EAGLE, Idaho — More than 50 years ago, a documentary introduced the world to a Boise-born motorcycle racer walking through rush hour with a garment bag over his shoulder.
Mert Lawwill went on to become a national champion and an innovator whose work reached far beyond the racetrack.
Lawwill died earlier this month in Idaho at 85 years old.
In the 1971 documentary On Any Sunday, Lawwill was introduced as a professional motorcycle racer, not a banker, accountant, or salesman.
WATCH: Rare archival footage and one of only 18 Street Trackers help tell the story of Boise-born motorcycle legend Mert Lawwill
The film described Lawwill as someone who made his living in “one of the most dangerous sports in which man participates.” It showed him racing at 100 miles per hour on the straightaways and 80 miles per hour in the corners, within inches of posts and guard rails.
In 1969, Lawwill won the AMA Grand National Championship.
Family friend Al Russell said the title was especially difficult to win because riders had to master several disciplines.
“When Mert won the national championship, he had to road race, he had to TT— all the disciplines,” Russell explained. “He had to do them all, and that's very difficult.”
Russell said Lawwill’s legacy did not stop with the number-one plate.
His father and Lawwill grew up together in Boise and stayed close as Lawwill kept building, testing, and rethinking machines.
Inside Russell’s shop, one of Lawwill’s Street Trackers, one of only 18 in the world, shows how Lawwill treated racing, engineering, and art as the same thing.
“He did everything hand-built, and he did it in a little two-car garage,” Russell said.
Russell said Lawwill’s engineering sometimes started with whatever was within reach. In one particular case, he repurposed an aluminum baseball bat as the swing arm on a motorcycle.
“He goes, it's a baseball bat. It's an aluminum baseball bat,” Russell said. “I cut each end off, put it in the press, smashed it flat, and welded the ends on it.”
Even in a sport full of legends, Russell said Lawwill stood apart.
Russell keeps a photo of Lawwill with Steve McQueen on his shop wall. He said Lawwill once told him about a conversation he had with McQueen.
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“Mert started telling me a story about Steve McQueen, and Steve said, ‘Mert, you're my hero,’” Russell said. “And Mert looked over and said, ‘Well, you're like the most famous movie star in the world, Mr. Bullet. You're Mr. Bullet, you know, you're the man.’ And he goes, ‘You know, I pretend to be a hero. You are a hero.’”
More than five decades after On Any Sunday, the film’s description still fits. Its narration described professional motorcycle racing as a violent world, and Lawwill as “a gentleman in a violent world.”
The film also described riding with friends as “a feeling of freedom, a feeling of joy that really can't be put into words.”
Lawwill’s obituary says he was surrounded by family and friends when he died May 6 in Meridian. A public celebration of life is planned for August 30 in Carson, California.
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