One question Nobby Clark/Hall of Fame voters should ask: WWMHD?

I'm not actually sure when the voting opens or closes on the special supplementary ballot the AMA will hold, to determine whether Nobby Clark will get into the AMA Hall of Fame in the end (or, just get it in the end.)

But when ballots arrive, the voters (who include all living Hall of Fame members) need ask themselves only one question: What would Mike Hailwood do?

Mike "The Bike" Hailwood. Greatest motorcycle racer of all time. (Sorry Vale, you'll get consideration when you come back years after your GP career has ended, and win a TT.) Nobby Clark's best -- and favorite -- rider. Awarded the George Medal, Britain's highest civilian award for bravery, for assisting in the rescue of F1 driver Clay Regazzoni, from a fiery wreck in the South African GP. What would Mike Hailwood do? He would vote for Nobby.

A conversation with Nobby Clark

Last night, vacation or not, a Classic Bike column deadline loomed. Not for the first time the AMA bailed me out by providing column fodder. I write of the 'Nobby Clark Affair,' of course.

The upside was, the AMA'd given me plenty to write about. The downside was, I pretty much had to call Nobby to discuss it. (Email was out of the question, as he doesn't own a computer.) 

I don't know Nobby; we've met, over the years, at a couple of motorcycle events where I figured him as a thin, soft-spoken guy with the remains of a British-empire accent; he was born in Rhodesia.

At the best of times I've got a bit of telephone anxiety, and I half expected him to tell me to fuck off; after all, I helped stir up memories of his criminal guilty plea (though in my defense, I only abetted Michael Gougis at RoadracingWorld.com.) Still, I had no idea whether I'd be bothering him or, would he want to talk?

He did. I caught him at his home, in the village of Dover Plains, which is about 90 miles north of New York City, near the border with Connecticut. This post is based on my notes of our conversation.

As it happened, I reached Nobby right after I got an email from the AMA announcing they would hold a special, supplemental ballot (in which all living Hall of Fame members would be given a vote) to determine whether Nobby should be inducted, as originally announced.

Nobby didn't seem particularly elated by that news, but there was more resignation than anger in his voice when he told me, "I think it's damned bad organization on their [the AMA's] part. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing. I got a letter telling me that I was going to be inducted, then six weeks later, I got a phone call telling me it's been rescinded. They didn't even write to apologize. I told them, 'No matter what you say, people won't believe you,' since the AMA's already got a bad reputation."

Nowadays, he works for a guy over in CT, who restores primo vintage sports cars. On weekends, he wrenches for a couple of good AHRMA racers, Alex McLean and Bob McKeever. I should say, that's what he had been doing; he lost most of the last year to cancer surgery and chemotherapy. He just finished the last series of injections. 

He's been getting calls about the Hall of Fame debacle from all over the world; Germany, France, Holland, New Zealand... It occurred to me that, strangely, I've not seen him quoted here in the U.S. [Paul Carruthers of Cycle News interviewed him, but I missed it.]

Long after his race-tuning career was over, Nobby was working as a mechanic in a garage in South Africa when he got a call one night at midnight. It was Rob Iannucci.

 "He asked me if I still remembered how to assemble a Honda 250-six, and told me he'd bring me to New York for a couple of weeks, to put his together. I thought, two weeks in New York would be good, but once I saw the parts I realized it was going to be more like six months." That was almost 20 years ago. 

I asked him for his side of the story of the events that led to him pleading guilty to stealing parts from Iannucci and Team Obsolete, and he sighed. "We'll still be here talking at midnight." It didn't take until midnight, but we did have a long conversation that he asked me not to detail. Suffice to say, after hearing Nobby's side, I feel I was on the money when I first wrote about it. Something like 90% of all U.S. criminal cases end in plea bargains, and there are innocent people who realize that admitting guilt is the easiest (or only) way to escape a costly and dysfunctional criminal-justice system.

He also eventually escaped Brooklyn, to the much quieter environs of Dover Plains. "It was like living in a zoo, but without the cages," he told me of New York City. "At least in the bush, you know that the animals are wild and you keep your distance from them, but  in the city, you never know which ones are going to attack."

