# Håkan Andersson (motorcyclist)

Håkan Andersson (born 29 June 1945) is a Swedish former professional motocross racer. He competed in the Motocross World Championships from 1966 to 1979. Andersson began his career as a member of the Husqvarna factory racing team before moving to the Yamaha team where he won the F.I.M. 250cc Motocross World Championship in 1973.

## Motocross racing career

Andersson was born in Uddevalla, Sweden on 29 June 1945. He grew up idolizing Swedish motocross racers such as Bill Nilsson, Sten Lundin, and Rolf Tibblin. Andersson competed in his first motocross race in 1962 at the age of 16 riding a 175cc Husqvarna motorcycle. He served in the Swedish military as a motorcycle despatch rider. In 1963, he competed in the Junior Class and within three years he had advanced to the Senior Class.
Andersson's racing success earned him support from the Husqvarna factory along with other Swedish racers such as Torsten Hallman, Åke Jonsson, Bengt Åberg and Arne Kring. Hallman, a four-time Motocross World Champion, became his racing mentor. He competed in his first Motocross World Championship event at the 1966 250cc Swedish Grand Prix where he scored an impressive third place in the first moto and was lying in third place in the second moto when he had to abandon the race due to a tire puncture.
Åke Jonsson moved to the 500cc class for the 1967 season and Andersson replaced him on the 250cc Husqvarna factory racing team competing in the 250cc World Championship in support of Hallman. He scored four consecutive third place finishes at the Swedish and Finnish Grand Prix races to end the year ranked sixth while his teammate Hallman won the 250cc World Championship. Andersson was a member of the victorious Swedish team at the 1967 Trophée des Nations, however he suffered a serious leg injury during the event.
Hallman's main rival for the 1968 250cc World Championship was the 1964 World Champion Joël Robert riding for the ČZ factory team. Robert was considered to be the fastest rider in the world, but his lackadaisical attitude towards physical fitness training as well as numerous mechanical issues had kept him from repeating his 1964 success.
At the season opening Spanish Grand Prix, Andersson had retired from the first race, but showed his potential in the second race by catching and passing former World Champions Dave Bickers (ČZ) and Robert to finish in second place behind his teammate Hallman. At the second round in Belgium, he finished the first race in third place and then won the second race after Robert withdrew with an engine failure. Andersson then won the first overall victory of his career at the 1968 250cc Czechoslovakian Grand Prix where he decisively beat the previously dominant Robert in both races. In the French Grand Prix, he finished the first race in third place behind Robert and Hallman before defeating Robert once again in the second race.
After the first four rounds of the World Championship, Andersson's impressive performance made him a strong contender for the title and placed him second to Robert by just two points in the championship points standings. However, Andersson's 1968 season came to an end at the fifth round in the Netherlands when he suffered a serious leg injury. He had passed Robert to take the lead of the second race when his handlebar broke causing him to crash and fractured his leg in three places. It was the same leg he had injured six months before at the 1967 Trophée des Nations event and his doctors told him that the injury was so serious that he would never ride a motorcycle again.
Andersson was determined to resume his racing career but had a lengthy recovery that was complicated by a bad leg infection. After missing almost two years of racing including the entire 1969 season, he returned to race in the 1970 250cc World Championship, however he still hadn’t fully recovered from his 1968 accident and was 13th in the final standings. By the 1971 he had returned to form by finishing second in the 250cc World Championship behind Joël Robert. He helped Team Sweden take runner-up in the 1971 Trophée des Nations and he was also crowned Swedish National Champion.
Andersson's contract with Husqvarna ended at the end of the 1971 season so he took the opportunity to sign a contract to race for the Yamaha factory racing team to help them develop their new Yamaha YZ250 model for the 1972 season. Andersson won the Swedish and Swiss Grand Prix races to finish runner-up to Robert for a second consecutive year. Yamaha introduced a new and innovative rear suspension with a single shock absorber for the 1973 season that would revolutionize the sport of motocross. Andersson took advantage of the new suspension to claim six Grand Prix victories to win the 1973 250cc Motocross World Championship ahead of Adolf Weil (Maico) and Heikki Mikkola (Husqvarna). At the season ending 1973 Motocross des Nations event, he helped Team Sweden take runner-up position behind the powerful Belgian team.
Andersson suffered a serious back injury at the beginning of the 1974 season but came back late in the year to post a series of second place results to finish the season ranked sixth in the 250cc World Championship. He was also part of a Swedish victory at the 1974 Motocross of Nations for the first time in his career. Andersson continued to be competitive in the 1975 250cc World Championship, however he would finish the season ranked second to Puch factory rider Harry Everts who rode a motorcycle which featured an innovative twin carburetor system. It marked the third time in his racing career that Anderson was 250cc Vice-Champion.
The 1973 oil crisis severely impacted all forms of motorsports and Yamaha made the decision to withdraw their racing team after the 1975 season. As all the other major motorcycle manufacturers had already signed their racers for the 1976 season, Andersson signed a contract to compete for the small, Spanish Montesa factory in the 250 class. In 1977, he rode a Montesa in the 500cc class. He returned to Husqvarna in the 1978 and 1979 seasons in the 500cc class.
Andersson was the top individual points scorer at the 1977 Motocross des Nations event. In total, Andersson took nine Grand Prix victories before retiring from world championship racing at the end of the 1979 season.

