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“If you’re a motorcycle fan, you I had the pleasure of interview- couple of years later, in 1947, want to hang out with other ing Kevin over Skype, and I got PMC was approached by the motorcycle enthusiasts. That’s a sense for what makes the American Motorcycle Associ- what our club is all about. Peoria Motorcycle Club (PMC) ation (AMA) to hold a National We’re all motorcycle enthusi- successful: people like Kevin. Championship TT there. And asts, we love to ride, we like to And while they’re famous for the rest, as the saying goes, put on the races.” the race, PMC has a lot more is history. The history in this Kevin Brashear grew up at- to it to discover, including case, however, includes mo- tending the Peoria, Illinois plenty of fun events open to torcycling greats like Bill Mill- Tourist Trophy (TT) National the public plus a rock-solid er, Dick Mann, Chris Carr and Championship with his Dad. A formula for creating a tight-knit more. In fact, when I asked child at the time, he saw some motorcycling community. Kevin what some of his favorite of the legends of flat track The club started in 1931, and memories were, he said it was racing compete and win at the the racing had humble origins hands-down seeing riders like longest-running race in the that will resonate with any mo- Ricky Graham and others. “My United States and the only one torcyclist. At that point, it was memory of some of the great CHINA 2 WHEELS run by a private motorcycle basically “moto enthusiasts old riders… a lot of the young- club. riding Harleys in the dirt,” as er people now interested in FEBRUARY ARTICLE Today, Kevin Brashear is the Kevin described to me. That motorcycle racing, these peo- PEORIA MOTORCYCLE CLUB: HERITAGE Peoria Motorcycle Club’s pres- would change in 1945, when ple are legends that they’ve INSIDE & OUT ident, for the third year in a the club bought 80 acres of heard of or saw in a magazine. land to build their dirt track. A But I actually got to see them row. By: Dillon Dakota Carroll, Foreign Correspondent 13