On The Pegs March 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 3 | Page 85

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 3 - MARCH 2020
85
est price. These machines were attractively priced by the factory in order to make
some profit, which would help enhance covering the expensive costs in the race-
budget. But in the end, their racing activities were a way of promoting sales of the
ordinary Husqvarna street motorcycles.
Man’s interest in striving for speed and comparing his efforts to those of his
competitors is an old quality. You gather some riders, find a suitable venue and
then go for a fight. The fastest man is the hero of the day. Grand Prix racing was
rare and expensive in those days, but the interest in motorcycle racing in all forms
became great in Sweden. My father, Tore Olausson, had an eye for bikes at an
early age and started to race as a teenager. In the yearly result sheets of 1929, Tore
was the eighth best rider in the country. Gunnar Kalén, the winning big star from
Malmö, would later be Husqvarna’s leading light during the early parts of the 30s
and had 19 victories while Tore counted six wins, two second places and three
third positions after his successful year. Being proud, Tore looked for more and
around 1933, to the delight of his mother Bothilda, he bought a 350cc Husqvarna
Dirt Track model.