Allen Girdler

[Fire-medic]

Allen Girdler, a great author and journalist, has died.

In Memoriam: Allan Girdler – Rider Files (wordpress.com)

He was one of my favorite journalists. He knew all-sorts of people and he had a lifetime of experience from which to draw, in stories of both two and four-wheeled vehicles, and the people who built them, modified them and raced them.

 

[Fire-medic]

And now a H-D riding friend texted me to say Dick Mann died. They come in three's, who's next? Dick Mann won the 1970 Daytona 200 with a SOHC Honda 750, under Bob Hansen's team leadership. It's a very-interesting story: Dick Mann's 1970 Daytona 200 Victory | Mann & Machine | Motorcyclist (motorcyclistonline.com)

 

[desert_max]

Ouch. One of my heros.

Mortality sucks.

When my father died quite a number of years ago, my wife told me, “you’re next!”

Sheesh. She didn’t have to be so blunt about it…

Dick Mann continued to carry the banner after he stopped racing.

 

[Fire-medic]

I spoke with a couple of brothers who raced against Dick Mann, they both held him in high-regard, and were sad to hear he died. Their parents owned a British bikes dealership in western NYS, and they both rode Triumph and BSA's. They looked-up to Mann, and said he was a great competitor.

Here are several books I just bought, two by Allen Girdler, and another author's book about Sam Arena, a famous pre-and post-WW II flat tracker and hillclimb racer. Girdler's are about H-D racers 1934-'86, and the second is about American racing sportscars built by owners, called 'specials,' often.