III
LEGENDS OF MOTORCYCLING
WHILE SERVING IN the US military during World War II, Walt’s dad “liberated” a Moto Guzzi
Falcone in Italy, sending it back home in
pieces, which set him on a career path in
motorcycling. “It would be accurate to
say that the Guzzi also set me on mine,”
says Walt. Even before Walt Fulton III
was born in 1947, his dad, Walt Fulton
Jr., was employed in the motorcycle
industry, competing in scrambles, TT, dirt
track, enduro and roadracing—with such
skill that in 1999 he was inducted into the
American Motorcyclists Hall of Fame.
And what young boy wouldn’t want to
emulate a dad like that? At seven years
old, Walt rode his first bike, a Triumph
Tiger Cub in Arkansas, where his dad
was sent as District Manager for the Tri-
umph Corporation. “Even before this, I
knew I wanted to race motorcycles and
be involved in the industry. I spent all the
time I could on two wheels, even playing
hooky from school to ride.”
Seven years later in 1959, the family
returned to California when his dad took
a District Manager position with Amer-
ican Honda. “We moved to Bass Lake,
between Fresno and Yosemite. That’s
where I had the opportunity to ride the
wheels off my motorcy-
cles, both on- and off-road. I had gradu-
ated from the Tiger Cub to a Honda 50.
I say graduated because the C110 would
run as quick as a Cub in the twisties but
had an electric starter and wasn’t as
much work to keep running.”
With his father’s assistance, the16-
year-old Fulton started participating in
club races in 1963. “My first real orga-
nized race was at the Santa Barbara Air-
port on a Honda 50, put together by Paul
Collins who owned Continental Imports
in Redondo Beach. I spent several years
on that bike and similar small bikes. It
gave me a real appreciation of cornering
speed and thinking ahead.” Lost momen-
tum is difficult to retrieve. “That taught
me a lot of skills that I still use today.”
Walt’s dad moved on to American
Suzuki as a sales manager in 1964, and
the new-to-the-US manufacturer wanted
racing exposure to sell bikes. That
opened another door for young Walt, and
he became involved in Suzuki’s R&D,
testing, and service departments. Along
with that came more racing opportunity.
“I ended up with a little 6-speed, 50cc,
single-cylinder, 2-stroke that would top
out at about 80 mph. Doing well with
that gave me a chance to ride some of
the exotic Suzuki race bikes here in the
US. I’m referring to their 50cc twin, the
twin-cylinder 125, and the four-cylinder
125 which was an absolutely spectacu-
lar race bike. You could take that 125cc
four-cylinder out in the 250cc class and
win with it on a regular basis.”
Suzuki had bigger plans involving
the X- 6, their new 6-speed 250 twin.
“As a Novice, I had a chance to throw
a leg over those and do some testing.”
Lots of R&D went into the X- 6 devel-
opment according to
Walt. “The frames weren’t that good and
there were issues with the tuning. A lot of
work was done in a short period of time
to make it live.”
Walt went to Daytona in 1966 as a
Novice riding an X- 6 along with Expert
teammates Dick Mann, Dick Hammer
and Dan Haaby (image below). Brakes
and chassis gremlins may have been
fixed, but other problems arose. Mann
didn’t make it out of the Heat Race, Ham-
mer and Haaby had ignition problems in
the Main Event and DNF’d after a few
laps. The rubbing blocks on the ignition
points would wear away quickly, disturb-
ing the timing enough to kill the motors.
“I had a couple of clever guys working
with me, Tony Nicosia and Bill Bastian.
They figured that maybe they could drill
out the rubbing blocks and embed some
brazing rod. That would prevent the phe-
nolic blocks from wearing down.”
Only Walt’s bike was prepped this way,
and he was the only one that finished. “It
was a Novice race and I ended up setting
Fast Time. I won the Sportsman’s Race,
as well as the Novice Race,” he laughs.” If
I remember correctly, I won every AMA
race I entered that year on the X- 6 and
wound up as high point Novice rider.”
Back on the West Coast in non-AMA
races, all experience levels ran together.
Fulton and new teammate Ron Grant
ran with some fast company. “I learned
a lot. We would show up as a team and
would win nearly all the trophies. We’d
win everything. It was very dynamic and
very cool to do.”
In 1966, Fulton caught the eye of a
local Harley dealer, Joe Walker, who
contacted Dick O’Brien, race director at
H-D. This got Walt a try-out at Willow
Springs. Leonard Andres, a respected
H-D dealer, provided a Harley
Sprint ridden by Cal Rayborn.
Walt ran some good times and
got the nod from Andres and
Walker. O’Brien read the reports
and the 19-year-old Fulton was
picked up by Harley to ride the
KRTT Flathead for roadracing.
“I was, at that time, the first
factory-supported Amateur. I
won Daytona, had a second at
Loudon, and second at Carlsbad.”
“While I was a good road racer,
I needed to expand the envelope
and ride dirt-track races if I was
going to make a living at racing.
I was living the dream as a professional racer and factory rider.
TO
M
C
O
RL
EY
PHOTO
by Joe Michaud
won Daytona, had a second at
Loudon, and second at Carlsbad.”
ed t
d
going to make a living at racing.
I was living the dream as a pro-
ona
o
l
lar race bike. You could take that 125cc
t
“As a Novice, I had a chance to throw
Above: Daytona Beach—
Roxy Rockwood on the left
with the microphone and
Walt Fulton Jr., Walt’s Dad,
on the right.
Right: The Suzuki Factory
Team at Daytona in 1966,
Walt seated on the racebike.
WALT FULTON
