Sam and Danny Ingram. (Photo by Larry Lawrence)
I had a blast getting to hang out today with Danny Ingram and meeting his dad Sam again after many years. The Ingrams are racing legends here in the Indianapolis area. Sam was one of the local hot shoes back in the 1960s and actually raced a Honda 750/4 on Mile flat tracks back in the day. He was a frontrunner in the Daytona 200 in the early ‘70s on a Honda 750 when the bike’s cam tensioner broke. Danny was a hard-working privateer on the AMA Grand National circuit in the 1980s and early ‘90s. He won the Syracuse Mile in 1988 and was the first two-time winner of the Daytona Short Track National. Both are doing great still living near Indianapolis and for fun doing restorations on old bikes. I’ll be doing a feature on Danny in Cycle News in a couple of weeks.
Rider Files 
The Ingrams are great people,they are like a second family to me. Danny was a very good racer. I look forward to the story that is going to be in Cycle News.
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That’s too cool. When my old man bought us our first two bikes Sam still had his shop in Clermont where Miller Pipeline is now. That was late ’72/early ’73. He did some work for us on both of them and stored them that winter-we were living in an apartment at the time right after I first moved here.
I remember seeing him run the indoor st at Market Square Arena in Feb of ’75-still have a couple of pics I think, too. And then he was the spokesperson/rep when Roberts’ OW motor got claimed at the Indy Mile in ’77. I saw him in the early ’90s when I was dispatching for R&D-he knew the Hockaday’s and was in the shop one day. Great guy. And then when Danny got into it, he really did well–didn’t he win like five ice racing championships or something? Seemed like him and Garth Brow both held a bunch of ice/indoor winter titles?!
I’ll be anxious to see the article. Good stuff I’m sure!
Thanks man for keeping the memories alive!
Stu
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Thanks for the comments guys. Yes Danny won a slew of Ice Racing Championships and I found out some interesting things about his career I didn’t know. He also has made a full recovery from his serious head injury. Danny is still as fit as a fiddle. He looks like he could hop on a bike today and go. In fact he did last summer. Got on an ex-Jake Johnson factory Suzuki 450 and blew everyone away down in practice at Marion County Fairgrounds. He said it felt like he’d never been off the bike even though it had been 16 years since he last flat tracked.
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Great folks,I’m proud to call them my friends, can’t wait to read the article!
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Sam Ingram was one of the coolest guys in Indianapolis. He, Bill Latta, Ken Wright and I used to have some exciting times terrorizing the west side. The dude could ride……
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