January 6, 1936 - May 8, 2015

Carroll Resweber, age 79 passed away on May 8, 2015. He was born in Port Arthur on January 6, 1936 to Stanley and Marie Gondron Resweber. He was a lifelong resident of Port Arthur. He is preceded in death by his parents, daughter Terri Resweber Hoffpauir, sister Elaine Resweber Youngblood. Carroll was employed by Harley Davidson in the  racing department. He was a Grand National Champion racer for Harley Davidson.
Carroll is survived by his son, Ricky Resweber of Houston; step-son, Rusty Tantillo of Houston and a brother, Donald Resweber of Port Arthur.
Visitation will be on Monday, May 11, 2015 from 6:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. at Clayton Thompson Funeral Home.
Arrangements for cremation are entrusted to Clayton Thompson Funeral Home.

The News - Port Arthur, Texas  May 9th

From The Flat Track Forum

I received the news, this morning, and had hoped that it was untrue... unfortunately, it seems that our community has suffered a huge loss. My deepest condolences to the Resweber family... Godspeed, Carroll.

Chew and family

This is hard to belive, prayers to the family, godspeed to the MAIN number 1

qgtb

WOW- WHAT A TALENT- HE WAS A TRUE MILER- HE WILL BE MISSED- CANT BELEAVE THAT HE IS GONE.

R I P. CARROLL.

bob weirbach

Another one of my childhood heroes is gone.  :(   R.I.P Mr. Resweber, I'll never forget ya.

94fan

Absolutely. . . Godspeed, Carroll. My condolences and prayers go out to his family.

My earliest recollection of Carroll Resweber was 1959, or maybe 1960. I was still in high school in Omaha, and an aspiring amateur radio operator. Seeking the high ground a group of us were to set up our antennas and practice receiving morse code in anticipation of a FCC license. Anyway, one of the guys had a copy of 'True' magazine. A 'mans' magazine for anyone that was anyone back then - pre Playboy even. Came across a short article on Carroll with the requisite and classis slider photo. Remember saying, "That's the guy for me. I wanna be just like him."

cornhusker

Things never changed. I always wanted to be just like him. Except I never was. But that's o.k. He was a great guy with a great career. God Bless, and Godspeed, Carroll.

Arnie

Sorry to hear of this. Another one of my hero's.

RIP  Carroll

electr_glide

Brenda is gonna take this news especially hard... :(

God Bless Carroll Resweber!

art the dart

Lincoln, Illinois is where Resweber suffered his career-ending injuries, riding blind into a cloud of dust?

That crash took the life of Jack Gholson. At Lincoln, Illinois on September 16, 1962

Expert-ranked Gholson, of Houston, Texas, perished in a crash during practice for an AMA Grand National Championship event on the half mile oval at the Logan County Fairgrounds. The crash also seriously injured Dick Klamfoth and Carroll Resweber.

Gholson wore National #67 from 1958 until his death in 1962..)

Godspeed Caroll Resweber

Godspeed Jack Gholson

Don Potter, Flattracker Emeritus

One Of The All Time Greats.

I had a Really Neat Moment with Carroll in 2004. Carroll Resweber was The Grand Marshal

at A VDTRA National at Waller Texas, that Hal Jarrell Promoted. After each Main Event,

Carroll Handed the winner The Checkered Flag, for the Victory lap, and Then Afterwards

Carroll presented each winner with an Event T-Shirt.

When Carroll gave me my T-Shirt, he leaned over and said, "Son, You need a New rear Tire."

GODSPEED CARROLL RESWEBER, REST IN PEACE.

WildWill

I met Carroll way back in 1967. I was riding for Yamaha of New Orleans and we took a Yamaha 250 twin to a short track race in Shreveport, Louisiana and I had fast qualifying time. I was sitting on the tail gate of the El Camino in the pits and a gentleman came up and pulled up a seat next to me and congratulated me for my fast time. I said thanks and introduced myself and he said he was Carroll Resweber. I was honored to be congratulated by a past champion of our sport. He was a humble gentleman that I had a lot of respect for. May you rest in peace Mr. Resweber.

noguchi

RIP Carroll Resweber

A fellow Texan that I always looked up to for numerous & obvious reasons.

He was the one who use to use his front wheel more than anyone else to scuff off his speed going into the corner.

After observing how much he did that AND the fact that he was so much faster than anyone else I began to practice doing that every day after work in the parking lot behind the dealership I managed at the time.

A few years later a bunch of us were sitting around talking after the Reading, Pa. 1/2 Mile National speculating about whether or not you could actually go faster using the newly implemented brake rule.

After a couple riders had commented everyone looked over at Bugs (Dick Mann) as someone asked him what he thought???

Bugs stood up, started to walk away, & as he did said "I think we have the brake on the wrong wheel".

I know the current young generation of riders are very good & very fast, however, I would also venture to say that 99.9% (maybe even 100%) of the current "Brake Using Generation of riders" don't even consider doing that......AND that is if (???) they even no of or comprehend such a thing.

The geometric affects of a motorcycle (when the rear brake is applied) make turning your front end under very hard to do & in fact almost impossible to do if it is over applied.

Amongst many other things Carroll Resweber was an artist at using his front wheel as a brake.

RIP Carroll Resweber.

It was a sad day for me when I read of Carroll's passing. I had the pleasure of riding in those "glory days", when Carroll,

Joe Leonard and Bart Markel were banging bars. I had the pleasure of traveling with Joe in his final year on the Grand National tour. I was riding at Lincoln that day, and have film of Everett Brahear and I racing for last place in the race.

It was the worst track that I rode in the 8 1/2 years that I raced flat track. The dust was so bad that if you weren't first or second...you couldn't see. Everett and I were in the back...and standing on the foot pegs to try and see where the other riders were. The Referee should have been shot for letting anyone on the track. I was set to go out in that practice session when my bike quit. I decided to wait for the next session. Dumb Bakersfield Okie luck that I wasn't in the middle of it.

Carroll had the point lead...going for his 5th #1 plate in a row. We'll never know how many titles he could have won.

"Mooch"...you will be missed. You were a hell of a rider, and a good friend. GODSPEED!

Digger

Digger,  Bugs told me once that no one was even getting close to challenging him for the Championship during that time period you described above.

Royal

Royal, quite a few of the current young riders are very good with their front wheel. Johnny Lewis, Mikey Rush, and Jimmy Woods are 3 that stand out to me. Johnny rode Mark Gibson's XR750 a few years ago at Springfield, and they had to turn the front tire around after the heat race due to the wear. Johnny made the main that day.

Rowdy Racer

Paul, What you & Will have seen & mention is different from what Resweber did.

#1. Any real good rider, (like those you mention), will "momentarily" turn their front end under in order to save it when they charge the corner real hard & right on the edge. However, that is not exactly what I was talking about that Resweber use to do.

Over on VFT Dennis had the perfect picture of Resweber, (but unfortunately just took down), doing exactly what I was talking about.

That picture does NOT show Resweber doing "the usual thing" that everyone did back then & still do now of "backing it in to scuff off speed", and then occasionally having to turn the front wheel under in order to save it.

That picture shows him driving it in straight using his front wheel as a brake....NOT just ever now & then when he would over cook it while backing it into the corner..........but rather lap after lap after lap because they didn't have brakes back then & he had mastered that technique of using the front wheel / tire as his brake.

#2. The dynamics of a motorcycle make it almost impossible to use a brake, (which EVERYONE uses now), and do what he use to do lap after lap after lap.

Like Bugs said once "I think we got the brake on the wrong wheel".

Royal

Carroll lives on with me.

Thanks for the help

Carroll, forever a champion

jsolimine