JOEL ROBERT
He lived hard and he raced hard. CB pays tribute to the legendary Belgian who was one of the all-time greats of motocross
CB pays tribute to the recentlydeparted motocross legend
One of motocross’s biggest characters – and one of its most successful riders – Joel Robert died on January 13 this year. He was 77 years old and had been suffering ill health for some time before he passed away at his home in Charleroi, Belgium. Those are the stark facts, but what’s more important about Robert is not the manner of his death, but the way he lived his life – flat-out, exactly the same way as he rode when he first announced himself on the world championship circuit in 1962.
Robert’s first couple of seasons on the international stage might have been relatively uneventful in terms of wins, but they showcased his easy, fluid style on a bike, honed by a couple of years on a home-converted Zundapp road bike and a Greeves in Belgian domestic races. His first race win (on the Zundapp) came in his first season and, by the start of 1961, he had gained his expert licence and finished second in the Belgian championship on his 250 Greeves. It was a hint of what was to come. The following season, Joel clinched the Belgian championship and contested a number of GPS, his best result being a fourth in Switzerland. He was just 18 years old. In 1963, the precocious Robert tied up another Belgian title and contested the entire GP season. At the end of the year, the Belgian CZ importer announced that Joel would be CZ mounted for the 1964 GP season, with a works machine from the factory. Things were starting to happen.
By the end of that year, Robert had added another Belgian title to his tally – and, astonishingly, recorded an impressive nine GP wins on the way to becoming the youngest ever Motocross World Champion at the time, at the age of 20.
He soon realised the competition wasn’t about to let him have it all his own way, though. In 1965, 1966 and 1967, despite winning a number of GPS, Joel had to settle for second place on the world stage – to Viktor Arbekov in 1965 and then twice to Torsten Hallman. But he proved resilient as well as supremely talented, bouncing back to win the world 250 crown for a second time in 1968 and going on to complete his hat-trick of titles in 1969. It was time for a new challenge.
That came in the shape of a change of mount for the 1970 season. Motocross was gaining in popularity worldwide and the Japanese factories had started to sit up and take notice. At the forefront of all this was Suzuki. The factory signed reigning champ Robert and fellow Belgian Sylvain Geboers to contest the 250cc championship and, at the end of an epic season (see CB October 2020), Joel edged out his team-mate to rack up GP title number four. Significantly, it was the first world title for a Japanese factory – and a sign of what was to follow.
There was more to come from the Belgian. He dominated the 250 title chase for the next two years for Suzuki, bringing his tally of GP titles to an unprecedented six. In the end, it took a knee injury at his home GP in 1972 to halt Robert’s march. Over the following three seasons, increasingly troubled by his knee, the best Joel could manage was ninth in the series in 1975 and Suzuki parted company with their first motocross world champion. Robert struggled on for another season, this time aboard an Austrian Puch, but by then the fire had gone out. At the end of the season, he retired from racing. It was the end of a glorious era. Along the way, Robert had become one of the most recognisable and popular faces of motocross. His early involvement with the development of the sport in America – he raced in both Edison Dye’s Inter-am tours and the later Transama series – undoubtedly helped the phenomenal upsurge of interest in motocross in the USA during the ’70s. Even when he retired from riding, Joel Robert wasn’t done with motocross. He went into team management and promoting the sport he loved, steering the Belgian team to victories in the 1997 and 1998 Motocross des Nations.
Sure, he won an incredible six world titles and 50 GPS – a record that would stand for over 30 years until fellow countryman Stefan Everts clinched his seventh of an eventual 10 world titles –but in the end, Joel Robert was about much more than just the bare statistics. He set the benchmark in an ultra-competitive era, packed with talented, brave and aggressive riders – and one in which motocross technology was still in its relative infancy.
He did it the hard way, too. His own way. He enjoyed a drink and a cigarette – even on race weekends – and gave the impression that he found training more of a chore than a pleasure. But get him on a bike on race day and it was obvious that Joel Robert was one of the greats of the sport. Shine on, Joel.