Transcribed and edited by Peter McCormick

They were running the Olympic trials on a fifth-of-a-mile car track in Islip

schmalz And willing to do something about the positive tests. Let’s get back to you, Jack. You were a three-time Olympian. What was your first Olympics?

Simes My first Olympics was in 1960, in Rome.

schmalz And you did 1964 and 1968, correct?

Simes Correct.

schmalz And track events: were you a matched sprinter? What was your specialty?

Simes (Modest coughing sounds) As a junior, I was an all-rounder, but I went into matched sprinting. There was a discussion at the time with my dad. He felt that I had a good natural sprint anyhow. We felt that there was such a huge disparity between American and European cycling, and as I was growing up, there was a guy, Jack Hyde who had broken through the international barrier when he got third in the World Championships in 1949, in the amateur sprint. He became a pro and rode a few six-day races. He felt that it would be easier to break in internationally in sprinting than in road racing, and that was absolutely true. 

We just didn’t have the structure at that time; we didn’t have racing on the roads. Everything was growing out of the old velodrome days here. So I went in that direction, and got on my first Olympic team as a sprinter, when I was seventeen.  That was a story in itself, with all that that involved.

schmalz That’s a lot of travel for a seventeen year-old.

Simes Well, it was a real eye-opener. First of all, the only track we had around was the half-mile Flushing flat track. I was just out of the juniors. On my seventeenth birthday—on that day—you became a senior rider. I had turned seventeen in November the year before, and I was still in high school, racing at the old Flushing flat track, beginning to work my way up there. There were a couple of guys Allen Bell from Jersey and there was a black guy from Harlem, Herbie Francis, who was a good sprinter. So I was starting to get into the mix in those races. I didn’t even think about getting on the Olympic team. That was far from my mind; I just wanted to get into racing as I got out of high school. I was thinking of the Olympics four years beyond that, you know? 

My father had a talk with me one day. He said, “You know, you’ve got youth on your side. You’re very fast. If you believe in yourself, you can do it.” The guy actually made me believe I could do it!

My father had a talk with me one day. He said, “You know, you’ve got youth on your side. You’re very fast. If you believe in yourself, you can do it.” The guy actually made me believe I could do it! (Laughter) From that time on, all through the spring, I began to focus on that, even though it seemed like an insurmountable goal. I was thinking about it and working on my sprints. This was a very important time in my life. I was seventeen years old, very impressionable, and everything in the sport was new.  

They were running the Olympic trials on a fifth-of-a-mile car track in Islip. So my dad takes me down there a week before, and we get sequestered in this motel near the track, where these cars and drivers usually stay. There are pictures of jalopy derby cars on the wall. I start training on the track and Allen Bell is coming down. He’s working as a full-time telephone lineman. We’re riding about twice during the week. He’s teaching me about mass sprinting. Then there was another guy who came in from California, Phil Granacia. He was a pretty good sprinter. He’d been a weight-lifter, Mr. Los Angeles, etc. Very interesting character.

schmalz That’s a funny way into the sport there, Jack. From Mr. Atlas into mass sprinting.

Simes Yes, he was a real character: well-known weight-lifter/body-builder. So he shows up one day and I asked him where were all the other guys. He said, “Oh, they’re all training over in Belmar, New Jersey, because the manager of the Olympic team wants to move the trials over there. They think it’s a better track.”

schmalz It’s interesting, Jack, that they would just use any track they could find that was a circuit. It didn’t have to be a velodrome; it just had to be a flat track. Asphalt. Whatever they could find.

Simes Right. We had the Flushing half-mile track, which taught you tactics on how to race on that track. Half-mile, windy, but it could be very fast. Two hundred meter mark coming onto the straightaway, so you had a long dragstrip. So, we grew up there. It was the only thing we had. Now we’re down on this dished car track. Car parts, stuff lying all over the place. We’ve got to clean them off to train, you know. So one thing leads to another. Al Toefield, who did a lot of track cycling in New York, he’s in charge of the Olympic trials. He said, “over my dead body are the Olympic trials moving out of New York.” 

So there’s a political thing going on and it winds up going down to Islip. So they have the first trial, the kilometer, and there’s a protest. All of these stars, in from California, they protest that the racing’s being done on the track. They say it’s dangerous; it’s flat on the bottom; it’s hard to ride around. They come to my father and they want me to sign this protest. He said, “No. This kid is ready to race here.” I’ve been at it, practicing a week. My father said to them: “When Allen Bell goes to the line, you’ll all go to the line.” I’ll never forget that.

