AMA and USAC champion Joe Leonard, 1932-2017
Joe Leonard, in his final appearance at Indy in 1973. Photos courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Joe Leonard was equally fast on two wheels and four, capturing American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) championships in 1954, 1956 and 1957, before moving to United States Auto Club (USAC) competition in the early 1960s. Racing IndyCars, Leonard would make nine consecutive starts at the Indy 500, earning a pair of podiums, and would also go on to capture series championships in 1971 and 1972. In ill health in recent years, Leonard died in a nursing home on April 27, age 84.
Born in San Diego, California, Leonard began racing motorcycles as a teenager, later moving to San Francisco and San Jose to further his riding career. By age 21, he was racing in the AMA’s expert class, and in 1954, while riding for Tom Sifton’s Harley-Davidson dealership, captured the very first AMA Grand National Championship. In doing so, Leonard racked up wins in eight nationals, on road courses and dirt tracks of varying lengths, a single-season record that would stand until 1986. He’d repeat as the AMA champion in 1956 and 1957, earning a total of 27 national event wins including two at the Daytona 200, three at the Laconia Classic and seven at the Peoria TT.
Leonard made the transition from two wheels to four at the end of the 1961 racing season, and by 1964 was running a partial season in the USAC Championship, which then included races on both paved and dirt tracks. His first start in the Indianapolis 500 came in 1965, driving the number 29 Halibrand-Ford for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers (AAR). Leonard started from the ninth row on the grid, and his day would end with an oil leak after completing just 27 of the race’s 200 laps. Later in the season, at the Milwaukee Mile, Leonard would give the AAR team its very first IndyCar victory.
Leonard driving the pole-sitting Lotus 56 turbine in 1968.
He’d return to the Indy 500 every May through 1973, running for a variety of teams and owners that also included A.J. Foyt, Andy Granatelli, and Parnelli Jones. Leonard would finish on the podium in 1967 (driving for A.J. Foyt) and 1972 (driving for Parnelli Jones), but his best-known performance came in 1968, when he qualified the number 60 STP Granatelli Lotus 56 turbine car on pole, setting a pair of track records (for one and four laps) in the process. Leonard would lead 31 laps of the race, and with 10 laps remaining, it seemed the Indy 500 win was his. Following a restart on lap 192, disaster struck when the fuel pump shaft on Leonard’s car (and that of his teammate, Art Pollard) snapped, leaving him out of the points in 12th place.
In 1971 and 1972, Leonard earned back-to-back USAC Championships, besting his Vel’s Parnelli Jones teammates Al Unser and Mario Andretti. The 1973 season was a struggle for Leonard, who ultimately finished 15th in points, but his 1974 season, and ultimately his IndyCar career, ended in a crash during the opening race at the Ontario Motor Speedway in California. After a year of rehabilitation, Leonard attempted a comeback for the 1975 season, but proved unable to pass his USAC physical.
For his demonstrated ability on two wheels and four, Leonard was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1991, the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.