Build: Robert Naughton
Text: Kris Keefer
Video & Photos: Kellen Brauer
These Garage Builds aren’t your typical Garage Builds as they have deep meaning to Robert Naughton. Robert was a successful AMA Professional SX/MX racer from Arizona in the 1980s, finishing fourth overall in the 125 West Region in the 1986 AMA Supercross Championship, and then taking second overall in ’87. Before all that, Naughton was racing minicycles in Arizona and became friends with a promising young rider named Kyle Fleming, who was good enough in earn a factory support ride with the Suzuki R&D team (R&D standing for master engine-builders Rudy and Dean Dickenson).
Tragically, in August 1982, shortly after the Ponca City NMA Grand National Championship, Fleming and two of his Suzuki R&D teammates, Bruce Bunch and Rick Hemme, were all killed when the car they were riding in was struck by a train.
Even with the heaviest of hearts, Fleming’s parents continued to take the young Robert Naughton racing after Kyle’s passing and he quickly improved to the point where he turned professional. Ironically, Naughton’s earned national number in ’87 was #54, the same number that Kyle Fleming ran, and then he earned it again for 1988!
Years later Naughton wanted to pay tribute to his lost friend, as well as #2 Rick Hemme and #8 Bruce Bunch. He found and bought three 1982 Suzuki RM80s just like the ones the boys used to race, though they weren’t in the best of shape. So, Robert teamed up with Paul DeLanoit at PGD Moto Builds to build these beautiful replicas, which he brought to this year’s Glendale SX to display.
