Today (September 25, 2025) marks the 85th birthday of American motorcycle legend Mert Lawwill, the Boise-born racer who won the 1969 AMA Grand National Championship and became one of the sport’s best-known figures through his friendship with director Bruce Brown and Hollywood icon Steve McQueen.

Through film and bicycles Lawwill’s career stretched beyond the dirt tracks — he was a standout in Bruce Brown’s classic moto film On Any Sunday, helped develop race frames and went on to become an influential mountain-bike designer and inventor (including early suspension designs), earning inductions into both the Motorcycle Hall of Fame and the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.

Lawwill admitted once that "I roadraced for years and finished second in the Daytona 200 and yet no one even remembers I roadraced!"