Wauseon Swap Meet and Half-Mile

Our friend Roger F in Ohio sent these photos through. Roger and his partner, Patty, took photos and Roger raced.

 The Antique Motorcycle Club of America has a national meet every summer in Wauseon, Ohio at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. The meet's centerpiece is the swap meet and classic bike exhibitions, which go on all weekend, with emphasis on American machinery, culminating with a judged bike show on Sunday morning. To enter, the bike has to run too. 

There are several acres of classic bikes and parts on display and for sale, with flat tankers from the teens to more modern early-'60s bikes, but the emphasis is on American street bikes from the first half of the 1900s. They have chapters outside of the USA too. 

Of course every Midwest fairgrounds has a grandstand and horse track, and they run a vintage half-mile flat track on Friday each year. Where else could you see a full hand-shift class run, or a dozen board trackers circling the track, forming up for a flying start? Very cool! And they also have some celebrity racers run a match race too. This year, Jay Springsteen was lured out of retirement and raced against Geo Roeder on a Norton. 

If you are an enthusiast of such things, check the meet out at http://wauseonnationalmeet.org/ . Gary, trim it how you see fit or summarize it yourself. 

 It was a great day, and my first half mile on my XR500. Very fun on a beautifully prepared crushed limestone cushion with big wide corners and short straights....thanks for sharing the pics....R

A couple of nice KRs...

Late-1920s Cleveland Four

Mid-'20s Excelsior Super X board track racer (replica?).

Indian Four - which was actually an Ace, until the Springfield company bought the rights.

Roger says, 'I asked the vendor about the Excelsior. It's a 1925 machine cut down for his kids in 1936, original since then, handed down in the same family. Totally cool...'

Gives you an idea how the grandstand fills up Friday evening as people get off work and make their way to the fairgrounds.

This is our friend Al Lonneville (#9) on the rigid Triumph battling a KR in the brakeless class. Patty took all of these.

I'm #40 on the pole in my heat. It didn't help. This was taken by our Motorhead friend Tom Beasley.