Heinz Lange watched some dirt track racing, loved the bikes, so built his own. This is it…
WORDS BY PHILLIP TOOTH
PHOTOS BY PHILLIP TOOTH & DAN MAHONEY
“The first time that I saw a Trackmaster framed Triumph was when I was at Daytona for the AHRMA classic race series,” says Heinz Lange, who had flown to the US from his home near Frankfurt. “One evening, a bunch of us went to watch dirt track racing. The way those guys charged their Trackmaster twins into the corners, eased off the gas and then wound the power on to send the bike sideways with a rooster-tail of cinders shooting from the back tyre was awesome. Close racing, lots of noise and beautiful motorcycles – what’s not to like?”
A couple of years later, on another trip to the US, he called in on a British bike meet north of Los Angeles. “There was a bunch of guys riding street legal Trackmaster framed Triumph and BSA twins,” recalls Heinz. “Those bikes had style – not just the paint jobs and the shape of the dirt track seats and tanks, but the way that everything which wasn’t needed for the bike to function had been stripped off. That’s when I started dreaming about building one for myself.”
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Another year passed and he was back in Daytona. “There was a flea market but I was stuck in the paddock rebuilding the gearbox on a BSA triple, so I told the guys to keep an eye open for anything I could use to build a street legal Trackmaster,” he explains. “Then one of my friends came back and told me he’d found an engine from a 1971 Bonneville T120R that was just what I needed.” And there was another good find. “There was a guy selling new old stock Ceriani forks still in their original boxes – just like the forks that were fitted to Trackmaster frames in the 1970s. So in one weekend I found two major parts for my project.”
Read more in April’s issue of CBG – on sale now!
