Photos: Rodney Smith Collection
Kinney Jones

A young Rodney Smith, circa 1977.

hen it comes to motorcycle racing, youth is almost always a factor. Particularly in the off-road field where riders endure the energy-sapping obstacles of rocks, woods, mud, hills, river crossings, heat and dust for hours on end. But recently youth hasn’t always had the upper hand. Thirtysomething Mike LaRocco won a Supercross this year and thirtysomething Randy Hawkins took his first overall National Enduro in half a decade in 2004. And maybe the most inspiring of all is 40-year-old Rodney Smith who has already won five AMA Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) races this year and is leading the title chase for his fifth GNCC Championship.
     Rodney Smith is one of the most prolific champions in all of motorcycle racing. Just look at
what he has accomplished so far— 12 AMA off-road titles including four GNCC Championships, three AMA National Hare Scrambles Championships and five AMA
National Reliability Enduro Championships (aka “The Qualifier Series”). But the list doesn’t end there.
     Smith also holds five Brazilian National Motocross titles, six International Six Days Enduro
(ISDE) Gold Medals (he’s been “Top American” twice). He also finished seventh in the AMA
National Motocross Series in the early 1980s and won a handful of FIM World Motocross
Championship events on his way to finishing third in that series in 1988. And now, in 2004, Smith has won five of ten GNCC races in the current season and is leading the points in the hunt for another title.
     Smith began his incredible career trail-riding with his family in Northern California. His natural skills were evident and he was encouraged to try racing. By the time he was 16-years-old he was a top pro at the local tracks and earned a support ride from Yamaha after winning the Golden State Series. Smith even missed his high school graduation to race his first AMA National motocross in Colorado. In 1984 he finished seventh in the AMA 125cc Nationals.
Think about that for a minute— 1984 was 20 years ago! The guys racing then, like O’Mara, Leichein, Johnson, Ward and Bailey all retired a long, long time ago.
     Smith almost certainly would’ve been a factory rider for one of the big four in the AMA National Motocross and Supercross Series, but the best offer he got didn’t come from the factories. The major importer of motorcycles into Brazil happened to see Smith finish third at one of the AMA Nationals and was impressed. He asked Smith to come to Brazil and
race for the National motocross championship down there. “The money was better then any offers I had from the U.S.,” says Smith. “Plus they gave me a house to live in, a gym, bikes, mechanic—all the perks of a full factory ride. So I took it and ended up winning five
championships in Brazil.”
     Smith was so popular in Brazil that he was featured in Playboy magazine as the third most famous sports star in that country. The other two were Formula One Champion Ayrton Senna and soccer great Pele.

     In 1986 the FIM World Motocross Championships (then known as “The GP’s”) came to South America and Smith was asked to step up and represent his adopted continent. He stunned the motocross world when he finished third in the Brazilian 250cc Grand Prix. Asked to go for a Worl Championship in 1987, Smith won GP’s in Brazil, Argentina and France, eventually finishing third in the title chase.
     He then became part of the legendary Chesterfield Suzuki GP Team and moved to Italy. But he was burnt-out by 1989. “Racing had always been fun for me,” says Smith. “But the whole atmosphere of the GP’s was work. All I did was train, ride, test, train, ride test, then race. There was no other life. In Brazil, I did all those same things, but had a social life too. The racing was just as serious, but was just more fun.”
     Smith returned to California intent on retiring from racing and getting a normal job. “I didn’t even
want to look at a motorcycle for a while,” he recalls. “But then I just missed riding. So I started trail riding
with friends again. I stayed away from motocross, but then I entered the Virginia City Grand Prix and won it.”
     Smith doesn’t mention that a lot of the top American off-road racers were entered because there
was a substantial purse as well as a bounty offered to anyone who beat Larry Roeseler who had dominated the event for years. The bounty was two large ingots of pure silver.
      “I still have the silver bars,” he says. “Every now and then I go online and check their value. After Virginia City I got a call from American Suzuki and we talked about me joining their off-road team.”
     Smith was reluctant at first to join another team. Still feeling the hangover from his motocross racing
burn-out he was adamant with Team Suzuki Off-Road Manager Mike Webb that he was only going
to “race for fun.”
     And that is how Smith has kept it for more than ten years (and 12 championships). Now at 40, he is
still keeping it fun.
     “The keys to his success are a change in routine,” says Webb. “Keeping it fun and setting new goals. When Rodney began to burn out from moto, he switched to offroad. It was a breath of fresh air and a new motivation for his goals. All new venues, new competition, new rules, all made it a brand-new
experience from moto. He has learned to enjoy what he is doing for a living, whether it is training or takes his dogs and runs in the hills. When he has to cycle, it’s with buddies mountain biking. When he motos, he pounds out serious laps, but he also bumps and jumps with his friends or just plays on a certain timing section trying to put different combos together. And now at this stage of his off-road career, a change of mechanic, or in the case of the new RM250 we are now racing, a change of bike are themotivating factors for Rodney.”

