Roger De Coster

Roger De Coster (born 28 August 1944) is a Belgian former professional motocross racer and current Motorsport Director of KTM and Husqvarna North America. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1966 to 1980, most prominently as a member of the Suzuki factory racing team where he won five FIM 500cc Motocross World Championships.

De Coster scored a record 36 500cc Grand Prix victories during his racing career, making his name is almost synonymous with the sport of motocross during the 1970s. His stature in the sport of motocross is such that, he is often simply referred to as "The Man." De Coster was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2010, he was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements.

Motorcycling career Early competition De Coster was born in Uccle, Belgium as the son of a steel mill worker. De Coster lost to Ickx during their first season in the 1963 Belgian 50 cc trials national championship. 1964 would be a break out year for De Coster as he won the 1964 Belgian 50cc Junior Motocross championship, and won a gold medal in the 1964 International Six Days Trial. He also defeated Ickx for the 1964 Belgian 50 cc trials national championship. After the 1967 World Championship season, De Coster joined his ČZ factory teammates Joël Robert and Dave Bickers, along with Husqvarna teammates, Torsten Hallman, Arne Kring and Åke Jonsson, in a series of exhibition races in the United States that had been organized by Edison Dye, the American importer for Husqvarna motorcycles. The exhibition races served as a means to introduce the sport of motocross to an American audience, and eventually led to the formation of the Inter-AM and Trans-AMA motocross series that helped to popularize the sport of motocross in the United States.

In 1968, De Coster won his first overall victory with a win at the 500cc Italian Grand Prix, and once again ended the season ranked fifth in the world championship. De Coster ended the 1969 season ranked fifth in the world for a third consecutive season, and was a member of the Belgian team that won the 1969 Motocross des Nations for 500cc motorcycles and the Trophée des Nations for 250cc motorcycles, marking the first Belgian victory in eighteen years at the event. Despite his results, De Coster felt neglected by the lack of support from the ČZ factory.

Before the 1970 season, The Suzuki racing team hired the ČZ team's top two riders in the 250cc class, Joël Robert and Sylvain Geboers. To offset this loss, the ČZ team moved De Coster to the 250cc class for 1970, which would mark the beginning of De Coster's career-long battle with his arch-rival Heikki Mikkola. Suzuki teammates Robert and Geboers finished first and second in the 250cc world championship with De Coster coming in third place, just 1 point ahead of Mikkola.

Move to the Suzuki team After the 1970 season, De Coster made the decision to leave the ČZ team due to their continued lack of support. His main competition in 1971 came from Paul Friedrichs riding for ČZ and Bengt Åberg on a Husqvarna and the Maico team of Åke Jonsson and Adolf Weil. Going into the final race of the season, Jonsson held a slight points lead over De Coster. While leading the race, the spark plug on Jonnson's motorcycle came loose, allowing DeCoster to pass him for the victory and the 1971 World Championship.

With no weight limit rules imposed by the FIM, Suzuki and De Coster were able to develop extremely lightweight motorcycles for the 1972 season. De Coster led the 500cc World Championship from start to finish, winning six of twelve Grand Prix races to clinch the title with two races remaining on the schedule.

De Coster's defense of the 500cc world championship was dealt a setback when, the FIM announced a new motorcycle minimum weight limit of 209 pounds just before the start of the 1973 season. European motorcycle manufacturers competing in the championship complained to the FIM that Suzuki was spending millions of dollars to build lightweight motorcycles that the smaller European manufacturers found impossible to compete with. Their frustration at their perceived unfair treatment led to a lapse in support and, Suzuki team riders De Coster and Sylvain Geboers then took matters into their own hands by modifying their motorcycle's frames and developed new rear suspension.

Mikkola rivalry Suzuki provided De Coster' motorcycles with new engines and an improved suspension system for the 1974 FIM Motocross World Championship season however, the team suffered from poor reliability as they struggled through development issues on the new motorcycles. Mikkola won the first four Grand Prix races of the season before, De Coster was able to win the Czechoslovak Grand Prix.

Mikkola missed the German Grand Prix due to injuries suffered in practice, allowing De Coster to narrow Mikkola's lead in the championship to 10 points going into the final two events of the season, meaning that De Coster would have to win three of the last four motos to secure his fourth consecutive 500cc world championship.

Wolsink took the lead at the start of the first race while Mikkola and De Coster battled their way to the front of the pack. De Coster was magnanimous in defeat stating that, Mikkola deserved to win the world championship.

De Coster and Suzuki returned with the same motorcycle for the 1975 season however, after a year of development work, the bike was more balanced and reliable. The Husqvarna team asked Mikkola to switch to the 250cc world championship in 1976, leaving De Coster to battle his Suzuki teammate Wolsink for the 500cc championship. Wolsink had seven moto victories against the nine victories by De Coster meaning that, both riders had a chance to win the championship going into the final race of the year in Luxembourg where, De Coster secured enough points to claim his fifth 500cc world championship. He also won a third consecutive Trans-AMA motocross series championship in the United States.

De Coster's rival Mikkola returned to the 500cc class for the 1977 FIM Motocross World Championship season, this time as a Yamaha factory team rider. At the time, De Coster said of Hannah, "Hannah's good, but he also thinks he's good, which is something that he shouldn't do. At least not until he has more experience to go along with it." He did not want to return to America to compete in the 1978 Trans-AMA Series, however he was contractually obligated by Suzuki to defend his Trans-AMA Series championship. He won five 500cc motocross world titles (1971-1973, 1975-1976) and ten Belgian motocross national championships (1962-1964, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1974-1977). He was also the top individual points scorer at the Trophée des Nations events in 1972, 1973, 1976 and 1977. De Coster was a four-time winner of the Trans-AMA motocross series in the United States. First held in 1947, the Namur circuit was known as the Monaco of the motocross grand prix circuit in reference to the prestigious Formula One race.

Awards De Coster was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994, becoming only the seventh motorcyclist in the Hall. In 1999, he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.