Mert Lawwill racing his factory Harley-Davidson in 1969, the year he won the title. (Cycle News Photo Collection)
The 1969 AMA National Championship season was one of the most interesting in the long history of the championship. Rules changes saw the British brands, now on par in displacement versus Harley-Davidson, the foreign brands went from winning just five nationals in 1968, to 13 nationals in ’69. Yet, in spite of the parity between makers, it was still a Harley-Davidson factory rider Mert Lawwill breaking through to win the championship.
Motocross was coming, but was yet to earn national championship status, so the AMA Grand National Champion was still the only major American national championship and garnered the lion’s share of the coverage, fan attention and backing by the manufacturers.
That year the Grand Nationals also witnessed a total of six different rides leading the series, with swapping atop the point standings nearly every weekend until the final few rounds.
The Japanese teams were beginning to really come into play at the road races. Yamaha and Suzuki fielding strong factory and independent teams.
The title victory for Lawwill also had to be considered a surprise. Pre-season prognosticators had the ’69 series coming down to Triumph’s Gary Nixon (the defending champ) and Bart Markel, Fred Nix or perhaps Cal Rayborn from Harley-Davidson. But it was Lawwill who ultimately proved to be in many ways, the second-coming of Dick Mann. Not flashy, but an all-around talent who was a contender on any of the five types of races (Miles, Half-Miles, TTs, Short Tracks and Road Races) that were part of the AMA Grand National Championship.
In what was called at the time, the most important rules change in AMA history, in November of 1968 the AMA’s Competition Committee voted to allow overhead valve machines (previously restricted to 500cc) to be allowed the same 750cc displacement of the side valve bikes (Harley KRs). The 500cc restriction (which clumped in two-strokes) remained on road racing machines for one more year, but the rules change for flat tracks was met with celebration by most racing fans as well as British makers, who always felt AMA competition rules were controlled by Harley-Davidson.
The series opened early, on Feb. 7 with the Houston Short Track National in the Astrodome. Ronnie Rall’s main Bultaco (a rigid frame) broke a crank in practice, so his team hurriedly readied his backup bike, a Sherpa S with full suspension. Rall started mid-pack, but the track became progressively bumpier and his full suspension machine proved the hot setup, while most other riders were bouncing around on rigid frames.
The victory marked the first of six AMA Nationals Bultaco would win. It was also the first national win by a two-stroke.
Race promoters Pace brilliantly realized they could expand their Astrodome event into a two-night affair by doing a TT race. Being the first indoor national TT, fans were excited and 26,000 showed up to watch Skip Van Leeuwen race his 650cc twin-cylinder Triumph to victory over the little Harley-Davidson 350cc Sprint ridden by rookie Mark Brelsford.
Rall held the championship lead for one day before Van Leeuwen took it over after his TT win.
The next round was Daytona, delayed a week by rain. The two-stroke Japanese bikes dominated qualifying, but in the race most of the fast two-strokes broke and Harley-Davidson’s Cal Rayborn won the race for the second-consecutive year, and becoming the third rider to lead the championship.
The Cumberland (Md.) Half-Mile in May was the first showdown between the new 750cc overhead cams Brit bikes and the venerable Harley KR750. It was Harley’s Lawwill getting a great start one the single-line grooved track and holding off the British machines of Gene Romero (Triumph) and Dick Mann (BSA).
At the Terre Haute Half-Mile Bart Markel experimented by changing the timing on his KR so that both cylinder fired at the same time. It proved to be advantageous on the slick, hard-clay track and the “Twingle” carried Markel to victory.
Triumph and BSA introduced their three-cylinder models for the next round, the first mile of the season in Nazareth, Pa. The sounds coming from the Triples were something fans had never heard before. Triumph felt they were ready, having rented the track for testing a couple of weeks before the national. In the end, mile specialist Nix and his proven Harley KR outdid the Triumph Trident of Nixon for the victory.
The next week at the Reading (Pa.) Half-Mile, Larry Palmgren scored his first national win and as a bonus his brother Chuck finished second, marking the first time brothers finished 1-2 in AMA National competition. It was also a Triumph sweep of the podium with Nixon in third.
Cushion track master Bart Markel won on the Louisville Half-Mile, not only taking over the series lead, but also coming to within a single victory of tying Joe Leonard on the all-time Grand National wins list.
Fred Nix surprised everyone with his road race victory in the rain at Loudon. Harley swept the rostrum with Rayborn and Mark Brelsford finishing second and third.
Rayborn took victory in one of the stranger tracks that ever held a national, the Heidelberg (Pa.) Mini Road Race. The track was a paved half-mile oval with a paved short-track in the middle and they configured a tiny road course out of it. The mini road race was not popular with riders or fans. Only 21 experts showed up for the national and reportedly less than 4000 fans. With the win Rayborn took back over the series lead.
Eddie Wirth won the very first Santa Fe TT National and then Lawwill won the Half-Mile in Columbus, Ohio.
It was big news when rookie expert Jim Rice won the San Jose Half Mile on his BSA over Nixon in July. Lawwill was third and took back the series lead.
Mark Brelsford scored his first national win in the Ascot TT National. It was a wild race of attrition with several leaders dropping out with mechanicals. Brelsford’s victory was the first for Harley-Davidson at the event. Rayorn once again took back the series lead from Lawwill by finishing fourth, while Lawwill’s bike broke.
Lawwill bounced back with a win the next week at the Castle Rock TT to take back the series lead, this time for good. A pall was cast over the event when the sad news of Fred Nix’s death, from a dune buggy accident, reached the crowd at Castle Rock.
Chuck Palmgren became the fifth first-time winner of the season with his Santa Rosa Mile victory.
A victory at the Indianapolis Road Race National and runner up at Peoria by Rayborn, combined with Lawwill missing the main at the Santa Fe Short Track, brought Rayborn to within five point of Lawwill in the points chase, but that was as close as it would get for the rest of the season.
Rayborn’s last best chance to catch Lawwill would come in the road race national at Sears Point. Rayborn was heavily favored to win and he led the race before his bike broke. Art Baumann gave Suzuki its first AMA Grand National win. Lawwill took fourth and opened up a massive lead in the championship with just three rounds remaining.
In late September, Lawwill clinched the 1969 championship with a sixth-place finish at the Oklahoma City Half-Mile. A week later he capped off his excellent year by winning the series finale, the Ascot Half-Mile. It was a culmination of years of hard work for Lawwill, who’d turned pro six years earlier.
Lawwill’s breakthrough in ‘69 proved to be his one and only national championship, but it was pivotal for the Idaho native. As a result of being the defending champ, in 1970 Bruce Brown focused on the No. 1 plate holder Lawwill while filming the influential film On Any Sunday. Lawwill would forever be immortalized for his part in the popular documentary.
