former 500cc Motocross World Champion Graham Noyce
Honda’s first ever 500cc Motocross World Champion was also the first Brit to win the class since Jeff Smith in 1965. Graham Noyce interrupts fettling his CR500 to tell how he did it
In 1976 Graham Noyce was a 19-year-old hopeful, battling to make an impact in motocross’s 500cc premier class. Those in the know recognised that this young privateer was fast and determined – but they didn’t know quite how fast and determined. At the British Grand Prix that year, they found out...
“I was on a bog-standard Maico,” says Graham, savouring a pint at a pub near his home in Hampshire. “We changed the gearing, but the engine was standard. It was fast, though – and I could ride it.” The world’s top motocross riders were soon to be in little doubt about that.
“I was third out of the gate, and got into second place behind Karsmakers [on the factory Honda]. A few laps later, just as we were going past the pits, I felt something whizz past me – it was his shock spring, which had broken. It could have been nasty, but it missed me and I had the lead.” The 30,000 strong crowd at Farleigh Castle promptly erupted, barely believing that a kid on a privateer bike was beating the factory superstars.
And Graham was a true privateer. That year, he’d set himself up to do GPS by buying a Transit – “with overdrive”, he proudly recalls – and headed off to Belgium with £20 in his back pocket to improve his sand riding. After learning from the likes of Sylvain Geboers, who finished in the top three of the 250cc world championship for five consecutive years, Graham ended up doing some big international races that paid start money, which helped to cover his costs. It was a far cry from the gilded life of the factory rider.
Back in the 1976 British GP, the star rider on Graham’s mind was five-time world champion Roger de Coster: “All the time I was leading, I was thinking: ‘Where’s Roger?’. I knew he’d be coming, so I just went flat out. My dad taught me never to look behind, so I didn’t, but as I was going up one loop I could glance across and see Roger behind, gaining.”
In those days, motocross GPS ran for 40 minutes plus two laps (it’s a mere 30 minutes now), so it was essential that riders knew how much longer they had to hold on to their raging 500cc two-strokes, so they could pace themselves. Unfortunately for Graham, his bike sponsor and partner in no end of shenanigans, Brian Goss, was the man in charge of his pit signals.
“I wanted basic information, but I didn’t get that,” recalls Graham, rolling his eyes. “Brian drew a dick and a pair of bollocks on the pit board. Thanks Brian. Great. I laughed for two laps, but I really could have done with some information. I desperately needed to know if I had 10 minutes to go or five...
“The crowd was going loopy – it was 25-deep in places – so I just had to go flat out. I could see Roger had stopped closing, but there was no way I was slowing down. Luckily someone grabbed the board off Brian and gave me a proper pit signal so I could pace myself a bit better and I got across the line first.”
This was the break Graham had been working towards since his parents bought him a Bantam for £5 when he was 10 – his dad had dabbled in motocross and thought Graham might enjoy it. “I had some fantastic times doing schoolboy motocross. My first race was at Reading, and we lied about my age because you were only allowed in the 125 races if you were 11. I got three third places, which wasn’t bad considering the Bantam was completely standard. I kept my helmet on all day, because I didn’t know when the next race was going to be – I had no idea what was going on. But I enjoyed it. I was hooked.”
Team Noyce went from there – his mum and dad encouraging and supporting him without ever crossing into pushy territory. “I had so much fun, and that doesn’t seem to happen as much these days. I think the problem is dads trying to get their kids to do what they couldn’t, and spending loads of money getting the big motorhomes. But if the kids don’t want to do it, it’s a waste of time. I see that so often. “School was out the window, but mum and dad seemed to understand that. They saw I really wanted to do motocross and supported me. All my school books had drawings of motorbikes on them and every report said: ‘Graham must try harder and concentrate’. I left when I was 15.”
By then Graham had progressed to a 125cc Rickman Zundapp his dad bought from Sammy Miller, who lived nearby. The bike helped him climb the schoolboy motocross ranks – he won the British Schoolboy Championship at 14 – but it also led to an important connection with the Rickman brothers, Don and Derek.
