Dave Hand

Interview with Dave Hand

Interview by Matt Compton
19th Sept 2019

Matt
Hi Dave, it was great to connect with you on Facebook. So you spent time with Ted, his wife Dulcie and their rider Owen Coles?

Dave
Yes. They stayed in Florida with me, using my house as a base and they had a small RV they bought over here. They kept it at my sponsors farm for a while but he wasn’t a real friendly guy and liked his privacy. So I said, “Well park that son-of-a-bitch at my house, I’ve got no problem with you parking it here in the side yard. I work most of the day, so you’ve got use of the house, you can cook, do whatever you want to.” Well, they loved that arrangement and stayed with me for several months. They’d take little week or two trips here and there throughout Florida and go fishing. Then they’d come back and for a week or so we’d be eating fish, then they’d go out again and do their thing. I enjoyed having them there. It was 1990 I think, right before I got married.

Matt
What was your recollections of Ted’s Magni-Guzzi?

Dave
Well, us guys at the track out there at Daytona, we had heard about the new motors being developed by Guzzi and all, stuff like that. We had really competitive Guzzi groups in the country, Dr John Wittner plus the Raceco guys out of Ojai in California, but the Magni was a little bit better than most.

Matt
Did Ted stay with you any other times?

Dave
To my knowledge Ted only came over here the one year in 1990. At the time I was racing a highly modified 1986 Le Mans. It was upped to 1200cc, with a windage tray, lightened Transcon clutch and bigger valves. It also had a titanium exhaust from Raceco I think, and very trick front forks from former Kenny Roberts Yamaha teammate Jimmy DeFelice’s Daytona Superteam racebike. Ted was here for the spring Daytona races, the Circle Bell Pro Twins, they shared a pit garage with me. I didn’t know too much about them other than Owen was really fast on the Magni-Guzzi prototype. Ted was hilarious and he’d say the oddest things. He used to say you were supposed to jump on the seat a little bit as you shifted, it kind of made the bike want to leap forward more. I’d say, “What are you talking about?”. He said, “Yah, yah, it will spring forward, it will spring forward.” I don’t know if he was kidding me or if he really believed that. [Laughing]

Matt
[Laughing] I know what you’re talking about, cos when I spoke to Barry Jones who owns Prototype #1, I asked, “Are my memories right, would Ted have told me this kind of stuff?”. He goes, “Yeah, yeah, that was Ted”.

Dave
Did he ever show you the piece of gold that he found while he was using his metal detector.

Matt
No!?

Dave
He found a large gold nugget somewhere outside of “Galoolee”.

Matt
Oh, Kalgoorlie. I lived there as a child for a couple of years, when I was four to five. Gold mining town.

Dave
Yeah, I think he worked out there on the mines repairing machinery. He was out one time with his family with metal detectors scouring the area, riding 4-wheelers, things like that. They called him in for dinner and he said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve got a little beep”. So he started digging and he pulled out a flat gold nugget shaped like Great Britain. He put it on a red, white and blue striped ribbon and would wear it around. As it would slide across his chest it would shine the gold up right there. He never did whatever they do to clean them up but wherever it rubbed on his shirt, it would be shiny. It wasn’t for the money it was just his show. [Laughing]

Matt
[Laughing] He was such a unique guy.

Dave
[Laughing] Yes, and he was always talking about ‘Cap Parties’. He had a room at his house full of hats, all kinds of hats. He’d always be looking around for the weirdest things at second-hand shops, a police department hat, a fireman’s hat, just any kind of thing he could find. Then he’d have parties and he’d get everyone to go into the room and pick a hat and assume the character for the night.

Matt
[Laughing] Must have been fun to have him at your place.

Dave
He was a fun guy! Brand new in town, he went straight to the Polish/American club and joined. He became a member and would go there and dance and do whatever Polish Americans do at those clubs. He got right into things, he was so hilarious you couldn’t help but love him!

Matt
Agreed!

Dave
Anyway, so when they were staying with me, Ted and Dulcie would get mad at me if I didn’t come home from work for lunch. They were like, “Where were you mate?”.

Matt
Did they cook up lunch for you every day?

Dave
Yep and they wouldn’t cook just one thing on the grill! It had to be three or four different kinds of meats, fish and chicken and shrimp. They would always overdo everything but I just couldn’t come home everyday, I had a job. My dad was always chastising me for taking off to be with them! [Laughing]

Matt
[Laughing] Any other memories from that time? With Owen or Ted? I heard Ted was looking into buying the Guzzi distributorship for America.

Dave
Yes, but I’m glad Ted didn’t go ahead with the purchase. Guzzi America struggled in those years, there was one year they only sold ten Guzzis nationwide. They picked up about ten years later though, once they’d made a few more models. Actually, I remember they also went down and raced in Savannah, Georgia and Owen did quite well at those events on the Magni-Guzzi prototype.

Owen came back the following year in 1991. He was at my house with Brook Henry and his Vee Two crew, great guy Brook. He and his team were working all night on my front porch on the problems they’d had at the track that day. I recall they pushed the bike down the street at 3 o’clock in the morning to a school parking lot at the end of the block. They started it up to try it out, make sure it was working. The whole neighbourhood heard the roar of that thing! [Laughing]

Matt
[Laughing] Yeah, Brook is a great guy, our businesses were next door to each other for a couple of years in the early 90s. I’ll be chatting to him later this afternoon actually to see if he has any contributions about Ted for the website. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me Dave. I know you’re on holidays and I appreciate the time.

Dave
You’re welcome. I travel the world on my motorcycle now, trying to see some neat stuff. I’ve knocked off 56 countries already and I’m 90 days in Europe every year. Making a dent in it while I can before my back gives out and my knees don’t work. You know, all the things that racers hurt with. Be sure to keep in touch. If you ever come to Bike Week in Daytona let me know, it’s about the only time of the year I am home with how much I travel now. I’ve still got an extra bike around you can use, I’ve got a big house and I live alone.

Matt
Great, I’ll remember that Dave, sounds fantastic. I’ll drop you a line if I’m coming over.

Thanks again mate.

Dave
Oh, you’re welcome! Nice chatting with ya. Keep in touch.

Matt
Will do!