RE: [CR]Vintage USA bike races

(Example: Bike Shops:R.E.W. Reynolds)

In-Reply-To: <F2196NnIIJ7lWGj34yo00013252@hotmail.com>
References:
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 09:25:57 -0400
To: classic list <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Roy H. Drinkwater" <roydrink@mac.com>
Subject: RE: [CR]Vintage USA bike races


Mark Poore reported:
>I rode the first Fitchburg/Longsjo Memorial race, I would have to check my
>scrapbook, in 1963 or 1964. Johnny Phillips, Bobby's father, told us the
>story of Art Longsjo and how he was one of the country's top racers. I
>believe he said Art died of injuries sustained in an automobile wreck while
>trying to swat a bee that was in his car and lost control of the vehicle.
>Somerville, NJ is a good bit older than that, but not sure when it started.
>They still hold the Somerville race every Memorial weekend. Raced in
>Flemington and Hackensack, NJ in that time period and those races had been
>around a while.

In "Hearts of Lions", Peter Nye says that Longsjo was a passenger in the car asleep when the bee incident occurred in 1958, a year in which Art won every race he entered. The first memorial race was the next year. It's held the first Sunday in July, the oldest in New England, and the third oldest in the nation.

There's information on the Tour of Somerville at http://www.tourofsomerville.org/history.html started in 1940.

Also you could try the Bicycling Hall of Fame http://www.usbhof.com/ that is located in Somerville, NJ.

Roy "gotta get to work" Drinkwater Lititz "the Tuesday races at Trexlertown are great!", PA