The ‘private driver’ Jon Ekerold celebrated his 80th birthday

Jon Ekerold was a rider who was always extremely willing to take risks, though he was also frequently injured; yet in 1980, everything fell into place for the Norwegian, who was born on 8 October 1946 in South Africa and had been living in Germany for many years. In the battle for the title in the 350cc World Championship, the daredevil defeated Toni Mang.

Jonathan ‘Jon’ Ekerold was born in Johannesburg, the son of a Norwegian immigrant. He has been a Norwegian citizen all his life and remains so to this day, but due to his place of residence and his racing licence, he was always listed as South African in official results and statistics.

At the age of 16, he left school for good during a history lesson to go out and work and earn his own money. There was only one reason for this: to fulfil his dream of becoming a racing driver. In 1968, the time had come for him to invest the money he had earned in his first 50cc racing bike, enabling him to compete in his first races. Soon, however, he needed a more powerful Yamaha 250 YDS.

In 1975, Ekerold arrived in Europe at the age of 28. After two minor races – in the second, at Magny-Cours in France, he sustained a serious hand injury – he contested his first Grand Prix at the Salzburgring as a replacement rider without prior confirmation of entry. In the 350cc class race, he finished second straight away, thereby securing his first World Championship points and his first Grand Prix podium on his debut in one fell swoop. That same year, at Assen in the Netherlands, he picked up another World Championship point by finishing tenth, bringing his total to 13 and securing 16th place in the final World Championship standings.

The following year, too, the privateer continued to compete in individual Grand Prix races. Whenever he was on the grid, however, he once again made a big impact, as was the case at the Nürburgring (which at that time still included the Nordschleife), where he once again finished third on the podium in the 250cc class and, with the ten World Championship points he secured, finished 15th in the final standings.

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In the 350cc class, he only managed to score points by finishing seventh at Imatra in Finland. The same was true at the final race of the Motorcycle World Championship on the Isle of Man in the UK, where he came sixth in the half-litre class time trial.

In 1977, Jon Ekerold brought greater consistency to his performances and results. At Le Castellet in France, he celebrated his first GP victory in the 250cc class and, with a further podium finish (third in Anderstorp, Sweden) as well as four other finishes in the points, finished eighth in the World Championship, just behind his compatriots Kork Ballington and Alan North. He even finished third in the World Championship in the 350cc class, albeit without a win, but with three podium finishes.

1978 was also a fairly good year for him. In the 250cc class, he finished seven times in the top 10 of the World Championship, and in the 350cc class he managed to finish third on the podium at Nogaro in France, behind the dominant Kawasaki works riders Kork Ballington and Gregg Hansford from Australia. He did the same at Assen, finishing behind Kork Ballington and his Italian Yamaha privateer colleague Gianfranco Bonera. He also finished in the points six times, but still missed out on a podium finish for the year, finishing fourth in the World Championship.

In 1979, he didn’t achieve much in the 250cc class. Only at Hockenheim did he manage to score points, finishing fourth. It was a different story in the 350cc class, where, after finishing second at the Salzburgring behind Kork Ballington, he secured his second Grand Prix victory (ahead of Toni Mang) at the Motodrom in Baden. Thanks largely to these two results, he once again finished eighth in the World Championship.

In 1980, he focused on the 350cc class with the German Solitude team and became Toni Mang’s fiercest rival. There were only six World Championship rounds on the calendar for this class, of which Johnny Cecotto won the first, followed by Jon Ekerold and Toni Mang, who each won two. The South African racing driver won at Le Castellet in France and at Assen, whilst Toni Mang came out on top at Silverstone in the UK and at Brno in Czechoslovakia. This set the stage for a title decider between the two at the season finale and the final round of the World Motorcycle Championship on the rather treacherous and controversial Nürburgring Nordschleife. After a gruelling duel between the two rivals over just six laps (137.100 kilometres), Jon Ekerold secured a narrow victory on a privateer Bimota-Yamaha.

As Kork Ballington, the 1979 350cc World Champion, was set to ride the new 500cc works Kawasaki alongside the 250cc machine at the start of the next decade, start number 1 was, in principle, up for grabs in 1980. Jon Ekerold tried it out as a precaution, but by 1981 it was officially his.

Once again, he focused on the 350cc class, and once again it all came down to a duel between Jon Ekerold and Toni Mang. Although Jon Ekerold managed to secure two further Grand Prix victories in Buenos Aires and at Monza in Italy during the first half of the season, there was simply no stopping Toni Mang – backed by Kawasaki – particularly in the second half of the year. At least he finished as runner-up in the World Championship behind the Bavarian and then moved up to the 500cc class with Cagiva, where, however, he enjoyed little success. Only at the season finale in Hockenheim did he manage to finish in the points, coming tenth.

He didn’t come anywhere near achieving anything similar in 1983, whereupon Jon Ekerold hung up his helmet and returned permanently to South Africa. It was not until 1996 that he settled in Germany. Of his 56 Grands Prix, he finished on the podium in 19, seven of which were victories.

He was by no means idle, either then or later. With his two wives – one South African and one German – Jon Ekerold fathered six sons, three with each wife, some of whom also ended up in motor racing. His eldest son, Gary, is race director at the Formula E team Jaguar TCS Racing. Like him, Jonny ended up in road racing, whilst Anthony became a show jumper. His German sons, Stefan, Bernhard and Roland, all raced – or still race – motocross.

Many years after retiring from active competition, he wrote about his experiences and his exciting life in a book entitled *Jon Ekerold – The Privateer*; this was followed in 2023 by the German version with the easily guessed title *Jon Ekerold – der Privatfahrer*. However, only a few copies of this are now still available.