Roland Sands, Chris Callan and Burt Munro Among Sturgis Hall of Fame 2023 Inductees
The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum has posted the list of inductees to its Hall of Fame, and industry stalwarts Roland Sands, Jay Allen, Chris Callan and Scott Jacobs are among those being honored this year.
Roland Sands has built an impressive business career after his time as a motorcycle racer - a career in which he has been a motorcycle designer, parts and accessory designer, manufacturer and distributor, event organizer, race promotor, brand ambassador and more - including, in 2019, Grand Marshall of the Sturgis Rally.
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| Roland Sands |
The son of Perry and Nancy Sands, founders of Performance Machine, Roland was born into the Harley market and has been a leading catalyst for the emergence of new styles and the new post-Boomer era of industry design values.
Roland won the AMA 250 National Championship in 1998 and founded Roland Sands Design (RSD) in 2005. With his sister Summer, he has built a creative design powerhouse that did much to shape the industry's design oeuvre, and has guaranteed a second generation of the Sands family at the leading edge of market trends. He has collaborated with many motorcycle manufacturers, building custom and concept bikes and parts collaborations. In 2015, Roland pioneered the Super Hooligan National Championship Series.
At a time when the pressure has been on printed media of all kinds, not least the once rich line-up of print magazines in the motorcycle industry, Chris Callan has defied trend, establishing Cycle Source as a respected and popular consumer lifestyle magazine leader with impeccable taste for featured custom bikes.
Chris has been involved with motorcycling for over thirty years. He started with off-road racing and once he got his motorcycle license at age 16, he never looked back. He started Cycle Source Magazine in March 1997 from his motorcycle shop in Pennsylvania, with a borrowed computer and a throwaway camera.
He has grown Cycle Source into a national publication and understands how to bring the stories, lifestyle and history to life. His weekly "Shop Talk" show on Facebook mixes motorcycling news, interviews and events. Chris is also a well-known custom bike builder and musician.
Everyone has heard of The Broken Spoke Saloon, right? Jay Allen created the legendary Sturgis Rally venue and pioneered the concept of interactive motorcycling entertainment. Passionate about the motorcycle lifestyle and sport, the past 25 years has seen him build and establish gathering places that appeal to a broad range of riders.
Jay also holds no fewer than 52 land speed records and is a great ambassador for the sport - indeed he will be chasing more records at Bonneville a couple of weeks after Sturgis this year.
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| Chris Callan |
Scott Jacobs opened his first gallery in New Jersey, initially featuring works by other artists. After receiving an easel and acrylics as a gift, he experimented with several styles before settling into his signature style of Photorealism.
In 1993 Scott became Harley-Davidson's first Official Licensed Artist, with his painting "Live to Ride". He has created artwork for both the Sturgis Rally and Daytona Bike Week. Scott's artwork first featured on the Sturgis Rally's magazine in 1995, and that tradition continues to this day. Scott is also a licensed artist for Ford, Chevrolet, Elvis Presley Enterprises and The Marilyn Monroe Estate.
Other Class of 2023 honorees include the legendary 1981 Moto des Nations Team USA. Made up of team riders from the Honda factory, the team included Chuck Sun, Donnie Hansen, Danny Laporte and Johnny "O'Show" O'Mara. The team managers were motocross legends Roger Decoster and Dave Arnold.
This 1981 team overcame seemingly impossible odds, shocking the motorcycling world and making history with America's first victory at the Motocross des Nations since the annual event started in 1947. They won the Trophy des Nations (250 cc) on September 6, 1981, at Lommel, in Belgium and then the Motocross des Nations (500 cc) a week later in Germany.
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| Burt Munro |
There are five additional, specialty Hall of Fame Awards - the Arlen Ness Lifetime Achievement Award, The Founders Award, the Freedom Fighter award, the JC 'Pappy' Hoel Outstanding Achievement Award and the Kickstand Down posthumous recognition award.
This year the Museum has made three such awards with motorcycle right's activist Russel Radke of Nevada receiving the Freedom Fighter award, legendary New Zealander and Indian streamliner World Landspeed record chaser Bert Munro is recognized with the Kickstands Down award and, fittingly, the Arlen Ness Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Arlen's life-long friend and fellow shaper of the custom motorcycle industry we know today - Donnie Smith.