To many motocross racing enthusiasts the name Jeff Leisk signals memories of – “He was one of the greats”, “A motocross racing legend”, “A great pioneer of the sport”, “The first Aussie to win a round of the world motocross championship”.

The name Jeff Leisk nowadays is more commonly associated with the man who’s driving KTM motorcycles in Australia – a very humble man who goes about his work in a quiet, but determined manner. A man you’d never know the extent of his past if you weren’t already familiar with his background.

I recently spoke to Jeff Leisk asking him about his racing career, how it started, the highs and lows he experienced, competing overseas, the state of the sport in Australia, and how he has adapted to life after a successful racing career that spanned close to three decades.

The World Stage

   At the height of his motocross racing career Jeff Leisk was fighting for the world championship against the likes of three time 500cc world champion David Thorpe and 125/250/500cc world champion Eric Geboers. His entry into Grand Prix racing actually came thanks to Thorpe, who while out injured opened the door for Jeff to fill his ride at the 1988 Italian San Marino G.P. Jeff was riding for Honda in America at the time, and with his goal of wanting to ride in Europe known by the team he was the obvious choice to fill Thorpe’s shoes – big shoes, but as Jeff proved one’s he filled well.

   With Thorpe’s dad as his mechanic Jeff stormed off to lead the first moto until the unthinkable happened with a few laps to go … The chain came off, robbing him of his first ever G.P race and round win. As frustrating as it was he put the disappointment behind him and came out in the second moto hungrier than ever, and with the chain staying put he convincingly won the second, which signaled to the European team the Australian was fast, and Jeff took advantage of the moment expressing his intentions to the then Honda Team Manager Steve Whitelock that he was very interested in a ride for the following season.

   Steve didn’t have a factory ride available for Jeff in ’89, but he did offer him a support ride that included bikes, parts and a small amount of money. Jeff accepted the deal, and then set about securing outside sponsorship to help fund his expenses of racing in Europe, which came from a company called Chambers. He finished off his season in America, brought his own race truck, and with his friend and mechanic Peter “Budda” Luskowski set off to conquer the world Grand Prix circuit where the crowds were huge, the atmosphere electric, and the conditions so different to what Jeff had ever experienced in Australia.

Not Again

   You would think the bad luck that saw Jeff robbed of his first Grand Prix victory in San Marino couldn’t possibly follow him into his first round of the ’89 G.P season, but it did. Once again he had the first moto in the bag and with a few laps to go the unthinkable happened … “I had a strong lead with no pressure at all. Then with two laps to go – and at the start of the second last lap – I felt a bit of a surge in power and straight away thought, ‘Gee, I hope that’s not what I think it is’, but sure enough a few metres later the bike was out of fuel.” Jeff couldn’t believe his luck. His dreams were shattered thanks to the lack of a few litres of fuel. He remembers the moment vividly. “It was my first G.P of the season and I’d done a lot of preparation and I was so keen to come out and do a good job, and then to have that happen was pretty disappointing really. I mean you’re leading one of the major races of your career, you’ve got dreams and aspirations to do well, and something like that happens – It was just so frustrating!” “Not long after it happened though it kind of dawned on me that we’d done a lot of testing on rough tracks where you’re not near as much on the throttle, compared to the sandy track it happened on that was really smooth and fast in the first moto, and I have to say, I was quite hyped up more than usual and not really thinking about conserving fuel.” 

   And it wasn’t like the team was trying to conserve fuel by any means, it was just a case of the bike consuming more fuel than they thought it would. Jeff recalls heading back to the pits pretty wound up about the whole deal. “When I finally walked back to the pit area I do recall acting a little like a spoiled brat – throwing things around and carrying on a bit, but once I cooled off the team and I just focused on what we had to achieve to get it right for moto two. The mechanics set about expanding the tank as we didn’t have a spare alloy tank with a larger capacity. They actually filled the tank with hot water and pressurised it with air to expand it out. We even changed gear ratios so the bike wouldn’t rev as much, and I also changed my riding style to help conserve fuel. I then went out on the rougher track and won the race, which was some consolation I guess.”

   The Europeans had some idea of who Jeff was from his results in America the previous year, but there was the doubt to whether he could handle the European conditions – whether he could ride sand, mud, hard-packed tracks etc. And he did struggle during his debut season, saying, “Thorpe and Geboers were the ones to beat that year and my results were a bit up and down depending on the tracks and conditions. Like some tracks suited me better than others. Generally when it was a bit sandy the races would play my way more like it did with my first GP win in Finland. I definitely struggled in the muddy conditions though, which was the hardest for me. Guys like Thorpe, who grew up riding in the UK, were used to those conditions and he was pretty much unbeatable when the tracks were real muddy. At times of the season the conditions from one G.P to the next were very different making it very hard to be consistent.”

