Grand National : America's Golden Age of Motorcycle Racing

Compared to racing done elsewhere in the world, the American Motorcyclist Association's Grand National series is challenging, unique, and baffling to outsiders. To have any chance at all of becoming the Number 1 rider, riders must have the well-rounded racing skills to enable them to, over a single season, find their way around dirt tracks of four varying lengths, shapes, and speeds, plus paved road circuits like Daytona. Because each surface and track requires a bike to be set up quite differently, contestants must be able to compete on essentially five different dirt and road model motorcycles. Complicating matters further, these bikes cannot be one-off factory specials specifically designed for each type of racing, but instead are based on more-limiting stock machines. All things considered, Grand National racing is one of the most demanding and exciting motorcycle racing on the planet.About the AuthorJoe Scalzo's four decades of racing passion have taken him around the world and resulted in 13 books, thousands of magazine and newspaper features, and a wide reader following as one of the sport's most original and insightful chroniclers. He lives and works in Southern California.