Kit Palmer | March 13, 2022
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
50 Years Later: Mark Blackwell and the Daytona “Motocross”
This year’s running of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Daytona International Speedway was extra special for one race fan who was watching it from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark Blackwell was be thinking back 50 years ago to when he won the Daytona Supercross, but then it was referred to as the Daytona Motocross because Supercross hadn’t been invented quite yet.
Blackwell shared the spotlight with another winner that 11th day of March in 1972—Jimmy Weinert, who topped the 250cc class. Blackwell won the 500cc class, which was also called the Open class.
The Daytona Motocross wasn’t the first time a motocross race was held inside the Speedway, but it was the first time it was held directly in front of the main grandstands, on the grass, where the race is still held to this day. Before then, the Daytona motocross track was constructed on the infield’s parking lot.
Mark Blackwell, after he won the Daytona Motocross 50 years ago in 1972, the first year the race was held on the Speedway’s grass infield, where the Daytona Supercross is still held today. Photos: Courtesy Mark Blackwell
Blackwell came into that Daytona race 50 years ago already a champion. The 19-year-old from Southern California had, the year before, won what is now recognized as the first-ever AMA 500cc National Motocross Championship. Champion or not, Blackwell had his work cut out for him that day at Daytona as he staged with some of this country’s best motocrossers, including his factory Husqvarna teammates Jim West, Bob Grossi and Bill Clements. And then there was also Yamaha’s Gary Jones, who went on to win the inaugural AMA 250cc Motocross National Championship that same year. As it turned out, Jones also gave Blackwell his most prominent challenge that day 50 years ago.
“Gary was an awesome competitor and a clean rider,” says Blackwell of his battles with Jones. “I don’t think we ever touched while racing, but we went at it tooth and nail every week in those days. My career was cut short with an eye injury in Europe later that year, but we had some great races, and obviously, he went on to win four national championships.
“This event [the ’72 Daytona Motocross] was, as I recall, the eighth of the Florida Winter-AMA Series,” says Blackwell. “We used to use this to warm up for the season, and I had just won the first AMA 500cc Motocross Championship, which was based on the Fall Trans-AMA Series. I was the top American. I beat out Brad Lackey by a single point at Saddleback Park with a flat front tire and broken exhaust pipe!”
“In the Florida Winter-AMA, I believe I won six or seven of the eight-race series, and Daytona was the final event. I had injured my foot/ankle earlier in the week and was on crutches the morning of the race. Three-time Motocross World Champion Rolf Tibblin was our trainer/coach/team manager for the Husqvarna Team—Bob Grossi, Jim West, Billy Clements—and Rolf told me, ‘Let’s tape up your foot and give it a try in practice!’ I did and felt pretty good!”
Like today’s Daytona Supercross, the Daytona Motocross was decided via a single main event, where Blackwell ended up going toe-to-toe with Jones for the win.
“In the main event, I got a poor start and worked my way close to the front of the pack. Gary was leading on his Yamaha. I locked up the rear brake in a hairpin corner, killed the engine and went to the back of the pack with only a few laps to go. I got going again and charged toward the front. I caught and passed Gary by jumping over a pit that they had dug on the front straight, and when I did, the crowd in the stands cheered so loudly I nearly fell off the bike—we had never experienced this! This was about four months before the inaugural Los Angeles Superbowl of Motocross, but Supercross was already starting to happen.
“The crowd in the stands cheered so loudly I nearly fell off the bike—we had never experienced this! This was about four months before the inaugural Los Angeles Superbowl of Motocross, but Supercross was already starting to happen.”
“Anyway, it was a great victory for me, and I won the Florida Winter AMA Series. I raced with Malcolm Smith in the Mint 400 one week later, where I crashed while leading overall on a 250 and knocked myself out. But I got up, and Malcolm and I won the 250cc class and finished fourth overall.
“The next week, I left for Europe to compete in the 500cc GPs and finished on the podium in Germany at one of the international races between with Adolph Weil and Ake Jonsson. It was an important time in the early days of motocross in America.”
Blackwell describes this photo: “I am pretty sure this is Orlando. But it typifies the battles Gary and I had every week.”
Unfortunately, later that year at a muddy GP in Luxemburg, Blackwell suffered an eye injury that would derail his racing career for good. Although he did race again, Blackwell was never the same rider because of the injury and would soon retire from full-time racing. However, he spent much of the rest of his career in the motorcycle industry, which included acting as Suzuki’s Motocross Team Manager during one of the brand’s most prosperous times ever in the sport of motocross and Supercross in the late ’70s and early ’80s when he guided superstars such as Kent Howerton, Mark Barnett and Danny LaPorte. Since then, he’s held executive positions at Husqvarna, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Polaris and Victory Motorcycles.
Blackwell looks back proudly at his racing days. “That period was the pinnacle of my riding before I left for Europe to compete in the 500cc GPs. I remember riding up next to guys and thinking, ‘Dude, do you have two flat tires? Let’s race!’ Not a big ego, I just remember at that moment, my 1972 Husqvarna felt magical, and Rolf had us in such good shape. I felt like I was playing with the other riders. But later that year, I would learn the hard stuff with crashes and loss of confidence in Europe, in the rain, mud, strange food, different currencies, foreign languages, etc. In retrospect, I am sure those experiences made me a better team manager and leader later in my career. I had more understanding and empathy when the riders were going through hard patches and tough times. I especially remember how it helped me coach Kent Howerton back to greatness.”
Blackwell was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000. He’s also a member of the Trailblazers Hall of Fame and recipient of the Edison Dye Lifetime Achievement Award. CN
