These riders, tuners and shops were all within minutes of the famed raceway. They were the locals that the nation had to beat when the 8-mile national came to town.

It’s a Friday night in the early ‘60s. As always, the track gets a fresh cushion during intermission, and the four fastest qualifiers line up for the trophy dash. With its new cushion and the heat of the night, the dash often turns the most exciting, quickest laps of the night.

Morley, Gunter, Keen and especially O’Brien play Wes Drennan, the best starter in the business, as Roxy Rockwood calls the three-lapper, the lead changing every lap.

On the last lap, coming out of turn four, the crowd is on its feet and screaming. A blanket could cover all four riders.

As Morley goes high, feet up and flat out, the two-piece quick-change rear wheel comes out of the Gold Star. The rear wheel passes Morley, the BSA is down on the chain and sprocket at nearly 90 mph and Stu is still tucked in.

The alloy wheel gets second, Morley misses the wall, gets third and almost two officials in the process. I think the only damage was to Stu’s shorts, as a few minutes later he was back on the front line for the main event.

By Russ Whittinghill

In 1952, when no one could win dirt track nationals on the revolutionary Harley-Davidson KR750 sidevalve, with its four-speed foot shift and telescopic forks, an unknown Texan, Everett Brashear, did make H-D history by riding a KR to its first victory at Sturgis, South Dakota’s inaugural half-mile national. Brashear finished one length ahead of five-time dirt track national winner Paul Albrecht’s fast Harley WR.

Everett would win again and again. From 1952 to 1960 he captured six half-mile and eight mile nationals. Brashear was an oval-track specialist, seldom entering roadraces, where he was luckless until he rode Dick Mann’s Matchless to sixth in the 1964 Daytona 200. Although he did not generate Grand National Championship points in TT or roadracing in the ‘50s, he impressively gained enough points in the 1955 season to finish second behind Brad Andres, who made points everywhere. His other GNC seasons included fourth in 1956 (tied with George Everett), fifth in ‘57, third in ‘58 (tied with Dick Klamfoth) and sixth in 1960 (tied with Andres).

Brashear won his first mile national in 1953 at the Indianapolis five-miler—an absurd distance for a trophy dash—over Joe Leonard. To accomplish the feat, Everett came from behind and won by mere inches.

On the track in Sunday morning practice that day he was brilliant. He and Leonard staged a thrill show, defying the laws of gravity and velocity, tucking in, feet up, inches apart at the north turn’s halfway point and only a snarling blur when they catapulted down the front straight, switching positions four times a lap. For all that, it wasn’t Brashear’s day. He finished one position out of the transfer in a talent-loaded heat race, then came back to win a “consi” over the Indian Wrecking Crew’s Ernie Beckman.

Springfield, Ill., was a place where Brashear shined. In the 1955 25-miler Bobby Hill drafted Everett for almost the entire distance, then the Indian rider made his expected moved into first. But Brashear ran deep into the north turn to get the drive to win by a bike length. He won again in ‘56, using absolute concentration and a wind-cheating profile to win by inches over Charlie West after Andres crashed at 80 mph ahead of Brashear and West as the three of them ran in the lead. The following year at Springfield, in a seesawing lead pack made up of Klamfoth, Brashear and Leonard, it was unclear who would have the last-lap edge until it happened. Leonard had the extra steam to turn back Brashear, followed by Klamfoth. But it was one of the best races for anyone’s money.