Fred Ham with his '37 Knucklehead at Murdoc Dry Lake, CA, in 1937.
It was on a hot Thursday morning that an athletic six-footer named Fred Ham climbed aboard his '37 Knucklehead, the seat sizzling from the sun beating down on Murdoc Dry Lake, California's answer to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. No traffic lights-no traffic, in fact, would get in his way this day. He would be riding in a dusty circle 5 miles in diameter, around and around, and by the end of 24 grueling hours, Fred and his '37 EL would clock 1,825.2 miles averaging 76.62 mph. That date was April 8, 1937, and the record had never been challenged...until almost exactly 70 years later, when on Wednesday, April 4, 2007, at precisely 4:40 p.m. Wayne Stanfield climbed aboard a 61ci OHV '37 Knucklehead, a nearly exact replica of Fred Ham's bike, and started the stopwatch ticking and the twin cylinders churning. It would be an attempt to have history repeat itself...and then some.
Fred and his pit crew. Add to that shortlist the name of Wayne Stanfield, who would seek not so much to best Fred Ham's remarkable achievement but to pay homage to it. In doing so, he took up the challenge, just as Fred had all those years ago when he sought to surpass the previous record set by Wells Bennett aboard an Indian in 1922.
Back in 1937, Fred, a motorcycle patrolman by profession and a motorcycle record-breaker by inclination, had previously won the famous Big Bear Enduro and held the Three Flags Canada to Mexico endurance record. On April 8, flaming pots illuminated the rough circle marked out in the parched earth, just enough to keep him on track as the sun set and the 100-degree heat plummeted to near-freezing temperatures. Fred rode on into the darkness, both he and his Harley-Davidson seemingly impervious to the relentless pace. Like that other famous endurance rider, Ed Kretz, the term "Ironman" certainly applied here.
Wayne Stanfield brought with him some rightfully earned credentials of his own. In 1995, he rode a '37 Harley in the Great American Race from Ottawa to Mexico City, the only motorcycle competing in that transcontinental event, where he finished fifth out of 95 entries. In 1996, he entered the event again, this time riding a '36 pre-production experimental Flathead "80" from Tacoma to Toronto, crossing the finish line only one second behind the winning automobile. In 1997, Wayne changed mounts and directions, this time setting a cross-country record on a 1917 Indian riding from Los Angeles to New York in six days, 11 hours, breaking the old record by more than 30 hours. You could say that Wayne, like Fred before him, has "the right stuff."
Wayne Stanfield with his '37 Knucklehead at Talladega Superspeedway in 2007.
He also had the right motorcycles and partner in these efforts. That would be Dale Walksler, founder and curator of the Wheels Through Time Museum, home to some 250 classic, vintage, and antique motorcycles, including a small herd of famous race bikes. Also known as the "Museum That Runs," the Maggie Valley, NC, facility also prepared the '37 Knucklehead for the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Fred Ham's Endurance Ride. Dale and Wayne met a dozen years ago while competing against each other in the Great American Race and found themselves kindred spirits. Therefore, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for them to team up to write new pages in the history books. "Dale and I talked about making a run at Ham's record over 10 years ago, and I said sure. It wasn't until a year ago that I realized he was serious, partly because I never thought he could get that track."