Gary Nixon

Gary Nixon (January 25, 1941 – August 5, 2011) was an American professional motorcycle racer. He competed in AMA dirt track and road racing competitions from 1960 to 1979, most prominently as a member of the Triumph factory racing team where he won the A.M.A. Grand National Championship in 1967 and 1968. Known as one of the fiercest dirt-track racers of his era, Nixon scored 19 AMA National victories in a 20-year professional motorcycle racing career. At the time of his retirement in 1979, he was ranked sixth all-time in AMA National victories and ranked third in road race victories. Nixon was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003.

Motorcycle racing career Early career Nixon was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma where he grew up excelling in multiple sports including football, basketball, and baseball. Nixon won his first drag racing championship at the age of 15, then began to compete in motorcycle dirt track racing. In 1963, he signed a contract to race for the Triumph factory racing team and relocated to Cockeysville, Maryland, to be nearer to Triumph's east coast distributor located in Towson, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. He first rose to prominence in 1963 when he won his first AMA National road race at Recreation Park in Windber, Pennsylvania and three weeks later, won again at the short-track national at Santa Fe Park in Hinsdale, Illinois. He was leading the race comfortably when a botched pit stop cost him the victory as he was overtaken by Roger Reiman (Harley-Davidson) and relegated to second place. He won three road races, along with a short track and mile dirt track nationals in 1967 to clinch his first Grand National Championship.

The AMA implemented a new rule in 1969 allowing five-speed transmissions which made two-stroke engines used by Japanese manufacturers more competitive. Yvon Duhamel won the pole position for the 1969 Daytona 200 riding a 350cc Yamaha two-stroke motorcycle to become the first rider to qualify for the event with a lap speed above 150 mph. In October 1970, Nixon and Yvon Duhamel were invited to England to race in the Mallory Park Race of the Year, becoming the first AMA racers to compete in the prestigious event. He scored an fourth place result and left a positive impression on his British competitors. For the remainder of his racing career, Sheene wore a Gary Nixon t-shirt beneath his leather riding suit as a good luck charm, winning two MotoGP World Championships in and .

The season ending 1971 Champion Spark Plug Classic held at the Ontario Motor Speedway, was run in two 125-mile segments. The race featured the biggest purse in AMA racing history and attracted world-class riders such as Phil Read, Barry Sheene, Rod Gould and John Cooper. In the 1971 AMA Grand National Championship, he failed to score any race victories as he dropped out of the top ten for the first time since 1963.

Road racing career By 1972, the Triumph factory faced severe financial stress and went bankrupt, leaving Nixon without a sponsor. He then signed a contract to race for the Kawasaki road racing team alongside teammates Duhamel and Paul Smart wearing the team's trademark neon lime green racing livery. His first year with the Kawasaki team was plagued by mechanical failures and crashes while riding the newly-released H2R racing motorcycle. Nixon led the 1973 Daytona 200 only to retire when his engine seized but then won three consecutive road races on the AMA calendar with victories in Loudon, Laguna Seca and Pocono. At Ontario, Duhamel led a Kawasaki podium sweep with teammates Nixon and Art Baumann finishing second and third. Kawasaki's domination during this period led motorsports journalists to dub the team as "the Green Meanies", in reference to their lime green paint scheme. Nixon ended the 1973 Grand National Championship ranked third behind Kenny Roberts (Yamaha) and Gary Scott (Harley-Davidson) and was named the 1973 AMA Road Racing Champion. He recovered to win the 1974 Loudon Classic, marking the fourth time he had won the event. They began the season by finishing second to Johnny Cecotto (Yamaha) at the Daytona 200. If Nixon's appeal had been successful, the 15 points from winning the Venezuelan round would have given Nixon the world championship over Palomo by one point, 62 to 61. Nixon's performance in 1976 earned him the inaugural AMA Pro Athlete of the Year Award.

Nixon continued to race in historic motorsport events as a member of Team Obsolete in the AHRMA Historic National Series. In 2005, Nixon rode a 1972 Triumph Trident to win the AHRMA Formula Vintage National Championship. MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden attended dirt-track races as a child where his father competed against Nixon. Nixon befriended the Hayden family and became an early supporter of the younger Hayden's motorcycle racing career.

At the age of 70, Nixon suffered a heart attack on July 29, 2011, and died on August 5 at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland.