Al Gunter

AL GUNTER

National Number Three

KING of the Western dirt track riders” is the best description for Al Gunter, a ten-year veteran who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. Al started racing in the Lone Star State but moved to California in the early fifties to vie for the bigger purses.

Gunter is rated as the rider to beat week after week at Ascot Park in Los Angeles. The Ascot track is rated as one of the best and fastest half-miles in the nation, and Gunter holds every Ascot track record but one at the present time.

“Sliding AÍ” is the holder of four National Championship wins, first of which was the Five-Mile. He has two Eight-Mile wins to his credit, and also topk the National TT title at Peoria, Illinois.

In 1960 Gunter racked up 55 wins in non-National events, an all-time high in total victories for one season. The majority of these wins came at Ascot, aboard his rapid and self-tuned BSA. Although Gunter is best known for his ability on half-mile dirt tracks, he is also rated as a top mile track and road race rider. He was the winner of the Arizona Classic on the one-mile track at Phoenix in April, 1961, and is a former Dodge City, Kansas 100Mile Grand Prix road race victor.

Albert was the high point West Coast dirt track rider in 1957 and 1960 and has won the season championship race in California five out of the last six years. His best effort in a National Championship road race came in ’57 at Daytona Beach when he finished a close second to Joe Leonard after setting fastest time trial of well over 100 mph.

Gunter is 29 years old and single. During the off season he is employed by an ignition system company that does experimental work on race cars and cycles. He would like to break into sprint car and sports car racing in the near future but his first love is cycle racing. AÍ is one of the most popular riders with West Coast fans and every rider he competes against knows that he will have to get by Gunter if he is going to win.

Though his best overall year was 1957, when he missed taking the Grand National title by only six points, Gunter has been one of the top ten riders in National Championship standings for seven out of the last eight years. He plans to take in the majority of Championship events this year, plus many other major races throughout the U.S., and is always a force to be reckoned with wherever he competes.a