The Michigan Madman

This is E.J. Potter in his glory when I saw him at York U.S. 30 drag way in 1969. He is riding his 327 cubic inch chevy 400 plus horse power motorcycle. Every guy who rode cycle in those days wanted to be like E. J. He traveled across the country putting on exhibition runs and got paid very well for putting on the show of our lives. He also had a jet car that roared down the quarter mile like a bullet fired from a gun. The night we saw him we talked to him in the pits. He was mad because it was cooler in late fall and the track was cold, he could not get good traction and was only turning in the low ten second bracket about 160 MPH. He spun the back tire the whole 1320 feet and it was not his best times. He made three runs that night and wore out his back tire from laying rubber the whole 1320 feet. He towed the cycle as it had no starter and he had to unhook the towline before the threw the in and out box to engage the motor so he did not run over his tow vehicle. He rode back to the starting line, turned the bike around and a helper and he put the bike up on its stand so the rear wheel was off the ground. He then put the in and out box in gear and the rear wheel spun from the engine and when the Christmas tree turned green he just leaned front and the rear wheel made contact with the pavement. All you could see was the front wheel and his helmet. Everything was hidden by the smoke from the rear wheel burning up.

I never got to see his jet car run. They used to put a junker car behind the the jet exhaust and when he fired it up the junker car melted from the flaming exhaust of the engine. That was exiting to a lot of young male egos! We ran our car that night. Nothing special that night for us. We wanted to see the Michigan Madman, and we got the show of our lives.