Going for the Cycle : Vintage Races at Ventura Made to Order for Dodges

There are two schools of thought among collectors of vintage motorcycles.

One believes in the beauty of these vehicles as an investment.

The other maintains that bikes were built to be ridden, not parked in a garage or showroom.

The Dodge family rides, which explains why tonight they have five motorcycles worth an estimated $65,000 entered in the fourth Dean Hensley Memorial vintage short track motorcycle races at Ventura Raceway.

Tony Dodge, the 35-year-old proprietor of a Chatsworth auto-repair shop, owns four racing bikes, including a $12,000 1937 Indian Scout that his father purchased in 1949.

“It’s been crashed and blown up numerous times,” Dodge said. “We’ve been racing it the last 12 years, and it’s probably had a dozen rebuilds and all kinds of bent-up parts replaced.”

Considering that Indian ceased production over 40 years ago, repairs are more easily explained than accomplished.

When a part breaks, an owner has two options: emptying the bank account and scouring the swap meets, or emptying the bank account and finding a machinist to fabricate parts.

Which is where 36-year-old Joe Dodge enters the picture.

Along with Tony, he handles the mechanical work on the family cycles, including parts fabrication.

Patriarch Gene Dodge, 64, of Acton, raced the same Indian bike in American Motorcycle Assn. events in 1953 and 1954, and relishes the thought that his trusty old steed is still in action. He compares vintage motorcycle racing to unlimited air racing.

“If you go out to Reno and see the Unlimited class, the fastest planes out there, its all P-51s and Thunderbolts, and they’re each worth about a million [dollars],” Gene Dodge said.

“It’s no fun just to look at them, because the beauty is in the way they sound and the way they perform.”

Dodge raised his family in Granada Hills, and as each of the boys came of age, Gene taught them how to ride the old Indian.

“I wouldn’t let them ride those little ring-dings,” he said. “If they were going to race, they had to ride a real man’s bike.”

Gene Dodge never had much success on the track, but four of his six sons have followed in his bootsteps as a racer.

In the early 1980s, Dodge would pack up the old bike and take his sons to Corona for pro-am races against riders on newer, more-advanced machines.

The Indian is a Class-C Handshift model, with spring-loaded front suspension as opposed to the modern hydraulic systems. The rigid frame has no rear shock absorbers and no brakes.

Ventura Raceway promoter Dave Hansen, who owns a vintage motorcycle business, credits Gene Dodge as the inspiration for the antique short-track races.

“I met the Dodges 15 years ago when they were raising eyebrows up at Corona,” Hansen said. “Gene Dodge beat on me 14 years ago to do something like this, and it took this amount of time to put it together.”

Last year, the Dodge family competed in 12 vintage events over tracks in Rosamond, Paso Robles, Bakersfield and an annual national race in Davenport, Iowa, on Labor Day weekend.

Joe Dodge, who owns two Scouts of his own, has not decided whether he will race tonight since he crashed in a heat race in last year’s event.

Although Tony Dodge rides a rare 1983 Harley-Davidson XR-1000 on the street and set a National Hot Rod Assn. class record drag racing a 1966 Ford Fairlane in 1984, he prefers to leave the racing to his brothers at the vintage meets.

Andy Dodge, 31, of Palmdale owns a Harley-Davidson XR-750 racing bike and will race a 1938 Indian Scout in the Class-C Handshift event.

Eddie Dodge, 28, of Acton won the Class-C Handshift main event at Ventura in 1993 on his father’s bike, but a blown cylinder prevented him from defending his title last year. He will also ride an Indian ‘Chout’ in the 1000cc-and-up Hooligan race.

The Chout, which was not a production model bike, received its name from old-time racers who would shoehorn a more powerful 1200cc Indian Chief engine onto a lighter Scout frame.

Among his accomplishments, Eddie Dodge rode his father’s bike to a second-place finish in an open race at Corona against modern competition, leading all but the last of 15 laps. He also won the California state championship Sportsman race at Porterville in 1985.

Darryl Dodge, 25, owns a 1969 Harley-Davidson KR-750 worth $25,000 that he races in pro-am competition around Southern California, although 1983 AMA Grand National rookie of the year Pete Hames will pilot the machine tonight in the Class-C Footshift race.

Roger Thompson of Riverside won two races on the bike for the Dodge brothers last year, a 650-900cc open and a Class-C Footshift, but an injury has forced him to the sidelines.

Hames, 30, of Palmdale, finished eighth in the nation in 1986 in the Grand National series, but he is coming off a four-year retirement from racing.

Tony Dodge has known Hames 11 years, dating to when the Dodge brothers raced at Corona.

When Thompson got hurt, Dodge offered Hames the seat on a new Harley-Davidson XR-750 for the Grand National races at Pomona in April.

Hames failed to qualify for the feature race on Dodge’s bike, but he finished fourth in a Sportster race.

He plans to race a limited schedule for the Dodge brothers in the Camel Pro series this year.

Along with the Dodge brothers ride, Hames will race in Class C Handshift for Ventura Harley-Davidson in his first appearance in a vintage race.

“Racing is racing,” Hames said. “I don’t care if I’m on a tricycle, as long as we’re all riding the same thing.

“Hopefully, it will bring some memories back and people will have a good time.

“That’s what it’s all about.”