Larry Lawrence | January 24, 2018
The start of the Laconia TT National in 1939 before the Belknap Park course was paved.
The Laconia (NH) Classic was once the second biggest motorcycle race in America, second only to Daytona. The race had origins that pre-dated even Daytona. What’s interesting about Laconia, is that unlike Sturgis, which originated as a motorcycle race later to become a much more famous as an annual motorcyclist rally, Laconia actually started as an annual Gypsy Tour dating back to 1917 and was a well-established gathering, years later that spawned a national race.
Motorcycling, which thrived for the first half of the 1910s as a major mode of transportation, began to slip by the mid-decade with Ford’s continuous improvements to its mass production techniques and the resultant low-cost Model T. In 1917 America’s motorcycle industry body, the Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) was looking for ways to stimulate motorcycle ridership and sales and came up with a series of tours they dubbed Gypsy Tours. These tours would take place across the country, but almost immediately the tour held in New England became the biggest. It made sense, in that the bulk of motorcycle makers during the early year of the industry were in New England. Indian, the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world at that point, was in Springfield, Massachusetts.
And the Laconia Gypsy Tour had the major population base of Boston and New York City from which to draw. The rally grew rapidly and would hold the honor as the biggest annual gathering of motorcyclists until it was overtaken by Sturgis probably sometime in the 1970s.
Big-time national racing came to the New England Gypsy Tour with the advent of AMA’s then new Class C (production based) racing category. Swanzey, New Hampshire hosted AMA 200-Mile TT Nationals starting in 1934. A local hero Babe Tancrede won that first 200-Mile TT National on a Harley-Davidson. Then another local, the relatively unheralded Hanford Marshall won the big TT event in ’36. The ’36 race was dubbed “The Derby of Death”. Racer Richard Ashbrook died when he ran off the course into a tree and a spectator was killed when he was hit attempting to cross the track.
The Swanzey TT course was 3.3 miles long over rough roads, up and down hills and many turns. A newspaper estimated the crowds at the Swanzey TT at 10,000, a massive gathering during the Great Depression.
Old Orchard Beach, Maine, hosted the New England Gypsy Tour in 1937 and a 100-mile National was held. The race was won by Indian-backed rider Lester Hillbish, who actually had to borrow a motorcycle from a spectator at the last minute, when his bike quit running. Hillbish was offered the bike by motorcycle dealer Horace Fritz, from Hillbish’s hometown of Reading. PA. Hillbish won the 100-miler, not only having to make an extra stop owing to a stock tank, but it was especially notable since, Fritz had ridden the motorcycle 500 miles to the race! The fans, made aware of Hillbish’s situation, went nuts when he took the checkered flag a lap ahead of Ben Campanale, who would go on to win the Daytona 200 in 1938 and ’39.
Springfield (MA) Indian Motorcycle Dealer Fritzie Baer was instrumental in bringing the New England Gypsy Tour races to the Belknap Recreational Area in Laconia, New Hampshire. Interestingly Baer later left Indian to become managing director of the park. In that capacity, he promoted the Laconia Classic (now called the Loudon Classic) road races through 1963. In spite of being called the Laconia Classic, the Belknap Park circuit was actually located in neighboring Gilford.
The first national at Belknap in 1938 was a 200-miler won by Daytona winner Iron Man Ed Kretz on an Indian. That gave Kretz several distinctions – he was the first rider to win the what would become known as the Laconia Classic, he was the first rider outside of the Northeastern part of the country to win the national race associated with the New England Gypsy Tour, and finally he was the only 200-mile winner of the Laconia Classic. In 1939 the race at Belknap would become a 100 miler.
With the scenic environment and exciting course at Belknap, the New England Tour had found a permanent home for its big race. The races throughout the years would see improvement to the one-mile course, going from all dirt or gravel, to being paved. It went from being classified a TT national to a road race national in 1940.
The race grew steadily, but then absolutely exploded in popularity after it resumed after World War II. Look at images of the race in the 1940s and ‘50s and you’ll see just massive crowds of fans crowded around the length of the wooded circuit. Word of the race spread and CBS made Laconia one its earliest annual sporting events covered.
Laconia went along fine until the early 1960s when unruly attendees starting drawing strong complaints from local residents. It reached a breaking point and in 1964 the New England Dealer Association announced it could not come to an agreement with local officials to host the rally and the race.
The answer to renew the race was to build a specially built road course and Bryar Motorsports Park was completed at nearby Loudon in time for the renewal of what would now become the Loudon Classic. Unfortunately, in order to satisfy complaints by locals citizens, local officials went way too heavy handed in ’65. They enacted unreasonable local ordinances that basically allowed police to arrest groups of three of more people who were “loitering”. In order to enforce these stringent rules with 20,000 motorcyclists, a large group of National Guardsmen were station in place at Weirs Beach setting the stage for over-policing resulting in an outbreak of violence now called the Weir’s Beach Riot. Thousands of Laconia attendees threw rocks, burned cars and damaged buildings during night of rioting in this resort area. More than 100 persons were arrested and more than 60 persons were treated at hospitals.
The ’65 riots marked a turning point for the rally. It gradually diminished in numbers, though the national races went on at Loudon through 2002. Incidentally, the nighttime partying at the new track became both legendary and infamous with the view from Animal Hill looking like something out of Apocalypse Now on particularly crazy evenings.
The rally continues today and races are still held during Laconia Bike Week, but have been club events now since 2002, but for an amazing stretch from the late 1930s to the early 2000s, the Laconia/Loudon Classic was one of the truly elite motorcycle racing events in America, and attracted massive crowds.
You can read about the Loudon Classic by subscribing to the Cycle News Archives at: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/
