Cal Rayborn’s Racer: Harley-Davidson KRTT

By Dain Gingerelli
Published on December 16, 2022
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by Dain Gingerelli

By 1950 motorcycle enthusiasts were beginning to wonder if the Harley-Davidson Motor Company was ever going to fully engage the 20th Century. After all, Harley still offered a model powered by an aging flathead engine that was linked to a 3-speed transmission — with a hand shifter.

By then many progressive companies offered models powered by overhead-valve engines coupled to foot-shift 4-speed transmissions. For the time that was front-line technology.

Then in 1952, as if slowly yawning while emerging from a peaceful winter slumber, Harley-Davidson revealed its new K Model, featuring — drum roll, please — foot-shift and a unit construction engine in which the transmission shared the same confines as the engine’s lower end. Even though the K Model still featured side-valve combustion chambers (aka, flathead), the new K Model 743cc (45 cubic-inch) engine was a breakthrough design for the American brand. The following year future NASCAR driver Paul Goldsmith won the Daytona 200 — still run on the fabled Beach Course — aboard a KRTT model, Harley’s race-ready version of the K Model.

Beachfront property

A dynasty, of sorts, was in the making as KRTT riders won seven more Daytona 200s on the original beach course before racers migrated to the new and modern Daytona International Speedway in 1961, with race action restricted to the track’s infield portion only. AMA officials insisted on bypassing the daunting 31-degree, 20-feet high, banking for fear the parabolically shaped asphalt would promote speeds too dangerous for the motorcycles’ tires and brakes. (Welcome, again, to the 20th Century.)

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