Fast Diggers: Gordon Walker

 Gordon Walker was one of a number of Australian bicycle track racers who came to America in the early 1900s to compete during Australia's winter months. Gordon, Steve Senhouse, and W. W. Oudkirk (or Audkirk) were in Los Angeles during May and June 1909 competing on the five lap track at Fiesta Park. Over the years Gordon, noted for his sprinting prowess, would travel back and forth across the Pacific, competing on other tracks and in Six-Day races around the United States during the Australian winter.

In 1919, the [editor of the] Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated, responding to an interview that Gordon, retired and working for the Splitdorf Electrical Company, gave to Bede Carroll of the Sydney Referee, stopped just short of calling Gordon a coward and a cry baby: "... and he let out an awful wail about how badly the Australian cyclists are being treated in America... getting a very raw deal from the American promoters at Newark. Why he waited until he retired and got 10,000 miles or so away to let out his belch is hard to figure out unless he was one of the cuckoos that were afraid to say their lives were their own around the Velodrome. Or did retirement and distance lend enchantment to the wail? He mentions something about Simon Legree, he no doubt means John M. Chapman, manager of the Newark Velodrome, who was so dubbed by the riders, as the cause of all the trouble to the Australians. From my observations I believe the Australians have been treated pretty good around America where they have been racing for the past few years... The cyclists used to call Walker "Tears" and I guess it will be tears to the end." (from On the Bell Lap, by The Vet, Motorcycle and Bicycle Illustrated, 7 August 1919) Was there some basis to Walkers' complaint, or was the the Illustrated editor turning a blind eye to real problems with his, unsolicited, defense?

Gordon Walker is but one of many racers who competed on Los Angeles area tracks during the first two decades of the 1900s, and who you will find in the upcoming second volume of Fast Digs: Bicycle Racing Venues of Greater Los Angeles. Volume One is still available through the Blurb bookstore in both soft cover and hard back.