05-01-2020, 06:32 PM
I'm guessing that I might look back at this post at some point down the road with a bit of embarrassment. But right now I'm thinking that it might be somewhat cleansing to put this all this out there, to share it with others. So with that in mind, here goes.
Maybe some of you, like myself, have been impacted my the loss of one or more motorcycle racers in particular (either from injuries received as a result of an accident during competition, or during training, or at some other point in time during their life). Aside from losing family or close friends, there have not been a lot of deaths that have truly impacted me strongly at deeper inner level. But there have been a few people, who meant something special to me at some point in my life, whose passing for whatever the reason was hard for me to deal with. I personally can now add Marty Smith to that list.
I knew nothing about the news of Marty Smith's death when I saw the title of the ferret's post pop up here on the forum this past Wednesday. When I first read the title of his post, I thought that Marty's death had occurred earlier that same day (Wednesday was actually my birthday). The thought of Marty Smith and his wife dying in an accident together was hard enough. But to imagine it happening on my birthday would have been especially hard.
Anyone who checked in on my recent "MX Archive" thread the other month knows that I was a pretty big motocross fan as a kid. One of the photos that I included in that thread was of Marty Smith and I (with my younger brother over to the side).
![[Image: 73c732432481c1bc3c9c44235393b80f.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/73c732432481c1bc3c9c44235393b80f.jpg)
I've often thought of Marty Smith over the years. There weren't all that many people that I idolized as a kid, but Marty was one of them. It's funny, because while a few of you here raced motocross yourselves, I was one of those kids that was happy just goofing around on dirt trails out in the country. Yet my whole family got into watching motocross. My mom and dad and my brother and I would hop in the car and leave Illinois bound for Michigan or Missouri, or even Texas to attend the races.
Having already been a Honda fan since I started riding a Z50 Mini-Trail in grade school, it was only natural that I would root for Marty Smith. He was Honda's golden boy at that point in time. I was a fan before ever watching him race in person. Here's an illustration that I did of Marty Smith for 8th grade art class.
![[Image: 127ee0301f333b81f456a42b95a81859.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/127ee0301f333b81f456a42b95a81859.jpg)
Honestly, I admired almost all of the racers back then. It was actually a bit crushing to me to see Bob Hannah come along at the time he did, but even I could appreciate his talent. Through it all, during seasons when he finished number one, or during those season's when he didn't, Marty Smith was always a class act. I was amongst those geeky kids that hounded him and others for autographs back then. That was the only time in my life that I sought out autographs. (I still have a guitar pick that blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan gave me long ago, and that's really special to me, but I never felt inclined to ask for an autograph when I spoke with him in the past.)
I suppose that the special place that the racers from that era, and Marty Smith in particular, held for me likely had something to do with my age back then and the fact that riding dirt bikes was a great form of escape for me at an awkward time in my life. (While I have no complaints, mine was not exactly the storybook teenage existence.) My family and I would attend pro motocross races together for maybe five years when I was in Junior High and High School. Those are pretty impressionable years for anyone in life, at least the were for me. At any rate, even after Marty Smith's career had come to an end, later on in life I always viewed him as a champion. Not only for his racing talents, but also because of how he carried himself whenever I saw him as a kid. I would place Roger DeCoster in this category as well. That's a pretty high level of company to keep right there.
At this point in my life, I'm really grateful that I had something at that point in my life that I shared with my entire family. Especially something that I was so passionate about. My brother called me on my birthday and I mentioned Marty Smith's death to him. I could tell that he was impacted by this news a bit more than I had expected. I'm guessing that like myself, he too looks back on those experiences of attending the pro races together as kids with fond memories. Following is some of the memorabilia that I hung on to over the years, from those days that are now seemingly so long ago.
