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T his year's running of the Monster Energy AMA Super- cross at Daytona International Speedway will be extra special for one race fan who will be watching it from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mark Black- well will be thinking back 50 years ago to when he won the Daytona Supercross, but then it was referred to as the Daytona Motocross because Supercross hadn't been invented quite yet. Blackwell shared the spotlight with another winner that 11th day of March in 1972—Jimmy Weinert, who topped the 250cc class. Blackwell won the 500cc class, which was also called the Open class. The Daytona Motocross wasn't the first time a motocross race was held inside the Speedway, but it was the first time it was held directly in front of the main grandstands, on the grass, where the race is still held to this day. Before then, the Daytona moto- cross track was constructed on the infield's parking lot. Blackwell came into that Day- tona race 50 years ago already a champion. The 19-year-old from Southern California had, the year before, won what is now recognized as the first-ever AMA 500cc National Motocross Championship. Champion or not, Blackwell had his work cut out for him that day at Daytona as he staged with some of this country's best motocrossers, including his factory Husqvarna teammates Jim West, Bob Grossi and Bill Clements. And then there was also Yamaha's Gary Jones, who went on to win the inaugural AMA 250cc Motocross National Championship that same year. As it turned out, Jones also gave Blackwell his most prominent challenge that day 50 years ago. "Gary was an awesome com- petitor and a clean rider," says Blackwell of his battles with Jones. "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 ob- viously, he went on to win four national championships. "This event [the '72 Daytona Motocross] was, as I recall, the eighth of the Florida Winter- AMA Series," says Blackwell. "We used to use this to warm up for the season, and I had just won the first AMA 500cc Motocross Championship, which was based on the Fall Trans-AMA Series. I was the top American. I beat out Brad Lackey by a single point at Saddleback Park with a flat front tire and bro- ken exhaust pipe!" "In the Florida Winter-AMA, I believe I won six or seven of the eight-race series, and Daytona was the final event. I had injured my foot/ankle earlier in the week and was on crutches the morning of the race. Three-time Motocross World Champion Rolf Tibblin was our trainer/coach/ team manager for the Husqvarna Team—Bob Grossi, Jim West, Billy Clements—and Rolf told me, CN III ARCHIVES P132 50 Years Later: Mark Blackwell And The Daytona Motocross Jones. "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 viously, he went on to win four eighth of the Florida Winter- AMA Series," says Blackwell. just won the first AMA 500cc BY KIT PALMER Mark Blackwell, after he won the Daytona Motocross 50 years ago in 1972, the first year the race was held on the Speedway's grass infield, where the Daytona Supercross is still held today. PHOTOS: COURTESY MARK BLACKWELL