5 thoughts on “Nixon remembered in Cycle News”

  1. When I was working as AMA Pro Racing’s communications manager in the mid-1990s I’d written a news release about the AMA Grand Slam (winning all four forms of flat track and a national road race). Nixon was such a versatile racer, he could win at any track, but for some reason he never won a national TT race.

    He could never stop talking about the one that got away – the ‘67 Peoria TT:

    “I had 10 lengths on ‘Bugs’ [Mann] at Peoria in ’67,” said Nixon. “I was riding it like a road racer going into there, hitting the brakes and turning. The white flag came out and Bugs stuck a wheel up under me and I thought. ‘It’s that goddamn [Bart] Markel, he’s gonna wreck me.’ Then he stuck a wheel under again and I pitched it in the turn hard to protect the line and just slid it sideways and it was Bugs. He got me by a bike length or so.”

    Had Nixon won that race he would have been a Grand Slam winner.

    One day I was in the AMA offices and my phone rang. I picked it up and it was Nixon.

    “You guys should credit me with a TT win,” Nixon said.

    “How’s that Gary?” I questioned.

    “That road race at Windber was a TT,” Nixon explained. “They advertised it as a TT road race anyway.”

    I suppose Gary was hoping that with the stroke of a pen I could have instantly made him a Grand Slam winner. I agreed with him to a certain extent, but I explained that if Windber was a TT, then so was Laconia, because it was originally advertised as a TT road race as well. We talked for 20 minutes about various races of the 1960s. His call made my day.

    “Hey I had to give it a try,” Nixon said at the end of the conversation.

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  2. One more thing about Gary Nixon that a lot of people probably don’t remember, he was the first big name rider to wear a full-face helmet. Gary said that original Bell Star was a pain at times. Air would get caught up under it and lift it or smash the face shield against your nose, but Gary knew it was safer and he figured out how to work around those issues.

    The fact that Nixon wore the Bell Star (which at first was considered by motorcycle racers as a car racing helmet) probably saved a lot of lives. If it was good enough for Nixon I’m certain hundreds of pro and amateur racers alike figured it was good enough for them and wore the helmet because of Nixon’s influence.

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  3. My first full face helmet was a Star also,not sure where I thought it was a good idea but I do remember wearing my open face Bell and when riding on the street and looking down at the pavement and seeing the pavement wiz by while going thru a corner and thinking maybe better protection was needed that was available so a short time later bought my first Bell.

    PS.Gary does have a point about winning a TT,all of the Gary’s need to stick together.

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  4. Great stories LL! Great to hear stuff like that about one of the legends of the sport, especially with his recent passing.

    I had a Bell Star like that back in ’83 I bought from Tim ‘The Airman’ Powers. It would catch air and all but want to choke you to death!

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