First and Last: Jody Nicholas

The only person on the planet who can lay claim to being the first to win an AMA National road race aboard a bike bearing the fabled tuning fork logo.

By Dain Gingerelli
Published on December 17, 2021
article image
by Dain Gingerelli
Jody Nicholas racing the BSA in 1963 at Meadowdale.

Ricky Bobby, the hapless yet charismatic character of the stock car racing movie Talladega Nights is probably best known for his line, “If you’re not first, you’re last!”

But back in 1963, motorcycle racer Jody Nicholas could have twisted Rickie Bobby’s words into, “If you’re first, you’re last,” and for very good reason. During the AMA National road race meet of August 20-21,1963, at Meadowdale Raceway (located near Carpentersville, Illinois), Jody scored two race wins, one proving to be a “first” for the history books, and the other a “last” for the record books.

First, the first: On Saturday Jody won the 100-mile Lightweight (250cc) event riding Yamaha’s all-new TD1-A Class C production-model road racer, marking the first-ever AMA National road race win by the fledging Japanese marque. The next day Nicholas followed script again, winning the National Championship race aboard the same BSA Gold Star that powered him to victory at the Laconia National a few weeks before. The Meadowdale National proved to be the last-ever AMA National road race win by a Gold Star, although that fabled single-cylinder model could still prevail on half-mile ovals (like Ascot Park).

Jody’s win aboard the Yamaha was most impressive for several reasons, though. Foremost he had never raced the TD1-A before the Meadowdale weekend, so there was no telling how the little Yamaha might perform, especially on the track’s popular, and steeply banked, turn that led to Start/Finish. As he recently explained, “A friend, Jim Munz who worked for Yamaha’s east coast distributor, had a brother, Frank, who owned a TD1-A. Jim arranged for me to race it at Meadowdale.”

black and white photo of four men standing behind a white motorcycle with a checkered…

In addition, those early Yamaha 2-stroke twins suffered from a few shortcomings, chief among them a crank-mounted clutch assembly that was weak, and finicky carburetors that proved a challenge for the bike’s tuner. It was those stubborn carburetors that sidelined Jody during qualifying for the 100-mile race, forcing him to start on the ninth and final row of the 44-bike Lightweight field.

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