Sometimes instead of buying cool t-shirts, I made my own. Yes, I was a broke t-shirt bootlegger, lol. I was particularly fond of the design that Powroll Performance featured in their advertising back then. So I decided to draw that on a shirt and wear it to the races. Wandering through the pits, while checking out everything going on in the Team Honda area, Marty commented on my shirt. I had nothing else with me to be signed so he offered to sign the shirt. I thought that was cool, but then after getting home from the races I was worried that the autograph would probably just wash out. So I just stuffed it away in the box with a bunch of other stuff that I've hung onto over the years. The shirt does a pretty good job of telling the story on it's own (as sad as it may be to look at).
![[Image: fc2901cd18e63d5fd59bc31dbdf76d6f.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/fc2901cd18e63d5fd59bc31dbdf76d6f.jpg)
At one race, now I can't even remember which, I purchased a Flying Machine Factory cap. I ended up with quite a few autographs on that cap at that race. Here you can see that Kent Howerton, Tommy Croft, Mike Bell, and Danny LaPorte signed the top of the bill.
![[Image: 15ac436820394fad6caf51133ad8a39e.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/15ac436820394fad6caf51133ad8a39e.jpg)
The underside of the bill however was reserved for the autographs of Marty Smith and Bob Hannah. I felt luck to get both of those in particular. Like the filthy t-shirt, the cap went into the box for safe keeping. Which I guess actually worked out in both cases.
![[Image: 9ac5a1d07b659b51c5899da25037eba9.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/9ac5a1d07b659b51c5899da25037eba9.jpg)
Probably the most notable thing that happened back when we were attending races was when I was captured in the background of a photograph appearing in Dirt Bike magazine. The rider in the photo of course was Marty Smith. As I kid I remember being awestruck by the gear that the photographer was using on the other side of the track, lol. It didn't occur to me that he might have been with one of the magazines that I poured over back then. I bought a few copies of the magazine when it came out. I hauled one of those copies along with me to another race later on, where I actually got Marty Smith to sign the page in the magazine with me in the background. I put that page in a frame and had it for quite a while, but at some point over the course of numerous moves, I'm afraid that I lost it. Fortunately I still have one copy of the magazine that I kept all of these years.
![[Image: 6921e138f502b08163bcf51aa1d1f7fb.jpg]](https://cb1100forum.net/forum/uploads/imp/202005/6921e138f502b08163bcf51aa1d1f7fb.jpg)
That's it for my show 'n tell. As a kid I certainly could have done a heck of a lot worse picking a racer to root for. As I mentioned before, not only was Marty Smith and incredible rider, but he was always a class act to boot. I'm sure that the reality of his loss (and that of his wife) is hitting his family and friends incredibly hard right about now. They have my deepest sympathies.
Maybe some of you, like myself, have been impacted my the loss of one or more motorcycle racers in particular (either from injuries received as a result of an accident during competition, or during training, or at some other point in time during their life). Aside from losing family or close friends, there have not been a lot of deaths that have truly impacted me strongly at deeper inner level. But there have been a few people, who meant something special to me at some point in my life, whose passing for whatever the reason was hard for me to deal with. I personally can now add Marty Smith to that list.
I knew nothing about the news of Marty Smith's death when I saw the title of the ferret's post pop up here on the forum this past Wednesday. When I first read the title of his post, I thought that Marty's death had occurred earlier that same day (Wednesday was actually my birthday). The thought of Marty Smith and his wife dying in an accident together was hard enough. But to imagine it happening on my birthday would have been especially hard.
Anyone who checked in on my recent "MX Archive" thread the other month knows that I was a pretty big motocross fan as a kid. One of the photos that I included in that thread was of Marty Smith and I (with my younger brother over to the side).
I've often thought of Marty Smith over the years. There weren't all that many people that I idolized as a kid, but Marty was one of them. It's funny, because while a few of you here raced motocross yourselves, I was one of those kids that was happy just goofing around on dirt trails out in the country. Yet my whole family got into watching motocross. My mom and dad and my brother and I would hop in the car and leave Illinois bound for Michigan or Missouri, or even Texas to attend the races.
