AMA Hall of Famer and
Motorcycle Pioneer Passes
T
he motorcycle community lost
another legend with the pass-
ing of Preston Petty on Sunday,
January 16. He was 81. Petty,
who was a formidable motocross
and off-road racer of the late
1950 through the early 1970s,
was best known for his plas-
tic fenders which he famously
designed in 1970. The "unbreak-
able" Preston Petty fenders soon
became a must-have aftermarket
product for all motocrossers,
from the pros to the weekend
warriors. Petty's injection-molded
fenders opened the door to what
would soon become Preston
Petty Products.
According to the AMA, Petty
was born in Los Angeles on
February 19, 1941. He was raised
in an affluent and strict Mormon
family. His father, a successful
attorney, tried to keep the young
Petty off motorcycles.
Growing up on a hilltop in
the Santa Monica Mountains,
Petty was already one of the top
scrambles and off-road racers in
Southern California by the time
he was 16. He became known as
a thinking-man's racer and was
uniquely skilled at reading terrain
and knowing how to get the most
out of his bikes. He earned a
solid reputation for winning a lot
of races on smaller-displacement
machines, against the more
popular big bikes of the day.
To try to dissuade him from
motorcycle racing, Petty's father
sent him to Brigham Young
University where the required
Sunday church service did not
mix with a racing schedule. After
leaving BYU and returning to
Los Angeles, Petty went head-
long into racing. He was one of
the first to race Hondas before
they had an American footprint
and then became the first rider
the company backed after they
opened a U.S. headquarters.
In the early 1960s, Petty
began racing novice and ama-
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Preston Petty, aka
Captain Plastic, was a
skilled off-road racer
who hit the big time
by making top-quality
plastic fenders and
products in the 1970s.