So they’re calling these guys to the line, to go to race the kilometer, and people aren’t going up. They call Bell to the line, and Bell grabs his bike; he’s ready to race anywhere. This guy’s like a warrior. He’s very competitive. He goes right up to do his one kilometer time trial, and you should have seen that infield stirring: people are pumping tires and getting ready! 

They rode that kilometer. I’m not riding that. But a couple of guys crashed in the kilometer because of the flatness of the track on the back, both on the bottom. So Bell wins that. He gets on the Olympic team.

To the Olympic Trials in a Packard

There were more discussions. Then it was decided that everyone was going to abandon Islip and the trials are going to be finished on the half-mile flat track in Flushing. That’s where I grew up, and where other guys grew up. The out-of-towners are happy with that: the legends, the stars of the day in sprinting who have come in. They like that because no one can get in anyone’s way: it’s long, flat track. We all go home and we go to the races. I remember going to the race. We’re driving: my grandfather, my father, me, my sister. We’re driving across the Triborough Bridge, going to the race. My father had a bike shop, so I was well-supplied. I’ve got three bikes in this Packard. They all fit in there fine. They’re all in the trunk.

Jack Simes III and Herbie Francis at the Olympic trials.

schmalz The trunk of a Packard is like a living room. 

Simes Right. The thing is huge. … As we’re going north, I see this blue jersey up ahead, cresting the Triborough. It’s a track bike and the guy’s got a gym bag, and he’s riding along, obviously in race gear. Big, pushing slowly into the wind. It’s Herbie Francis, one of the sprinters, and he’s riding to the trials. So we get to the trial. I’m moving, winning my heats, and Francis, he’s winning his heats. Everything began to change there. We were just locals at that point. But as we’re moving through, we’re beating known riders. 

We get down to the sprint semi-finals, and a New York guy, Jimmy Donovan, who had won the Junior Nationals the year before – he had been racing but he got eliminated – and he took Francis’ bike and he put on these fast wheels and tires as Francis got into the  semi-finals. I got into my semi-final, and what happened was, they were going to take two sprinters from the semi-finals: they were going to go to the Olympics. I’m riding against this guy named Ed Lynch, from California. He’s been winning all the sprints that year, across the country. He’s got a bike which is perfect for this half-mile track. It’s unique. It’s got about 10-inch cranks (254 mm) on it and he rides a 228-inch gear (5791.2 mm). It’s huge. He cranks this thing up and nobody can get by him.

schmalz So a 10-inch crank: you used to measure them in inches?

Simes Yeah, we’re riding six-and-a-half-inch cranks, 165’s (mm). He’s got these great big long things on. When you watch him ride it looks like he’s got a running lope, his legs are going out so far, back so far when he’s riding. 

I’m asking around, saying, “What do I do?” I’m seventeen years old.

I’m coming up against this guy and I have no idea what to do. Francis comes up in his semi-final against Jack Hartmann. Now, previously to get there, they had one-ride, four-up quarter-final. Francis just rode against Jack Disney, who was a legend and Phil Granacia the weight-lifter and a rider from New Jersey, Walter Grotz. Of those four, Grotz was the only guy who knew Francis. The other guys didn’t know how to deal with him. He’s some unknown black guy from New York. They’re not taking him seriously. But Francis was great from the front position. He used to have to ride against Allen Bell in those Flushing races when I was coming up. Bell was really rough, and to get away from him, Francis was going to the front all the time. That became his position. So, in that semi-final, Francis goes from the front at the quarter-mile mark and these other guys are all laying off because they’re not taking him seriously. They’re not making contact. Only Grotz can get in his wheel. And Francis wins going away. They put out Jack Disney, five-time national track champion, so Francis gets on the Olympic team.

Then I rode against (unintelligible) and he rides against Jack Hartmann from California. He uses the same tactic – just rides from the front and flounders in his wake, and it’s all over. And then I race. I go against this guy, Lynch, who rides with the long crank. Two out of three. I’m asking around, saying, “What do I do?” I’m seventeen years old. I’m driving to the trials five hours early. I’m barely out of the Juniors. I’m quick, but that’s about it! Now I’m racing to get on the Olympic team. There are a lot of guys going back home who were supposed to be on that team.

schmalz We’re you anxious before the race, Jack? A bit nervous?

