Roger Reiman road racing AMA Battle of the Twins in Memphis in 1987. (Larry Lawrence photo)

A year or so back I was going through some old boxes of racing memorabilia (racing programs, credentials, press kits, etc) and at the bottom of the box I came across some plastic 35mm film canisters. To my amazement inside were several rolls of undeveloped film at the bottom of this box that I somehow overlooked. There were a couple of rolls of Kodak 400 speed color negatives and a few rolls of Agfa slide film. I never even remembered buying Agfa film ever, so this was a big mystery.

Based on how old the stuff in the box was I guessed this was 20-plus-year-old film. I didn’t figure I’d get anything out of it, but I sent them in to be developed anyway.

When I got the film back my suspicions were confirmed. The images were over 20 years old and there wasn’t much of an image on the film. I scanned some and for sure these won’t make Sports Illustrated, but I was thrilled to find a photo of Roger Reiman road racing his old early 1970s-era Harley XR in the Battle of the Twins class. Roger was in his prime way before I came along to the races, so I was pumped to have my own image of him even though it was not the best quality.

You can tell that Roger’s old Harley was in need of new piston rings in this photo. From what I remember about him racing in the mid-1980s, he was pushing 50, but still fast as hell. He had the old school tight knees to tank road racing style.

Sadly Roger passed away in a racing accident while practicing for a legends event at Daytona on March 4, 1997. That makes this lone photo I have of him that much more precious to me.