Tragically, Jones lost his
father at age 12. One year later,
Miles was killed in a testing
accident at Riverside Raceway.
Motorcycle-riding neighbors
began taking young Rick to the
desert on weekends, letting him
ride their Honda 55 (with the
step-through frame). He eventu
-
ally got his own motorcycle, a
Yamaha
80, and then graduated
to a Hodaka. Many a great racer
cut their teeth on the chrome-
tanked little bikes from Oregon,
and soon he was racing moto-
cross on his Hodaka, quickly
realizing that these little bikes
were meant
for fun, not serious
competition.
"That was when I decided to
start modifying it. I put different
forks and shocks on it, and I was
always tinkering with it, taking
the engine apart and putting it
back together."
The Hodaka was sold for a
CZ, the CZ was moved along
for a Bultaco. His wrenching
knowledge so impressed the
dealer, Steve's Bultaco, that he
was soon working full-time as a
mechanic at the shop.
Even though he would make a
name for himself as a mechanic,
Rick Jones knew the fast line
around the racetrack. He would
win his class at the famous
Hopetown Grand Prix in 1972,
using his smarts to get to the
front of the pack.
"Hopetown was famous for
its huge mudhole," he remem
-
bers. "Everyone would ride right
through
the middle and get
stuck. Just a bunch of dum-
mies! I just found a line to the
outside and rode
right around
the mud."
Unfortunately, Rick's promis-
ing racing career would come to
an end
not long after, when he
was badly injured in a head-on
crash with another rider while
trail riding.
"Back then [1972], there was
no sports medicine, so doctors
didn't really know what to do for
me. I had a serious knee injury,
and it just was never really right
after that.
"Well, all my friends were
starting to travel, which was new
to us. In the beginning, we could
just stay busy racing in Southern
California, but now there were
races going on around the coun
-
try. And I thought, 'Well, this kind
of
sucks,' but then I had an op-
portunity to go to work for Bryar
Holcomb and the Bultaco team.
We
traveled for the 1973 Trans-
AMA series, and I was given $63
a week per diem. And that was
it! But we had a lot of fun."
Jones credits his father for
helping him develop a discerning
eye for all things mechanical.
"There were a lot of bikes that
were pretty crappy, bad cables
and stuff. But my bikes always
worked like new."
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 28 JULY 14, 2026 P141
(Above) Jones was also a top
motocross racer, but a knee
injury put an end to that. (Below)
Behind the scenes, Jones (far
right) helped tune Brad Lackey's
Suzuki when Lackey (second from
left) won the 500cc MX World
Championship in 1982.
