CLIFF CASWELL

While Al Gunter was unusual in going from race bikes to race cars, Cliff started with cars but moved to bikes.

Returning from the Navy after the war he started racing stock cars at the Victory speedway in Middletown, a track close to his home in Walkill NY.

Starting late in the season he immediately made a big impression as the local paper recorded - "Three Saturdays ago Cliff Caswell came out of
nowhere to cop the 50-lap feature.

Caswell's victory had racing fans scurrying to the record books, asking "Who is this guy?".  They're not asking the question now!!"

But his first bike race made a bigger impression on Cliff.

He rode a friend's Matchless to a race in New Jersey and was offered a race. He won the heat, the final and a $66.00 prize.  But most importantly he was hooked on bikes - that was the end of stock cars!

At first he raced an Indian each weekend on TT tracks like Newton and Newfoundland NJ, then later further around the North East.  

His first flat-track event was at Dover NJ but having got one under his belt swiftly moved to a ½ mile track each Saturday night at Hafford Springs, Conn
- by this time on a Triumph. In between weekends he rode a JAP on Staten Island NY.
 

By 1952 he was also riding a WR Harley-Davidson on tracks around the North East and used this bike for his first two rides at Daytona in 1952 and '53.

1953 was a big year for Cliff. On a '53 BSA Star Twin ("a great machine..") he won at Stafford Springs on July 11th, then the New York State Championship the following day.

Cliff was a good friend of Warren Sherwood, another great BSA rider from the North-East. At weekends they would often race each other to events around the North-East, race in the event, then race home again.  Wherever there was
a race, they'd be there - Langhorne, Reading, Williams Grove Pennsylvania, Stafford Springs Conn, Keen in New Hampshire and as far south as Richmond Virginia - either one (and sometimes both) were often placed in the top 3.

He had bad luck at Daytona in 1954 on one of the works BSA Gold Stars when another rider crashed into him early in the race and he retired.

In 1956 he was offered a ride on a BMW Rennsport at Harwood, Ontario. Since there were only a couple of these bikes in the US, it was disallowed by the AMA from competing in State competitions so he had to race in Canada.

In that race he Canadian Gerald Robarts on a short-stroke Manx took an early lead, lapping the field and duelling for first place by lap 9 but at the
end, Caswell came second.  However, a review of the race commented on Caswell's "marvellous stability and handling.

Cliff hung-up his racing leathers in 1965.  He was thirty-five years old with a family and "it was time."

After that he taught auto body repairs for the New York State Prison System and travelled extensively.  He retired in 1988 and spends a lot of time golfing.