Carroll Resweber

From CycleChaos
Jump to navigation Jump to search

An official factory rider in the late 1950s who won the US National Championship four times, in 1958, '59, '60 and '61. Incredibly, he did all this while working a full-time day job for Mercury Marine. Not surprisingly, his home town of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, held a 'Carroll Resweber day'. He was on course for a fifth title when he ran into Jack Gholson and Dick Klamforth at the Lincoln, Illinois track in 1962 where the dust was so thick that he reputedly had his eyes shut at the time. He was seriously injured, lying unconscious for nine days, and was left with one arm and leg shorter than the others. But Resweber survived and went on to work in the Harley-Davidson race department. One of the better Resweber anecdotes came out of a race in late 1950s Laconia. It was early days for the racing K-model, and the gearbox was turning out to be too weak. Resweher didn't want to race that day having a huge hangover, but being a factory rider he had to do so. So he determined to break the K's weak gearbox and retire early. However, and despite full-throttle clutchless heavy-footed gear changes, it ran the full distance.