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I met Marlyn*(Thunder) Klunder back in 1997 when i almost purchased his Wall of Death Traveling Show~Long Story. It was advertised in Buzz & Pixie's, Walneck Cycle ads Magazine. Marlyn promoted speEdWaY for a brief time, when he purchased a dozen speedway motorcycles, to try single handedly to promote the racing he absolutely loved. Marlyn did manage to muster up a few riders, and he ran a race at the old Minnesota Metropolitan Stadium, when it was vacant after the Twins put up a new ballpark. 'Klunder' could also tear upthe flat tracks in his day! I believe the his Wall of Death wound up in a Motorcycle Museum in Newburgh, NY. Marlyn was a genuinely all round great guy, and he will be dearly missed. *God Speed 'Klunder'.
Obituary: MARLYN KLUNDER <------
https://youtu.be/mheC4FawNM0?si=jCvn6wCpimgQdKrm. *American Pickers visit Marlyn.
Motorcyclepedia, Newburgh, New York <-----
Minnesota Legend
Marlyn Klunder
If you live in Minnesota and ride motorcycles, you will most likely recognize this name. Marlyn “Thunder” Klunder is arguably the most successful promoter in Minnesota motorcycle racing history. He has been racing flat track and promoting since 1958, and at 71 years young he is still going strong, riding motorcycles and racing Midget Sprint cars.
“I’ve been a promoter my whole life,” says Klunder, “and I’ve done a lot of “first” things. You know, like putting motorcycle racing inside of a building; putting it in a baseball diamond where people hated motorcycles; I was the first guy to use syrup, Coke syrup on the floor which made it good; first motorcycle guy to rent the State Fairgrounds. So we’ve done quite a few firsts. You know, bringing Speedway bikes in. We didn’t excel at a lot of things but I feel I was successful with what I tried to do. We kind of reached the goals we tried for”.
For a man who claims “we didn’t excel at a lot of things”, Klunder has an impressive list of achievements. He promoted his first ½ mile in 1960 at Mitchell, South Dakota. “There was a guy who owned a dairy” he remembers, “and he had these panel trucks to deliver the milk. For some reason, I don’t know why, he had one like in that movie The Blues Brothers, where they had that big megaphone on top. He had one of those! But, we would drive it up and down Mitchell saying, “Races tomorrow night!” Then we’d go to the next town over and those farm kids would get a kick out of it. And we didn’t charge any admission; we just went around and took up a collection. We came out better doing it that way, because guys would feel a little embarrassed with their car load of kids and they’d throw in 5 bucks or so”.
After owning a Harley-Davidson/ BSA shop in 1960, Marlyn sold the business to focus on full-time racing. In 1962, Belmont’s Harley-Davidson of St. Paul offered him a job for the winter as manager/salesman. Klunder ended up staying there for 16 years, continuing his promotions all the while.
In 1969, Marlyn persuaded Kenny Degonda to bring AMA racing into the Minneapolis Armory. The following year, Klunder and John Miller (Badger Racing) took over. Miller was killed in 1973, but with the help of Al Mathwig and Dudley Callies, Klunder continued at the Armory. Mathwig and Callies moved on to other ventures in 1975 but Klunder kept things going until losing his lease after the 1980 season. Typical attendance was 3500-3800 people.
Marlyn kept himself busy through the 70’s and 80’s. He brought Speedway racing to Minnesota by purchasing 12 Speedway bikes, selling or loaning them to local riders, and putting on races at St. Paul’s Midway Stadium. He also held flat track races at the St. Paul Civic Center, Cannon River Speedway, South St. Paul Rodeo Grounds, and combined events (flat track and MX) at North Star Speedway and Elko Speedway. He brought Vintage racing to Sturgis and a huge rally to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. He owned and operated a printing shop. And 1985 he purchased his Motordrome, “The Wall of Death”:
“I bought a Porsche and I needed a way to pay for it, so I bought the Motordrome. Some places, like Waconia, they just bought me out, and that was good. They’d just say we’ll give you 10,000 bucks for the 5 days and you can put on shows constantly. They were happy with our show, and consequently when the show is free, it makes everybody happy and the place was full! We’d do 3-4 shows an hour and it would be packed. Like a an old promoter friend of mine from Sioux Falls used to say, people wanna be where people are, not where people ain’t. And that’s the truth. We’d get 150 people standing around that Drome, had ’em packed in there laughing and drinking beer. There was me and 2 other guys who rode, and we put on a good show. We’d do it fast and quick, and would scare ‘em to death. They’d go out and tell their friends, and I’d watch them, and some guys would come back 2 or 3 times”. That was always Marlyn’s philosophy; “Put on a good show and people will show up; and they’ll come back”.
