1982
The Champ “Bad Brad” Lackey: America’s first World Champion By Mitch Boehm
D
uring the 1970s and early 1980s, Brad Lackey proved to be the most successful and consistent Grand Prix motocrosser from America. He scored his first 500cc moto win in Luxembourg in 1976 on an aging and mostly non-competitive Husqvarna; then grabbed his first overall victory in Britain in ’77 after joining Honda’s GP squad; finished second overall to Heiki Mikkola on another Honda in the ’78 World Championship; and captured runner-up honors again in ’80 on a Kawasaki. Suzuki got back into World Championship motocross competition in 1981 after dominating much of the 1970s with guys named DeCoster, Robert, Rahier and Wolsink, and hired Lackey as its primary rider. The team got up to speed quickly and, by ’82, had a bike and rider that were capable of winning races. During the ’81-’82 offseason Lackey
“Suzuki didn’t like it at all. When I showed up with that fork on my bike, they said ‘take it off, you’ve gotta run these [forks].’ I said no. They had a fit, but that’s the way it was gonna be.” 52
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tried a then-unique fork assembly designed and built by noted suspension guru Steve Simons. It was an inverted design Simons had begun working on back in ’79, and Lackey liked it enough that he insisted on running it during the ’82 season. “Suzuki didn’t like it at all,” he told an interviewer back in 2007. “When I showed up with that fork on my bike, they said ‘take it off, you’ve gotta run these [forks].’ I said no. They had a fit, but that’s the way it was gonna be. In Europe you’re riding in ruts all the time, and when you’d steer out of them, standard forks would twist and flex. But the Simons fork was strong and rigid; you’d turn the bar and the bike would climb right out. On giant jumps they’d never bottom, and they weighed about the same.” Lackey battled Belgian teammate Andre Vromans the entire season, and
Lackey, with his titlewinning RN500 Suzuki, which now sits in his home.
at the final round in Luxembourg it came down to the slimmest of margins. In moto one, Vromans found himself in the lead but was passed by Brit Graham Noyce. Lackey was third and knew he had to get past Vromans into second, which he did on the final lap. That pass boosted Lackey’s spirits and had a demoralizing effect on Vromans, with Lackey winning moto number two easily for the overall win and the 500cc World Championship — his first, and America’s first. The second coolest thing about Lackey’s championship? That’d be the title-winning Suzuki RN500 he won it on, which now sits in Lackey’s Bay Area home after spending a couple of years in the AMA’s Hall of Fame Museum. “Everyone said it’d been crushed,” Lackey said, “but on a trip to Holland, Sylvain Geboers and I visited my old teammate Jean-Jacques Bruno’s mechanic, who had it in his shop, albeit without the right fork, fender and seat cover. I asked him how he was sure it was mine, and he said, simply, ‘It’s a 4-speed.’ Bingo! My bike was the only one with a 4-speed!” “I have a museum at home,” Lackey added, “with about ten bikes in it, including my ’75-season Husky. The Suzuki sits in the perfect spot.” A perfect finish to a perfect season.
