Michael Gutterridge, owner of Gutterridge Harley-Davidson, received a surprise gift Monday morning - a restored motorcycle that he began racing on in 1974.
Gutterridge had let his son, Roger, know he would like to have his old motorcycle, a 100cc Harley-Davidson Baja, back as a memento of his racing days.
Roger, who is the service manager at his father's Harley-Davidson dealership, tracked down the motorcycle in Benton, Ind.
"I talked with the owner of the motorcycle several times, but we just couldn't come together on a price," Roger said.
"In the early part of November he turned down my last offer, and I told dad that I couldn't make a deal for it," he continued. However, a week later the owner contacted Roger and agreed to his last offer. Plans were made to overhaul the motorcycle and restore it to its original condition in the shop while Michael and his wife, Beth were gone on a weeklong cruise in mid-November.
Roger said the seven men who work in the dealership shop did all the work, but he commended Ben Knight as the man who put in the most time on the restoration. Many of the original parts came from Charleston Custom Cycles. Roger said one of the parts they had trouble locating was the compression release front brake, but he eventually found one in California. Roger said Doug Hefner did the paint job on the bike and Vinyl & More, a division of J-Tec of Tilton custom made some of the decals he was unable to locate. When the bike was finished it was kept under wraps in a large storage building on the dealership grounds.
"I raced with three other fellows," Michael said. "Marvin Davis, Raymond Wright and Rick Peyton all raced with me. The trio raced at flat-tracks in Illinois and Indiana. Most races were at county fairs. "We would work on the bikes all week, decide on Wednesday where we were going to race and then head out on Friday for the race," Michael said.
Michael enjoyed considerable success in his racing career, winning the state championship in Illinois and Indiana in the 100cc class. Later, he would go on to win the titles again in the 175cc class. Michael also successfully raced in the Daytona motorcycle race in 1978, finishing 11th in that race.
It was evident from the smile on Michael's face that he was happy to have the bike that brought him so much success as well as many memorable times back in his possession.
The smile never left Michael's face as he took the bike on a ceremonial ride around the dealership parking lot.