JIM MCMURREN ELECTED TO TRAILBLAZERS HALL OF FAME

The Trailblazers Motorcycle Club has announced that Jim McMurren is itsnewest Hall of Fame inductee. McMurren, who lives in Nestor, CA, competed inmotorcycle roadracing, TT, 1/2-Miles and Miles, but it was Short Track that heenjoyed the most. Once they earned their AMA Expert racing licenses, Jim andhis lifelong friend Sid Carson, made Short Track racing the center piece of theirracing careers. Jim and Sid were true professionals, racing where the moneywas, rather than worry about chasing the AMA points at National Championshipevents. Every spring from the mid-1960s into the 70s, Jim and Sid would leavetheir homes in the San Diego area behind and move to Chicago for the summerto race motorcycles in the Midwest.

While there was racing going on all around them, every Wednesday night Jimwas racing the weekly Short Track races at Santa Fe Park on the southeast sideof Chicago. It was there that he learned the ropes of the sport against some ofthe sport’s greatest Flat Track racers, including Neil Keen, Gary Nixon, Fred Nix,Dick Mann, Darrel Dovel and many more. McMurren was ranked 3rd in the nationin short track racing in 1967, and 2nd in 1969.

In the off-season Jim and Sid would return every year back to San Diego,where they have been partners in a crane operating business dating back the60s. After his professional racing career was over, Jim continued to race localvintage events on his famous “Number 11” Harley-Davidson Sprint. And evenwhen health issues prevented him from racing, he was seen as late as April inattendance at the Wayne Hosaka Memorial race at Perris, CA.

McMurren and other Trailblazers Hall of Fame inductees yet to be named will behonored at the 68th annual Trailblazers banquet at the Carson Center in Carson,CA on Saturday, April 14, 2012.

For more information, log onto the club’s website at: www.trailblazersmc.com oron Facebook.