   “Two events that year that really stand out would be the French and Switzerland rounds, and on both occasions it was just treacherous. I remember it was raining all day. There was a clay type surface, it was hilly and off-cambered, and very, very slippery. Visibility was just terrible and you had mud on your gloves and covering your gear so it was uncomfortable, plus the distance we raced was long, not your average 20-minute moto like Australia, it was 40-minutes plus two laps, and in those conditions the laps slow down a lot so the race sometimes would go for 50 minutes, which is a long time to be riding those conditions when you’re not comfortable with it. At times I felt like a total novice trying to make it through sections of the track it was that bad.”

Start Of The Dream

   Jeff went on to finish runner-up to Thorpe in the world championship in that debut year, which is an incredible achievement for the then frequently named “Flying Freckle” from Western Australia, who started racing at the age of seven at the Forestville Speedway in Perth with his brother Mark. “That’s where junior racing basically evolved from can you believe it” said Jeff proudly. “My Dad Bob raced speedway there for around 17-years, and I remember they made a small track in the middle of the speedway and kids would front up on all sorts of bikes like Honda XR 75s, Yamaha 60s, etc, and that’s how Junior racing, Mark and myself started, and the sport of mini-bike racing evolved from there”.

   Bob didn’t push his boys into racing, with him saying it just flowed naturally from the speedway days when all the other kids started to get mini-bikes. Jeff believes Mark was the one with even more natural talent than himself, where as Bob thought the two were pretty equal, with Jeff saying, “I recall riding our first Junior Nationals in about 1974 in Packenham, Victoria, and I actually think they were the first Australian Junior Nationals, so we were getting into racing as junior racing started in Australia. I was always reasonably quick from a young age, but I have to say I believe my brother was a more natural rider than myself. His skill and level of ability was at most times higher than mine until we got to the age of thirteen and I had more desire to go on with it, where as he didn’t. I then started to out-perform him, but up until that point he was a much better rider than myself. We were both pretty fortunate because Dad put a lot into our racing and we got the chance to practice regularly, plus we always had good equipment, which is one big reason we were quiet successful as junior racers”.

   And speaking of Jeff’s early success Bob believes it wasn’t all his doing as he recalls Jeff was the type of kid who would get in there and do it for himself instead of waiting for someone else to do it for him. “Sure I’ve helped him like most fathers would, but even from a young age he just did things on his own. Like he’d always work on his own bikes and didn’t have to be told to, plus he cleaned his own gear and got it ready for race meetings. He made his own way and didn’t need to be pushed at all. He just did it. He was very self motivated and very determined to win, and he certainly put in the hard yards with his racing”. 

Jeff won that first junior national title in Packenham at age nine, and then continued to win many more – including the world Mini G.P. in America at age 13 – until he hit the senior ranks at 16. There was one Australian title Jeff won at the age of 15 though that really stood out as the one that made people stand up and take notice that the kid from W.A. would be a serious threat in the senior ranks, as multi national motocross champion Glen Bell recalled, “I remember Jeff racing as a junior at the age of 15 at the Australian Titles, Dargle, in 1980. He was riding a 125 and absolutely blitzed the field, and his lap times were similar to that of the Mr Motocross guys. Everyone was in awe of this kid who was just about to leap into the senior ranks”. And leap he did. Jeff’s first year in seniors saw him commute from the west coast of Australia to the Eastcoast for the big races, and staying for extended periods of time between them. He won the 125 title in Symmons Plains, Tasmania, which came as no surprise, but it was his following year in 1982 when he joined the Toshiba Yamaha Dealer Team as Stephen Gall’s team mate when things got interesting. “When he joined the Toshiba Yamaha Dealer team as Gally’s team mate he ended up beating him after a while and pretty much everyone else, plus winning the 500cc Title at Toowoomba, and he was only 17. He just set the world on fire really. He was a very determined rider and just rode so well”, Bell recalled of Jeff’s entry into the team.

