"When the caravan of car and riders turned onto the home stretch, the suddenly hushed crowd stood tense in the grandstand. There was a crash and roar of mechanism and exhausts. The driver of the pace car pushed his mount, already doing 50 miles per hour, and the starter waved a flag from his position in the seat. The car swerved frantically to one side of the track and 29 madmen aimed at the first turn. Women screamed, men jumped up and down and yelled. Bedlam brook loose. Dodge City was underway."

"A minute and twenty seconds later something red flashes by, it is Number 9--Taylor on an Indian--leader in the first lap. Carl Goudy, Number 3, on his "Big Valve X" flashes by in close pursuit, and then Number 16, the yellow demon Cyclone, piloted by Don Johns. On the second round Number 16 comes first. God! such speed! Zip, Zip, Zip--they come and go."

Riding a blistering pace of 90 mph laps, Johns nearly laps the field while holding the lead until the 16th lap when he makes a pit stop for fuel. Inez Patterson continues:

"At just about this time there is a near riot in the grandstand. Some of the crowd thought Johns was not given credit for the right number of laps."

Resuming the chase, Johns regained the lead from a pair of Excelsiors on the 24th lap.

"At noon, one hour after the start of the race, Perry, Stokes, Boyd, Taylor, Wolter, Weishaar, and Walker are all even. Shortly thereafter, Perry stopped in the pits with a tire torn nearly off and Patterson and Pineau were hauled into the pits. At 12:22 Floyd Clymer of Denver was towed across the field on his Excelsior. Patterson's Merkel caught fire and burned 30 yards from the grandstand."

Johns continued to hold the lead until somewhere between the 70th and 80th mile, when his machine began to falter. Sometime after the 90-mile point Johns suffered a broken fuel tank and was forced to retire. Patterson reported:

"One more lap and he would have had the world's record for 100 miles."

"Motorcycle Illustrated" characterized the Cyclone rider's performance as "nothing short of spectacular," and it was generally understood that Johns was pacing himself for a new 100-mile record.

With Johns out, Carl Goudy took over the lead followed by Morty Graves on an 8-valve Indian in 2nd place. Otto Walker, just behind Graves, led the band of Harley's and what remained of the field. At the 100-mile mark, Goudy's Excelsior was still in the lead, and he had set a new record for the distance, aided no doubt by the extraordinary pace set earlier by the yellow demon Cyclone.

The 200-mile mark was passed with Harley-Davidson's Otto Walker taking the lead, but a tire puncture forced him into the pits. This allowed Graves on the Indian-8 to take over, while Goudy slipped to 3rd place. His tire repaired, Walker was back in contention, working his way up to the front of the pack.

Inez Patterson describes the end of the race:

"At 145 laps the officials ran across the track. They posted one man way toward the turn so he could signal the flagman when the winner came up. The Indian crowd was jumping up and down for Graves was nearly a lap to the good. The Harley-Davidson crowd stood solemn, for dogged as he was it looked bad for Walker."

"The next to the last lap flag had been given and eyes began straining for Graves. There he stood on the backstretch--out of gas. That was one time when an ink bottle full of gas would have been worth $800.00 to Morty. Walker barged on around and then the brown-coated Harley-Davidson crew began jumping and the Indian men stood solemn. In the pits Don Johns pointed silently to a big rent in the top of his tank. He had just ridden the rest of the machine from around the engine."

Although Excelsior's Carl Goudy placed 3rd, Ottaway's Harley-Davidsons took 6 of the top 7 spots. It was dramatic and important. In less than two years, the Milwaukee company had gone from the manufacturer of a plodding, dependable motorcycle, to the sponsor of a professional team, capable of winning the most prestigious race in America.

The publicity resulting from their success at Dodge City was such that nearly all of H-D's dealers reported increased sales, and the factory raised its production target for the following season.

(c)1996 D. K. Statnekov

If you enjoyed reading this article as much as we did here at Big Sid's , then you'll love visiting Daniel's page where you can read much more about these brave men and their magnificient machines.

While there you can also view several photo galleries (complete with descriptions) of the fantastic machines in Daniel's care, including a Pre-1916 Harley Davidson Racer (possibly the winner of the 1915 Dodge City race chronicled above)!

Other machines include a 1915 Cyclone, a 1923 eight valve Harley Racer,
and the Crocker pictured here:

"The original chopper."

Remember, Big Sid wouldn't steer you wrong, so check out Statnekov's Motorcycles Page , our FEATURED LINK!