Racer, author Dennis Noyes '67 used Monmouth College as 'jumping off place' to the world

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (04/07/2025) — "It sounds like I'm making up a novel," said Dennis Noyes '67, as he recalled the time in war-torn Guatemala that he narrowly escaped gunfire, sliding in the nick of time like a baseball player under a tavern's closing aluminum door. He wound up at the feet of a stranger - a CIA operative, as it turns out - who would have a major influence on his life.

Oh, but that's one of just many adventures - harrowing and otherwise - that the Monmouth College alum has had in his career as a writer, motorcycle racer and commentator for the two largest TV networks in Spain.

And he did make up a novel, too - Yonders, Illinois - which is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle and in his alma mater's Hewes Library. Through a book tour, that novel might bring Noyes back to Illinois, a place where he spent the majority of his first 20 years and then not much time at all for the next six decades.

From Cornjerker to the Prime Beef Capital

Noyes has been a writer and a racer most of his life, dating back to his youth, which was spent near the Indiana state line in Hoopeston, home of the Cornjerkers. Students were often treated to field trips to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and, in the midst of what he called a "stock car racing culture," Noyes caught the racing bug. By his senior year, he was racing in the Modified class of the Illinois-Missouri Stock Car Association.

But Noyes had academic goals, too. His mother was an educator, and his father, who was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, also reviewed books, which Noyes would read, too, and enjoy.

"The combination of a motorcycle-racing novelist - or a novel-writing motorcycle racer - seems strange to many, but I recall reading, back when I was in high school, a short story by Robert Benchley in which one of his characters couldn't decide whether to be a poet or a stock car racer. That was exactly my dilemma."

Not long after, Noyes crashed - not in a stock car, but as a freshman at the University of Illinois, from which he "dropped out after a semester before they kicked me out. There were 40,000 students. It was another world."

Noyes returned to Hoopeston and went to work at a factory, gearing up for a second try at higher education. He chose Monmouth after learning that one of his friends had a good experience there. It proved to be a much better fit, as "Monmouth was a lot like my hometown."

The strong pull of the south

Noyes recalled good experiences with English faculty members David Roberts and John Fox, but he was reluctant to fulfill his foreign language requirement. His adviser, English professor Grace Boswell, told him, "You can't put this off forever," so Noyes selected Spanish, unknowingly paving the way for a lifetime in Spanish-speaking countries. The first of three such experiences he had while still a Monmouth student was a summer in Mexico, which he was encouraged to try by his Spanish professor, who told Noyes he had a feel for the language.

"He told me to go to Mexico and speak only Spanish," said Noyes. "And if they spoke English to me because I looked American, I was to say 'Soy noruego,' which means "I'm Norwegian.'"

Noyes enjoyed a stint in Venezuela the following summer, thanks to having a Plan B. He had a connection, but a position teaching English fell through. Troubles between the American ambassador and the Venezuelan government did not help matters.

"They assumed I was part of his band of scoundrels," said Noyes, who found work at the English language Daily Journal in Caracas, even though it, too, was under duress thanks to an attack by a terrorist organization.

"It was an extraordinary job," said Noyes. "I was assigned stories not usually given to a cub reporter, things like covering the Japanese Navy's first touring voyage since World War II and going into the jungle with the U.S. Special Forces to look at their training operations. There were really interesting stories."

Now fully accustomed to life in Latin America - and having added a Spanish major to his study of English - Noyes signed up for a semester-long Associated Colleges of the Midwest program in Costa Rica.

In addition to his reporting in Venezuela, Noyes' knack for writing was evidenced by his selection as a student writer of the year by Atlantic Monthly for a story he wrote about Costa Rica and by an invitation to attend "Bread Loaf." The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain in Vermont.

"That was quite an experience," he said. "William Styron (the award-winning author of Sophie's Choice and other novels) was the writer-in-residence, and I remember him telling me I was pushing too hard to write novels. I needed more life experiences, and I needed to write short stories before trying a novel."

Noyes attempted to do just that at his next academic stop, Michigan State University. Technically, he later learned, he wasn't eligible to be a grad student, but that didn't stop him at the time.

"Through some kind of analogical snarl that couldnt happen today, my records were unclear," said Noyes. "I thought I had graduated in 1967, but, in fact, I had not gotten full credit for the semester in Costa Rica. Unaware of this, I was admitted to Michigan State and even taught English as a grad assistant."

It was not until a few years later when Noyes was in the process of applying for a teaching job in Iran that he discovered he still lacked credits for his Monmouth degree.

"I took care of it at UC-Davis when I was back in the States briefly and living in California," said Noyes, explaining why some iterations of his graduation year from Monmouth read 1973, rather than 1967.

When it was time to leave Michigan State, Noyes said "the pull of the south" led him to drive that direction and keep on going past the U.S. border as far as he could.

"I didn't have a game plan," he said. "I just knew I wanted to go south again. When I ran out of money, I knew I'd have to find something."