## Motocross Grand Prix Results

Points system from 1952 to 1968:
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| Points | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Points system from 1969 to 1980:
| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Points | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Year | Class | Team | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 | Pos | Pts |
| Year | Class | Team | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | R1 | R2 | Pos | Pts |
| 1966 | 250cc | Husqvarna | ESP - | ESP - | FRA - | FRA - | BEL - | BEL - | CH - | CH - | CZE - | CZE - | GER - | GER - | NED - | NED - | LUX - | LUX - | ITA - | ITA - | POL - | POL - | GDR - | GDR - | SWE 3 | SWE - | FIN - | FIN - | USR - | USR - | AUT - | AUT - | - | 0 |
| 1967 | 250cc | Husqvarna | ESP - | ESP - | CH - | CH - | FRA - | FRA - | BEL - | BEL - | GER - | GER - | NED - | NED - | ITA - | ITA - | UK 5 | UK 5 | SWE 3 | SWE 3 | FIN 3 | FIN 3 | USR 6 | USR - | POL - | POL - | | | | | | | 6th | 13 |
| 1968 | 250cc | Husqvarna | ESP - | ESP 2 | BEL 3 | BEL 1 | CZE 1 | CZE 1 | FRA 3 | FRA 1 | NED 4 | NED 26 | GER - | GER - | LUX - | LUX - | POL - | POL - | USR - | USR - | YUG - | YUG - | FIN - | FIN - | SWE - | SWE - | UK - | UK - | AUT - | AUT - | | | 6th | 18 |
| 1970 | 250cc | Husqvarna | ESP - | ESP - | FRA 9 | FRA 8 | BEL - | BEL - | YUG 6 | YUG 13 | ITA - | ITA - | USR - | USR - | POL - | POL - | UK - | UK - | FIN 9 | FIN 8 | GDR - | GDR - | CH - | CH - | AUT 17 | AUT 7 | | | | | | | 13th | 12 |
| 1971 | 250cc | Husqvarna | ESP 5 | ESP 3 | CH 9 | CH 8 | POL 5 | POL 2 | GER 6 | GER 3 | YUG - | YUG - | ITA 5 | ITA 9 | NED - | NED - | GDR 2 | GDR 3 | FIN 3 | FIN 3 | SWE 3 | SWE 2 | UK 5 | UK 4 | AUT 1 | AUT - | | | | | | | 2nd | 72 |
| 1972 | 250cc | Yamaha | ESP - | ESP - | FRA - | FRA - | NED - | NED - | CZE 3 | CZE 8 | YUG 7 | YUG - | GER 4 | GER 6 | POL 3 | POL 5 | USR 6 | USR 4 | FIN 4 | FIN 3 | SWE 2 | SWE 1 | UK 5 | UK 1 | CH 3 | CH 2 | | | | | | | 2nd | 82 |
| 1973 | 250cc | Yamaha | ESP 6 | ESP 2 | ITA 3 | ITA 6 | BEL 2 | BEL 1 | CH 1 | CH 1 | POL 1 | POL 1 | YUG - | YUG 1 | FRA 2 | FRA 1 | FIN 1 | FIN 1 | USR - | USR - | SWE 1 | SWE 1 | AUT 4 | AUT - | | | | | | | | | 1st | 177 |
| 1974 | 250cc | Yamaha | ESP 3 | ESP 4 | ITA 4 | ITA - | CZE - | CZE - | POL - | POL - | YUG - | YUG - | UK - | UK - | GER - | GER - | NED - | NED 6 | FIN 3 | FIN 2 | SWE 2 | SWE 2 | CH 2 | CH - | | | | | | | | | 6th | 81 |
| 1975 | 250cc | Yamaha | ESP 1 | ESP - | AUT - | AUT 9 | BEL 9 | BEL 1 | CZE - | CZE 9 | POL 2 | POL 5 | YUG - | YUG 6 | GER - | GER 3 | UK 5 | UK 1 | FRA - | FRA 2 | SWE - | SWE 6 | FIN - | FIN 1 | CH 3 | CH 4 | | | | | | | 2nd | 134 |
| 1976 | 250cc | Montesa | ESP 5 | ESP - | BEL 4 | BEL - | CZE 8 | CZE - | POL - | POL 3 | USR 5 | USR - | YUG 3 | YUG 5 | ITA 7 | ITA - | FRA - | FRA - | UK - | UK - | GER - | GER - | NED - | NED - | SWE 10 | SWE - | | | | | | | 10th | 54 |
| 1977 | 500cc | Montesa | AUT - | AUT - | NED - | NED - | SWE 9 | SWE 4 | FIN 6 | FIN 8 | GER - | GER 4 | ITA - | ITA - | USA - | USA - | CAN 6 | CAN 9 | UK 5 | UK 6 | BEL 7 | BEL 6 | LUX 5 | LUX 4 | CH 3 | CH 4 | | | | | | | 5th | 85 |
| 1978 | 500cc | Husqvarna | CH 8 | CH 9 | AUT - | AUT - | FRA 5 | FRA 3 | DEN 8 | DEN - | FIN - | FIN - | SWE - | SWE - | USA - | USA - | ITA - | ITA 5 | UK - | UK 9 | BEL - | BEL - | LUX 8 | LUX - | NED - | NED 10 | | | | | | | 12th | 36 |
| 1979 | 500cc | Husqvarna | AUT - | AUT - | FRA - | FRA - | SWE 9 | SWE - | ITA - | ITA - | USA - | USA - | CAN - | CAN - | GER - | GER - | UK - | UK - | CH - | CH - | NED - | NED - | BEL 7 | BEL - | LUX 7 | LUX 5 | | | | | | | 15th | 16 |
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