The List: Premier-Class Rookie Champions

Last Saturday afternoon at Unadilla, Jett Lawrence’s day ended with him holding the Edison Dye Cup in his hands behind the podium, reading through the names of all the previous 450 AMA Pro Motocross Champions, knowing his name will soon be added. The factory Honda HRC rider has been incredible all summer long. Nine races into his 450 career he has yet to lose a single moto in this series, adding his name to a very short list of riders who have won premier-class titles in their very first season in the division. Who were the others?

Gary Jones and Brad Lackey

We should start this list with Gary Jones and "Bad" Brad Lackey, as they were both considered rookies in 1972, along with everyone else--it was the first year for AMA Pro Motocross! But both Jones and Lackey were well-established professional talents by that point. Jones won the de facto '71 title as the top American in Inter-Am Series, and Lackey was already being touted as the "best American motocrosser ever" by the time he raced his first national in 1972 (at the third round of the series). Both would become AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers, as Jones would add two more 250 National titles in '73 and '74, and Lackey would become the first American to ever win an FIM Motocross World Championship in 1982. 

 Marty Smith

One could make the same point for Marty Smith in 1977 when he won the AMA 500 National Motocross Championship after spending most of his first three professional seasons focusing on the 125 class. However, the three different outdoor classes of the time--125, 250 and 500--ran their races individually, for the most part, and on different weekends. That meant that Smith had plenty of experience racing on bigger bikes by '77, and had even won 250 Nationals and Supercross events, as well as Trans-AMA events. (Coincidentally, the runner-up in that '77 500 series, Bob "Hurricane" Hannah, was also technically a rookie to big bikes, having raced 125s in both '75 and '76, and he spent the first part of '77 almost winning another 125 National Championship before breakdowns knocked him out of the running.) 

Jeff Ward

And then there's the curious case of Jeff Ward. The Californian nicknamed the "Flying Freckle" turned pro in 1978 and raced the 125 Nationals for the next half-dozen years, finally winning his first AMA Pro Motocross title in 1984. In 1985, Kawasaki finally moved the future AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer up to the 250 class full-time--at exactly the same time that the AMA was adding a 125 class to AMA Supercross. So if Ward, like Broc Glover, Mark Barnett and even Marty Smith and Bob Hannah wanted to race AMA Supercross, they had to race the 250 class, which is what Wardy did--more than 70 times between '78 and '85! So technically speaking, Ward was a 250 rookie in AMA Pro Motocross in 1985, and he won the title. He also won the AMA Supercross title in '85, though he was decidedly not a rookie. Confused yet? No matter, Wardy's '85 season, where he won his first 250 SX and 250 MX titles, was one of his greatest seasons ever.