John Penton ISDT win on a Husky in 70

[paul]

Hey POG racing heads. I was looking at the ISDT website reading about John Pentons 7 wins. My question is why was he riding a Husky in 1970? I assume it was a 250 but thats a guess. The race was in Spain that year. Something I wondered about and I know someone knows for sure. Thanks, Paul

[Paul Danik]

Paul,

  In the John Penton book it states that in 1968 and 1969 John rode the ISDT aboard his new Penton motorcycle which caused a lot of unhappiness with Husky who had expected him to ride their machines.  In the 1970 ISDT he did ride the Husky but commented later that " I think I could have gotten a gold at El Escorial if I had been riding a Penton." John Penton was the east coast distributer of Husky at this time and apparently they expected him to only ride their machines.

   You probably already know this, John Penton has stated many times that if Husky had built the 125cc machine that he asked them to build, the Penton motorcycle never would have come about. Husky felt that the Americans always wanted larger machines, not smaller.

   If you have never read the John Penton book there is a lot of interesting information in it. A special hardback "40th Anniversary Commemorative Edition" has just been published so books are still available.

 Paul