Three-time AMA Grand National Champion, and legendary bad-ass, Bart Markel dies.
From 1958 until he retired from racing in 1972, Bart Markel competed in more than 140 AMA Grand National Series races. His record of 28 Grand National wins held until 1982, when Jay Springsteen earned his 29th victory at the Houston Astrodome. Bart is still considered one of the best riders in the history of AMA racing.
He rode a few times on street bikes as a teenager, but didn't get into the sport seriously until he came out of the Marine Corps in 1956. A good friend of Bart's was racing in local scrambles events and Markel decided to give it a shot so he went out and bought a Jawa for $25 and started racing.
"I did pretty well on that old clunker as long as it kept running, which wasn't very often," recalled Markel. "I raced four or five times on the Jawa before I went out and splurged and spent fifty bucks for an old BSA B33."
He soon began tearing up the tracks, making his mark in 1959, when he earned four Top-10 finishes, including runner-up at the Springfield (Illinois) Mile. He ended the season ranked seventh in the series and earned a factory-backed ride with Harley-Davidson.
At the same time he began earning a reputation of being a very "aggressive" rider and was dubbed "Black Bart." At one point, Markel was suspended from racing for rough riding.
"I didn't like following anybody," explained Markel, who was an amateur boxer in his younger years. "If I needed to give someone a little shove to get in front of them, that's what I'd do. I don't like to admit it, but I guess I was a little rough."
Bartlett David Markel was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
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