Rick Hocking Passes

Rick Hocking, a four-time AMA Grand National race winner, died on Tuesday. He was 58.

Hocking, originally from Fremont, California, was already an indoor short track racing champion when he became a rookie expert in 1974. That rookie season Hocking quickly established himself as one of the best up-and-coming motorcycle racers in the nation.

In spite of being considered a short track and TT specialist, Hocking scored his first AMA National win on the Golden Gates Fields Mile in Albany, California, on September 29, 1974. Fellow Yamaha rider Kenny Roberts, who battled Hocking for the win in Albany, remembered the race came down to the wire.

"It was Rick and I and one other rider [Rex Beauchamp] battling down to the last lap," Roberts said. "It was a really rough track and Rick was really good on those. It came down to the last turn and it was going to be one of the three of us and Rick came out on top."

In a brilliant encore, Hocking went on to win the final national of 1974 on the Ascot Park Half-Mile, in Gardena, California, a track he'd ridden dozens of times as an amateur during the regular Friday night program. It was a spectacular end to the season. He finished ninth in the final AMA Grand National standings and was considered one of the future stars of the sport.

Hocking went on to win two more Nationals, the Houston TT in 1976, and the Santa Fe Speedway Short Track National in Hinsdale, Illinois, in 1979. Amazingly in just four National wins Hocking was able to earn the flat track Slam - winning on all four types of dirt track racing venues.

In all Hocking finished inside the top 10 in the final Grand National standings three times, with his best ranking of eighth in 1979. He earned nine national podium finishes. All of his wins came with Yamaha. He ran national number 13 most of his career.

Hocking was born on November 25, 1952, in Placerville, California. As a youth he was a rodeo rider before turning to motorcycle racing in the late 1960s. Hocking raced Grand Nationals through the early 1980s and came back to the sport doing vintage events in recent years.

"Rick was always one of those guys you could count on at Houston and the races at Ascot," Roberts remembered. "He was probably one of the best indoor short track riders I ever saw. And when I saw him at some of the reunion races he was getting older, but not any slower. He just loved to race motorcycles."

Roberts said one of the things people may not know about Hocking, was that he was the rider primarily responsible for developing the infamous Yamaha TZ700 flat track bike that Roberts won on at the Indy Mile in 1975.

"Rick work for Doug Schwerma at Champion Racing Frames and that's who built that TZ flat tracker," Roberts explained. "Rick rode that thing at Ascot developing the bike before I ever got on it."

Roberts went on to say he was saddened by the news of Hocking's passing.

"Rick was one of those guys you got to know and be friends with at the races," Roberts said. "He always seemed to be having fun. It's a real shock to hear he's gone. My buddies and I were just talking about him and we figured he was one of those guys who would out last us all."

Family could not be reached yet, but as more details come in we will make updates.