The Motorcycle Portraits: Jack Penton

The Motorcycle Portraits is a project by photographer/filmmaker David Goldman, who travels the world making documentaries, and takes time out to interview interesting people in the motorcycle scene, wherever he might be.  The result is a single exemplary photo, a geolocation of his subject, and a transcribed interview.  The audio of his interviews can be found on The Motorcycle Portraits website.

The following is a portrait session with Jack Penton, a legend of motocross, the son of John Penton, and an AMA Hall of Fame member. and the youngest person ever to win a Gold Medal at the ISDT, at 15.  He also earned 27 National Enduro titles, lots more Golds at ISDTs, and countless other off-road event.  And he did it himself, preparing and maintaining his own machines. “I always did all of my own set-up and maintenance. For nearly 20 years of national and world competition, I never had a mechanic. That’s how we were taught to operate in our family, and I think it gave us an advantage because we had intimate understanding of our machines and a higher level of self-confidence.” David Goldman caught up with Jack in Idaho Springs ID on Aug 20, 2020, and asked him a few questions about motorcycling.  The following are his responses:

Introduce yourself:

Hi, this is Jack Penton and we’re here in Idaho Falls and I’m a lifetime motorcyclist. I was born into motorcycling. My father John Penton had a motorcycle store when I was just born. And my first ride on a motorcycle was actually when I was three months old. He sat me on a gas tank and we took a ride and I’ve been riding ever since. I’ve raced around the world, and I’m very fortunate to be in the AMA Hall of Fame. I have a a world of friends here in motorcycling.

How did you first get started with motorcycling?

Being born into a motorcycle family, my two older brothers and myself. We naturally gravitated to motorcycles real early. And as we began to race and we raced amongst ourselves in our own family, if you could beat your brother that was what got you a trophy and into races. So as we got a little bit older, we started spreading out and we began to race nationally, and doing well in the nationals. By the time I turned 16, my dad said  I was old enough, and I should be going to the international six days trials, which was the world Olympics in Europe each year. And at 16. I went there and I did real well and I rode that for the American team representing the United States for 12 times in the ISDT. And won a couple of national championships and off road racing, 31 nationals along the way, so I’ve had a great racing career and then since then, I’ve been able to do a lot of leisure and casual riding adventure riding with my friends. Some lifelong racer friends and some new friends I make along the way

What is a Great Experiences or story you can share that happened thanks to bikes?

One of the greatest racing experience I’ve ever had was in 1970 we went to Spain, and it was my brother Tom, my brother, Jeff, myself and my dad. And we all rode the six days together. There were four family members, it was my first six days, my father’s last six days. And probably one of the only times in history of the six days that a whole family is ridden together. From the riding side, that’s probably the highlight of the racing. But here later, in the last few years, I’ve been able to travel with my father and we’ve been able to see him inducted into a number of Hall of Fame’s and we made a trip to Austria to the Moto Hall in Austria. And he got accolades for beginning the Penton motorcycle and is permanently enshrined in the Hall of Fame over there are in their moto Hall. And that was quite an honor. And I was so, so happy that my dad at 93 years old and myself could attend that event.

What do motorcycles mean or represent to you?

To me, motorcycling is a way of life and in a way my life has always been in motorcycling it’s where all my friends are. All of the greatest experiences in my life revolve around something that had to do with motorcycling, I believe, short of the birth of my children and my marriage. motorcycling has provided me with most of the the most joyous times in my life. And the thousands of friends that I’ve met along the way. My dad has a saying that every day is an experience and motorcycling provides an experience for everybody that swings a leg over one and I’ve had so many I’m so fortunate that way.