After reading Wheel Man about Robert Keating, I am currently reading about the fantastic history of Albert Champion. I had not previously seen any publicity about the book, but when I stumbled across it on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble store I did recall his name from some early publications. I had never made the connection, but not only was Champion the actual person behind the Champion Spark Plugs and AC Delco (AC for Albert Champion), but he was the bicycle racer who came to America from France with crates of De Dion-Bouton engines and Pacers at the invitation of the Waltham Manufacturing company and he ended up doing a lot of the prototype work on the first Orient motorcycles as well as his own machines. The book tells of the great rivalry he had with Barney Ofield to establish to the outright motorized speed records in America. Ofield was first to break the Mile-A-Minute record outright, but Champion was first on two-wheels. I havent finished the whole book yet, but the late-1800s and early 1900s is detailed with information from Champions personal scrapbooks, and other material from the Henry Ford Museum and the Smithsonian. Author is Peter Joffre Ny. ISBN: 978-1-61614-964-2.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 17:34:38 +0000
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