Why We Ride Page #3

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you can't know about Daytona,

and not know who Ed Kretz is.

What Ed was, was really

one of the first champions

of that Class C era.

He won all the big races.

He was always

known as "Iron Man Kretz. "

He was so determined, when he got on

he was either gonna break the damn thing

or win the race, that was it.

Kretz would not stand for

anything other than total victory,

and anything other

than that was a failure.

When you look at it that way,

that's when you get very successful.

Ed tried to pass everybody,

so in case anything went wrong,

you had time to fix it and still

win. That was his idea how to race.

When Ed Kretz

finished a race,

they actually had to pry his

fingers off of the handlebars,

because he physically

couldn't do it.

He'd been holding for so long,

for the last hundred miles,

going as fast as he could, they

had to pry him off the cycle.

Dad, when he would ride, he

would just do nothing but ride,

and you could tell by looking at

him, that that's all he was thinking.

One of the things that Ed

told me a long time ago

that really stuck in my mind,

first of all,

"When everybody else is letting

up to go into the corner,

I just grabbed a handful of throttle and

that's where I would pass everybody. "

And, boy, that just...

It sounded so hairy and so bold,

but that was Ed Kretz, man.

He was the Iron Man.

Dad had a job driving

a hay truck, truck and trailer.

That's where my dad

made his money.

He loaded it by himself

and he unloaded by himself.

That's what gave him all

this upper-body strength.

Not only was he in great

physical condition, but also mentally.

He'd do 18-hour days,

20-hour days,

and then go right back in

and do it again.

He would come over on his motorcycle

and he used to do a lot of stunts

and he would stand on his head

or stand on the seat,

and just kinda showing off in

front of her, you know, and...

That's how he met my mother,

on a motorcycle.

Race, race, race, every day.

When he wasn't on the truck,

he was on the motorcycle.

Oh, she was for it, she was

always with him, always with him.

He'd take Mom, they'd ride to

where the race was gonna be,

he'd take off the headlight,

he'd take everything

off the bike,

and have it just bare,

you know, so he could race.

And so Mom would just stand

there and watch the stuff

and Dad would race,

he'd put it all back together,

they'd get on it and head home.

My father was very business,

but when it came time

to be home, he was home.

He was just there any time

you needed something,

or he would go out of his way

to help ya, you know.

We had such a good time as kids.

So many cheerful rides.

I miss it terribly.

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