   But Jeff himself was a little more humble, saying it was more a valuable year of learning and one where he gained experience from one of Australia’s greatest motocross riders. “My first year in the open class racing against the likes of Gall, Vandenburgh and Vaughan Styles etc was pretty tough. I thought I’d do a lot better against them than I did. But that year was good experience for me as I learned a lot from being Gally’s team mate. I got to train with him, and was influenced by his professional approach and attitude towards racing, plus I had a great insight to how it all worked. I remember being pretty fired up that year to do a good job as my equipment was excellent – a bit of a step up from what I previously had – so it was a good development year for me personally. We were pretty competitive and I had a good chance to win the Mr Motocross series right down to the final round, but frustratingly I had a strange miss-fire from my bike all day and I didn’t get the job done. It’s disappointing as I really thought I could have won it that year too. I did manage to win the 500 title in Toowoomba, plus many races throughout the year so it was a very successful season for me, and if I remember correctly I walked away at the end of the season with around 45,000 dollars of prize money, which was pretty good for a 17-year-old back then.”

I Let It Go To My Head

   The following season saw Jeff switch back to riding Honda’s for Honda Australia. He was confident and maybe even a little cocky after such a successful season against the big boys. “It wasn’t really a very good year for me. I was a bit up and down. I’d moved from Sydney to Melbourne, and looking back now I think I was a little too confident after my previous season and didn’t prepare myself too well, plus I think I let it go to my head a bit and didn’t train like I should have. I didn’t win an Australian title, and I think I finished around 4^th in Mr Motocross, and didn’t perform too well at all really”.

   Even though he still had a few good results overall it was a disappointing year for Jeff, and it took him towards the end of the season to start feeling good about his racing again. He got his enthusiasm back and set his goals high for the following season, with him saying, “In the off season I did a supercross in Japan and then went to America for three months to train and compete in the Golden State series, which turned out really well for me winning a few rounds and I basically came back to Australia that next year, ’84, with superb preparation and I pretty much dominated.”

“I was really fired up and had lifted my performance levels quiet considerably from the previous year. Another pivotal factor of my success in ’84 was having Gary Benn as my mechanic. Towards the end of ’83 he came out to an international event at Broadford as Hakan Carlqvist’s mechanic. Gary at the time worked for Yamaha in Europe and I heard he was available so I made a point of meeting up with him while at the event. I was struggling with the situation I had at he time and after we spoke he said he could be my mechanic for the ’84 season. Going into the season I had lifted my level a lot and bringing Gary into the equation – with his knowledge on setting up bikes and preparation – lifted my game even higher. We really got the whole package together during that season and I went on to win my first Mr Motocross series – only dropping  two or three motos – and another Australian Title in the 250 class at Broadford. I remember the first time I won all four 20-minute motos back to back at the South Australian round of Mr Motocross – it was pretty tough stuff and very demanding. You had to be really fit, especially riding the 500s.”

   There was no stopping the momentum the “Flying Freckle” from W.A. had built in that pivotal 1984 season. He had well and truly learned a valuable lesson and he now knew what it took to be a champion in the big class. Come the ’85 season the Mr Motocross premier class switched back to 250cc machines and Jeff only dropped one moto throughout the entire series to claim the crown two years in a row. It was at the end of that season he came to the realisation that if he stayed another year in Australia the challenge wouldn’t be there, so he decided to pack his bags for America where he went with the mind set of giving it his best shot, and if he failed, he’d at least fail giving it his all. 

Leap Of Faith

   Jeff didn’t fare too well at the MX Des Nations towards the end of that ’85 season. He crashed in timed practice – fracturing a few vertebras – and ended up spending a week in a German hospital. This didn’t stop him from realising his dream though. As soon as he was released he boarded a plane to America to meet with the then American Honda team manager Dave Arnold, who offered Jeff a support ride that included bikes, parts, and a bonus incentive deal, but no upfront money, which he accepted.

   Jeff had an idea what he was getting himself into before moving to America as he’d previously raced there on several occasions. He’d met a few friends, experienced the lifestyle, but it was still a huge challenge coming from the more laid-back Australian way of life. Budda, his loyal mechanic made the journey with him, and after buying a race truck, they together as a team set out to tackle the 250cc class in supercross and the 125cc class in the Outdoor Nationals.  

   But the pace and strength of the top American riders was something Jeff had to search for deep within himself to be competitive at the top level, heck, even one of his heroes smoked him during one of his first day’s of testing. “I still remember so clearly the first time I went to America and was testing at Honda’s test track and the team manager Roger Decoster was also testing a bike the same day. He must have been nearly twice my age and here I am going around as fast as I could and he’s like pulling away from me. I couldn’t believe it! I was a bit shocked at just how quick he and those guys were in those early days while getting used to the pace over there. It also made me think how quick Decoster must have been in his day. It became clear to me that the great riders in America all had one thing in common, being, their mental toughness. They’re all just so strong minded and focused on going after what they want.”

