R.I.P Jeff Smith, a two-time FIM 500cc Motocross World Champion on a BSA. After legally immigrating to the United States, Smith was the Executive Director of AHRMA and also served on the AMA Board of Directors.
More, from a post on the Just Beezas Facebook page made by John Moss Robinson:
Jeffrey Vincent Smith MBE, born in Colne, Lancashire, England on 14th October 1934, passed away peacefully at Marshfield Clinic Hospital in Weston, Wisconsin, after a short illness on Saturday 21st March 2026, aged 91 years.
More, from a post on Facebook made by Don Emde:
Jeff Smith 1934-2026. 2-time World Motocross Champion, 8-time Six-Days Gold Medalist, 2-time British Trials Champion, inspiration of the 441cc BSA Victor motorcycle, and later Can Ams, leader of the AHRMA vintage racing organization in America, creator of the BMW Battle of the Legends series in 1990s, husband, father, and friend to so many. Jeff Smith passed away Sunday at his home in Wisconsin at age 91.
I didn’t know Jeff Smith from his specialty as a motocross champion, we had first met at the motorcycle dealer shows in America in 1978. I was selling ads for Motorcycle Dealernews magazine, who were also the producers of shows, and I recall being at the Houston Astrodome where a dealer & consumer show was held in the adjoining convention center the days prior to the AMA National races in the Astrodome.
Jeff was running the Can-Am Motorcycle business then and I was in the show office when Jeff came in and reported that their van had been broken into overnight and the motorcycles and his display had been stolen. And this was the day he needed to get setup for the show which would open later that day.
Being from England and then living in Canada, Jeff didn’t even know what his options were to try to salvage some type of representation at the show. As I recall, I believe he had a Can-Am dealer in the area and he was able to arrange to have them bring over a couple of machines from the store and luckily had a big Can-Am banner he could hang up.
Other than letting him use the office phone, and maybe the loan of a roll of duct tape to hang the banner, I didn’t do all that much, but I stuck with him as he was getting everything worked out. Jeff knew that like him, I also had a history of racing for BSA, and there was some kinsman ship that I think stuck with us through the years.
Fast forward to 1991, I hadn’t seen Jeff for many years, but I knew he had been hired as Executive Director of the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA). I was in my office one day when the phone rang. I answered and it was Jeff Smith, saying hello as if I had just talked to him the day before.
He then went on to say, “Don, I’ve got an offer that you can’t refuse.” He went on to tell me how he had arranged an event for the upcoming Daytona Bike Week. There, hopefully, I along with nine other riders of days-gone-by would race identical factory-prepared BMWs in a kind of match race to be held during AHRMA’s vintage day at the Daytona International Speedway.
Jeff explained that the concept of the event was to showcase racers of the past who had all accomplished big things during their racing days.
For me, it had been over 15 tranquil years since I had hung up my racing leathers, but in just a matter of a few days, Jeff had me and nine others signed up for his new program and the BMW Battle of the Legends was born. We would go on from the debut at Daytona in March of 1992 to compete at two different race tracks each year through 1996.
After Jeff retired from AHRMA in 1999, I didn’t see him much, but did make contact with his daughter Christine in 2018 to obtain a copy of the wonderful 464-page biography, “Jeff Smith. Trials Master, Motocross Maestro,” written by Ian Berry. Jeff kindly inscribed it to me.
When I heard the news on Sunday that Jeff had passed away, my first thoughts were about how he quickly sold me on the idea of getting back into a racing series after not riding a motorcycle at or more than 100 miles per hour then for more than 15 years. There was no money to be won, or championships to add to my racing resume. But Jeff explained why the then-growing vintage motorcycle hobby was becoming so popular. It was a chance to remember my years of racing when I was just a teenager and to feel young again with the personal drive to be at the front of the pack, with race fans cheering me on. As it turned, despite some challenging events, Jeff was right.
Not only did I compete in every one the Legends races, but BMW asked me to write and publish a book about the BMW Battle of the Legends series. It became just my second book after publishing the Daytona 200 history.
What a great life Jeff had. He was humbler than he needed to be. I don’t recall him ever talking about himself. But others did. People like Torsten Hallman who said, “He was the only rider I ever knew who would never admit defeat until the checkered flag had fallen. As far as he was concerned, every race was a race to the finish, and in grands prix nothing else mattered.”
Godspeed Jeff. The checkered flag of life has now fallen, and you won.