At the end of our conversation, I had to ask him which, of the many champion riders he worked with, had been his favorite. "I'd have to say the best was Mike Hailwood," he told me. "He was the most versatile; he'd ride four different bikes in four different classes and win on all of them. Agostini couldn't do that, I don't think Kenny could have done it. Read could ride two or three bikes and do well, but Mike just had so much talent."

"He looked after you, too. If you had to work all night, he'd have someone come over from the hotel with coffee. The other guys just said, 'See you at practice tomorrow.' And after the race, he'd just ask, 'What are you drinking?' and then pick up the bar tab." Hailwood partied before the races, too, that was they way they did it back then, but Nobby told me that it never affected his riding. He said that Mike tried to win every race he was in, whether he had a bike capable of winning or not. I got the feeling that Nobby thought less of most modern riders, who will ride for safe points if they feel a win's not in the cards.

He's about to go back to work at the garage. "My energy level is up, my endurance is back up," he told me. "I've gained back about 40 pounds I lost in chemo." And now, it seems that neither cancer nor the AMA's internal politics will prevent him from being inducted into the Hall of Fame while he's alive.

I am sure a full, open vote will see him inducted. He may not be the most famous member of the 'Class of 2012' but he'll be the most talked-about at this year's ceremony. I almost want to attend, just to applaud when they call him up. When I asked him how he'd feel when he finally saw his plaque on the wall, he sounded happy. "They asked me if I had any memorabilia to display at the museum," he said. "I don't have much, really, but I do have a nearly perfect pair of Honda coveralls from the '60s. I guess I'll loan them those."

I've said, all along, that the right thing for the AMA to do -- regardless of how the Nobby Clark Affair really started -- the only right thing to do is induct Nobby into the Hall of Fame. By putting it to the largest possible vote, the AMA has tacitly admitted that it fucked up. And that's the first step to making things better. 

Thanks, AMA. You're doing the right thing now. Maybe we can move forward.

Hall of Fame, Part III

OK, maybe collectively we overreacted. I guess that's a danger in this new interwebbed world. There's not much time to interrupt a feedback loop.

And, it probably doesn't help that I'm a bit of a bomb-thrower.

But seriously, I've just re-read all of the press releases and editorials that have come out in the wake of the Nobby Clark Affair, and I still can't say that I've got a clear picture of what happened. I guess if I wanted to try to get one, I'd try to chart out some sort of concordance between Dean Adams' description of what he saw from inside the nomination procedure, and the AMA Hall of Fame's report of its own 'investigation' into what happened. I'd also very much like to ask Nobby Clark when he was contacted by the AMA, and what he was told.

At least, that's what I'd do if, a.) I wasn't supposed to be on vacation, and b.) Anyone paid me enough to actually give a shit.

Given the reality of my situation as, at best, a noisy outsider, I'd rather just say this: If anyone wants to argue that I was all wrong and that Clark's debacle with Rob Iannucci, back in the early '90s, had nothing to do with the Hall of Fame's PR disaster, we can just agree on that and move on to the next topic.

The next topic is that even most flattering interpretation of events suggests that the procedure was overly complicated, bogged down in rules, committees, and subcommittees, with members pushing their own agendas, supported by an incompetent staff.

I still think that once the announcement had been made, Clark should have been inducted. No one -- at least no one outside the committee -- would have noticed that there seemed to be one extra guy in the Class of '12.

But the larger issue here is, what the fuck?.. If they can turn even something as anodyne as Hall of Fame inductions into an occasion for internecine bickering and recriminations, then layer in bureaucratic incompetence, and develop it into a full-blown public fiasco, maybe it's time to wonder whose interests the AMA is even trying to serve, besides their own.

Everything ends. Sometimes it implodes, sometimes it peters out, but eventually, it always ends. It's not something we necessarily need to fight. It's part of every natural process, and when it ends, it makes room for something that will replace it, if necessary

I'm not saying we don't need the Hall of Fame. I think that Hall, in fact, is a great thing. It would be just as great, maybe greater, at the Barber Museum. I'm saying, maybe we don't need the AMA.

Now, I'm back on vacation.

Which Hall of Fame member took the nuclear option over the Nobby Clark fiasco?

I'm still on vacation, but I feel compelled to quote this letter, from a current Hall of Fame member, who has instructed the AMA to remove him from the Hall, to protest the AMA's handling of 'the Nobby Clark affair.'

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter and the enclosed medal commemorating my induction comprise my immediate resignation from the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.  I expect my name and picture to be removed without delay from all Hall of Fame materials and representations.  