But according to Klunder, 2 things have caused “the show” to suffer. The first thing was the introduction of 250cc machines:
” I was standing there with Barney Larson 30 years ago when they brought those 250’s in, that’s the demise of motorcycle racing, right there. I mean, you can’t have a guy the size of Griff [Francis Griffen] riding a 12 horsepower motorcycle. It just don’t make any sense at all. I mean, here’s a guy over 6 foot, probably weighed close to 300 pounds, was a good racer and all, but had to start out. It was degrading mentally to make these grown men start out on 12 horsepower motorcycles. When we were racing, you know with no brakes, that was a big selling point: big 750 Harleys, Triumphs, BSA’s and Nortons, and made a lot of noise and spit up a lot of dirt, no brakes so you had to slide it in there”.
The second thing is a long, drawn out show:
“The worst thing is making people sit, and sit, and sit; especially nowadays. Remember how we started the Armory at 8:00, and when the National Anthem was done, Chuck threw the flag and BANG, we were racing. At 10:00 we were done. Mary had the pay-off; we’d do that at home because we knew that all you had to do was add the guy’s name. We paid through Semis and the Mains, and everybody got paid except for the heats. So everybody got money, and everybody felt good about themselves, because they could walk up to the pay window and get money just like Billy Hofmeister. And we’d do that so quick; BANG, BANG, BANG, and we’d be home by 11:00. And that’s especially true today. You gotta put ‘em in for 2 hours. This is not rocket science. So whether you’re out in the country or downtown, or whatever, start at 8:00 and be over by 10:00. And you gotta do that the first time out, because if you give them a bad taste the first time, you’re gonna lose them”.
Klunder knows what a well run event looks like. He was a full time racer from 1958 through 1972. “I started racing in 1958”, he says,” I bought a brand new KR in ’58, which I still have. I rode 5 races that year. I went to St. Peter, Minnesota and I won that. Then I went to Davenport, Iowa and I got second. Then I went back to Davenport and got another second, and went to some races in Illinois. Anyway, I got enough points to become a Listed B rider. Then in 1959, I went to California and raced. I didn’t do too good because the damn Experts had talked Agajanian into running the Amateurs and Experts together, which sucked because you had to break your ass. Here you are running with the best at that time like Gunnar, Neil Keen, Joe Leonard, Dick Mann and all those guys. They were gonna fill up the first 5 or 10 spots in the main. So I struggled and stayed out there the whole year and then came back to Sturgis.
“In those days at Sturgis, they had 3 guys with stop watches. I broke the track record at Sturgis with 27.17 seconds. Then Ron Boyarski, who was traveling with Joe Leonard at the time, he goes out and he turns a 27.11, so there went my 50 bucks. And that was kind of the story of my life. I got second in the main the first day. On the second day, in the heat race, we were running down the backstretch and, like Sturgis, it just started to rain. We all fell down. I slid down and my KR went upside down like a bicycle. I still had a standard Harley throttle with no return on it. Fire was coming out of both pipes and I thought,”Oh man”, and I ran over and shut her down. They restarted the race and it ran 2 more laps and it tied up. So that was the end of my racing for ’59.”
In 1960, Klunder rebuilt his KR and in 1961 he bought another KR and went to Daytona. “I did fairly good. I was sitting in some mains. I got second in the Trophy Dash at the 5 mile National. I had second fastest time behind Freddy Nix. And then the rest of them were just 1 and 2 star races over in Wisconsin and I’d win a heat here and there. But the biggest and the funnest thing, of course, was I’d sneak off to North Dakota. Because, boy oh boy, they paid a lot of money, like at Bismarck and Mandan and Jamestown, they had all those fairs up there; Me and Dudley [Callies] and Al [Mathwig] would go. One time I rode up there and I rode 3 classes: I had a 250 and 2 KR’s, I called one a 55 and one a 45. On a good day, and that was pretty good money, like at Jamestown: I won 1200 bucks running those 3 classes.”
