There have been few racers as complete a package as Californian Ricky ‘RJ’ Johnson. It was Yamaha that first saw something in the flashy and determined Johnson and together they would make an impact early.
At the age of just 17, RJ took on the 1982 AMA motocross season and won the first round at High Point. Just imagine that – 17 years-old and thrown into the mix with Broc Glover, Donnie Hansen. And RJ came out swinging on his YZ. “I went to that race on a production Yamaha,” Johnson recalls. “A lot of people had said that that was the worst production bike Yamaha had ever built but I was comfortable on it. It cornered second to none. You could get in a corner and rail turns like nobody’s business.”
By the end of his first round of racing in the 250 class Johnson had the round win going 1-2 and a star was born. And not only did he absorb the pressure of round one but if it weren’t for a broken wheel (from going waaaaay too big on one particular jump), he would almost certainly have had a title to his name in just his second year as a pro, eventually losing out to Hansen by a mere three points.
But there was plenty of wining on the horizon for RJ.
In 1984 RJ won his first supercross title and added MXdN and Trophee des Nations wins to the silverware. Johnson would go on to win seven AMA titles and be inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, but it can’t be understated just what an impact he had on the sport as an ambassador and never seen before hype machine that thrilled and appreciated the fans will a little controversy thrown in here and there. Always one to speak his mind RJ was front and centre of racing at the highest level his whole career and his legacy still lives on strong.