Mark Blackwell and the “Motocross” in Daytona: 50 Years

For racing fans watching from their homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, this year’s Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Daytona International Speedway was exceptionally special. Mark Blackwell was reminiscing about winning the Daytona Supercross 50 years ago when it was still known as the Daytona Motocross because Supercross hadn’t yet been conceived.

On March 11th, 1972, Blackwell shared the spotlight with another champion, Jimmy Weinert, who won the 250cc class. Blackwell took first place in the 500cc class, often known as the Open class.

The Daytona Motocross was not the first motocross race staged at the Speedway, but it was the first time it was hosted right in front of the main grandstands, on the grass, where it is still held today. The Daytona motocross course had previously been built on the infield’s parking lot.

Blackwell was a champion when he entered the Daytona 500 50 years ago. The 19-year-old from Southern California had just won the first-ever AMA 500cc National Motocross Championship the previous year.

Whether a champion or not, Blackwell had his job cut out for him in Daytona that day, as he raced alongside some of the top motocrossers in the country, including his factory Husqvarna colleagues Jim West, Bob Grossi, and Bill Clements. Then there was Yamaha’s Gary Jones, who won the inaugural AMA 250cc Motocross National Championship the following year. Jones, it turned out, also presented Blackwell with his most conspicuous challenge on that fateful day 50 years ago.

Backwell on his rivalry with Jones said, “Gary was an awesome competitor and a clean rider, 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.”

The Daytona Motocross, like today’s Daytona Supercross, was determined by a single main event, in which Blackwell went toe-to-toe with Jones for the win.

Unfortunately, Blackwell sustained an eye injury later that year at a muddy GP in Luxemburg, thereby ending his racing career. Although he returned to racing, Blackwell was never the same rider again as a result of the accident, and he would soon withdraw from full-time racing. He spent the rest of his career in the motorcycle industry, including serving as Suzuki’s Motocross Team Manager in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he guided superstars like Kent Howerton, Mark Barnett, and Danny LaPorte during one of the brand’s most prosperous periods ever in the sport of motocross and Supercross.

Since then, he’s worked with Husqvarna, Suzuki, Arctic Cat, Polaris, and Victory Motorcycles as an executive