   It was a very competitive era when Jeff raced in America. The list of champions was long – Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward, Broc Glover, Johnny O’Mara, Mickey Dymond and Ron Leichen to name a few, plus new guys on the block Damon Bradshaw and Jeff Stanton. Stepping straight up to the premiere class Jeff made his debut supercross race at the legendary L.A. Coliseum finishing in 10^th place, which was a great achievement considering the competition. But then his season came to an abrupt halt during the second round in San Diego one week later, as Jeff recalled, “I had a pretty huge set back when Billy Liles decided to land on me during the final, which was a huge downer as I really started to feel some good form coming on. I’d won my heat race and felt really strong. My confidence was high and as a team we felt like we were heading in the right direction. The final was muddy and for some reason Billy decided he’d jump a jump that no one else was, and landed on me, breaking my jaw bone. It was very bad luck for me and it put me out for a very long time, pretty much the whole SX season, except for the final round in Phoenix where I came back and finished fifth.”

   The Outdoor Nationals flowed a lot better for Jeff that season. He went on to finish third in the final two rounds, and as the ranking system worked on both the supercross and motocross results combined he ended up finishing 19^th nationally. He had done enough to raise a few eyebrows though and found himself with a factory ride come the ’87 season. “Honda didn’t have a spot for me on their team the following year, and at the time I was living with American road racing champion Eddie Lawson who rode for Yamaha. He lined up talks with Yamaha and helped secure a deal for me to ride with the factory Yamaha team, which I was thankful for. I remember having a good season riding the 250 – finishing fifth overall in the supercross series with a few podium finishes, but I ended up struggling a little with the 125 and was running third in the Outdoors with a few rounds to go when I broke my collarbone, which dropped me back to around seventh in points. Nationally I finished 7^th and I did managed to win the first moto and the Hang Town round so I felt it was a pretty decent year.”  

   Jeff’s third season in America saw him head back to Honda after being dropped by Yamaha for Micky Dymond. It was back to another support ride, and on being dropped Jeff still seems surprised by it today considering his results. “The Honda ride was only support, but definitely a big increase over my first year with them. Honda set us up with a box van and we were able to test with the factory team. Decoster took pretty good care of us and helped us out a bit. But looking back now it’s pretty amazing to think you finish fifth in SX with a few podium finishes, and win a moto round Nationally, and finish where I did Nationally to then get dropped by a factory team – that doesn’t seem to happen these days”, he pointed out – reflecting on the current crop of Australians with factory rides in the States these days.  

   The ’88 season saw the Outdoor classes split to six races riding a 500 and the other six riding a 250, and after another solid performance finishing sixth in supercross, Jeff then rode to an impressive fifth place in the 500 class and sixth in the 250 class of the Outdoors’ to finish up sixth Nationally. You have to remember that no Australian rider before Jeff Leisk even came close to the success he achieved in America. He was the original pioneer that put Australia on the map in the eyes of the Americans. It was no easy feat, and of his time spent in America Jeff said, “It was such a strong era of racing, and quite daunting lining up at the gate inside the Anaheim Coliseum that seated 70,000 people, and you look down the line of 20 riders – many that you’ve looked up to for many years, and your heart’s racing, your adrenalin is pumping – it was very nervy stuff indeed. I had to toughen up quickly and get over it just to compete with those guys.”

“The American riders were also very competitive and mostly kept to themselves so it wasn’t so easy to become friends with them. There wasn’t a lot of socialising and I guess everyone was so busy because there was so much traveling week in week out – a lot of planes to catch and mid week a lot of testing to do, plus training and preparation. I did get a little bit friendly with the likes of Jim Holley and Johnny O’Mara, but for the most part I just did my own thing. I do remember Rick Johnson becoming pretty friendly with Jeff Stanton towards the end of my stint in the States, which I think helped him a lot. He got to learn how Rick trained and went about his racing.”  

“And living in a place like L.A. is so different to Australia – the amount of people, the traffic, smog, pace of life, and from the racing point of view the level is so much higher, way more intense, more aggressive on the track, plus the depth of talent runs a lot deeper. You ride, test and train a lot more, and there’s a lot more expectation and pressure put on you to get good results because there’s more dollars involved. So coming from Oz you have to lift your speed, intensity, focus and commitment if you want to be competitive.”

