disastrous turn while still leading hashas Indian began to misfire and as he reached down to make adjustments to the engine he was overtaken by Seymour hasha then accelerated and closed in on Seymour when suddenly while traveling at just over 90 mile an hour Josh's bike turned sharply flying up the outer rim of the tracks slamming onto the railings the bike rode the railings for a hundred feet a young spectator who had his head stuck through the railings to get a closer look at the action was decapitated before the bike then hit a post and flew up into the grandstand striking several spectators and throwing hasha up into the air the carnage didn't stop there however as the bike then slid back down onto the track and hit the last place rider Jonny Albright who would pass away 4 hours later in a hospital Hacha died at the scene his body mangled beyond recognition [Music] in all six people were killed in the accident and many more injured and it soon led to the tracks being known as murder drums over the years the body count rose with many of the stars we mentioned earlier meeting their demise on the tracks Albert's shrimp burns whose heyday came years after the New Jersey incident died after colliding with the Ray Rice shell during a race in 1921 Basha would also go on to perish in a crash three years later the safety clothing of leather trousers a leather heart and a woolly jumper did little to protect you not least from their many many splinters from the track as one spectators mentioned they were as big as bayonets and as numerous as hares the many deaths along with the mounting costs of repairing the tracks which had a life span of three years at most before needing massive restoration work began the steady decline of the sport during the late 1910s to the mid 1920s with the onset of the Great Depression proving to be the final nail in a coffin for board-track racing by 1932 20 of the 24 tracks had been shut down or abandoned and no further championship-level races were run on boards now will we ever see large-scale championship races taking place on board tracks ever again unlikely however for those wishing to experience something of what the riders of the day experienced there is a group of riders in Germany who along with their board track bikes travel out across Europe on some of the concrete oval and velodrome tracks there is very little detail on when these events are organized so if anybody has any details please feel free to drop that in the comments box and we'll let as many people know as possible equally if you enjoy these little history bombs do let us know and we'll continue to provide them during this lockdown period however for now you have been told on your bike

Channel: On Yer Bike

Views: 1,319,691

Keywords: board track racing, board track racer, board tracker motorcycle racing, board tracker motorcycle, board track racing documentary, board track racing crash, board track motorcycle, harley davidson, nsu, excelsior motorcycle, eddie hasha, william eddie hasha, indian motorcycles, history of board track racing, a brief history of, on yer bike, on your bike, on ya bike, jack prince

Id: GGM-gwAROYc

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020