1951 Grand Rapids Michigan Chet Dykgraaf Motorcycle Racer - Vintage Article

Description

1951 Grand Rapids Michigan Chet Dykgraaf Motorcycle Racer - 1-Page Vintage Article
Original, vintage magazine advertisement / article.
Page Size: Approx. 9" x 12" (46 cm x 30 cm)
Condition: Good
PERSONALITIES MOUNTED AND UNMOUNTED
Man From Michigan
Chet Dykgraaf lived across the street
from a motorcycle shop when he was a
youngster in Grand Rapids, Mich., and it
didn’t take him long to find out what it
was all about. By the time he was 17 he
had earned what he thought would be
enough money to buy a machine, but the
dealer didn’t have anything in that price
line at the moment, so Chet gave a fellow
for a 1926 Harley-Davidson. Of course,
it didn’t run, so the future racer dumped the
parts in a bushel basket and started from
scratch. He got it back together but it still
was as dead as a Sunday in Podunk, so he
took it to a Harley-Davidson dealer and had
it timed. That did it.
It’s human nature to want something
better, and Chet was very human along that
line. He bought a ’27 and fixed it up with
parts from the '26. After he got it running
he traded it in on a ’29- By 1935 he had
worked up to a 1935 45 cu. in. job and
was all set for some hill climbing. Prize
money in those days ran something like
, and for first, second and third
places, and whenever Chet won a first he’d
celebrate with a hamburger deluxe.
Chet shot the slants for two years, then
traded the 45 for a 1937 61 to try some
TT racing. He did alright for himself, but
flat track looked like the greener grass on
the other side of the fence, so he swapped
the 61 for a 45 the next year and began a
very interesting and rewarding race career.
His first race was at the Michigan gypsy
tour, where he took second place behind
Chuck Grover of Port Huron, Mich.
Harry Molenaar, dealer in Hammond,
Ind., in the fall of 1949 asked Chet to
come down and be his mechanic. Of course,
he could still race, and was encouraged
to do so.
"Seems there was a young fellow across
the street in the Indian shop who was
winning all the races around there,” Chet
recalls, "and Harry wanted me to try my
luck at beating him.”
The two racers ended the season with one
first for Dykgraaf and three firsts for the
other fellow — the late Kenny Ingle.
Then Chet tried Daytona the next year
and went home with a sixth place and
under his belt, followed in 1941 by what
he calls "just racing and learning.”
By 1942 Chet had moved back to
Michigan and was riding Norton, as was
Ingle. Between the two, they cleaned up
everything in their territory. They took first
and second in so many events, some fans
thought they were seeing "fixed” races. "If
only they knew how we raced our hearts
out to beat each other!” says Chet.
"As friends we were inseparable,” he
says. "He was a keen rider with all the
tricks in the book, and I learned a lot.”
Then the war saw Chet go into three
years of air force service, but when it was
all over Chet and Kenny raced again.
The Michigan state championship came
to Chet in 1946. Ingle couldn’t ride in this
one—he was living in Ohio at the time,
and only Michigan residents were eligible.
CHET DYKGRAAF
For first place, hamburgers.
That doesn’t mean Chet didn't have com-
petition—Leo Anthony, Chuck Grover and
Art Hafer were there.
Two months later he won Springfield—the
ambition of every red-blooded flat tracker.
Not only had he won a championship, but
he had nosed out his good friend Ingle,
who came in second by half a machine
length. And though he hates to tell it, Chet
lost his buddy when Kenny Ingle lost his
life at the next year’s Springfield event.
In 1948, back again with Molenaar,
Dykgraaf took second at Springfield, a third
at Milwaukee and a second at Langhorne,
the latter behind veteran Ed Kretz.
Perhaps the biggest trophy ever awarded
in a motorcycle race was given Chet in
June, 1949, when he won the annual
Charity Newsies race meet at Columbus,
Ohio. (See July, 1949, American Motor-
cycling for story and photos.) Judge
Dana Reynolds wheeled the over-sized
award out in a wheelbarrow and jostled it
into a surprised Dykgraaf’s arms. The shiny
hulk now rests in his bedroom.
Last year was a good season for Dyk-
graaf—up until he went to Darlington. He
took a second at Richmond to Joe Weather-
ly and a second at Shreveport to Paul Al-
brecht. Then came a speedway race at
Darlington, and Chet took a spill during
practice the day before the races.
Although he’s been laid up for awhile,
he hopes to be able to get around to some
of the events late this season as a spectator.
"I’d like to thank every friend for their
personal regards, their letters and cards,”
says Chet. "I really do appreciate them."
Dykgraaf’s greatest fan and admirer is
his wife Frieda, whom he married in 1936.
They have a son five years old who has
missed few races in which his dad has
ridden.
When the racing season ends, Chet grabs
paint brush and hammer and gets to work
on a small hotel he owns, preparing it for
the spring season, when he gets back on
the bike and starts racing again.
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