R. I. P. Ron Wood

Just saw this on Daulton Gauthier's faceplant page. No details.

Another one of my heroes gone. Ron loved Nortons but had no illusions about them.

Beautiful & fast flat trackers for sure ...

I hadn't seen Ron since he sold the business a few years ago, but I used to see him at the shop or track regularly. He was definitely one of the serious Norton race guys. I first met him at Axtell's shop in the early '70s, when I first started racing with a Commando PR. I got a lot of good info and advice from him, and the occasional trick part. He was quite a guy, full of his own little peculiarities, but very sharp, and always willing to help. And he know how to enjoy life, more than most people.

One of my favorite stories is from a race at Sears Point (probably somewhere in the early '90s). I had my SJ600 Wood Rotax racer there, and Ron was there with his "factory" SJ600, with a seriously good rider (maybe Nick Ienatsch, but I'm not sure). I was having problems with my bike not shifting (I had rebuilt it just before the race), and Ron came to our pit and immediately started helping, pulling the covers and troubleshooting the gearbox. But before he started, he looked around at my reasonably tidy setup, and asked if I had "a little broom, or something" so he could sweep up the area first. Ron was a serious neat freak, and his bike and pit area were always immaculate. But when I said I didn't, he just sat down and started working on my bike without a complaint. Funny thing, but I always carried a broom in the trailer after that. Ron was always ready and willing to help, as long as you had a good attitude and didn't think you already knew everything. Unfortunately, this particular episode didn't have a good ending. Turns out I had left out a critical spacer in the gearbox, and couldn't fix it in time at the track. I had to tear the engine down at home to fit the spacer, after which it was fine.

The high point in my experiences with the Wood Rotax was at Daytona in 2004, when we won an AHRMA singles race with one of my friends riding the bike (I quit road racing in '93). Ron had tried to win at Daytona with his bike, mostly at AMA races, for several years, but never quite managed it. He wasn't there in 2004, so I called him right after the race to let him know that one of his bikes was finally a Daytona winner. That felt pretty good.

Ron made a lot of friends along the way. He will be missed.

I think this is the only picture of Ron I ever took. It's one of him with his SJ600 Wood Rotax in the pits at Sears Point in 1997. The two younger guys are a couple of friends of mine, both also racers.



Ken

Ken, I met him but did not share as much time with him as you did

The man’s reputation ptrededed him. Impecably dressed, even when casual at the race track I also met him through CR Axtell, but later after Ax passed, by way of Mike Libby’s introduction. Gorgeous girl friend too.

We had a long talk one day at the Willow Springs dirt track. Our point of community was Ducati singles. He told me about his own pre Norton days, dirt track racing on a Ducati . I could speak the language of those engines with him and we also shared memories of Ax, Bob Gotsuch and “R.L.” both of whom you also knew, of Excello Plating and Inspection.

Yeah, as I get older I accumulate more "absent friends". We'll have a toast to Ron Thursday night at the local Irish pub, where I meet with some car and bike racer friends every other week. He'd appreciate that. If you saw him in the pits after the race, or even towards the end, you might notice that Coke wasn't the only thing in his plastic cup. Like I said, he did know how to enjoy life.

Ken

Great story Ken, you’re privileged to have known and mingled with such people.

Lovely looking bike too, neat, purposeful and ‘right’.

One thing I have learned as I get older, is to go and visit your friends because they won't always be here. There are things I should have discussed with many of my my friends and never did. The opportunity in most cases, has now gone.