Pentons On Pavement

[OhioTed]

Several years ago I heard rumor that a Penton motorcycle had successfully competed in a 24-hour roadrace, here in Ohio.  A few well-placed questions led me to POG member Bruce Williams, who recounted the story, following.  Hope you find it interesting.

                                                 PENTONS ON PAVEMENT  



   The form of motorcycle competition known in the United States as Supermoto, has gained considerably in popularity over the past few years.  While its origins date back to the mid-1980's, with the made-for-tv "Superbikers" series, Supermoto is basically about racing dirt bikes on pavement.  However, a group of motorcycle riding friends from Ohio knew all about the advantages and the fun to be had from road racing dirt bikes, a good ten years prior to that.  

In the early 1970's, the owners of Midwest Husqvarna, which was located in Warren, Ohio, along with a few friends and relatives, decided to expand their riding activities beyond trailriding and scrambles racing.  Although several among the group had dabbled in a bit of road racing, it was decided that participating in a full 24 hour event would be a great deal of fun.  And, it just so happened that such an event was held at nearby Nelson Ledges Road Course.  

The group's first effort was in 1975, on board a Kawasaki 2-stroke street bike.  However, when the next year rolled around, they decided to try something different.  One of the shop's owners had purchased a brand new 1975 Penton Hare Scrambler, which he had been using for off-road competition.  And so, due to the bike's outstanding performance, and because "it was there", the Penton was chosen as the team's mount for the 1976 24 Hours Of Nelson.

Modifications to the bike in preparation for the event were quite few.  Most important was a hand-made, 5-gallon aluminum fuel tank, with a quick-fill cap.  Also, lower bars were installed, and the front fork internals were shortened in order to lower the front end.  Street tires were mounted up, as well as the tallest gearing possible by way of sprocket changes only.  Finally, a downpipe, fabbed-up from several different expansion chambers was installed in order to enhance top end power.  No internal engine modifications were made, and the stock brakes and 21" front wheel were retained.



Bruce Williams displays the handmade, 5-gallon fuel tank, which today is sadly the only part remaining of the "24 hour Penton".  

During the event, the team found themselves to be surprisingly competitive.  The Penton's light weight, powerful engine, and impeccable handling capabilities allowed the riders to outrun virtually every other entry through the turns, though they were down on top end speed.  

By the fifth hour, they were holding down 5th place overall, when a bike in front of them seized its engine on the front straightaway and crashed.  Unable to avoid him, the Midwest team rider ran over the other bike and also went down, breaking his thumb.  

Unfortunately, the Penton suffered damage in the crash as well.  Impact with the hard track surface had broken all the cooling fins off the right side of the cylinder.  The team had no spares at all, let alone a complete cylinder.  They considered making a run back home to their shop, harvesting another bike's cylinder, and using it to resume competition.  However, the hours lost in the effort could never be made up, so the team called it a day.  

And yet, their success during the time the bike was on the track prompted plans for a more serious effort in '77.  The first thing they did was to secure promises of support and participation from a full complement of riders and crew.  Joining the shop owners, Dick McKibben and Jim Ambrose, would be Dick's brother Jack, and friends Bruce Williams, Kevin Hillyer, and Darryl Timko, as well as each of the men's wives and/or girlfriends.    

   The same 1975 Penton, which was still being using regularly by Jim Ambrose for Scrambles competition, was once again to be pressed into service.  This time however, additional modifications were made to it.  The '75 event demonstrated to the team two things which they definitely needed more of – speed, and brakes.  

The "braking" part was fairly easy, as Jack McKibben owned a Yamaha TA250 roadracer, which gave up its front wheel assembly, including a four-shoe drum brake.  The "speed" part was another matter.  While the Midwest team wanted top end speed in excess of 100 mph, they were hesitant about modifying the engine to produce more power.  More power means more wear, and the chance for a DNF.  

No, the engine was already plenty fast enough.  What they needed was taller primary gearing.  No larger front sprockets or smaller rear sprockets were available beyond what they already had, so a search was on for different internal gears.  A call to Penton Imports led to a conversation with Jack Penton, where it was revealed that, amazingly enough, the Pentons had been considering their own assault on the 24-hour event at Nelson Ledges.  Jack explained that their effort however, was on indefinite hold due to other obligations.  

Jack did offer to help with the gearing problem, though.  Since the Pentons had anticipated the need for taller gearing in their own effort, special primary gears had been secured.  With an agreement of don't ask, don't tell, and bring 'em back, undamaged, on Monday after the race, the taller primary gears were loaned to the Midwest team.  

