Joe Leonard
American car and motorcycle racer (1932-2017)
Joseph Paul Leonard (August 4, 1932 – April 27, 2017) was an American professional motorcycle racer and racecar driver.
Biography
Motorcycle career
Leonard won the first A.M.A. Grand National Championship Series in 1954 and won it again in 1956 and 1957. His record totals 27 wins, including the 1957 and 1958 Daytona 200. He also resulted vice-champion in 1958, 1960 and 1961, third in 1955, and fifth in 1959. He retired from motorcycle racing at the completion of the 1961 season and turned his attention to auto racing. He was also a member of the AMA (American Motorcycle Association District 36) Sanctioned San Jose Motorcycle club (The Dons) which includes such famed alumni as Sam Arena, Tom Sifton, Kenny Eggers and Sam Arena Jr.
USAC National Championship career
Early years
Leonard made his transition to four wheels by racing on the NASCAR super modified circuit that ran at Fresno and San Jose. Leonard made his USAC National Championship debut during the 1964 season when he competed in five races for various teams. Leonard earned a best finish of fifth at the season-ending Bobby Ball Memorial at Phoenix International Raceway driving the No. 65 Travelon Trailer Christensen-Offenhauser.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joe Leonard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.