E. J. Potter....

Hadn't seen it posted on here yet but the infamous "Michigan Madman" E.J. Potter passed away on Monday May 30 in his home town of Ithaca MI. Most knew him for his awsome V/8 powered drag bikes but also for his winning pulling tractors with Allison aircraft engines. A wizzard at whatever he attempted including having fun. RIP.

I heard of him as a puller, didn't know about the bikes.

And I didn"t know about his being into pulling tractors. Potter"s exploits were occasionally featured in Hot Rod Magazine, which I have read for more than 50 years.

I have seen pictures of one of his drag bikes, which had a small block Chevy V8 with some kind of a chain drive to the rear wheel. If I remember right, they would kick it off a stand to start a drag race, and then it would smoke the tire the length of the quarter mile. The article mentioned that for a while he was buying tires with a guarantee for so many miles, and he would bring them back a couple of days later totally worn smooth. It took the manufacturer a little time to decide that they would not honor the guarantee if the tires were not mounted on a car.

Potter liked Allison aircraft engines and put them in various cars. Again, if I remember right, one of those cars was an early 60"s Dodge Dart station wagon, which he campaigned for a while, and eventually put the original drivetrain back into it and drove it on the street for a long time. After WWII, Allison engines were available as military surplus, and pretty cheap. I bet they are worth a mint today. I bet they would work great in a puller, if you could get the gearing right and durable enough.

Sorry to hear that Potter has passed, but we all will someday. It sure seemed like he had an interesting, colorful life. Thanks for the info!

I remember seeing an article in Hot Rod magazine about him and his drag bike with the sideways Chevy engine. I don't see how he kept the thing going straight with the back wheel spinning the whole way. As I remember he got up to 160 mph in the quarter. Nowadays with NHRA bikes that's no big deal-- GIRLS ride faster! He had a lot of guts with what he did. In my book he's another "Evel Knievel", lucky to survive his antics.

I read in the early days the bike was direct drive to and it would start up on a stand then ,with the rear wheel spinning someone would kick out the stand and the bike would take off.A Harley dealer named Tom Reiser built one and he had gotten the idea from Potters bike but he used a H-D gearbox.He was the first to use a transmission. The first one Potter built was called "Bloody Mary" and was quite a handfull to control. When it came off the stand the wheel was really spinning and it would surge and fishtail its way down the track . I thought there was a book about Potter that I wanted to get.Amazing times. RIP Mr Potter.

Dang,hadn't heard that. Last I knew he was living in Florida because he was tired of Michigan winters.
I've got both of his books. Great reading if you can still get your hands on a copy.

The one time he kind of ticked me off,he brought some turbin outfit to a pull at Crystal Raceway that was going to revolutionize tractor pulling. It was going to replace the weight transfer machine. They wasted a lot of time fooling with that thing that they could have spent pulling. Guess he had to show something off since a guy with a single V8 setup was kicking his arse that day.

Tractor pulling was never the same after he retired from it. I will always miss seeing Ugly and Double Ugly

Unfortunately I'm to young to have seen any of his exploits, other then seeing them on TV/VHS. I grew up in Ithaca and remember him clearing a well screen for a farmer a few miles down the road from my parents with a jet engine. He certainly was in a different league than most, and maybe ahead of his time. I've heard many rumors that he has/had a bunch of allison aircraft motors stored in his barns from his pulling days. Boy, if he still had those, I'm sure if they auction his items off, there will be a lot of interest in those!

Back in the height of his pulling days,Delbert Linebaugh claims to have been out there and said at that time there were 40 of them in the barn.

I ran into him twice. When he was running his motorcycles, and again when he was pulling tractors. I hadn't heard he passed. RIP. Thanks for the post.