With the gears installed and the bike fully assembled, Midwest needed to break in the motor and test it.  Also, they were curious to know just what kind of top end the bike would now provide.  As there were no venues for testing available other than the local public roads, the Penton was taken out on the highway, and with a 750 Honda alongside for speed measurement (the Penton was not equipped with a speedometer), top speed runs were performed.

The results were very promising.  The Penton was faster than the 750 four-cylinder Honda street bike to 100 mph, and topped out at an indicated 110.  Midwest was now ready for a serious assault on the 24-hour event.          

As in the year prior, the team had no problems securing an entry for their unorthodox machine.  The promoters of the 24 Hours of Nelson simply accepted entries up to a maximum of 50 teams.  Basic safety requirements, such as safety wiring critical nuts and bolts were met, as well as approved tires and an acceptable fuel system.  Also, all the team members met the requirement of "some prior roadracing experience", although in Darryl Timko's case the experience consisted of a ride on the Penton in exactly one previous sprint race.  

Team Midwest was a very low budget effort and relied heavily on all team members pitching in to help.  This included the fellow's wives and girlfriends, who were to be responsible for all the logistics involved in keeping a motorcycle and team functioning for 24 hours.  Duties included all time scheduling, such as rider rotation, tracking who could sleep and when, pit stop planning, and most important of all, scoring.

This was long before transponder scoring came along, which meant that each team was responsible for physically scoring their machine – every lap.  In 24 hours, on the short, 2 mile Nelson Ledges course, that meant one lap on the average of every one minute and forty-five seconds – over and over and over.  Thank goodness for those wonderful and supportive ladies.  

Also relative to the team's budget constraints, there were only two sets of leathers on hand to serve the entire team.  This meant that rider rotation also had to take into consideration which members fit into which leathers, so that rider exchanges were not delayed by the time necessary for one member to strip down while the next waited for the leathers.

The team was not absolutely sure of the Penton's fuel consumption rate, so to be certain enough premix was on hand, they brought to the event a full 55-gallon drum of fuel, donated by one of the team member's employer.  With rider changes planned every hour and a half, the team figured their handmade five-gallon tank would provide plenty of fuel range between stops.

The start was a dead-engine "LeMans" style, with the riders sprinting across the track to their waiting machines.  Held upright by crewmembers until the riders took hold of them, the bikes could then be either kicked over, bump started, or for those machines so equipped, fired by "their magic button".  With the Penton's left side-mounted kicker, it was an easy matter for the Midwest team rider to fire the already warmed motor (first kick) and make an excellent start.  And so began a supreme test for the little 250 Penton.  

The race settled soon enough however into an exhilarating albeit tedious lapping of the course.  Around and around the tight Nelson Ledges course, ticking off consistent laps, the Penton began its long journey.  

Since the race took place in July, there were hours of daylight remaining after the riders took the mid-afternoon green flag.  And, as the rules required that each of the riders must put in at least one stint on the bike before dark, the Midwest team's exchange schedule worked out just right.
   As darkness fell however, the one modification to the Penton, which Team Midwest had made no provision for became a factor.  The Nelson Ledges Road Course is a dark, dark place.  There was good lighting along the pit straight (mainly for scoring purposes), and reasonable lighting in the pits, but throughout the night, the rest of the serpentine course would be lit only by the bikes' own lighting systems.  And, while many of the teams were running massive forward (and angled – for seeing through the turns while the bikes were banked over) lights, the Team Midwest Penton relied on only its factory lighting coil and enduro headlight.  

In order to compensate for this disadvantage, the Midwest riders relied on the superior lighting produced by other bikes on the course.  However, considering the significant differences in corner and straightaway speeds between the Penton and other entries, as often as not the Midwest riders were on their own, far outrunning the bike's own lighting and relying on having memorized braking and turn-in points on the course.

As a testament to the team member's riding skills (and bravery) this system worked, and lap times fell off only by 5-10 seconds per lap.  Running in the 250 class as they were, the team's main competition was a 250 Can-Am which, on the other hand, had a pair of "Super Oscar" lights showing the way.

Entered by a group of riders from another local shop, Import Cycle, the Can-Am had somehow been fitted with larger than stock lighting coils, powerful enough to support its substantial lighting system.  Like the Penton, the Can-Am was very fast, but benefited not only from the superior lighting system, but also even taller gearing, as well as a team member with Baja night-racing experience.  

