Folks Of Interest Remembering EJ Potter - a year on

...taking a moment to remember EJ Potter, lost a year ago this week to Alzhemier's. Story and photos:


Remembering EJ Potter | Mac's Motor City Garage.com

 

Never heard of him, thanks for the links. Great read.

 

I have spent some time reading his biographies. Interesting man. Known as the Michigan Mad Man but in reality quite an engineer and fabricator. Another one of those lost hero's.

 

I had the privelege to see him at Concord Drag Strip, Concord NC in 1964. I will never forget it. The way he launched was amazing.

 

Thanks for the memories!

 

That was a key part of the show. No one who's seen it will ever forget it.

 

An amazing man and engineer. Has it really been a year already? Damn time flies.

 

I was lucky to meet him at the SuperStock reunion in the late 90's. Very intense and super nice. He got his start as a kid by putting a motor on his bycicle and terrorizing the neighborhood. He told me that all his tires he burnt up on his V8 bike came from the junkyard. No sense buying slicks when he could shave the old ones. Later on in his career he got into tractor pulling and was quite good often beating big budget machines with his home made, butt ugly but well engineered tractor. He had an autobiography out at one time and sold them at events. Its a good read with great pictures.

 

I was lucky enough to see him a couple of times in the 60's at the local strips in Connecticut. He was a real crowd pleaser and always brought us to our feet.

 

Thank you , I remember the Chevy powered cycle (Bloody Mary)and the article in Hot Rod magazine.

 

He put out a self narrated video about 10 years ago, 'Old Men Can Still Do Stuff', at least an hour long and great stories to go with all his creations. I have it on VHS.

 

I used to see him at Detroit Dragway on "Bloody Mary" back in the 60's.

 

EJ, Art Arfons, M/T, Jungle, the sixties were something to see.

 

I saw him run at Central Michigan Dragway in the 60's. He really put on a show, something I will never forget. RIP

 

A down to earth guy in a time of down to earth guys.

Met him @ Motor City Dragway in the 60's and the Silverdome (pulling tractors) in the 70's.

Real lessons in Physics.

I wonder why he never built an Allison motorcycle. 'Double Ugly Bloody Mary Widowmaker Too'

 

An innovator, engineer and daredevil all in one. One of the greats.

 

There has never been anyone to impress me quite as much as he did. He cheated death in more ways than anyone too. He was one smart guy....and lucky too. If you watched him 50 years ago you would never believe he would live long enough to draw social security.

 

I bought his book about year before he passed, came with a DVD , him talking and riding and showing some of his other things.
Very enjoyable, both, if you can find a copy it's worth buying.

 

Indeed. The whole Michigan Madman thing sort of obscured what a sharp guy he was.

 

Way cool thread. Can you imagine riding that bike? ha ha ha

 

The black and white is Potter in his 20s and the color pics are him at age 59 making runs on "Widow Maker" for the first time in 27 years at my Super Stock Reunion at Virginia Motorsports Park in '99. He showed absolutely no fear!

 

A True gear head

 

I met him around 1970. He was an interesting guy. Read his book and you will feel you knew him well.

 

Agreed. In a funny way the book reminds me of Smokey Yunick's autobio. Totally different temperament but similar sense of humor.

 

Here is a pretty cool clip of EJ Potter, Evel, Arfons and who knows who else. I was there at dragway 42 that day in the early 70's. JC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe8a7MHEqUo&feature=related

 

EJ raced at Salem dragway (Salem mo)around 1970.The track had a uphill short shutdown and Ej over shot it and went into the farmers field. RLS

 

Sigh................sometimes I feel I have lived too long.
I ride a V8 bike, but there's no way I would ever ride it like EJ did.
He was one of a kind, for sure

 

The man was a rare combination of things:

Intelligent enough to envision and engineer the things he created,

Talented enough to execute the construction of them,

And cRaZy enough to throttle the shit outta machinery that would make the average guy sob uncontrollably and piss his pants.....!!!!

He was truly an inspiration.His creations opened up a whole new world of thinking outside the box and scaring one's self shitless while the civilians scratch their heads and say "Is he f**king NUTS!?!?"

 

I saw him at CT dragway in early 70's while helping a friend run his car..He asked Frank M if he wanted clean runs or an accident about happen, clean runs got the nod..E.J. choose the clean pavement in the right lane, about two feet wide and then grass...Made 3 or 4 runs and ran pretty damn straight and never crossed his previous run..I think 10.5 @ 149 was his best...Neat to watch, I got to tell him the way out of the track when he asked, "how the hell do I get out of here?"..Ah, some things you just don't forget..

 

I think at one time or another, EJ ran at every strip there ever was. Of course, he toured the UK and Australia too.