Fifty-five years ago, it was the Summer of ’69. Harley-Davidson factory rider Mert Lawwill was crowned the American Motorcycle Association’s Grand National Champion of professional motorcycle racing. As a result, his motorcycle would officially carry the #1 plate for the 1970 Grand National Championship season.
Lawwill lost that National #1 plate to Triumph’s Gene Romero a year later. The 1970 AMA GNC season was perhaps the most well-known in motorcycle racing history, thanks to On Any Sunday, the world-renowned documentary film by Bruce Brown.
It seemed to me that the story of Lawwill’s National Championship season in 1969 should be told, as well. The story of that racing season might have faded into obscurity were it not for writing and photography in a like-new copy of Cycle Racing 1970 that I bought in Driftless Books & Music, a used book store in Viroqua, Wisconsin.
In my never-ending search for rare and remarkable books, magazines, manuals, advertising, and other vintage motorcycle-related items, Driftless Books & Music had a trove of items that interested me. I also acquired copies of Cycle’s Racing Annual for 1968 and 1969, as well as other vintage items you may be hearing more about in the future.
The Editor for Cycle Racing Annual 1970 was Cook Nielson, with Managing Editor Diedre Haley and Technical Editor Jess Thomas. The AMA racing season coverage was written by Sally Wimer, with black-and-white photography by Caroline Hadley and David Gooley.
Of Lawwill’s championship season, Wimer wrote:
Before millions of gaping, cheering fans came 29-year-old Mert (Myrtle the Turtle) Lawwill and his mighty Harley-Davidson racers to beat all comers—to peel away the great and near-great, men like Gary Nixon, Calvin Rayborn, Bart Markel, Gene Romero, the brothers Palmgren (Chuck and Larry), the venerable Dick Mann, and the brash young Jim Rice, first-year expert who took a (surely) unprecedented three big checker flag wins. Twenty-five unbelievable shows of speed and Mert Lawwill emerging champion of them all, the Grand National Champion who next year will wear the No. 1 plate on his racing bike. The nine-year veteran racer, heady with newfound glory, immediately bought a new truck, a racing car and a home in San Francisco. “You just never know about next year,” says Mert Lawwill.
In those 25 AMA-sanctioned professional races that included road races, flat track, and TT events, Lawwill placed in the top five in 13 while scoring four victories.
However, it wasn’t until the fourth event of the ’69 season that Lawwill topped the podium. The first event, a short track race held inside the Houston Astrodome, was won by Ronnie Rall. The second was indoor TT, again at the Astrodome, won by Skip Van Leeuwen, and the third was the Daytona 200, won by Lawwill’s Harley-Davidson teammate Cal Rayborn.
Lawwill finally took his first 1969 victory at a 10-mile flat track event in Cumberland, Maryland. Gene Romero was second, followed by Dick Mann. The 10-miler at Terra Haute, Indiana, was next. Bart Markel won, with Lawwill harvesting points in second place.
The sixth event, a 50-lap flat track event in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, was won by Fred Nix. It wasn’t until the 11th race of the season that Lawwill returned to the podium, placing third in the 25-lap TT at Hinsdale, Illinois, behind Romero. Lawwill won the 12th race of the season, the 10-mile flat track event at Columbus, Ohio. He followed that up with a third-place finish in yet another 10-mile flat track race, this time in San Jose, California. Lawwill topped the podium in the 30-lap TT at Castle Rock, Colorado, and followed that up with a third-place finish at the Santa Rosa, California, 20-miler.
Lawwill finished out of the top three in the next three rounds before finishing third in the 30-mile flat track event at Indianapolis—the 20th round of the 1969 Grand National Championship Series. After finishing off the podium in the events 22 through 24, Lawwill finished the season with a victory in the 10-mile flat track event at Ascot Park in Gardena, California, ahead of Romero.
Those great and near-great Wimer mentioned came up short for various reasons. AMA National Champion in ’67 and ’68, Nixon broke his leg in the 16th race of the season at the Santa Rosa Mile. Rayborn, Markel, Romero, Mann, and the Palmgren brothers just didn’t score points in enough events to stay with Lawwill for the title. Nix won two Nationals—one road race and one flat track—but lost his life in a non-racing accident during the season.
By the time the dust settled on that epic summer, Lawwill had wrestled, wrangled, and finessed his Harley-Davidson KR V-twin racing bikes to a total of 672 points. Gene Romero came in second aboard his Triumph with 579 points—his performance a harbinger of things to come as he would claim the #1 plate in the final race of the 1970 season and On Any Sunday immortality.
Rayborn was third with 517 points on his factory Harley-Davidsons. He could take some consolation in October 1970, when he set the motorcycle world land speed record of 265.49 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats aboard a Denis Manning-designed Harley-Davidson streamliner.
Flint, Michigan’s Bart Markel rode his Harley-Davidson to fourth in the points with 471, 14 points ahead of Triumph’s Chuck Palmgren out of Baltimore.
The Racing Annual also had some breaking news: Mert Lawwill and Cal Rayborn had bought a Chevy Camaro SCCA race car after the 1969 motorcycle season. Technical Editor Jess Thomas did a feature interview with both men to find out why. They cited the same factors—the gap in pay between motorcycle racers and professional automobile racers, and the physical drain of running the AMA Grand National Championship circuit.
“Even as a champion, a guy’s not going to get rich racing motorcycles,” Lawwill told Thomas. “I think the wear and tear is the big thing. During the season, a racer is either driving his truck, or working on his equipment, or racing. The only sleep you get is in the truck when it’s someone else’s turn to drive. You can imagine what family problems come out when you’re going that hard.”
The car racing connection led Rayborn to ride in the Marlboro International Series motorcycle race held at New Zealand’s Pukekohe Circuit near Auckland, where the iconic Tasman Championship was also to be held. Rayborn had planned to compete in the Lola 5000 car he had bought for the race.
While in New Zealand, Rayborn was offered the chance to enter the Marlboro event on a borrowed Suzuki TR500 road racer. Sadly, on December 29, 1973, Rayborn was killed when the Suzuki’s two-stroke engine seized in a high-speed corner on the first lap, sending him into an unpadded steel guard rail.
After retiring from motorcycle racing in 1977, Lawwill went on to use his experience designing winning competition motorcycle frames to mountain bike frames, including the first mountain bike suspension systems. He also brought his creative genius to Mert’s Hands, a company that develops prosthetic limbs for amputees, including models that won approval for use in motorcycle racing!
Lawwill was inducted into the American Motorcyclist Association Hall of Fame in 1998 after amassing 15 National event victories, 161 event finishes, and the 1969 Grand National Championship.
