The 1914 Dodge City 300 and Harley-Davidson’s Move into Factory Racing
The first Dodge City 300 was held on July 4, 1914, on a two-mile dirt oval northeast of Dodge City, Kansas. The 300-mile race put the country’s best riders and factory machines through 150 laps of heat, dust and mechanical abuse. It also gave Harley-Davidson’s newly developed racing motorcycles their first major national test and became an early milestone in the company’s move into factory competition.
How Dodge City Built a National Motorcycle Race
The race grew out of a much smaller event held the year before. In July 1913, motorcyclists traveling to the Federation of American Motorcyclists convention in Denver passed through Kansas. Dodge City civic leaders hurriedly built a two-mile dirt track for an exhibition race, and the turnout was good enough to convince the local Commercial Club that the town could host something much larger.
They applied for an F.A.M. sanction and chose Independence Day for what was promoted as the World Championship 300-Mile Motorcycle Race. Dodge City was close to the geographic center of the country, the wheat harvest would be finished, and the July 4 holiday gave spectators a reason to travel. Admission was one dollar, with another fifty cents for a seat in the wooden grandstand.
The event arrived at a turning point in American racing. The short, steep wooden motordromes had made motorcycle competition famous, but their death toll and maintenance costs were catching up with them. Long dirt-track and road races offered manufacturers a different kind of test: not just outright speed, but the ability to keep a machine together for hundreds of miles. The Dodge City race belonged to that transition away from the most dangerous years of board-track competition and toward the big factory-backed dirt classics.
Thirty-six riders reportedly started six abreast. Among the makes represented were Indian, Excelsior, Pope, Thor, Flying Merkel and Harley-Davidson. The race was long enough that a fast lap meant very little if a chain, tire, spark plug or engine failed before the finish.
Harley-Davidson Changes Its Mind About Racing
Harley-Davidson had spent years publicly distancing itself from professional racing. The company argued that the sport was dangerous and that ordinary riders were better served by reliable road motorcycles than by specialized competition machines. That position became harder to maintain while Indian and Excelsior collected records, headlines and sales from their racing victories.
In 1913, Harley-Davidson quietly changed direction and hired experienced racing engineer and tuner William “Bill” Ottaway away from Thor. Ottaway had already earned a reputation as one of the best racing specialists in the business.
Ottaway began with Harley-Davidson’s production V-twin and stripped away anything that did not help it go faster. The resulting competition motorcycle is generally identified as the 11K, a 61-cubic-inch twin built low and light for racing. It was not yet the overhead-valve eight-valve machine that would define Harley’s later factory racers. By the end of the 1920s, the purpose-built DAH hillclimber would take Harley into overhead-valve factory racing. The 11K was a highly developed inlet-over-exhaust twin, and Dodge City was the first major chance to see whether it could stay with Indian’s established racing equipment.
Dodge City occupies a gray area in Harley-Davidson’s racing history. Some accounts call it the company’s first official factory-team appearance, while others describe it as a factory-supported test of prepared machines before a formally organized team appeared at Savannah later that season. Either way, Dodge City was the first major national test of Harley-Davidson’s new racing program.
Harley-Davidson’s Dodge City Riders
Most accounts identify a five-rider Harley-Davidson group made up of Walter Cunningham, Paul Garst, Paul Gott, Leslie “Red” Parkhurst and Alvin Stratton. Claims that Ottaway prepared as many as twelve motorcycles are also repeated, but the exact number of machines has not been established.
The team was not made up of the famous Wrecking Crew lineup most riders recognize today. Otto Walker, Ray Weishaar, Jim Davis, Ralph Hepburn and several other later stars came into the story as the program grew. Dodge City was the rough first step, before Harley-Davidson had the deep rider roster, pit organization and refined machines that would soon make it dominant.
Glenn Boyd Takes Control of the Race
F.A.M. president Dr. B. J. Patterson sent the field away after a pace lap. Lee Taylor put his Flying Merkel at the front and held the lead through the opening 60 miles. Walter Cunningham then brought one of the new Harleys past him and showed that the Milwaukee machines had enough speed to run with the established factory racers.
Cunningham’s lead did not last. At about 120 miles, Indian rider Glenn “Slivers” Boyd moved his eight-valve racer into first place. Cunningham continued to chase until chain trouble ended his serious challenge at roughly 180 miles.
The distance did the rest. By the finish, only two Harley-Davidson riders reportedly remained in the running, and neither placed in the money. That was disappointing, but the speed Cunningham showed before he dropped out was enough to prove that Ottaway’s new machine had potential.
Boyd completed the 300 miles in 4 hours, 24 minutes and 58 seconds. William “Bill” Brier finished second on a Thor, followed by Carl Goudy on an Excelsior. Brier’s result had an extra sting for Harley-Davidson because Ottaway had come to Milwaukee from Thor’s racing program.
Dodge City Becomes the Coyote Classic
The 1914 promotion called the event the World Championship 300-Mile Motorcycle Race, while Dodge City 300 became its common historical name. Retrospective accounts also call the Dodge City races the Coyote Classic and sometimes apply that name to the 1914 inaugural, so the surviving terminology is not completely consistent.
Harley-Davidson returned in 1915 with a far stronger team and better-prepared machines. Otto Walker won, Harry Crandall finished second, and Harley riders took six of the first seven positions, with Carl Goudy’s third-place Excelsior the only interruption. The developmental effort of 1914 had become a genuine factory operation in a single season.
Irving Janke won the 1916 Dodge City 300 for Harley-Davidson. World War I interrupted the series, but the race returned in 1920, when Jim Davis won for Harley after a long fight with teammate Maldwyn Jones and Indian’s Gene Walker. Ralph Hepburn followed with another Harley victory in 1921, finishing far ahead of the rest of the field and closing the original run of 300-mile Dodge City classics.
Those later wins are why the 1914 result cannot be judged only by the finishing order. Harley-Davidson lost the race, but it learned that its motorcycles had the speed to compete and that endurance, preparation and team organization would decide the next one. The men and machines that followed became the Wrecking Crew, and that same racing culture eventually produced the pig mascot behind the familiar Harley “hog” nickname.
The Race That Changed Harley-Davidson’s Direction
The Dodge City 300 did not end with a Harley victory. Glenn Boyd and Indian owned the day, while Brier’s Thor and Goudy’s Excelsior completed the podium. Harley-Davidson left with two reported finishers, a broken challenge for the lead and a long list of work for Bill Ottaway.
Harley-Davidson kept racing, improved the 11K, recruited stronger riders and built the pit organization needed to survive 300 miles. Within a year it was winning the biggest races in the country. Dodge City was not the finished product; it was the first major national test of what Harley-Davidson’s racing program could become.