Larry Lawrence | October 30, 2022
Cycle News Archives
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The Brinck of Fame
Eddie Brinck was an AMA Class A racing Champion of the 1920s. Brinck won AMA National titles in 1925 and again in 1927 riding a Harley-Davidson. A dapper gentleman, Brinck had the looks of a Hollywood leading man. Just as he was breaking through to become one of the nation’s leading motorcycle racers, his life was tragically cut short after a racing accident. He was 31.
Eddie Brinck pictured aboard a factory Harley-Davidson “Peashooter.” Brinck raced the small (350cc) and lightweight Harley to speeds on par with the bigger 500cc racing machines of the 1920s. In 1926, he set a single-cylinder speed record on a Peashooter at 96.5 mph.
Brinck was born Edward Jeppa Brinck on June 9, 1896, in Dayton, Ohio. Brinck spent most of his formative years in Dayton, which was a mecca of early bicycling, motorcycling and aviation. While a young man in school, Brinck took part-time summer jobs working in motorcycle shops and at the Dayton Sewing Machine Company, which also manufactured the Dayton motorcycle.
Brinck left Dayton briefly when he attended the Peddie Institute in New Jersey.
Brinck’s engineering skills landed him job at McCook Field, which was one of the top military aviation research centers of the time. Brinck worked in the motor testing department and was a specialist in high-speed gasoline engines.
Even in the sport’s first generation, Ohio was already a hotbed of motorcycle racing and produced top National riders like Lee Taylor, Jim Davis and a racer who would become Brinck’s good friend, Maldwyn Jones. Area motorcycle racers came to Brinck for help with their racing engines. Brinck began racing on some of these borrowed machines in 1916, more for testing the motors he built instead of seriously trying to pursue racing. He continued to dabble in racing until 1920, again, not taking it all that seriously until he built a machine of his own with his buddy, Jones. They called their creation the J-B Special (Jones-Brinck). During the 1921 season, Brinck was mentored and traveled with veteran racer and good friend Jones and raced Harley-Davidson four-valve singles. By the end of that summer, Brinck was winning local races.
After five years of racing simply to first-hand test his motors, without even noticing, Brinck gradually developed into a very talented rider.
By 1924, Brinck began earning podium finishes in National dirt track races. He finished third, behind Jim Davis and Ralph Hepburn, in the very first National race officially sanctioned by the newly formed American Motorcycle Association (AMA) on July 26, 1924, in Toledo, Ohio.
Jones used his influence to convince Harley-Davidson to issue factory racers to Brinck. Even though he was beginning to make his mark in racing, Brinck hadn’t quite yet built the credentials to warrant a factory rig, but Harley respected the word of Jones and sent Brinck factory racers with the stipulation that Jones keep a close eye on Brinck and overlook the work he did on the factory racers. What the Milwaukee factory racing brass didn’t know was that in his military aviation work, Brinck had worked on motors vastly more advanced than the Harley racers.
Now with factory support, in 1925 Brinck made the difficult decision to leave a well-paying and stable job at McCook Field to pursue racing full time. In September of that year, Brinck proved that Jones was a great talent scout when Brinck broke through to win his first AMA National title, the 15-Mile Championship for 30.50-cubic-inch (500cc) motors held in Syracuse, New York. Besides his dirt-track racing accomplishments, Brinck also did well in the few motordrome races he entered during the waning days of the board-track circuit.
Three of the leading motorcycle racers of the 1920s—Maldwyn Jones, Paul Anderson and Eddie Brinck—pose for a photo. It was Jones who mentored Brinck and helped him get a factory Harley-Davidson ride.
During the winter of 1926, Brinck traveled to Australia and earned several race wins and speed records during his months Down Under, including the best lap ever turned on a single-cylinder machine at 96.5 mph. Included in his Aussie tour were several beach races.
Brinck’s background in engineering gave him a special interest in high-revving engines. His passion became small motors, his favorite being the Harley-Davidson 21.35 c.i. (350cc) “Peashooter” motor that came out in 1926. Magazines of the time credited Brinck with building a “Peashooter” mount that was nearly has fast as the 30.50-inch motors.
On July 31, 1927, Brinck rode one of the small Harleys to victory in the National Championship race held in Harley-Davidson’s own back yard, the Milwaukee Mile. He was quickly becoming one of the country’s best-known riders.
Tragically, just as his popularity was at its peak, Brinck’s life was suddenly cut short on August 13, 1927, during a National Championship race at the Eastern State Exposition track in Springfield, Massachusetts. His bike’s front tire blew out entering a turn, causing him to crash. Joe Petrali, who was closely following, managed to miss the downed rider, but slammed into Brinck’s bike and was seriously injured in the mishap. Doctors who attended to Petrali were so convinced that he would die, that they allowed an intern to practice his stitching to sew back on a section of Petrali’s lip that was cut off in the accident and carried in with the gravely injured rider. Yet despite the odds against him, Petrali surprised doctors and, after two months in the hospital, made a full recovery and was back racing within a year.
Years later in an interview, Jones said that shortly before his fatal accident, Brinck had been given a lucrative offer to go to work as an engineer for the famous carburetor maker, Schebler. Jones, understanding the dangers of the racing game, suggested that his friend take the job. So, it was ironic that Brinck, who basically got into racing just to test motors he’d built, found it hard to walk away from the sport after experiencing National victories and the adulation, notoriety and monetary rewards that came with it.
Brinck’s death deeply saddened the racing community. Fellow racer Jim Davis accompanied Brinck’s body on the train ride back to Dayton from Massachusetts. Representatives of the factory teams, motorcycle trade personnel, a large contingent of motorcyclists from western Ohio and many of the top racers of the day attended his funeral services in Dayton. His funeral procession was led through downtown Dayton by an escort of city and county motorcycle patrolmen as well as dozens of area riders.
Brinck will be remembered for his excellent engineering skills, his enthusiastic support of racing small, highly efficient engines and his fearless riding style. Decades later, Brinck was recognized for his accomplishments in the sport when he was named among the original class of inductees into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. CN
