The Trailblazers Motorcycle Club has announced Ray Tanner as one of its 2012 Hall of Fame inductees. He joins previously announced inductees Jim McMurren, Eddie Lawson, Bob Sirkegian Sr., Steve Scott and Dan Rouit to be honored at its upcoming 68th annual banquet.
Ray Tanner was born in 1922 in Salt Lake City Utah where he lived until he was 12. After the family moved to Los Angeles, Ray grew up with some interesting siblings: a brother who was a Harvard lawyer, another brother who became a millionaire industrialist, a sister who was a radical leftist socialist, a sister who became an elite socialite in Hollywood, and another sister who married a Chicago Bears quarterback.
After he got his driver’s license Ray was a terror on the street. He got kicked out of High School for spinning donuts on his Harley VLH in the lunch yard. Then again for riding down the street in front of the school standing on the seat, with the high school quarterback doing a hand stand on the pillion pad behind him. He was constantly getting into high speed chases by L.A. police and to avoid capture he mounted the license plate of his bike upside down.
Tanner was drafted into the Army in 1941. He participated in the Normandy invasion in June 1944, was in Battle of the Bulge in the Arden’s forest Jan 1945 and marched into Berlin. He was wounded 3 times and received the Purple Heart and two Oak Leaf Clusters.
After the war, Ray began racing his own VLH that was built by an L.A. tuner called “Little George.” He only had three sponsors over his entire race career: Joe Walker, Rich Budelier and Mel Dinesen, plus support from Walter Davidson from the Harley-Davidson Motor Company who pitched in monetary support, especially for the Catalina events where Ray was virtually always the best finishing Harley.
His first sponsor was Joe Walker. When Joe’s main rider got hurt, Ray got the ride for the 1947 Riverside TT National. He won that 100-mile race ahead of fellow Harley rider Floyd Emde.
In 1949 Ray began riding for Rich Budelier’s L.A. Harley shop because Walker would not field a 74 inch Harley along with the WR. Rich gave Ray a Harley 45 to race half-miles on, a 74 inch Knucklehead to ride TT’s, and another Knucklehead to ride on the street and to use in off-road races.
For one year, when the AMA pros rode outlaw races in protest over the lack of insurance, Ray rode Dinesen’s potent Indian Chief and was undefeated at the old Lodi Grape Bowl TT (the track prior to the Cycle Bowl currently in place).
When not racing Ray worked as a truck driver, line driver in tank trucks, and his routes were L.A. to Phoenix, L.A. to Oakland, L.A. to Kayesville Utah. The companies he drove for were Langley, PIE, and Ringsby. His wife Barbara was raised as an orphan in a Shreveport Louisiana convent and they met at a motorcycle race.
In addition to winning the AMA TT National at Riverside in 1947, Tanner’s career victories included winning the 1946 Three Point National Hare and Hound desert race, 1952 Gold Rush Hare and Hound, 1953 Greenhorn 500-mile Enduro on the new Harley K-model (which Harley advertised significantly), the Cactus Derby and the 1954 Pacific Coast TT Championship. He once led the Big Bear race to last check point until he hit some ice in Fawnskin putting him and his Harley 74 into a ditch. This handed the win to Dick Page and Ray got up to finish second.
Ray quit racing when he was still fast. In his last year, 1958, both he and Ed Kretz beat Joe Leonard at a TT at Carroll Speedway. Kretz told Ray after the race, “We can still put it to the kids.” That same year Ray was 6th at Catalina.
Ray’s son Cary mentioned how his dad enjoyed telling stories of his racing days and of his fondness for his competitors and riding friends such as Floyd Emde, Ed Kretz Sr., Jimmy Phillips, Don Hawley, Chuck Minert and Chuck Wheat Sr. and Jr.
His favorite motorcycle was a 74-inch Harley, always a hard tail, and the only one in his view that deserved the title “Hog.” According to Minert all other smaller motorcycles were termed by Ray to be “paper route machines.” Tanner died at age 59, and is buried at the military cemetery in Riverside, not far from the old Box Springs Riverside track.
The Trailblazers look forward to honoring Ray Tanner for a lifetime of motorcycling excellence at the 68th annual Trailblazers banquet to be held on Saturday, April 14th at the Carson Center in Carson, CA. The evening’s dinner and awards presentations will follow the Tom Cates Memorial Bike Show which will begin at 3:00 pm. Tickets are now on sale online at: www.trailblazersmc.com.
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