John Penton @ Mid Ohio

[Jack Penton]

JP is the legend for the Cross Country event this weekend at Mid Ohio. He will be at the riders meeting in the pits on Friday morning at 9:00am. We are planning a surprise for him at the meeting. If you are going to be there Friday morning come over and join us.

Shhh, it's a surprise!

See you there.

Jack

[Ernie Phillips]

I'll spread the word in the pits.  Shhh, it's a surprise!  -EP

Ernie P.
Chattanooga, TN

[Speedy]

quote:Originally posted by Jack Penton

JP is the legend for the Cross Country event this weekend at Mid Ohio. He will be at the riders meeting in the pits on Friday morning at 9:00am. We are planning a surprise for him at the meeting. If you are going to be there Friday morning come over and join us.

Shhh, it's a surprise!

See you there.

Jack

We will change the World,..
We just have to figure HOW,..



The John Penton PREZ. Safety car is build and handet over...[}:)]


Helmut"Speedy"Clasen
 Ontario Canada
http://speedy_c.tripod.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/vindurospeedy
2 x Sachs MC-GS 250-7A
1 x Hercules 350-7A 77
2 x Hercules 250-7A 76
Zuendapp 125 GS 72-73

[Gary Roach]

quote:Speedy Posted - 08/29/2008 : 12:50:34 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
We will change the World,..
We just have to figure HOW,..
 

If you two wouldn't spend so much time arguing about who's going to drive, you would have a lot done by now!!!

[Gary Roach]

For those of you who never made it to the Cross Country riders meeting, or Mid Ohio at all, for that matter, this is what John's big surprise was...his own personalized mini truck!







Here's the whole story on how this all came about.

  I work at In-Town Body Shop in Athens, OH. My boss, Dennis Buttrick, has been riding and racing bikes since the '70's. (If you're thinking about how great it would be to have a boss that's into dirt bikes, you're right, it is!). His son, Cory, is a very excellent off road rider and rides on the Powersports Graphics/KTM satellite team, and currently sits 10th Overall in the National Enduro series, and 14th in the GNCC series...and he just turned 17 years old last month! Anyway, when they go to the big events, they take a motorhome and trailer. Dennis decided that he needed something to get around in once he got to the track. He was looking at buying an ATV, but once he saw that someone was selling these used mini trucks, he thought it would be a cool vehicle to have. It was small enough to fit in his trailer, able to go from 2 to 4 wheel drive, has a heater and defroster, and windshield wipers....and it was cheaper than an ATV. He bought one, had one of our painters paint it orange, threw one some ATV wheels and tires, and had some KTM decals made for it. The painter, LJ Walls, found a Mercedes emblem at the shop and stuck it on the front of the truck. It looked so good, Dennis just left it on.
 
  The truck was an instant attraction at the track. It was hard trying to get around anywhere in it because people would stop you to find out what it was, where they could get one, and could they take a picture?! At one race, I saw two young men walking around the truck while it was parked, and one of them saw the Mercedes emblem and said, "Whoa! Look at that. This thing is a Mercedes! It bet this thing cost some major big bucks!".

  Well, this year at the John Penton GNCC, I gave John a ride in Dennis' truck (the one pictured below). The parking lot is mostly off camber and it was raining pretty heavily at the time, so I had the truck in 4WD, and we were able to go anywhere without spinning a wheel. After a while, John asks, "Does this truck actually has a defroster?". When John got out of the truck, he turns to Jack and asks, "Why don't I have one of these?" After the race, Jack calls me and says that his Dad wants one, and wants to know if we'll find him one, paint it orange, and put the KTM decals on it...and he also wants the Mercedes emblem.



   These mini trucks are built in Japan, and are called a "Kei Truck". There are several manufacturers, such as Honda, Subaru, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, and Daihatsu. Most have a 660cc gasoline engine that is mounted under the cab (you raise up the seats to service the engine). They are all right hand drive. Each one of the bedsides fold down separately, or can be removed all together. You can get accessories for them like a dump bed and snow plow.

    We wanted to find John a truck with an automatic transmission so that it would be easier for him to drive. Until we started searching for one, we had no idea that the trucks with an A/T was really rare, (kinda like finding a '68 Steel Tanker with the original long airbox and twist on gas cap). We found a couple down in Wayne, WV, so Dennis drove down and picked one up. It's '96 Mitsubishi Minicab, and not only did it have an A/T, but it also has Air Conditioning, Power Steering, and Power Brakes. John is riding in style!