Having already been a Honda fan since I started riding a Z50 Mini-Trail in grade school, it was only natural that I would root for Marty Smith. He was Honda's golden boy at that point in time. I was a fan before ever watching him race in person. Here's an illustration that I did of Marty Smith for 8th grade art class.
Honestly, I admired almost all of the racers back then. It was actually a bit crushing to me to see Bob Hannah come along at the time he did, but even I could appreciate his talent. Through it all, during seasons when he finished number one, or during those season's when he didn't, Marty Smith was always a class act. I was amongst those geeky kids that hounded him and others for autographs back then. That was the only time in my life that I sought out autographs. (I still have a guitar pick that blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan gave me long ago, and that's really special to me, but I never felt inclined to ask for an autograph when I spoke with him in the past.)
I suppose that the special place that the racers from that era, and Marty Smith in particular, held for me likely had something to do with my age back then and the fact that riding dirt bikes was a great form of escape for me at an awkward time in my life. (While I have no complaints, mine was not exactly the storybook teenage existence.) My family and I would attend pro motocross races together for maybe five years when I was in Junior High and High School. Those are pretty impressionable years for anyone in life, at least the were for me. At any rate, even after Marty Smith's career had come to an end, later on in life I always viewed him as a champion. Not only for his racing talents, but also because of how he carried himself whenever I saw him as a kid. I would place Roger DeCoster in this category as well. That's a pretty high level of company to keep right there.
At this point in my life, I'm really grateful that I had something at that point in my life that I shared with my entire family. Especially something that I was so passionate about. My brother called me on my birthday and I mentioned Marty Smith's death to him. I could tell that he was impacted by this news a bit more than I had expected. I'm guessing that like myself, he too looks back on those experiences of attending the pro races together as kids with fond memories. Following is some of the memorabilia that I hung on to over the years, from those days that are now seemingly so long ago.
Sometimes instead of buying cool t-shirts, I made my own. Yes, I was a broke t-shirt bootlegger, lol. I was particularly fond of the design that Powroll Performance featured in their advertising back then. So I decided to draw that on a shirt and wear it to the races. Wandering through the pits, while checking out everything going on in the Team Honda area, Marty commented on my shirt. I had nothing else with me to be signed so he offered to sign the shirt. I thought that was cool, but then after getting home from the races I was worried that the autograph would probably just wash out. So I just stuffed it away in the box with a bunch of other stuff that I've hung onto over the years. The shirt does a pretty good job of telling the story on it's own (as sad as it may be to look at).
At one race, now I can't even remember which, I purchased a Flying Machine Factory cap. I ended up with quite a few autographs on that cap at that race. Here you can see that Kent Howerton, Tommy Croft, Mike Bell, and Danny LaPorte signed the top of the bill.
The underside of the bill however was reserved for the autographs of Marty Smith and Bob Hannah. I felt luck to get both of those in particular. Like the filthy t-shirt, the cap went into the box for safe keeping. Which I guess actually worked out in both cases.
Probably the most notable thing that happened back when we were attending races was when I was captured in the background of a photograph appearing in Dirt Bike magazine. The rider in the photo of course was Marty Smith. As I kid I remember being awestruck by the gear that the photographer was using on the other side of the track, lol. It didn't occur to me that he might have been with one of the magazines that I poured over back then. I bought a few copies of the magazine when it came out. I hauled one of those copies along with me to another race later on, where I actually got Marty Smith to sign the page in the magazine with me in the background. I put that page in a frame and had it for quite a while, but at some point over the course of numerous moves, I'm afraid that I lost it. Fortunately I still have one copy of the magazine that I kept all of these years.
That's it for my show 'n tell. As a kid I certainly could have done a heck of a lot worse picking a racer to root for. As I mentioned before, not only was Marty Smith and incredible rider, but he was always a class act to boot. I'm sure that the reality of his loss (and that of his wife) is hitting his family and friends incredibly hard right about now. They have my deepest sympathies.
