My dad grew up down the road from him. He has lots of great stories about him in his younger years. Ej apparently rode a bicycle to school when he was an early teenager, that he had affixed a washing machine motor to in some fashion. After he got his drivers license, he drove some kind of small European sports car, which my dad found upside down in the ditch at the corner by the family farm one day on his way home from high school... my dad hollered down the to car..."everyone ok?" Ej yelled back...still in the car...yep...."You gotta a tractor handy?" Dad went home, drove the old Massey tractor down, yanked the car back onto its wheels.. Ej fired it up..said "Thanks", and sped away.. He's had a screw loose since he was a kid. They all use to race at Mid Michigan Motorplex in the 60's. Dad hauled his bike up the starting line with his old mustang multiple times, it was a pretty close community of drag racers around there, very rural but lots of really hard core racers came out of that area (about 45 minutes north of Lansing, Mi).
They were riding in the pickers van and when receiving a call regarding E.J. Potter and the bikes replied, Who? what? Two commercials later they were historical experts on the man and his machine. A good research team makes them authorities on every thing.
When was the last time you saw an "air chuck" used as a quick disconnect for a tow rope? I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Bee Line Dragway. At every late 60's AHRA Winter Nationals Potter on Sunday afternoon put on an exhibition while the final rounds were being conducted. Along with Art Scholl's airplane stunt show and, of course, a cruise down the strip by "Miss Hurst Golden Shifter" Linda Vaughn,
Cant verify always, but all of my dads accounts were him rolling off the stand. It was all about the show for the fans, not about ET's.. In his biography there's a good story about a photographer that was at half track, there to do a story on him. Ej..wanting to put on a better then normal show, said he came out of the smoke extra hard, sideways, with the front wheel up in the air, carrying like that down the track. The photographer was so scared he got up and ran...
When I saw him a Connecticut Dragway he always used the stand never heard or saw any stories or photos of him NOT using the stand for launch.
I saw him run at Concord N.C. in the mid 60's at the Concord Dragstrip. I had never hear about him until then. Seeing him put on his show was truly impressive. Something you would not forget. Jerry from N.C.
When I was stationed at Kincheloe AFB MI my wife & I used to ride my 80cc Yamaha into Canada & go to the drag race track there. We used to pack a lunch & I would race my bike & then we would watch the rest of the races from the grand stand. One time Potter came up there & ran his Chevy powered bike & it was nuts. He would start from the stand & go wide open the whole length of the strip. The front tire usually didn't hit the ground until he crossed the finish line. I was lucky enough to be by the start line when he ran & after the 3rd run there were bits of molten rubber that fell from the sky as the tire was ending it's life. He was pull started & I believe it was his wife driving the tow vehicle, he would get it running & then let go of the rope & go to the starting line. It was the craziest thing I had ever seen.
As wild and crazy was Potter on his V8 bike.....It was not as fast as the legal class nitro fuel N/A Harley and dual engine Triumphs of that era.. This photo of Boris Murray was taken with the bike in excess of 100 mph on his way to a new record of 175 mph
@streetrodder71 I am from Concord too and I saw him put on that show. I was about 13 and it was something I will never forget. I had a lot of good time at the Concord track.
My mother had alzheimers, fucken scary disease, she eventually forgot how to feed herself, everything you do involves your memory, EVERYTHING. What a shame to see a guy as smart and capable as he was to lose his greatest asset, his mind. He embodies us, the generations before us, people who made things work from nothing, or, who saw a hay wagon from an A or T chassis, or pieced things that were never meant to be together into a workable machine. I and most of us could have built the bikes, but I for one would never have had the fortitude to actually ride it. The fact that he did it for years makes it more amazing, kudos Mr Potter.
E.J was a bad ass. First to engineer a bike like that and to actually ride it. Not just ride it, flog the fuck out of it. A quarter mile burn out is awesome. The man was a true showman and clearly had some serious stones.
I found an early article (May '63 Speed Mechanics magazine) about EJ Potter before he had the 'Michigan Madman' nickname. I don't remember ever seeing his bike with three carbs or with that exhaust setup. Thought I would post it here for his fans.
Bonus, I'm pretty sure that's the "Nightmare" '57 Plymouth sedan being used as his support vehicle before he put an Allison in it. What do you think? (and here's an AWESOME video for more detail about this car)
I saw him a bunch of years ago at a car show selling his book. Talked to him for quite a while and laughed most of the time. He was talking to someone else for a minute and I said to the nice looking lady sitting with him, " your husband is quite a character." She says immediately, "He is NOT my husband." and laughed like hell.
EJ Potter..... The Baddest Of The Bad..! If you can get your hands on the video "EJ Potter, The Michigan Mad Man", I highly recommend it.... BIG BALLS Boys........ !!!!
The Jalopy Journal
