Who Was the Greatest? The Stats Show…

I’ve ranked the Top 100 all-time riders; but included every rider who ever had a national or regional win to my knowledge (with some exceptions)… for a total of 170 listed. 

 

Riders in bold are HOFers; riders in italics are active.

 

The list is made up of various categories with a point value (+/-) assigned to it, as follows:

 

Titles/Wins/Runner-Up

• Each AMA National series (incl. Inter &Trans-AMA/Trans-USA) title counts as +1 point. 

• Each AMA National win counts as +.1 point. 

• Each AMA Regional SX series title counts as +.5 point and

• Each AMA Regional SX win counts as +.05 point

• Big wins (Daytona, LA Coliseum (72-82), any USGP and US Open) count as +.5 each. 

• Every runner-up finish in a National series count as +.5 for each.

 

Bonuses

Certain accomplishments garner bonus points. Some more than others. The highest valued are:

(1)  having a perfect season by winning all motos or main events;

(2) winning multiple national titles in one calendar year; and

(3)  AMA Athlete of the Year award.

Each of these counts as +1 point each.

 

Lesser valued accomplishments include:

(4) defend a national title = +.5 point each

(5)  Rookie of the Year award = +.25 point

 

Penalties

Certain career stats also get you penalties which I thought was necessary to even the tables and let the very best accomplishments speak the loudest. Here are the three penalty categories with different values:

 

(1) Specialist– more than a 2 to 1 ratio in wins from SX to MX (or vice versa) OR more than a 2 to 1 ratio from the 125/Lites/250 class to the 250/MX/450 class (but not vice versa) = -.5 point

(2) Not winning any premier SX or MX titles (i.e. MXL titles do not count) = -.5 point

(3) Shutout- not having any wins in premier SX and/or MX (i.e. MXL wins do not count) = -.5 point each

 

EXAMPLE– RC’s points

 

15 national titles(x 1) =                                  15   pts

150 national wins(x .1) =                    15   pts

1 regional title(x.5)/12 wins(x.05)=    1.1  pts

5 Daytona wins (x .5) =                                 2.5  pts

3 US Open wins (x .5) =                      1.5  pts

1 runner-up finish =                             .5 pt

2 perfect seasons (x 1) =                     2     pts

5 multi-title years (x 1) =                    5     pts

5 Athlete of the year (x 1) =               5     pts

11 title defenses (x .5) =                      5.5   pts

1 Rookie of Year (x .25) =                  .25 pt

Specialist penalty (x .5)=                    -.5   pt.

 

                                    TOTAL          52.85

Notes: misc stuff

 

• I decided to leave off Motocross des Nations stats because if would be unfair to foreign riders and I wanted this ranking to be an AMA thing, not an American thing. 

• I left off riders who won world titles because even though it definitely helped Lackey, LaPorte and Schmit get into the Hall of Fame, to include world titles would have changed the whole complexion of the rankings and elevated a lot of foreign riders who didn’t necessarily do very well in their AMA careers. As a result, the American World Champs are further down the list.

• I did not count top American in the 1970 and 71 Trans-AMA series as a national title.

• I did not give Steve Wise credit for his AMA Athlete of the Year award because it happened after he retired from motocross.

• I left out foreign riders whose only win(s) came in the Trans-AMA/Inter-AMA series:

 Ake Jonsson (SWE- 9 wins)