RIP Marty.

[grado]

Killed, along with his wife Nancy last weekend when the dune buggy they were in flipped at Glamis Sand Dunes.

2 time 125, and 500 National AMA Motocross Champion
In the 70’s.

The epitome of a motocross racer, both on and off the track.

Kinda brings it home, live each day as if it were your last.....

[grado]

[Fatfatboy]

What a bummer.
RIP

[oldironnow]

https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-news/motocross-legend-marty-smith-killed-in-accident/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email

[oldironnow]

Who are all these riders?

[grado]

Ya, rode the sandpits and quarries with a neighbor friend back then.  He went out and bought a 125 Elsinore, all the gear Marty rode with, even had the long blond hair coming out of the helmet thing going on.
I mean, until he took his helmet off it could have been Marty in there.

And he wasn’t the only guy that did that.

Look at that black and white pic above.
Marty, in, not a berm, a rut, on the gas,
leaned over to the max with the speed he’s carrying.
So much so his leg is tucked up as high as the front fender,
handlebar dragging in the dirt.

Great rider, great pic. They don’t come down the pike a hole lot like that guy did.

[grado]

oldironnow wrote

Who are all these riders?

Pretty much the top guys from America at that time.  1977 or 1978 maybe.  Note, not one on a European bike.  4 years, and the old guard European bikes are mostly history.
From left to right,  Bob Hannah. Marty. Jim Pomery maybe. Next to him I dunno. Tony Distafano. And I’m pretty sure that’s Kent Howerton all the way on the right.

[motogrady]

Hannah, pretty much a Yamaha guy all his career.  May have rode for big red a bit. Maybe not as talented as the rest, but made up for it in conditioning
and aggression.  Injured watersking, hit a submerged pier piling messed his leg up real good was never the same. Marty, started on a Monarch, did most of his career with Honda, last season back with Monarch. If that’s Pomeroy, he was Bultaco, was the first to win a Grand Prix moto, Distafano was a CZ guy, real talented got an off track eye injury and never was the same, the other guy I dont know,
Howerton was Husquvarna factory here in the States.