Racer Rusty Bradley has been dead for 55 years.

I wrote Deep in the Heart twenty years ago. I think about that story from time to time, but my thoughts are mostly about the chapters of backstory that came from trying to write it. Things like:

Freddie Spencer’s clear memories of seeing Bradley race in Texas when the future three-time World Champion was just a kid.

John Jacobsen not wanting to talk about Bradley at all, because the memories were simply too painful to recount.

Everett Brashear putting Bradley’s clothes and suitcases in the closet of their shared hotel room after Rusty was killed at Daytona, and still being unable to sleep that Sunday night.

And Becky Bradley, Rusty’s sister, recounting the details of her brother’s life in clear, steadfast words, never shying away from the painful questions or answers. When our conversations ended, Becky apologized for not getting back to me sooner. She explained that her husband had died suddenly of a heart attack three days earlier, and she had been busy planning his funeral.



Which is why it was a little startling to see photos of this motorcycle at Laguna Seca this weekend.

Fifty-five years after Rusty Bradley’s death, his yellow-and-red Boston Cycles Kawasaki H1R, number 64, appeared at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The motorcycle has survived when the young man who made it famous did not. Seeing it again brought Deep in the Heart back to mind—not just Bradley’s brief, remarkable career, but all the people who helped me tell his story twenty years ago.