Marlyn Klunder has never been afraid to stick his neck out, whether he’s selling tickets or on a 100 mph ½ mile. That’s what makes him this month’s Minnesota Legend.
5E40A1C3-E4C8-4E18-B2F5-441E491DB06A_1_201_a.jpeg 84B52280-7085-487D-B1A3-C756B9BB6BF6_1_201_a.jpeg 2794A681-C047-4523-8C3F-416826C8829D_4_5005_c.jpeg
Obituary: MARLYN KLUNDER <------
https://youtu.be/mheC4FawNM0?si=jCvn6wCpimgQdKrm. *American Pickers visit Marlyn.
Motorcyclepedia, Newburgh, New York <-----
Minnesota Legend
Marlyn Klunder
If you live in Minnesota and ride motorcycles, you will most likely recognize this name. Marlyn “Thunder” Klunder is arguably the most successful promoter in Minnesota motorcycle racing history. He has been racing flat track and promoting since 1958, and at 71 years young he is still going strong, riding motorcycles and racing Midget Sprint cars.
“I’ve been a promoter my whole life,” says Klunder, “and I’ve done a lot of “first” things. You know, like putting motorcycle racing inside of a building; putting it in a baseball diamond where people hated motorcycles; I was the first guy to use syrup, Coke syrup on the floor which made it good; first motorcycle guy to rent the State Fairgrounds. So we’ve done quite a few firsts. You know, bringing Speedway bikes in. We didn’t excel at a lot of things but I feel I was successful with what I tried to do. We kind of reached the goals we tried for”.
For a man who claims “we didn’t excel at a lot of things”, Klunder has an impressive list of achievements. He promoted his first ½ mile in 1960 at Mitchell, South Dakota. “There was a guy who owned a dairy” he remembers, “and he had these panel trucks to deliver the milk. For some reason, I don’t know why, he had one like in that movie The Blues Brothers, where they had that big megaphone on top. He had one of those! But, we would drive it up and down Mitchell saying, “Races tomorrow night!” Then we’d go to the next town over and those farm kids would get a kick out of it. And we didn’t charge any admission; we just went around and took up a collection. We came out better doing it that way, because guys would feel a little embarrassed with their car load of kids and they’d throw in 5 bucks or so”.
After owning a Harley-Davidson/ BSA shop in 1960, Marlyn sold the business to focus on full-time racing. In 1962, Belmont’s Harley-Davidson of St. Paul offered him a job for the winter as manager/salesman. Klunder ended up staying there for 16 years, continuing his promotions all the while.
In 1969, Marlyn persuaded Kenny Degonda to bring AMA racing into the Minneapolis Armory. The following year, Klunder and John Miller (Badger Racing) took over. Miller was killed in 1973, but with the help of Al Mathwig and Dudley Callies, Klunder continued at the Armory. Mathwig and Callies moved on to other ventures in 1975 but Klunder kept things going until losing his lease after the 1980 season. Typical attendance was 3500-3800 people.
Marlyn kept himself busy through the 70’s and 80’s. He brought Speedway racing to Minnesota by purchasing 12 Speedway bikes, selling or loaning them to local riders, and putting on races at St. Paul’s Midway Stadium. He also held flat track races at the St. Paul Civic Center, Cannon River Speedway, South St. Paul Rodeo Grounds, and combined events (flat track and MX) at North Star Speedway and Elko Speedway. He brought Vintage racing to Sturgis and a huge rally to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. He owned and operated a printing shop. And 1985 he purchased his Motordrome, “The Wall of Death”:
“I bought a Porsche and I needed a way to pay for it, so I bought the Motordrome. Some places, like Waconia, they just bought me out, and that was good. They’d just say we’ll give you 10,000 bucks for the 5 days and you can put on shows constantly. They were happy with our show, and consequently when the show is free, it makes everybody happy and the place was full! We’d do 3-4 shows an hour and it would be packed. Like a an old promoter friend of mine from Sioux Falls used to say, people wanna be where people are, not where people ain’t. And that’s the truth. We’d get 150 people standing around that Drome, had ’em packed in there laughing and drinking beer. There was me and 2 other guys who rode, and we put on a good show. We’d do it fast and quick, and would scare ‘em to death. They’d go out and tell their friends, and I’d watch them, and some guys would come back 2 or 3 times”. That was always Marlyn’s philosophy; “Put on a good show and people will show up; and they’ll come back”.
