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Steve Stackable
1975 AMA 500cc Supercross Champion
Steve Stackable was born in Germany while his father served in the U.S. Military. The family eventually settled
in Austin, TX where Steve’s motorcycle racing career would begin in the late 1960’s. With the help of Bill
Kasson, owner of Kasson Yamaha in Austin, TX, Steve would soon set out to take on the expert classes against a
whole host of Texas bad boys. “Stack” as he would be nicknamed was tall, slim and always smiling. The Texas
racer was putting central Texas on the Texas motocross map. From traveling Southeast to battle the Houston
and Bay area racers or to San Antonio and South to the Rio Grande Valley area racers such as Kent Howerton
and Steve Wise, or up to the North Texas motocross scene which featured Wyman Priddy and many others.
Steve’s effort and determination in the 1973 season did not go unnoticed and he was soon offered a Maico
factory support ride. In 1974 Steve brought home a third-place overall finish in the highly competitive National
500cc Motocross Series behind Jimmy Weinert and Tony DiStefano. Steve’s outstanding performance in the
1974 season would earn him a Maico full factory ride for the 1975 season. Having won both the Dallas and
Daytona Supercross rounds as well as finishing third at the Houston round, Steve would reward the Maico
team with the 1975 AMA Supercross Championship Title and also go on to finish the 500cc outdoor nationals
in second place overall.
One short year later in 1976 the 500cc Supercross class was dropped, giving the Texan the Lone Star State’s
only Supercross title to this date. Steve’s 1975 Supercross title would bring much deserved media coverage as
he graced the cover of Cycle News on Sept 16, 1975 as well as one year later making the cover of Dirt Rider
magazine in July 1976. The title and media coverage meant bigger and better things for Steve and product
endorsements were about to become a very lucrative part of Steve’s motocross career. The same year that he
won his supercross title, the first ever synthetic motocross pants were manufactured by a company called
Griffs, and the company sold more than 55,000 pairs of the Steve Stackable signature pants – out were the old
leathers and in were the Steve Stackable synthetic motocross pants!
Stackable was hired by the Suzuki factory motocross team in 1976 on the recommendation of World Champion
Roger De Coster who was impressed by Stackable’ s riding after he placed third behind De Coster and Harry
Everts at the Lake Whitney round of the 1974 Trans-AMA motocross series. He won the first national
championship race of his career on August 1, 1976 at the Unadilla motocross circuit in New Berlin, New York.
Suzuki released him at the end of the season despite finishing third in both the 250cc and 500cc Outdoor
National classes.
Stackable rejoined the Maico team for the 1977 season and would claim the second national event of his
career when he won the 500cc class at Lake Whitney, Texas. Also in 1977, Steve was elected to Team USA for
both the Motocross Des nations and trophy Des Nations being held in France and Holland. The team consisted
of Stack, the other Texas motocross sensation Kent Howerton, as well as Tony DiStefano and Gary Semics. The
team would finish in second place, with Steve earning the most points for the American team.
Stackable continued to race until 1981 when he retired from motocross at age 27. After his motocross racing
career, Stackable became a tandem hang gliding and paragliding instructor operating the service department
at Torrey Pines Gliderport, in La Jolla, California. Steve has now retired to the Texas Gulf Coast.