After many phone calls between Jack, Kent Knudson, and myself, we decided to have some Penton decals made up rather than the KTM decals like on Dennis' truck. I thought that the '74-'76 tank decal would look good on the door, but because the bedsides have some weird body lines to it, I wasn't sure what to do with it past the door. Kent came up with the great idea of tapering it down from the door, then running the '77 style decals down the bedsides. I wanted to use the "Built for Champions" slogan to begin with, so that worked in there perfectly. I don't remember who came up with the idea of using the '77 style "Penton" decal for the tailgate, but it came out well. So one evening, Kent got a local graphics designer to meet us at the body shop, and we put our heads together and came up with the design. We still had to make a few trips back and forth to the designer, but the first set he printed out were exactly what we wanted and they were perfect. Jack wanted some KTM and Hi Point decals put on the truck also. we came up with idea of using the old blue and white KTM oval instead of the newer KTM logo. Kent took some old decals to the graphics guy and had some new ones made up to the sizes we wanted. We also had him make up some large "GS" decals too.

One evening I was talking to Toni about the Mercedes emblem, and she said, since John used to be a BMW dealer, why don't you use a BMW emblem? I called Jack the next day, and he thought that was a great idea. I went to our local BMW motorcycle dealership, and the guy that works at the parts department, Marvin, races vintage Huskys and Hodakas. He asked what I was putting it on, and when I told him what it was for, he said, "Here, take the emblem. No charge. I once owned a Penton."

The stock tires and wheels are small and very narrow, so Jack located some Douglas Wheels and Carlisle tires, and had them shipped to the shop. The Carlisle All Trail tires are 4 plys, hold up to 22 lbs of air (a normal ATV tire holds only 4-8 lbs), and are designed for pavement use. We had to buy a 2" lift kit to put on the truck so that the larger tires and wider wheels would clear the body.


Here are some photos of the truck while it was in the shop.

Since we were changing the color of the truck, everything had to stripped off, and that included the doors so that we could repaint the door jambs. We also had the bed floor and bedsides sprayed with spray-in-bedliner. Notice the old Penton tank decal stuck on the door. We were trying to get some ideas of what we wanted to do with the decals.




That's Dennis in the orange shirt, and Cory is sanding on the roof.


LJ is getting the truck ready to spray.




A few hours later...










LJ is starting to apply the decals.




We just had to take it for a test drive...you know, just to make sure that everything works...like the horn...and the cup holders...






Our big plan in the begining was to have the truck ready for Mid Ohio and to surprise John with it there. I think Jack had John convinced that it would not ready until sometime in August. Well, everything worked out as planned. At the riders meeting, as all of the riders were gathered around, Jack stood on the back of an ATV, and introduced his Dad as the Cross Country Legend, and that he had a gift for him. At that same time, the group of riders parted, and Dennis drove the truck right up to where John was standing. It took John a moment to realize that it was his...he first thought it was Dennis' truck. Dennis then handed him the keys, and smile on John's face was priceless. Funny thing was that right before the riders meeting started, John had asked Toni how his truck was coming along at the body shop, and her reply was "Oh, don't worry. It's coming".



(Dennis in the orange KTM shirt handing John the keys)




That's me showing John "what she has under the hood"...I mean seat.


I can just bet you that Al Born is saying something to John like; "Well John, it's been about 40 years since we've modified anything. How about we go to work on this thing?"










John drove his truck around at Mid Ohio, and he said the same that I mentioned earlier, it was hard trying to get around because people would stop you to find out what it was, where they could get one, and could they take a picture?! John said that he also having the same problems at home when he driving it around in Amherst.

John will use his truck to lead the Penton Motorcycle Parade/Ride  from KTM, thru the streets of Amherst, and to his home at the 40th Anniversary Celebration weekend. That's what Speedy was talking about when he said that the Safety Car was built and handed over.


There were several people involded to make this all happen (and in time for Mid Ohio). Whether they donated parts, supplies, or just spent time working on the truck, I would like to reconize them.


Kent Knudson
Jack Penton
LJ Walls
Toni Roach
Gary Roach
Holt BMW
Cory Buttrick
Bob Preast
Norm Bickley
Jim Barnhart
Dennis Buttrick & In Town Body Shop. Dennis provided countless hours and late nights working on this truck. Without him or the use of his body shop, I don't know when or if this project would have ever happened.    

         






 



               


   

[Lew Mayer]

Gary, Thanks for the whole story. Excellent.

Lew Mayer

[thrownchain]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

But if these catch on, we're going to need more space at Mid Ohio just to park them.[8D]