A short Tom Penton story

[Dogfeathers]

Penton Fans,

I do not have a Penton, but I sure do admire them. I've got too many bikes in the garage now to add yet another. I had a per chance meeting with Tom Penton years ago and just wanted to share it with Penton enthusiasts. Some of you guys with military experience may get a charge out of it.

I was stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam with the Air Force from September 1970 to September of 1971 with the 15th Aerial Port Squadron. One afternoon in the fall of ''70 I was looking for a place to sit in the chow hall and saw this guy sitting alone at a table so I decided to sit across from him and share lunch. I just got in country and hardly knew a soul, so everyone was a stranger. I just made idle conversation with the guy and we chatted along and I noticed that the name tag on his uniform said Penton on it. I was a total gearhead at the time and just lived for motorcycles and happen to mention that there was a high quality off road motorcycle made in the US named Penton. In a rather understated way he said "Yes, my dad makes them". Right about then I almost choked and after regaining my composure we had a long conversation about motorcycles. I had known of the Penton motorcyling family and was rather stunned to be accidentally sitting across the table from a rather young but obviously great rider. We exchanged a few off road stories and of course, he had _real_ stories to tell. In the course of the conversation he had mentioned that he was preparing  to go compete in the coming ISDT. At about that time I took a back step and thought that about the only way you leave Vietnam was for  "offical business" (such as invading Cambodia), but personal reasons were limited to #1. your tour of duty in Vietnam was over, #2. R & R, (Rest & Relaxation), more commonly refered to as Rape and Run where GI's got 7 days off for every 12 months in Vietnam for in-depth study of the bars and cat houses in other parts of Southeast Asia, #3.death in your immediate family or other family emergency. #4. your own injury required more sophisticated or long term medical treatment than what was available in Vietnam such as stepping on a landmine and having your remaining stump reshapped for a artifical limb, #7. You were captured by the Viet Cong and were dragged off to rot in a prison camp someplace. #8  You went AWOL but could not get very far or option  number 9,  and that was to ship your remains home in a body bag. If you did not fit into those situations, you did not leave Vietnam... period!...end of story!.......except this story.

It seems that Tom had been chosen to represent the United States in the coming ISDT at the Isle of Man and when he went to his commanding officer, a full bird Colonel, (right up there close to God in the miltary) to request leave to go race motorcycles, the colonel blew a gasket. Well the colonel read Tom the riot act and informed him that his duty in Vietnam was to kill and not go off to race motorcycles and to just forget about it......period! Well soon thereafter Tom contacted his father John, and informed him that his commanding officer was being rather difficult. Well then John contacts his local congressman and the congressman in turn made a few phone calls and not much later the 'ol colonel changes his tune and Tom gets to go off and race motorcyles. That was one of the few correct decisions I saw implemented while I was in Vietnam I might add.

Tom was not in my outfit so I did not see him much on a regular basis, but I did see him after the ISDT and found out that he did do quite well racing. He must have been tranferred out of Vietnam soon after as I never saw him after that again.

Speed forward about thirty years to the year 2000 and I went to Sonomafest, the two week AHRMA / AMA  event held at Sears Point raceway north of San Francisco and there was a huge Penton booth with John and Jack Penton, lots of historical pictures, bikes, racing luminary's and John signing a biography of him by Ed Youngblood. Tom was not there, but I did find Jack in the crowd and I toldl him the above story about meeting his brother Tom in Vietnam.  He recalled some of the details and he could remember some strings being pulled to allow Tom to go racing. Well, at least he got out of Vietnam in one piece and did get to tweak the nose of some colonel and win a gold medal while he was at it. That's my Penton story.

Larry Orlick
Oakland, California

[Kip Kern]

Larry

That is the best Penton story I have ever heard!  Thank you for sharing that memory with us!:D

[Mick Milakovic]

Just goes to show you:  PENTONS RULE!

Mick

[LynnCamp]

Had a little discussion this morning with an "old" ISDT rider who remembered that Tom was brought in from Vietnam to race the '71 Isle of Man.  He remembers that Tom set his bike on fire and burned it up while trying to quiet it for the sound test.  However, the ISDT.org site shows Tom brought home a Gold (amazing to think that he could have been race-ready enough to earn a Gold given that he came in from Vietnam to run!)

I searched the POG Forums..... and found this post about Tom, but wondered if anyone can anyone solve the puzzle?  Was it another Penton that was set on fire at the 1971 Isle of Man ........ or did it happen at the 1975 Isle of Man where Tom is posted as retiring on Day 1.

BTW -- our U.S. guys (and one of our "speedy" Canadian friends) definitely kicked butt that year at Isle of Man  ..... does anyone know which year was the best overall -- in terms of medals -- for the U.S. (of course Dalton rocked -- but I am not sure that Americans won more medals that year than any other year).

Also saw that some riders are missing from the ISDT.org rider's list.  Is there another comprehensive website with ISDT results?

Thanks!

[TGTech]

Lynn,

   The fire incident happened in '75, the second time that Tom got to go to the ISDT on the Isle of Man. He had covered his exhause pipe with fiber glass, to try and dampen the resonance of the pipe, and during a gas fill up, the tank ran over and soaked the fiber glass. The next time that the pipe got hot, it caught fire and toasted the bike.

   In the '71 ISDT, Tom did quite well, though I don't remember exactly how he finished.

   I never really knew how Tom got out of Viet Nam to get to the Isle of Man, but when the next year's event came around, he was not able to get to Czechoslovakia. I remember something about him getting out of the military on leave to go behind the Iron Curtain didn't go over very well with the military big whigs. As a result, I was able to take a place on the Trophy Team for the second year in a row, because one of the Penton brothers couldn't make it.

