Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE H e survived so many harrowing moments on the track and then years later managed to overcome numerous health issues; we were beginning to think three-time AMA Grand National Champion Joe Leonard was truly invin- cible. He was one tough son of a gun, but age and illness finally caught up with "Moke," one of the truly all-time greats of motorsports period, much less motorcycle racing. Leonard died on Thurs- day, April 27, 2017 in a San Jose nursing home. He was 84. There aren't many people still around who had the chance to watch Joe Leonard race motorcycles, but the people I've talked to who did, say he was deceptively fast. He rarely looked like he was tearing up the track, but the stopwatch didn't lie. "Joe was smooth," said friend, mentor and former competitor Paul Goldsmith. "He was one of the smoothest riders I ever raced against. He always had great equipment and he used it to the maximum extent. Joe was really tough to beat." The stats are undeniable—by the numbers, Leonard was simply phenomenal. He was a three-time AMA Grand National Champion (he won the very first AMA Grand National Championship Series in 1954). During his record-setting career in the 1950s and early '60s, Leonard established the mark that all other racers aspired to when he won 27-career AMA Nationals, including two wins at the Daytona 200. Leonard's record held for a decade until Bart Markel finally broke it in Columbus, Ohio, in 1971, by taking his 28th AMA Na- tional victory. Leonard went on to become a champion auto racer. In 1971 and 1972, Leonard earned back-to- back USAC Championships. He had some good success in the Indy 500 and is best remembered for the race that got away. It was in 1968, racing one of the STP Turbines, he won the pole and was leading the race with less than 10 laps to go when the car quit running. Leonard called it the toughest day of his rac- ing career. On a personal note, as a kid growing up in Indianapo- lis, Joe Leonard was my first racing hero. Like nearly all Indianapolis Public School kids, we took a field trip every May to the Speed- way. My first visit was in 1968 and watching Leonard swoosh around on the ultra- quiet, florescent orange, wedge-shaped turbine is an image that will forever live in my mind's eye. At the time, I was just a kid and had no idea about Leonard's previ- ous life as a national championship motorcycle racer. It was 30 years later that I first got to know Leonard when I did his biography for the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Besides being a great racer, Joe was also a world-class story teller. He was also the kind of guy who made you feel like a fast friend. I was so captivated by Joe's storytelling skills that I called to chat with him two or three times a year, just to hear more stories. I continued doing so up until very recently. The last time I talked to GOODBYE BY SMOKIN' JOE P130 Joe Leonard, a three- time Grand National Champion.