But according to Klunder, 2 things have caused “the show” to suffer. The first thing was the introduction of 250cc machines:
” I was standing there with Barney Larson 30 years ago when they brought those 250’s in, that’s the demise of motorcycle racing, right there. I mean, you can’t have a guy the size of Griff [Francis Griffen] riding a 12 horsepower motorcycle. It just don’t make any sense at all. I mean, here’s a guy over 6 foot, probably weighed close to 300 pounds, was a good racer and all, but had to start out. It was degrading mentally to make these grown men start out on 12 horsepower motorcycles. When we were racing, you know with no brakes, that was a big selling point: big 750 Harleys, Triumphs, BSA’s and Nortons, and made a lot of noise and spit up a lot of dirt, no brakes so you had to slide it in there”.
The second thing is a long, drawn out show:
“The worst thing is making people sit, and sit, and sit; especially nowadays. Remember how we started the Armory at 8:00, and when the National Anthem was done, Chuck threw the flag and BANG, we were racing. At 10:00 we were done. Mary had the pay-off; we’d do that at home because we knew that all you had to do was add the guy’s name. We paid through Semis and the Mains, and everybody got paid except for the heats. So everybody got money, and everybody felt good about themselves, because they could walk up to the pay window and get money just like Billy Hofmeister. And we’d do that so quick; BANG, BANG, BANG, and we’d be home by 11:00. And that’s especially true today. You gotta put ‘em in for 2 hours. This is not rocket science. So whether you’re out in the country or downtown, or whatever, start at 8:00 and be over by 10:00. And you gotta do that the first time out, because if you give them a bad taste the first time, you’re gonna lose them”.
Klunder knows what a well run event looks like. He was a full time racer from 1958 through 1972. “I started racing in 1958”, he says,” I bought a brand new KR in ’58, which I still have. I rode 5 races that year. I went to St. Peter, Minnesota and I won that. Then I went to Davenport, Iowa and I got second. Then I went back to Davenport and got another second, and went to some races in Illinois. Anyway, I got enough points to become a Listed B rider. Then in 1959, I went to California and raced. I didn’t do too good because the damn Experts had talked Agajanian into running the Amateurs and Experts together, which sucked because you had to break your ass. Here you are running with the best at that time like Gunnar, Neil Keen, Joe Leonard, Dick Mann and all those guys. They were gonna fill up the first 5 or 10 spots in the main. So I struggled and stayed out there the whole year and then came back to Sturgis.
“In those days at Sturgis, they had 3 guys with stop watches. I broke the track record at Sturgis with 27.17 seconds. Then Ron Boyarski, who was traveling with Joe Leonard at the time, he goes out and he turns a 27.11, so there went my 50 bucks. And that was kind of the story of my life. I got second in the main the first day. On the second day, in the heat race, we were running down the backstretch and, like Sturgis, it just started to rain. We all fell down. I slid down and my KR went upside down like a bicycle. I still had a standard Harley throttle with no return on it. Fire was coming out of both pipes and I thought,”Oh man”, and I ran over and shut her down. They restarted the race and it ran 2 more laps and it tied up. So that was the end of my racing for ’59.”
In 1960, Klunder rebuilt his KR and in 1961 he bought another KR and went to Daytona. “I did fairly good. I was sitting in some mains. I got second in the Trophy Dash at the 5 mile National. I had second fastest time behind Freddy Nix. And then the rest of them were just 1 and 2 star races over in Wisconsin and I’d win a heat here and there. But the biggest and the funnest thing, of course, was I’d sneak off to North Dakota. Because, boy oh boy, they paid a lot of money, like at Bismarck and Mandan and Jamestown, they had all those fairs up there; Me and Dudley [Callies] and Al [Mathwig] would go. One time I rode up there and I rode 3 classes: I had a 250 and 2 KR’s, I called one a 55 and one a 45. On a good day, and that was pretty good money, like at Jamestown: I won 1200 bucks running those 3 classes.”
Marlyn Klunder has never been afraid to stick his neck out, whether he’s selling tickets or on a 100 mph ½ mile. That’s what makes him this month’s Minnesota Legend.
5E40A1C3-E4C8-4E18-B2F5-441E491DB06A_1_201_a.jpeg 84B52280-7085-487D-B1A3-C756B9BB6BF6_1_201_a.jpeg 2794A681-C047-4523-8C3F-416826C8829D_4_5005_c.jpeg