My legs are like whips, you know? I grab the bike with the biggest gear.

Simes I was raging inside. There’s a photo: I’m sitting on this blanket, track bikes lying around. I look really calm, but inside I’m on fire. I ask around, and people are saying, “You gotta ride this guy from the front; you gotta stop him because he can really get going. Back him down and then jump him.” Everybody says the same thing except this one guy whom I rode with. His name is Jimmy Kaloudis. He’s a Greek guy who was a sprinter. He was a little bit older than I was. He said, “Look. You’re very fast from the back. What you need to do is put on the biggest gear you have and come off of him; you’ll get around.

Jack relaxing between heats at the Olympic trials.

All of this is kind of in my mind. It’s sort of swirling around. I’ve got these three bikes lying there. Even my father said, “I think you should ride from the front, but you need to decide what to do.” I’m going to the line to ride this guy. I’ve got three bikes there, differently set up. I’m 138 pounds … 

schmalz You’re no body builder at that point.

Simes My legs are like whips, you know? I grab the bike with the biggest gear. It was a 48-14. I hadn’t even used that gear yet. I lined up to go against Lynch. He said, “This is like riding on the road, this track.” We go way down around the first turn and I’m in the front, out on the outside a little bit. He tries to come through on the inside a little bit, and I just moved over. I bumped against him at that point. 

He had this bottom bracket to accommodate the long cranks. It actually went uphill, so it was not so stable. When I bumped against him, he wavered; the bike swerved. I saw that and thought, this is not my style. Immediately I switched around and got behind him – most people said, don’t do that. As we started riding past the 400 meter mark going into the last turn, he’s starting to crank this thing up. As we got into turn three and four, he could actually jump this thing. He was cranking it and jumping it and the back wheel would actually chirp.

schmalz He was able to burn out.

Simes Sometimes when you’re sprinting your back wheel will chirp around a bit when you jump. He’s rolling this thing but his cadence is not high. My cadence is much higher. He jumps again and kind of chirps around even though we’re at a pretty good speed. I’m in the draft. 

He’s got a little bit bigger gear. We’re at a little more speed coming into the sprint. He drifts out again and I’m all the way out, going down-saddle. I really didn’t know if I could get by.

As we came around the last turn, this thing is not totally controllable. He begins to drift out about four feet, and we go into the 200 meters coming onto the straight. As he does that, I’m out of the saddle, drag-racing down. I sit down about 10 feet before the line and I squeak by. I win by about an inch. He comes up to me and says, “Good race,” and pats me on the back. He’s still confident.

Francis rides the second ride. He gets on the Olympic team. Then I go for my second ride and as I’m getting ready to go up, Donovan, who’s looking around – [he’s] a cunning, clever street-guy from New York. He says, “Look, why don’t you change the gear you have [incomprehensible] tooth in the front. Lynch would go in a van. He was breathing oxygen [from a tank]. He’s moved his gear up one tooth: you should know that.”

I went by an inch or two again – and I’m on the Olympic team.

So the exact same thing happened. He’s got a little bit bigger gear. We’re at a little more speed coming into the sprint. He drifts out again and I’m all the way out, going down-saddle. I really didn’t know if I could get by. I can hear him: he’s right next to me, straight for 200 meters. He’s breathing and he’s grunting and he’s a little bit ahead. We get 10 feet before the line and the same thing happens. I went by an inch or two again – and I’m on the Olympic team. This guy, he eventually came up to me and congratulated me, but I just rode around and around on this big track, to where my father was. He came and congratulated me. Other riders were around and they put me before a microphone to talk.

I was supposed to go and ride the finals. I’m on the team and I’m all set to go. I go down to the finish line and there’s a lot of milling around and talking. Later, it became apparent to me that the officials are all close to the established riders at that point. But now they’re dealing with two unknown guys: a kid from New Jersey and a black guy from New York. New faces. They’re going to have to take them to the Olympics. Well, Herbie went to them beforehand. He said: “Look, we’re both on the team. Why don’t you just leave it like that?”  

The officials were happy with that. They’d been running back and forth between Islip and Belmar, and so there was no ride-off. Here are these guys coming to me, a 17-year-old kid, asking me if it’s ok that we don’t ride the final because Herbie’s ok with that and we’re both on the Olympic team anyway. I’d gone into this race five hours before, a nobody. Suddenly, I’m one of the top sprinters in the country. Everything changed from that moment on.