Frank Westfall and his Henderson completed more than 2,800 miles of the race
After 16 grueling days on the road, in all kinds of terrain and weather, The Cannonball Endurance Run ended its coast-to-coast rally last Sunday. But it came down to “age before beauty” to figure out who actually won. That’s because 10 of these pre-1916 motorcycles completed every mile of the run, 3,294 of them, and ended in Santa Monica, California, in a virtual tie. The winner, Brad Wilmarth, was chosen because his 1913 Excelsior Model 7 was the oldest bike to finish every mile, beating out several 1914 and 1915 Harleys and Excelsiors. Brad won top honors overall in addition to winning the Class II category for twin cylinder, single speed transmission bikes. Class I (single cylinder, single speed) was won by Katrin Boehner on a 1907 JAP motorcycle, which she had to push start every time the bike stopped throughout the route. Despite not have a pedal or kickstart on the JAP she still completed over 3,000 miles. The Class III winner (multi-cylinder, multi-speed transmission) was Mike McMaken on his 1915 Harley JV twin.
Some other names you might recognize at the top of the standings, Dale Walksler from Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, completed all but two miles and finished 11th. Wayne Stanfield who drove a Harley knucklehead for 24 hours at Talladega a while back was one of the 10 to complete the entire distance. Artist and bike aficionado Jeff Decker participated and contributed a signed sculpture which was given to the Class I winner, Katrin.
Frank Westfall, who we just featured in a post last week about the Ner-A-Car Museum also competed on his 1914 Henderson and finished more than 2,800 miles of the course. All in all, 37 bikes of the original 45 entries were still running at the finish line. Talk about bullet-proof reliability. Additional pictures and reports are available on the Cannonball website, motorcyclecannonball.com