The Penton and its riders pressed on however, and continued to cut clean and consistent lap times throughout the night.  And, other than the riders being startled by frogs hopping across the track, as well as a near miss with a possum, the bike was still running perfectly as Sunday morning dawned.  

Once again, a big part of the team's success were their stalwart wives and girlfriends who, in addition to crewmembers Kevin Hillier and Bruce Williams, remained awake throughout the entire event in order to assure the Penton and its rider's needs were consistently attended to.  Kevin and Bruce managed all pit stops, handled the refueling process, and inspected the bike at every stop.  Aided by their attention and diligence, the 250 Hare Scrambler continued to circulate the course, lap after lap and hour after hour.

Other teams were not so fortunate, however.  Once example was that of the group pitted next to Team Midwest, who were competing aboard a Harley-Davidson XLCR "Café Racer".  While the Penton's needs at each pit stop consisted of refueling, a rider change, and lubing the chain, the Harley team eventually came to virtually rebuild their entire machine over the course of the event.  

This group had brought a second XLCR with them to be used as a parts donor, and they eventually used most of this bike in order to keep the one in competition functioning.  They were still running at the end, but vibration had destroyed many parts on the primary bike, including the rear wheel assembly, and the bike's engine was requiring two quarts of oil at every fuel stop.  They eventually finished 100 laps behind Midwest's Penton.

The big clock on the main straightaway finally wound round for a second time since the drop of the green flag, and the event came to a close.  And as it had since 24 hours earlier, the Penton Hare Scrambler was still running perfectly.  Team Midwest finished second to the Can-Am team, and took home a trophy for all their time, money, and effort.

The team celebrated by pouring beer all over each other, then loaded up the Penton and went home.  By the next day, the borrowed primary gears had been returned to Penton Imports, and within another week, Jim Ambrose's 250 Hare Scrambler was a dirt bike again.  

Jim put knobby tires back on the bike, installed fresh rings in the top end, and resumed scrambles racing, declaring the bike to run as well or better than it had before being run at high speed on a road course for 24 hours.  If the bike had averaged say, 6,000 rpm over the course of the event, figuring in slower cornering speeds and pit stops, that comes out to 8,640,000 revolutions of the little 250cc engine.  During the course of the 24 hour event, the bike had zero problems.  Not a single repair was required or performed, not even a plug change.  The bike even ran the entire event on one set of tires, which were in fact later mounted up and used for many more miles on Bruce Williams' BMW street bike.  

 
Did John Penton ever consider that this kind of durability would be possible from his motorcycles?  Did he ever suspect that his bikes would be subject to the kind of test put forth during that 24 hour period at Nelson Ledges, Ohio?  Well, the members of Team Midwest certainly had faith enough in Penton motorcycles to take that kind of chance and to prove that it could not only be done, but also with absolutely faultless performance as well.

Did Dick McKibben and Jim Ambrose and their friends ride a Penton dirt bike in the 24 Hours of Nelson to prove a certain point?  Were they looking to achieve a significant place in motorsports history?  Naw.  They were just a group of riding friends who wanted to compete in an event, for fun, and decided that a Penton Sportcycle would enable them to do successfully.  And that's exactly what happened.    
                             

[454MRW]

Ted,
Thanks for sharing this with us and BRAVO to Team Midwest and also to JP for insisting on only the best to make Penton more than good enough to complete this amazing feat! Mike

Michael R. Winter
I enjoy rebuilding and appreciating Pentons!
1974 250 HS Pentons-1980 KTM 175-400'S

[marsattacks]

Brilliant!

Click here to see Mars attack:
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0208/images/marsattacks.jpg

[Kip Kern]

There is a photo of a Penton ST roadracer in "Keeping Track"  pretty cool!;)

[OhioTed]

Does anyone have information in regard to the Penton roadracers and their owners, as mentioned by Kip following the PoP article?

[Blue_Dog]

Wow, what a cool deal. This will bump it TTT for others to enjoy.

[paul a. busick]

Thanks for the article Ted.  Is it not amazing what American ingenuity and a good base machine can produce?  The 24 hours of Nelson Ledges was a pretty big deal at the time and just finishing the race was very prestigious. Besides, everybody needs a beer bath once in a while. []  Amherst Paul

[Daniel P. McEntee]

This just about as cool as it can get! What a story and wouldn't it have been great to have been there and witnessed it in person!
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee