Because it was there! Remember…when referring to the reason why George Mallory climbed Mount Everest… because it was there! “Iron Man” Fred Ham rode a newly designed Harley Davidson EL (commonly called a knucklehead) model for 1825 miles setting a 24 hour solo record back in 1937. You can read more about Fred and his story at Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame. My friend Dale Walksler of Wheels Thru Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina has had a dream to challenge Fred Ham’s record set in 1937 for some time now. It would be quite an accomplishment, and would take a lot of preparation and planning. He planned to use exactly the same model bike, but this time the bike would be 70 years old but completely rebuilt at his Wheels Thru Time Museum. He had told me his plans a number of months earlier.

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Theresa and I loaded up our Shafer 8 and headed to Dallas Wednesday afternoon with the Texas Great Race in our sights. The venue was changed this year to Irving which is also home to the famous Curtis Graf. Curtis is one of our Rally Partners buddy’s, who run Great Race.

We saw our buddy Thom Wells, now from Hendersonville NC on the road headed west too. Then when we finally stopped at a hotel, there he was again! He and Steve Wilson have a new business restoring vintage cars and supporting Great Racers.

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