“We communicated with the Rickmans about parts, and I was leaving school and managed to get a job there as an apprentice in the tool room.” Recognising they had a talented rider on their hands, the brothers sponsored Graham by giving him a new Rickman Zundapp. But Graham had bigger plans. “I was desperate to do GPS, but it was expensive so I kept pestering Don about doing a GP. I had so much drive – I really wanted to succeed.”
The brothers upgraded him to a Rickman Montesa to compete in the adult classes, then a friend of the Rickmans bought him a 460 Husqvarna and Don made a frame for the bike. “That thing went well in the British championship, which is what got me noticed by Brian Goss [an ex-british
championship rider who also imported Maicos].”
The Goss-noyce partnership led to Graham doing GPS on a 125 Maico and then the mighty 490, which brings us back to that British GP victory in 1976 – it turned out to be an event that had a disproportionate influence on Graham’s career, because of those who witnessed it. “It was especially important because a lot of the Honda big cheeses were there – that was the first time they had the new factory bike out. That did me some favours.”
After a few more superb performances in 1976 – Graham was leading the world championship at one point – the Honda cheeses had seen enough. “I got a call asking me to ride for them next year. I thought about it, and explained that I’d had a fantastic time with the Maico that year, and I wanted to give it another year to see what happened. But I didn’t have a very good year in 1977 – I was there or thereabouts, but maybe I didn’t do enough work.
I had a lot of breakdowns, too.”
Despite Graham’s problems in 1977, Honda were still keen, and asked him to be one of their factory riders the following season. “I said yes. In those days you didn’t say: ‘I want this amount of money’, you were just pleased to get a bike with mechanics, a van and back-up. The money side of it was immaterial.” However, the problem was that Graham’s Honda mechanics were not very good. “We had real problems with them – they kept making mistakes. The chain came off in two GPS when I was leading, one after the other, and they couldn’t work out why. I didn’t poke my nose in, because that was their department, but I was really annoyed.
Then the throttle stuck. That was when I said: ‘This is not right’.”
In the end, Honda’s team boss Steve Whitelock took over from the mechanics and worked Graham’s bike himself. “After that, I got result after result. But I’d lost a lot of points. It was silly.” Graham ended up finishing the 1978 season in seventh place, with his friend Heikki Mikkola taking the championship.
Instead of getting him down, these two seasons of underperformance merely increased his determination.
Sitting chatting in the pub, he’s chatty and easy-going, but there’s an air of steely determination about him. Never underestimate a man who rode motocross GPS with a broken ankle – five times. Even now, it’s hard to imagine Graham backing down from anything, ever.
“I was determined to do better in 1979,” he says. “I did a lot of work on my fitness over that winter. I trained with the paratroopers in Aldershot, which was hard. There was me with my new trainers and there’s these poor old boys with their big boots, so no wonder I beat them in the runs. At the end of my time there, we had to go down a high zip wire thing. This massive bloke at the top was giving me instructions and kept telling me that I had to hang on tight, and I was thinking: ‘Yeah alright’, then he pushed me off and grabbed onto me, so I had him hanging off me the whole way. I didn’t do that again!”
Besides working on his fitness, Graham rode the Transama series of races in the States to stay sharp and managed not to injure himself in the process. “I was in good shape. I was ready for the season.”
Because Graham is talking fitness, I mention his reputation as a weapons-grade party animal, and wonder how this fitted into the regime of press-ups and five-mile runs. “My reputation as a party animal is exaggerated,” he says, before blatantly taking a deep slug of Stella Artois and then adding: “a little bit.” He smirks.
“I did drink a lot, but I trained hard, too. I’d be up at
GRAHAM NOYCE
‘GETTING IT OVER THE LINE WAS FANTASTIC. THE CROWDS WERE AMAZING, 30,000 PEOPLE GOING NUTS’