| April 7, 2024
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One More For The Road
Calling the roll of the greatest BSA motorcycle racers might as well be a registry of some of the greatest riders of all time. Dick Mann, Jim Rice, Dave Aldana, John Cooper and Jeff Smith comprise a short list of the legends who made their names on BSA motorcycles, winning World and National Championships, scoring impressive victories along the way at famed circuits like Daytona, Mallory Park and numerous stops on the grands prix motocross tour. The Gold Star, the Lightning, the Thunderbolt, and the Rocket III were the flagship models for the Union Jack company, motorcycles for mods, rockers, and others who believed that machine choice spoke volumes about its rider.
The legend would fall in the early 1970s, when the proud BSA marque was shuttered. Hard times befell the motorcycle industry in England, and one by one, the great brands were (temporarily) lost to history. BSA was the first to go, and when it expired, it would take its racing legacy to its grave, forever silencing the throaty British beat.
Or, would it?
In the summer of 1973, the last BSA motorcycle was produced. Flash forward to another summer five years later. It is July 14, 1978, and the 14th round of the AMA’s Grand National Championship series has rolled into Gardena, California, for the famed Ascot TT. Coming into the race, Steve Eklund and reigning champion Jay Springsteen were involved in an intense battle for the number-one plate, so surely one of them would be the favorite to win. If not, Eklund or Springsteen, then a smart wager would be on former national number-one Gary Scott, a five-time winner of the Ascot race, to come out on top. But when the checkered flag fell on the night, it would be Alex Jorgensen who would cross the finish line first, onboard a motorcycle that hadn’t seen production since the Nixon administration: a twin-cylinder BSA!
In 1978, five years after the last BSA motorcycle rolled off the production line, Alex Jorgensen gave the iconic brand a National win at the Ascot TT.
Jorgensen was a dirt track specialist who had made a name for himself on another British motorcycle, Norton, a stunningly beautiful machine crafted by legendary builder Ron Wood. Two months earlier, at the Ascot Half Mile, Jorgensen had piloted Wood’s Norton to a victory over Skip Aksland. He had led the race from green to checkers, so it was clear that he had the skill to win at the highest level. But even the best riders will say that it is nearly impossible to win without the best machinery.
Jorgensen, likely jokingly, said that his BSA racer was “somewhere between 25 and 50 years old.” And to be sure, the only true BSA component on the racer was probably the engine. But Jorgensen’s faith in the venerable machine says plenty about the BSA’s worthiness as a racer.
Unlike the earlier event at Ascot, the TT wasn’t going to be a runaway for Jorgensen. When the main event got underway, it was the Triumph-mounted John Hateley with the lead, while Gary Scott was on another Triumph, which was challenging. In tow was the championship-battling duo of Eklund and Springsteen. Jorgensen was in fifth, with some of the heaviest names in Class C racing ahead of him. Putting these skilled racers behind him was going to require some heavy lifting.
Motorcycle racing is a board game with many pieces in play. Good racers occasionally crash. The fastest and best motorcycles will malfunction at the most inopportune moments. The evil sorceress known as Lady Luck picks and chooses where to place both her favors and curses. For 19 laps, it seemed as if the Ascot TT was just a regular race, which would’ve been a clear sign to anyone in attendance that it was going to be anything but.
Mechanical woes sidelined both Springsteen and Scott. Then, just as it seemed as if Hateley was on his way to the win, Lil John went down hard over the track’s infamous TT jump. There was no cushion between the top two riders, so when Hateley went down, he took Eklund with him. The ensuing chaos brought out the red flag, sending the riders back to the line for a restart to a six-lap main event.
Now, it was Jorgensen’s race to lose, and despite an early challenge by Harley-Davidson rider Ted Boody, he would hold on to his lead and snag a popular victory. On the victor’s podium, famed Ascot announcer Roxy Rockwood playfully teased Jorgensen about the folly of riding an “antique” motorcycle in AMA competition.
“They don’t need no parts,” Jorgensen said in response, which was likely a good thing since finding replacement pieces for the old BSA might have been an even greater challenge than winning a major AMA dirt track race!
Rewriting history is probably something to be done only sparingly, if ever. But hold the tea! Break the Great Seal of The Realm and open the big book of BSA champions: Mann, Rice, Aldana, etc. Add to that list of legendary BSA riders the name of Alex Jorgensen, who gave the immortal brand a major race win five years after its death! Long live BSA!CN
