BD,
Victory Motorcycles are pleased to invite you to our new model product launch, including the all new Cross Roads and Cross Country. The launch will be held at the Hyatt Coolum on the Sunshine Coast We ask that you bring your own riding gear.
We have a great few days planned which will include the following:
Tuesday:
- Arrive at Brisbane
- Transport to Hyatt Coolum
- Launch and Dinner
Wednesday:
- Riding through the Sunshine Coast Hinterland
- Lou Martin will be in attendance for Photography
- Lunch then more riding
- Back to the Hyatt
- Dinner
Thursday Morning:
- Transport back to Brisbane
- Flight Home
Special Guest:
Mark Blackwell V.P Motorcycles Polaris Industries
There will be opportunities for one on one interviews with Mark.
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What do I ask Mr Blackwell?
What's Arlen Ness like??
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MARK BLACKWELL – Member of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame
Vice President Motorcycles - Polaris Industries Inc.
Mark Blackwell was a leading rider in the early days of motocross in the United
States during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He won the 1971 American
500cc Motocross title (a predecessor of today’s AMA National Motocross
Championship) by being the top-scoring American in the Trans-AMA Series. He
also scored a victory in the 500cc motocross class at Daytona International
Speedway in 1972. Blackwell was one of the first American riders to compete in
the Motocross World Championships during the early 1970s. Perhaps even
more influential than his racing exploits were Blackwell’s contributions as a
manager in companies such as Suzuki, Husqvarna and currently, Victory
Motorcycles.
Blackwell was born in Southern California on June 15, 1953. He grew up at a time when a new
age of motorcycling in America was emerging. As a teen, his parents agreed to let Blackwell get
a Honda 50 as long as he kept his grades up. He began racing informally with friends and
eventually moved into sanctioned flat-track, TT and scrambles racing. Unlike most racers, who
were led to racing by their fathers, Blackwell’s racing led his father, Jack, to become a racer as
well.
By the late 1960s, motocross was about to arrive in America and Blackwell would become one of
this country’s earliest stars. Early in his professional career, Blackwell rode Yamahas and then
was contracted to ride for CZ. In 1970, Edison Dye convinced Blackwell to ride for Swedish
maker Husqvarna. During the summer of 1970,
Blackwell went to Sweden to train with the
factory Husqvarna riders. To pay for his stay in
Sweden, he worked as chase driver for one of
Dye’s European motorcycling tour groups — all
of this at the age of 17.
Upon his return to America in 1971, he raced in
the Trans-AMA Series, which pitted the top
European riders against America’s best. The
Europeans were so dominant at this stage of
the series that a separate championship was
held within the Trans-AMA Series for the top-
scoring Americans. Blackwell had a slew of
consistent finishes and beat out Brad Lackey by a single point to win the American rider portion
of the Trans-AMA Series.
In 1972, Blackwell dominated the Florida Series – including winning the 500cc class in the
prestigious Daytona Motocross – before spending the majority of that season racing in
international motocross events in Europe and was competing full-time on the Grand Prix circuit.
He went on to score a podium finish in an international race in Germany, which gained him a lot
of attention among hardcore motocross fans in America. Everything was starting to fall into place
for Blackwell when he suffered a freak injury at a GP in Luxemburg.
"It was a muddy race and I was running in the top five," Blackwell remembers. "I couldn’t see so I
put my visor down and got hit by a rock in the eye."
Blackwell ended up spending two weeks in a hospital and
temporarily lost vision in his left eye. His vision eventually
came back and he returned to racing, but he never regained
the momentum he’d built before the injury. The eye injury led
to an initially undiagnosed cataract, which Blackwell felt led to
a slew of crashes and resulting injuries.
Though Blackwell continued racing primarily in select U.S.
events through 1975, he began to transition to the business
side of the industry. He taught at a popular motocross training
school for Suzuki and did product development for a number of
companies, including Goodyear Tyres, Scott Goggles and
Boots and Fox Racing. During this time, Blackwell began
attending college at night to earn his degree.
Suzuki asked Blackwell to advise the company's struggling
U.S. motocross team in 1977, and by 1978 he was asked to
take over as team manager. Under Blackwell’s guidance, the
Suzuki team made a dramatic turnaround to become the most successful factory team in AMA
Motocross and Supercross racing during the early 1980s, with riders such as Mark Barnett,
Danny LaPorte and Kent Howerton.
In 1981, Blackwell left Suzuki on friendly terms for a few years to take on an exciting opportunity
at Husqvarna, the company he’d first worked for as a teenager. He started as product manager
and worked his way up to Vice President of Marketing. Blackwell was a major contributor to
returning Husqvarna’s U.S. motorcycling division to profitability.
In 1986, Blackwell returned to Suzuki as advertising manager and eventually became the top
American employee of the company. Under Blackwell’s guidance, Suzuki merged its struggling
marine division into the motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle division and helped turn that segment
of the business around. All during this time, Blackwell continued his education, achieving his
MBA from Pepperdine University in the Presidential/Key Executive program, graduating in 1987.
In 1992, snowmobile maker Arctic Cat approached Blackwell to join the company. Blackwell felt
he had advanced as far as he could with a Japanese company and took the opportunity to go to
work for a publicly held American company as Vice President of Sales & Marketing, including
responsibility for launching the ATV business. At Arctic Cat, he joined a company that was doing
about $150 million in sales annually, and during his time there running the ATV business, the
company grew to over $500 million in sales.
In 2000, Blackwell became General Manager of Victory Motorcycles and is now Vice President
of Motorcycles - Polaris Industries Inc. He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000.
"For me, it was a chance to truly run a business," Blackwell said. "I also came back to
motorcycling, the industry I loved and knew so well."
Blackwell has been instrumental in the strong growth of Victory Motorcycles in the United States,
the significant product developments with Victory over the past ten years, along with the global
launch of Victory into markets such as Europe, Britain and currently Australia and New Zealand.
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Originally Posted by Big Dave
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