Jaroslav Falta

Jaroslav Falta (22 March 1951 – 27 March 2022) was a Czech professional motocross racer. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1971 to 1982.

As a member of the ČZ factory racing team, Falta was one of the top motocross racers of the early 1970s in the F.I.M. 250cc Motocross World Championship, and is also a five-time Czechoslovak Motocross Champion.

Motorcycle racing career Falta was born on 22 March 1951 in Rumburk in Czechoslovakia (today in the Czech Republic) near the East Germany border. He grew up in the nearby Jiříkov. After joining the ČZ factory racing team, he scored the first World Championship points of his career at the 1971 250cc Swiss Grand Prix. He won the first Grand Prix race of his career at the 1972 250cc British Grand Prix.

Falta very nearly claimed the 1974 250cc world championship, however it was Soviet rider, Guennady Moisseev, who would ultimately secure the crown in a controversy-filled final race of the season. The 1974 250cc world championship was a season-long battle between KTM's Moisseev and CZ's Falta. Moisseev won the first race of the season and took the overall victory at the season opening Spanish Grand Prix. Falta won both races at the Italian Grand Prix followed with a win in the first moto of his home Grand Prix in Czechoslovakia but, then suffered two breakdowns in Poland while Moisseev won both races. Falta won a moto in Yugoslavia and at the halfway point of the season, he trailed the Russian rider by 20 points. Each rider took a second place at the West German Grand Prix but, Falta won a moto at the Dutch Grand Prix to close the points gap to 5 points going into the final race of the season in Switzerland. He was a 250cc Motocross Vice Champion (1974) and a five-time Czechoslovak Motocross National Champion (1970, 1977-1980).

Falta is noted for his loyalty to the Czech bikes he raced, and helped illustrate to the world that the CZ marquee were winning machines by scoring four Grand Prix victories against the world's best riders, such as Harry Everts, Joel Robert, Guennady Moiseev, Hakan Andersson and Gaston Rahier. Additionally, in 1974, Falta traveled to the United States, and raced selected Inter-AMA events with his teammate Zdenek Velky, and their trainer Hrebecek.