A few months back, my good friend David Uhl, one of the world's most reknowned artists of the vintage motorcycle genre, contacted me to let me know he'd be doing a new painting as part of his Daytona Commemorative Series. Excited to hear the news, I asked if he had a subject to base his painting from. I knew that David focuses his work mostly on Pre-WWII machines, which we have many of here at the museum. So you can imagine my excitement when he said he hadn't nailed down an exact idea as to what the painting would be.
David mentioned that he'd like to do a piece on a past Daytona 200 winner, preferably from the beach race era. Immediately, I knew we had the piece that he was looking for.
 About ten years ago, I found a pile of parts in Maryland, formerly owned by a man named Jack Chester. We knew that Chester tuned for a number of beach race contestants, but weren't sure exactly who he tuned for. In late 2006, we started assembling that pile of parts that I had found years ago. The pile had all the right parts for a 1939 Harley-Davidson WLDR, tricked out with a ball-bearing factory race motor, the cast aluminum Daytona oil tank, and a set of extremely rare 5 gallon Daytona gas tanks. As the bike started to come together, we found a major resemblance to a bike in a series of pictures at the museum. The bike in the picutres was ridden by Babe Tancrede to a 1940 Daytona 200 1st place victory. Upon close inspection the project at hand appeared to be identical to that of Tancredes winning machine. After a little more digging, we pulled up records on Jack Chester....and wouldn't you know it....he tuned for Babe Tancrede.
So I told David about the bike and its story and he was immediatley captivated. "Send me over some pictures he said."
When he saw photos of the bike, and some great shots of Tancrede and the machine after their victory, he got his inspiration for his new Daytona Commemorative piece. Within hours, he called me back and we began to organize a photoshoot. My son, Matt, and his girlfriend Knealie jumped right in on the piece and within a few minutes, they were ready for the shoot, dressed in period attire and all.
The shoot went very well, and by the end of the day, we got David the shots he needed for the piece. My imagination was wandering, as I looked forward to seeing what sort of masterpiece he would create.
Within a couple of weeks, David had completed the piece in amazing detail. He debuted the painting at the Ocean Center in Daytona during bike week, and was met with rave reviews. Upon receiving the copy David sent over, we were ecstatic. It was Babe to a tee.
If you'd like to know more about David or his many licensed Harley-Davidson artworks, visit one of his websites, located at www.DavidUhl.com or www.UhlStudios.com. He is truly a great friend and an amazing human being. Here's a shot of the painting!
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