     By becoming an off-road racer, Smith reinvented himself and his lifestyle. He immediately started
winning titles, at first focusing on the ISDE Qualifiers and the AMA National Hare Scrambles Series.
     “I was one of the first guys to move from moto to off-road,” Smith remembers. “I was almost looked upon as some sort of cheat or cherry picker. When I started winning GNCC races some people were upset because I was from California and that series was always dominated by easterners. Californians weren’t supposed to be able to ride fast through the mud and trees or the roots and rocks. Me, I was just having fun. I’ve been an off-road rider all my life. That’s how I started riding and off-road is still what I do for fun.”
     Smith responded to the eastern prejudice by winning the GNCC Championship four times—1998,
1999, 2001, 2002—and painting a California flag on his helmet. Other motocrossers have made the switch to off-road and succeeded and many more will likely follow. Recently, Ryan Hughes entered a couple of GNCC events and was impressed by the skill and endurance required. “Those guys are real men,” said Hughes, who is considered the “Iron Man of Motocross” himself. “They race for three hours at top speed through the gnarliest possible terrain. If you lose focus for a second you clip a tree or a rock and you’re down. It’s mental and physical for three hours while motocross is physical for 20 minutes plus two laps.”
     These days, Smith is getting more attention from the press and fans then ever before, largely because he is once again winning races in what is considered the toughest, most competitive series in the U.S.—the GNCC Series. And, as the points leader for his potential fifth GNCC Championship, it’s interesting to note that most of the men trying to beat him are half his age.
     “Theoretically, I could be Jason’s father,” says Smith of Jason Raines, the rider currently second in the
title chase. “Being 40 doesn’t bother me. It’s just a number, like being 30 or 35 or 25 is just a number. But I’m stoked that now I can race in the senior class.”
     What inspires a man who has had so much success to keep winning?
     “Well, first of all,” says Smith, “winning is a lot more fun than losing. Beyond that I just keep reinventing
myself. Look at (Jean Michael) Bayle. When he quit motocross to go road racing everyone thought he was crazy, but he was just looking for new goals, getting into a whole new world and challenge. The people at my local tracks (where Rodney often trains) all root for me and inspire me. People I don’t even know. My goal is to win for all those people.”
     “Being in shape and training have gotten easier as I get older, and in a sport like mine I think I’ve got an
advantage. The heat and distance don’t bother me. Injuries are a problem because I can’t heal quickly,
but I’m stronger now.”
     Some people assume that Smith’s middle-age success is the case of“age and treachery overcoming
youth and inexperience.” But he claims no special knowledge.
     “I’m not smarter than any of those guys, they’re probably all smarter than I am,” he says. “But by now I’m more experienced and I’ve learned to analyze each race and the title chase better as I go. I analyze each week. I’ve been through it so many times now that I can recognize problems before they occur. Even during a race, when something goes wrong it almost certainly has happened to me before and I already know what steps to take to overcome it.”
     With all that experience, Smith still keeps looking forward. When asked who the toughest guys he ever raced against were he said, “The guys in the GNCC Series I’ll be racing next week.” When pressed, though, he admitted, “Scott Summers (five-time GNCC Champion) and Scott Plessenger (two-time GNCC Champion). Those guys were the total package. Training, skills, determination, everything. The GNCC Series is definitely the top of the pyramid in America for off-road. It is without a doubt the toughest series to win and those guys won it more than once. Just winning the second title is always the hardest—just ask
Barry Hawk.”
     For the future Smith might reinvent himself again. Recently he tested a Supermoto machine with Kevin Schwantz (1993 FIM Road Racing World Champion). Smith’s lap times were comparable to the ex-World Champs and Suzuki is interested in fielding a team that might include him.
     “I’m definitely thinking about it,” says Rodney, who might find in the emerging sport yet another new
way to reinvent himself. “Supermoto looks like a lot of fun.”
     So keep looking for Rodney to show up in new places and races—still having fun—no matter his age.

Smith battles the mud in Daytona.