Jonathan "Jon" Ekerold (born 8 October 1946) is a South African former professional Grand Prix

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

road racer. Born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, Ekerold is one of the few racers in the modern era to have won a world championship as a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

without the benefit of a motorcycle manufacturer's support when he defeated Kawasaki

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

racing team rider Anton Mang for the 1980 350cc Grand Prix road racing

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. Ekerold rode a self-modified Yamaha TZ350 engine in a

Bimota Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of ...

chassis during his championship season. He also won the

Ulster Grand Prix The Ulster Grand Prix is a motorcycle race that takes place on the Dundrod Circuit made up entirely of closed-off public roads near Belfast, Northern Ireland. The first races took place in 1922 and in 1935 and 1948 the Fédération Internatio ...

once and finished second at the

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world ...

twice.

Motorcycle Grand Prix results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Jon Ekerold career profile at IOMTT.com

Jon Ekerold article at realroadracing.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekerold, Jon 1946 births Living people Sportspeople from Johannesburg South African motorcycle racers 250cc World Championship riders 350cc World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders Isle of Man TT riders