Three time AMA motocross champion Marty Smith will always be a superstar in the eyes of anyone who follows the sport, and is older than 50 years old. Even for the younger generation, who maybe need to look through record books and old magazines to understand just what a special talent this quiet spoken Californian was?

From his long blonde hair, blue eyes, and surfer look, to his undeniable desire to win at all cost, Smith is one of the first American motocross heroes. Before him there was no real history, but in the 1970s, as American motocross started to grow, it was Smith who led from the front, and let the likes of Roger De Coster, Gaston Rahier and Joel Robert know that the youth and zest of this Californian kid would take him a long way.

In part two (part one you can see here) of the Marty Smith story, we talk about his European experiences, why he never rode the Motocross des Nations for Team USA and why his career ended as quickly as it started.

MXLarge: You won the AMA 125cc championship again in 1975.

Smith: Yes, I did, I won in 74 and 75.

MXlarge: In those two years, I understand you won a lot, but how many races did you win in those two years?

Smith: The first year they had five rounds and I won four of them. The second year they had seven or eight rounds, and I won every single moto apart from one.

MXlarge: Then in 1976 you had problems with the bike a lot, you did the double series, both in America and Europe, and Bob Hannah started to show good form.

Smith: Yep, 1976 was a tough year. For me and Honda. They had kept the same model from 1974 and 1975, and they didn’t make any changes and they didn’t feel like they needed to make changes, because I was dominating and they felt their bike was far superior. Don’t forget, the 125cc class was just two years old, and nobody had really done the 125cc class before. Honda kind of touched uncharted waters. Yamaha hired Bob Hannah, and they put him on a water pumper and that bike didn’t lose power at the end of the motos, it had a monoshock, it was far superior to the Honda. That didn’t bother me, I still felt like I could win, but I was riding the bike so hard, that the bike started failing on us. We had a lot of DNF’s that year, not only in the states, but I also did the FIM 125cc World championship and had several bike failures.

MXlarge: I can’t even imagine somebody doing both series now. I know the series were shorter back then, but still, all the flying, different food one week, then back to America for your National series. I know Rahier the World 125cc champion had a Suzuki, which was probably far superior to your Honda as well. That sounds like a crazy decision in fact by Honda.

Smith: Well, the flying backwards and forward didn’t seem to bother me mentally, but it might have bothered me physically. I felt like I could do it, and I was riding on a high and confident, but once I started breaking my bike and that was tough. At the French Grand Prix I had a four second lead in both races and the bike broke in both races. In Belgium I was fourth out of the start, and Gaston was leading, I passed him and pulled away, then my frame broke. I changed to another frame for the second moto and the FIM wouldn’t let me race, because they said the other frame hadn’t gone through technical inspection before the racing started. That to me was a bullshit call, they saw this young kid come over to Gaston’s race track and they didn’t want that.

MXlarge: Let’s talk about Bob Hannah, because he obviously turned up and started talking about how he was going to beat you, or whatever. How was it battling with him?

Smith: Well, you know what, Bob and I got along really good. We didn’t send each other Christmas cards, but we got along good at the track. On the race track, we didn’t get on good. We wouldn’t take each other out, but we were similar in skill and we battled each week and I think you have a mutual respect for each other. He wanted to be the best just like I wanted to be. The magazines, Cycle News back in the day, they made things up, what they thought they saw and it wasn’t the truth, because it wasn’t like that between us. I didn’t put much thought into what the newspapers and magazines were saying.

MXlarge: 1977 you came back and won the 500cc championship against Bob (Hannah), and then in 1978, you had that terrible crash in Houston, that pretty much ended your career. Can you talk about that?

Smith: You are correct. I came back in 1977 and won the 500cc championship, I also won some supercross races. Then in 1978 I came into that season on a high, I felt like I was on top of the world again, like I was in 74 and 75. I won the supercross opener in Anaheim, then we headed to Houston, and I went into the first corner and my team-mate Steve Wise came in on the inside and took me out, and also took out and some other guys. Of course it was unintentional, but I got run over by a handful of guys and dislocated my hip. I laid on the side of the track for the whole main event and after the main event they took me to the hospital, but they didn’t have any doctors on call, and my mechanic Dave Arnold stayed with me until the morning when a doctor arrived. It was like 6am and the doctor gave me a shot to relax my body and put my hip back in, but the damage was already done, not just physically, but also mentally. I had never been hurt before riding, and a dislocated hip is probably one of the most painful injuries a rider can have. It kicked my ass Geoff, it really did.

MXlarge: So in fact, that injury pretty much changed your mind set about racing?

Smith: Yes, it mentally broke me, as I said, I had never been hurt before and I felt like I had made some investments, I had put some money aside and bought some properties. I was still young and I thought to myself, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. I was out for the rest of 1978, and in 1979 I did a little bit with Honda, but I never had my heart into it again. I didn’t finish well, dislocated a shoulder that year and it was pretty much the beginning of the end. At the end of 1979 I signed with Suzuki and did two years with those guys. So in 1980 and 1981 I was a top five guy, but I didn’t win again.

MXLarge: I remember you coming to Australia for a supercross back when you were on Suzuki. Did you do much else as far as travelling?

Smith: I did two trips to Australia, Cagiva also signed me for six months and I did some supercross races in 1983, just testing and R&D, and I did some supercross races, but I was unmotivated and on a bike that had only 2/3 of the power of the other bikes.

MXLarge: One thing that amazed me is that you never rode the Motocross des Nations for Team USA.

Smith: I had the opportunity to race that race, but I had a bad feeling about Europe from 1976 and I declined to race it. I had a bad taste in my mouth from my European experiences in 1976.

MXlarge: You rode the Trans-AMA, and also a bunch of USGPs. How was that racing somebody like Roger DeCoster back in the late 70s?

Smith: You know, I was just doing my job, but if I think about it now Geoff, I can still remember the feeling of getting on the start line up against the Europeans. In that era they were on top of their game, and the American riders were dabbling a little and starting to get better. We were like top three, top five guys then, against the Europeans. It was new to us and I remember in 1977 I did well in the Trans-AMA, I didn’t win the series, but I beat Roger at Nebraska and also at Puyallup in Washington, I beat him in both motos there. To beat Roger in two motos in a life-time was amazing, but I beat him in two motos on the same day. I will never forget that and it is something not a lot of guys can say, and I am really proud of that.

MXlarge: What about that 76 season, apart from the DNF’s, what else didn’t you like?

Smith: I had a great team behind me in Europe, but I think I was too young to go there. I was 19 and I didn’t understand the people were good people. Maybe it was the part of Europe where I was staying, in a place in Germany and the people where I was staying were not friendly at all.

MXlarge: You had been back to Europe right, for a veteran’s race or something?

Smith: I went back for one race, I think it was 2012, for the TransBorgaro in Italy. They treated us like kings. We took our wives and it was the last time I have been there and the first time since 1976. We had a great time.

RacerX/Dick Miller images