Rare Film of Motorcycle Board Track Racing, Beverly Hills 1921

Board Track Racing on the massive wooden super speedways of the 1920s captured on film at the height of motorcycle racing’s Golden Age.

A truly special piece of American history, this rare and remarkable film offers a glimpse into the high stakes sport of professional board track motorcycle racing during the Prohibition Era. Shot at the height of the sport in 1921, the film not only captures an intimate perspective of what it was like to race on America’s infamous board track speedways, but the race itself represents the high water mark of the sport since its inception. It showcases some of the world’s most iconic pioneer motorcycle racers as well as some of the most revered and highly specialized machines ever built, all hitting record competition speeds at a time when the culture was at its most appealing.

It comes from the M&ATA opening races at the Los Angeles Motor Speedway, a massive board track also known as the Beverly Hills Speedway on April 24th, 1921. Speeds exceeded 100 mph averages throughout the day with a field of racers that could only be described as overflowing with legends. Ray Weishaar, Joe Wolters, Jim Davis, Otto Walker, Ralph Hepburn, Gene Walker, Freddie Ludlow, Curly Fredericks, and Shrimp Burns all lined up for the “Big Three,” Harley-Davidson, Indian, and Excelsior. This was the grand age of factory competition, overhead valves machines, lionized competitors, and lightning fast races.


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This video is a companion to the articles detailing the history of American motorcycle culture, published exclusively at http://ArchiveMoto.com.

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Written, Narrated, Edited, and Produced by Chris Price, Archive Moto.

Music:
Ostinado - Vieveri
Introspectif - Magnus Ludvigsson
Lineal - Aerian


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