Rocky Williams (RIP)

Earlier this week the motocross world lost one of its all-time good guys in Rocky Williams. He was a race mechanic in the 1970s and early ’80s, most famously with "Gassin'" Gaylon Mosier when he was riding for Wheelsmith Maico and later the Kawasaki factory team. Rocky's backstory was the kind of stuff with which one could make a movie. Our colleague at We Went Fast, Brett Smith, wrote about Rocky on Wednesday after news of his passing. Here's what he wrote: 

Gerald Williams died in the evening of October 26. Rest In Peace, Rocky.

Many here might not recognize the name. It's been over 40 years since Rocky spun wrenches at the races. His career as a mechanic was notable because he was talented, funny and profoundly deaf.

He couldn't hear a damn thing, yet he was able to thrive in a world that's often filled with nothing but noise.

The story of Rocky Williams is one of many in various stages of completion in my projects folder. There's no specific reason why it's unfinished. He would have appreciated the tribute.

In April 1978, the LA Times featured Rocky on the front page of the sports section. "I feel the vibrations," he told Shav Glick. "I can tell if the engine's OK or what's wrong with it by the way the handlebars feel. I must communicate well with my rider. I ask him to tell me when the engine is running properly and then I feel the handlebars and get the proper vibration. From then on I can tell if it's running rich or lean or needs work by the way it vibrates."

Acceptance of a deaf mechanic made it a tough road for him. He said he started working on his brother's bike and then Bob Hannah when Hannah had a Husky. He also said he worked for Broc Glover and Bruce McDougal before they turned pro. He went to Suzuki and Yamaha and cited his experience with the riders above but was turned away because he was deaf.

In 1975 Rocky said a rider named Gaylon Mosier found him he worked for free for 6 weeks at Maico before he was given $300 a week and expenses. When Mosier decamped for Kawasaki in 1978, Rocky thought he'd be left behind again. Mosier called him and said, "get out your green pants!"

They won the 1978 Anaheim Supercross together (pic 8), a handful of AMA Pro MX races and many other events between the Trans AMA and CMC Golden State events. When Mosier was killed riding a bicycle in the fall of 1980, he was left without a rider who advocated hard for him and was ultimately dropped from Kawasaki.

He loved motorcycles, however, and later worked as a Harley-Davidson mechanic. He was 74.