He wound up in Central America again, teaching English as a foreign language for the Guatemalan-American Institute. The country was in the midst of a civil war - "Unfortunately there was no sign at the border that read 'War in progress,'" said Noyes - and that's how he arrived at the point of fleeing gunfire and coming feet-to-feet with the CIA operative.

"He said to me, 'I know who you are, but I don't why you're here. If you're free, and not here against your will, you should go to Spain. It's the most beautiful place in the world,'" said Noyes. "I'd never thought of Spain. Buses and cars don't go there" from the U.S.

Who is this guy?

Soon, Noyes was in Barcelona, Spain, working for the Institute of North American Studies.

"My idea was to stay in Spain a year or two and work on my writing," he said. "But there's a strange thing about Spain. Barcelona is the world center of motorcycle racing. I was teaching young kids to speak English, and all they wanted to talk about was their bikes."

One day in the spring of 1968, Noyes found himself gazing at a poster of "the most beautiful bike I'd ever seen," which was advertising the Spanish Grand Prix at the Montjuic circuit. "I knew nothing about it, but I went, and I was hooked. It's addictive. It was something I needed to try."

Suddenly, it was like Noyes was back in Hoopeston as a high school senior. Should he pursue racing or writing? This time, the answer was "Both."

First, he had to shelve the idea of that teaching job in Iran - "I was even learning Persian," he said. Then came battling the stigma of being an outsider in a sport followed passionately by Spaniards.

"You have to remember, Spain at that time was ruled by (Francisco) Franco, the dictator," said Noyes. "It was an interesting time to live there. The country was pretty much divided by the winning and losing sides of their civil war."

Officials didn't stop Noyes from racing, but they did make sure that the points he accumulated didn't count. And the experienced rider scored plenty of points, placing second and third in his first two races.

"They thought I was an American professional racing under an assumed name," said Noyes. "In one article, instead of simply asking me, they thought I was a flyboy from the nearby airbase. The only thing they got right about me in the article was my name and where I placed."

To earn real points, Noyes spent the months of the year he wasn't teaching racing officially for prize money in England. Along the way, he got involved with actually writing about the races, which launched the meat of his career as a racing journalist and commentator.

Soon, several other American motorcycle racers found their way to Europe, including the legendary Kenny Roberts, who in 1978 became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. One of Noyes' favorite stories from that era is Roberts failing the to grasp the gravity of being on the awards podium with the king of Spain, Juan Carlos I.

Roberts first breached etiquette when he was, essentially, bare-chested on the podium. Spanish Secret Service officials quickly remedied that situation, finding him a dress shirt to wear.

"Kenny was a bit miffed by that, so when they went to take a picture, he put rabbit ears over the king's head," said Noyes, pointing out that the two-finger gesture, while harmless in the U.S., has a different connotation in Europe. "A friend of mine took the photo, but they immediately had him empty his camera and destroy the film. But a reporter from Paris, who had a telephoto lens, got the photo, too. Everyone thought no one saw it."

But the photo lives on. Said Roberts at the time of his faux pas, "Man, I don't know about kings."

Later in his racing career, Noyes had his most success. The groundwork for that began with Franco's passing.

"After Franco died (in 1975), they changed the laws," said Noyes, who benefitted from one that seemed written for his unique situation. "If your first racing license was obtained in Spain, you could qualify for the points championship."

Noyes went on to win a pair of national championships in his final five years of racing, one consisting of competitions lasting about half an hour. The other was the Spanish National Endurance Racing Championship at the Circuito de Jerez.

"There was a six-hour, a 12-hour and a 24-hour," he said. "My racing partner and I accumulated enough points to win by two. It was a nice way to end my career."

Back in the States

The victory ended his racing career, but not his time in Spain, as he wound living in the country for 45 years. Now "semi-retired," Noyes made the comments for this story from Borrego Springs, California, which he said is "one hour from everywhere. You have to drive two hours to see a traffic light."

The interview was pushed back a day, due to work on his podcast and a YouTube video that went out to Spain and Latin America as pre-race news for the upcoming Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

"I used to travel to all the events," he said. "It's so much easier to work from home."

Noyes looks back with appreciation at his formative years on Monmouth's campus.

"It's hard to remember specifics from my Monmouth days, just a general very good vibe," said Noyes. "It was at Monmouth where I found a wonderful atmosphere and excellent, caring professors. Monmouth was the jumping off place."

And Noyes jumped off to places he never dreamed he'd land as a student in Hoopeston.

"College is a special time, a brief period in your life when the only thing you're responsible for is learning. You never know where it's all going to take you, but it very rarely goes where you think it's going to."

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Noyes in action from racing portion of his long career with motorcycles.

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As a journalist, Dennis Noyes '67 was often the one doing the interviews, but he's pictured here as the subject, sharing anecdotes about his fascinating career.

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Racer, author Dennis Noyes '67 used Monmouth College as 'jumping off place' to the world

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