Harold Martin Lampkin (28 December 1950 – 2 April 2016) was an English professional
motorcycle competitor. He competed in a variety of off-road motorcycle events, but specialized in
observed trials competitions, winning the inaugural
FIM Trial World Championship
The FIM Trial World Championship and FIM X-Trial World Championship are the most prestigious motorcycle trials tournaments of the world, organised by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme. The outdoor championship is held since 1964 and ...
held in 1975.
In a genre of motorcycling competition that features balletic grace and acrobatic finesse, Lampkin was an iconoclast, using sheer momentum and physical strength to assault trials course sections. He died in 2016 of cancer.
Motorcycling career
The third son in a
Yorkshire motorcycling dynasty, Lampkin was raised in
Silsden, where he began riding motorcycles at an early age.
His older brothers
Arthur and Alan Lampkin were successful motorcycle racers and became members of the
BSA factory racing team in the 1960s.
In the early 1970s, Lampkin established himself as one of the top competitors in motorcycle trials, gaining the attention of Francisco Bultó, the owner of the
Bultaco motorcycle company. Bultó offered him a job as a member of the Bultaco factory trials team and, in 1973 he won the European trials championship as well as the British trials national championship.
The European championship was considered to be the world championship at the time, as the sport of trials had yet to develop outside of Europe.
In 1975, the European championship was upgraded to world championship status and Lampkin claimed the title to become the first-ever trials world champion.
He continued to experience success in the world championships until 1980, when the Bultaco factory began to experience financial troubles. Lampkin then joined the
SWM
swm (the Solbourne window manager) is an X Window System window manager developed by Tom LaStrange at Solbourne Computer in 1990. The most important innovation of swm was the introduction of the virtual desktop
In computing, a virtual ...
factory team until he retired from professional competition in 1982.
Besides his European and World Championship titles, Lampkin was also a four-time winner of the
Scott Trial (1977, 1978, 1981, 1982), a three-time winner of the British trials national championship (1973, 1978, 1980) and won the grueling
Scottish Six Days Trial three consecutive times (1976, 1977, 1978).
Lampkin is the father of twelve-time trials world champion,
Dougie Lampkin. After retiring from competition, Lampkin supported his son as he embarked on a successful professional motorcycle trials career.
References
1950 births
2016 deaths
People from Silsden
English motorcycle racers
Motorcycle trials riders
Sportspeople from Yorkshire
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