I take this action in response to the Hall of Fame’s unconscionable rescinding of the nomination of Nobby Clark, a motorcycling legend more than worthy of Hall of Fame membership.  I believe we Hall of Famers have a special stake in the integrity of the institution and its nominating process.  I have lost all faith in that process and, more importantly, in the individuals who apparently now control it.   

I am deeply suspicious of media speculation that Clark’s “criminal record” is somehow grounds for the withdrawal of his nomination but given the absence of any clear and official explanation from Hall of Fame officials, that apparently is the brush with which Nobby is to be tarred.  This raises a couple obvious questions:  What changed in the short time between the announcement and the rescinding of Clark's nomination and why would Clark's "criminal record" be grounds for a blackball when that clearly was not an issue for a number of previous inductees who also have criminal records.   

I suspect the answers to these questions, if they were truly known, would do nothing to restore my faith in the integrity of the institution but in the end my resignation does not turn on those answers.  Instead it is based on a simple and inescapable conclusion; given everything Nobby Clark has accomplished in this sport, if he doesn’t belong in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame then I sure as hell shouldn’t be in there.

Sincerely,

Dave Despain

 

The dominoes continue to fall... UPDATE Holy shit, Dick Mann's quit now, too, with a similar letter.

Derek and the Dominoes: Nobby Clark triggers a major WTF?

The AMA's recent press release rescinding Derek 'Nobby' Clark's accession into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame triggered so much forehead slapping amongst motorcyclists that it could have been confused for applause for the AMA's mysterious decision.

On Facebook, the early consensus was that whatever the cause of the confusion had been, that had resulted in Clark first being listed as one of this year's inductees and then having that honor rescinded before it was even given, the confusion would have been better swept under the rug. Most people said the AMA should just have given Clark the honor.

As usual, RoadracingWorld.com has a more detailed and informed perspective on the issue. Reading Dean Adams' email to Roadracing World on the Clark kerffufle won't really clarify much for you, if you're hoping to understand how the AMA actually makes decisions. But Michael Gougis' story (complete with a link to a mug shot!) does make clear why Clarke was removed from this year's Hall of Fame inductees; he was charged and pleaded guilty to theft of motorcycle parts from Rob Iannucci/Team Obsolete.

I first met Rob Iannucci in the mid-'90s, when he wrote a foreword for my book Classic Motorcycles. We went for dinner at some little Italian joint in New York, and I spent the evening listening to him recite a litany of perceived slights, mostly at his treatment at the hands of AHRMA officials. I remember him telling me about his falling out with Clark (I think Rob had brought Clark to Team Obsolete to rebuild his priceless 250-6.) While I've long forgotten most of the details of our conversation, I do remember that, at the time, I thought, "There's probably two sides to that story."

Rob seems to have mellowed a bit in recent years, but as AHRMA learned, he could be famously obstreperous, really held a grudge, and took a bare-knuckled approach to legal action. I didn't doubt that he could have been vindictive enough to press theft charges just to make an enemy's life miserable.

I suppose Clark really did steal some of Rob's stuff; that's the view of the courts, anyway. In the black-or-white legal world, people are either guilty of theft, or innocent. But in the world where we live, it's all shades of grey, and things aren't so certain. Lots of people plead 'guilty' without being guilty, just to get out of a legal situation. It's a little hard for me to understand, if Clark was really guilty of what must have been 'grand theft', that a few years later he was granted U.S. citizenship.

I'm sure there are more egregious miscreants in the Hall. But in hindsight, the AMA committee should have paid more attention to Clark's criminal record, and quietly deep-sixed his nomination. While no one questioned Clark's Hall-of-Fame-worthiness, it's not as if he'd be conspicuous by his absence from the Hall -- or that he himself ever expected the honor.

Clark is in his mid-70s now. As far as I know, he's still working as a mechanic. Over the years, I've seen him at a couple of motorcycle events, where other old men want to get close to him because he had been close to Mike Hailwood. But like so many people who have devoted most of their lives to motorcycle racing, he left the sport with little more than memories and his reputation. Whatever happened between him and Iannucci certainly damaged his reputation and the AMA's public debacle has brought it all up again.

It's demoralizing, the way the AMA seems determined to undermine motorcyclists' faith in our institutions.