Veteran rider honored at Motorcycle Week preview event

LACONIA — As local and state officials kicked off the 99th Laconia Motorcycle Week Thursday they took time to honor a onetime motorcycle competitor and longtime enthusiast for contributions to motorcycle racing for 70-plus years.

Ed Fisher, known in motorcycle racing circles as Fast Eddie, was honored with a special proclamation as Gov. Chris Sununu and other officials, civic leaders, and Motorcycle Week organizers looked on during the event’s opening news conference held at the Colonial Theatre.

Mayor Andrew Hosmer presented Fisher the citation proclaiming Ed Fisher Day on Saturday, the opening day of Motorcycle Week and, coincidentally, Fisher’s 97th birthday.

Fisher, who lives in northwestern Pennsylvania and who has been riding since 1941, was the winner of the AMA 100-mile Laconia National Road Race in 1953. He continued to compete in races until the late 1950s when he opened a motorcycle dealership. He passed on his enthusiasm for motorcycle racing to his son, Gary, who won the Laconia Nationals race in 1972.

In his remarks prior to the presentation, Hosmer took note of those who turned out for the event, including Sununu, several members of the Belknap County Delegation, Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, and city councilors.

As COVID restrictions impacted attendance at the event for the past two years, Hosmer said that the city was looking forward to the return of Motorcycle Week as usual.

“We really know how to throw a party and have a good time,” he said of the nine-day event which will include races at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, hill climbs in Weirs Beach and at Gunstock, and the usual camaraderie among bikers who pack Lakeside Avenue in Weirs Beach or participate in the various organized rides to various attractions around the state.

Sununu called Motorcycle Week “the marquee event that launches New Hampshire’s (summer) vacation season.”

Both the governor and City Manager Scott Myers pointed out that Motorcycle Week’s success is due to all the advance planning by various state agencies, city departments, as well as the event’s promoters and organizers.

Cynthia Makris, president of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association’s board, introduced the speakers.

City Police Chief Matt Canfield, Fire Chief Kirk Beattie, and Mark Amagadian, the director of enforcement for the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, urged motorists to be extra vigilant with the greater volume of traffic that Motorcycle Week brings to the Lakes Region and other parts of the state.

In anticipation of a surge in business at the area’s bars and lounges, Amagadian said that officials from the Liquor Commission’s Enforcement Division will have visited 194 licensed establishments by the end of the week and that they have conducted training sessions for more than 200 bartenders and servers across the Lakes Region.

Speakers highlighted a number of events, including races this weekend and next at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as well as motorcycle demonstration rides at the track throughout the week, the Tower Hill Climb in Weirs Beach on Tuesday, and the hill climb at Gunstock Resort in Gilford on Wednesday.

Makris noted that Motorcycle Week kicks off on Saturday with the running of the 16th annual Peter Makris ride, with registration opening at 8 a.m. at the Naswa Resort on Weirs Boulevard. The event helps to raise money for various veterans charities and programs, and the Laconia Fire Department’s Life Saving Fund.

The program also included the presentation of the Fritzie Baer Award which honors someone who “goes the extra mile for Laconia Motorcycle Week,” said Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association.

The award was presented posthumously to Paul Giblin who volunteered many hours to help promote Motorcycle Week over the years. Giblin died in January at age 66.

St. Clair presented the Baer Award cup to Giblin’s sister, Martha Noon, who said her brother started riding when he was a kid when he bought a mini-bike kit for $99.