I
t's hard to believe
that it's been almost
10 years since we lost
Bart Markel, one of the
true icons of American
motorcycle racing.
Markel, who turned
pro in 1958, went on to
win a total of 28 AMA
nationals during his
15-year racing career,
earning the AMA Grand
National Championship
three times along the
way—1962, 1965 and
1966. He rode Harley-
Davidson motorcycles
to all three of his titles.
When Markel retired
from racing in 1972 he
was the all-time AMA
Grand National wins
leader. That record
held for 10 years, until
fellow Flint racer Jay
Springsteen broke the mark.
Markel was born in Flint,
Michigan, on August 19, 1935.
He rode a few times on street
bikes as a teenager, but didn't
get into the sport in earnest
until he came out of the Marine
Corps in 1956. A good friend of
Bart's named Ronnie Williams
was racing in local scrambles
events. Markel decided to
get involved and went out and
bought a Jawa for $25 and
started racing.
"I did pretty well on that old
clunker as long as it kept run-
ning, which wasn't very often,"
Markel once said. "I raced four
or five times on the Jawa before I
went out and splurged and spent
50 bucks for an old BSA B33."
Markel was a boxer as a
youth and he carried that hard-
nosed competitiveness to the
racetrack. His aggressive riding
did not win him friends among
his fellow riders, but fans loved
his hard-charging style. He was
nicknamed "Black Bart" and he
made riders leading
him very nervous.
"I remember at
Springfield in 1964, a
big pack of us were
coming down the
back straight going
off into turn three
at a buck-20," said
Gary Nixon, another
AMA Grand National
Champion and rival
of Markel's, about a
race at the famous
Springfield (Illinois)
Mile. "He caught my
handlebar and I slid
down. Man I was see-
ing red and I picked
up my bike and I was
going to center punch
him. Fortunately, the
oil tank broke on my
bike and the engine
seized up before I
could get to him. After the race
I went up to him and said, 'Hey
you knocked me off over in
three.' And typical Bart, he just
stared straight at me and said
he didn't see me.
"Markel always ran it wide
open. He was really good on
the rough cushion tracks. He
was a badass in his day, that's
for sure."
Despite his reputation as a
roughneck, Markel was voted
the AMA's Most Popular Rider of
the Year in 1966.
CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
BLACK BART
P106
Bart Markel still hauling in 1969.
