Dodge City 300 Centennial
July 1st through 6th, 2014
Some of the planned events include:
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1920 Harley Team
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Short Track motorcycle race
Sand Drags
Dirt Bikes in the Arkansas River bed
Kansas Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home
Ceremony
Historic Motorcycle displays.
Blues Bands
Peoples Choice Bike Shows for Pre-1925
racers, Classic, Vintage, Antique, Modern
and Custom motorcycles
A selection of Single Day Gypsy Tours
Poker runs
Juried Art Show for motorcycle helmets
and other items
Symposium on Early Motorcycle History
Motorcycle Field events (amateur)
Motorcycle Vendors, dealers, apparel &
gear
Historic marker dedication for the original
track site
Motorcyclists fun, fellowship, camaraderie
and much more...
Indian Team 1914 - Cannonball Baker on far left
(photo on loan from Dayton 200 winner Don Emde)
The Dodge City 300 Centennial celebrates one of the
most significant and historic motorcycle events in America. On July 4th, 1914 Dodge City hosted a major international motorcycle race. The list of competitors reads
like a Who's Who of motorcycling including such riders
as Erwin "Cannonball" Baker, Floyd Clymer, "Red"
Parkhurst and many, many others. The race was sanctioned by the precursor to the American Motorcycle Association with the local Dodge City community pitching
in to make the event the largest of its day drawing teams
and riders from everywhere. In fact, the race is known
throughout the worlds motorcycling community as it
served to kick off for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle
racing division, a group that came to dominate motorcycle racing for many years to come.
Manufacturers teams from Hendee Indian, Thor,
Pope, Excelsior participated with Glenn "Slivers" Boyd on
the big valve Indian winning followed by Bill Brier on a
Thor and Carl Goudy on the Excelsior. Harley - Davidson
privateers struggled enough that it convinced the company to launch a dedicated racing effort by hiring Bill Ottaway from Thor to become tuner and team manager.
Subsequently, Harley bikes and riders swept the 300 in
following years.
The track itself was a 2 mile dirt oval just northeast of
Dodge City parts of which can still be seen on aerial photos and Google Earth. The track was actually in use for
motor racing several years earlier but 1914 was the year
that the motorcycles came from everywhere for the fist
big international event.
The big race was so popular at its inception that it
drew a crowd of over 15,000 fans to the smal