Dane

[dkwkid]

This from Motor Cycle Weekly:
Burleson first at Trask Mtn.
 It looked for awhile as though the entire Penton 125 effort was on the rocks, as the course on the second day whipped off on a deceptive gravel road with a banked turn who"s radius sharply diminished. Carl Cranke was the first to find that there was no way to make the bend as he slid off the embankment. He was up and gone when Tom Erickson went off. A second behind him was Tom Penton, who was passing Harry Taylor as they came into the hidden curve. Harry reports that Penton was still crossed up with the throttle wide open when he left the road.
 Before Penton could get to his feet, dick Burleson joined the party riding another Penton. Burleson and Penton began shouting and waving as Gene Cannady skidded into view. Gene saw that there was no way to miss all the men and machines so he gassed it on and jumped them all. This sacrifice saved injury to the team, but did nothing constuctive for Cannedy, as the downhill brush to do a twice over endo.
 It took the boys five minutes to find the machine in the bush, and ten more to get on the road. More accedents were prevented when Frank Trafford stopped in time after Cannedy's take off, and was able to drag a couple of small logs up on the road which caused the other riders to slow down enough to make the curve. The problem came up again when some do-good )?) removed the logs in time for the remaining Penton 175 rider Bob Grodzinski to miss the curve. Doug wilford was the only rider who stayed out of the melee.

[Jeff D]

If any of you know ISDT vets who aren't on ISDT.org, encourage them to contact Rokon Ron the webmaster to get their info posted.

Jeff DeBell

[tmc3c]

Thank You guys for the stories!!I raced Pentons in the "day" and I lived in Charleston S.C. and I always payed close attention to Tom.Now that I am back into Pentons and I was hoping I could meet him but haven't as of yet.Any info about Tom still catches my eye and I hope to meet him one day soon.



Thomas Carmichael


1970 125 Six Day
1976 250 Hare Scrambler

[LynnCamp]

Dane,
Thanks for clearing up the mixed memories regarding the year of the flaming Penton.  Can't imagine how disappointing it must have been to get to the six days and have something like that pull you out.  (feel bad for him.... but wouldn't you have loved to see the look on Tom's face -- or John's for that matter)!  BTW...Tom won Gold in '71 and so did you!

Regarding "taking a place" on the Trophy Team.... I think that you are way too modest... talk about a deep bench... looks like it was a no brainer to put you there since you brought home the Gold time and again.  Amazing to get there.. incredible to finish.. miraculous to bring back this much gold:

71 gold
72 gold
73 gold
74 bronze
75 gold
76 gold
results get a little foggy after 76.

Regarding Czechoslovakia .... the military isn't known for its flexibility..... I can imagine getting Tom there was something that even John couldn't pull off.  Even as a daughter of a Navy officer stationed in Hong Kong and parts of Europe -- I wasn't allowed to go into China or Eastern Europe.  I wasn't even allowed near the borders!

[LynnCamp]

Good suggestion Jeff. Ron has done a great job of putting together results from the ISDTs... the best that I have found. I use it a lot for reference.  The section I was talking about is the "Rider List" which list the names and the number of ISDT events that they rode.

I hadn't really looked at the "Rider List" until I was looking for Tom's Isle of Man thing.  I noticed that the list has John Penton, Dwight Rudder, Doug Wilford, Paul Danik, Dick Burleson, Dave Mungenast, Jim Hollander, Tom Shaw and Jeff Gerber.... but obviously is missing a lot of other Penton riders -- Jack, Tom, Jeff Penton, Dane, Ted Leimbach, Billy Uhl, etc. -- all who were in a significant number of ISDTs. (and yes--Speedy.... no Canadians who rode the wrong bike are on the list either!!!).

As you suggested, it would be great if people would continue to contribute to the site... and if the rider list section could get updated to reflect more riders.  For me, the ISDT will always be the best example of the extreme test of man and machine.

P.S.  sure have enjoyed your ISDT/RR articles!!

[firstturn]

Lynn & others,
  Thank you for bring up the 1971 Six Day which was/is  one of my favorites because I was just somewhat learning about the ISDT.  Just for kicks do you or anyone else know who was the top finishing American in 1971?  Remember there wher a lot of American greats in that Year such as Malcolm Smith and others.  Just a great year for USA in my book.

Ron Carbaugh

[LynnCamp]

Sorry Ron....... don't know for sure who was low score... but I can tell you who the biggest heart throb was .............. just kidding .......

Not sure how to interpret the numbers on http://www.isdt.org for that year -- in other words it looks like there are three sets of numbers and don't know which one would be more important -- but it looks like it was one of these two -- probably Dane???

Lars Larsson...Penton...(0, 345.0)...Gold
Dane Leimbach(112)...Penton...(0, 64.1)...Gold

This is Malcolm's score on isdt.org:
Malcolm Smith(198)...Husqvarna...(0, 198.7)...Gold

Billy Uhl has 6 golds, but in '71 John made him <grin> ride a Puch that puked.

[Chakka]

I just love these old racing stories and recollections...keep them coming.
Chakka

[firstturn]

Miss Lynn,
  You are just too good.  It was Dane, and the unbelievable part is that it was his first ISDT.  I was really amazed at following each day at how different people fared.  Great post.

Ron Carbaugh

[Paul Danik]

May I chime in with the fact that Dane was on a 100cc machine as he beat the more experianced ISDT riders on larger displacement machines.

Paul