Coming Home

   America was an incredible time in Jeff Leisk’s racing career. His fierce determination to win saw him battle with some of the best riders in the world. He was fast when he arrived there, but even faster when he left; taking with him even more determination and desire to win the world championship in Europe. And as mentioned earlier in the story he came so close to fulfilling that dream in his debut season. If it wasn’t for some bad luck and diabolical conditions at certain rounds he might have well just done it, but it takes more than good luck and fine weather to win a world championship and come the following season that something was missing in the heart of the “Flying Freckle” from W.A. “I was keen to go out the following year to do a good job and win the championship, but to be quite honest for some reason I was lacking a little motivation. I can’t really explain why, it’s just the way I felt. We still went into the season optimistic about winning the title, and we were reasonably well prepared, but once again the first round of the championship didn’t start to well as I collided with Jacky Martens and was knocked unconscious, so on both occasions I certainly didn’t have a good start to the season”, he recalled. “Looking back now I feel I was a little burnt out from the many years of racing, and I had come to a realisation in some respects that racing wasn’t the be-all end-all to me anymore, and I did feel that in some way, I really did. I did end up winning the French G.P. that year, but my heart just wasn’t in it 110 per cent, and then when I broke a knuckle on a finger of my throttle hand at the third round in Finland it seemed to take forever to heal. It also didn’t help that I got some ill-advise from doctors saying that it would heal on its own, when in reality it needed pinning to actually mend, which I got done and it caused me to lose a lot of time off the bike that year.”

   By the time the end of Jeff’s 18^th season of racing dirt bikes had come around he was feeling a little fed up with it all, and the urge to go back the following season just wasn’t there. To this day he says, “I still really like Europe, but to live there on a permanent bases can be quite hard and challenging, especially when there’s no family around.”  “And when I came back from Europe I was fairly well burnt out on motorcycles and didn’t really want anything to do with them for quite a while, so I got into Sprintcar racing for a couple of years, and then an opportunity came up to get involved with KTM. I won the Thumpernat series for them in ‘95 and then doors opened for me to develop and run a race team for them, which I was quite excited about as I was able to draw from my years of racing experience and put it into work from the other side of the fence.”

   Jeff credits Craig Anderson for playing an important role in the early success of the KTM Racing Team. Craig, like Jeff in his prime was very dominant in Australia at that period and he played a big role in building the team up for the future in the few years he rode for the team. Jeff managed the team for four years until a management role came up within the company. “It was a change I welcomed as I got to base myself back in Perth close to family and after a few years I stepped up to the General Manager role and that’s where I’ve been ever since. I have to say I’ve really enjoyed that side of the business. It’s been a challenge, but I feel that my experience with racing and running a team, combined with working close to some good people to learn the other side of the business, has all helped to achieve the success KTM has had over recent years. I believe it’s given me a good grounding to how the whole scene works”, said Jeff proudly of the change.

   Now happily married to his wife Liana, Jeff still has the whole world at his feet. He has two boys – Christian 11 and Thomas 13, and Liana is pregnant with his third child. So what does she think about her legendary husband? “Jeff doesn’t talk about his days racing in America, Europe or even Australia for that matter. Every now and then the kids will bring up something about his racing and Jeff will tell them, but he is really a private person when it comes down to it. If I wanted to know of course he’ll tell me, but he is very quiet about his achievements and for me that’s just a part of his life that’s in the past, and I accept that and don’t really ask a lot of questions about it. Jeff is just incredibly humble and unless you knew the name you’d never know the extent of his past. Sometimes people would say to me, ‘Did you know Jeff did this or that’, and I’m like, no, I had no idea. He is definitely proud of what he has achieved though, but he just doesn’t talk about it a lot.”

   On not winning a world title Liana thinks there’s a part of Jeff that does regret not winning it only because that’s just his personality, “He just does things to the fullest, and if he doesn’t he just doesn’t feel satisfied. But in saying that I really feel Jeff is satisfied with what he’s done in his life as far as racing is concerned”. Liana also says that Jeff’s son’s Christian and Thomas are currently happy playing Rugby and racing BMX so who knows what the future holds for the name Leisk in Motocross racing. Maybe it will only live on in legend? … Only time will only give us that answer! The end.

 Jeff Leisk On…

• Regarding the likes of Reed, Burner, McFarlane, Metcalfe overseas and the next guys to go over – “Each one of those guys over there now was a stand out rider and at the top of their game in Australia before they left, maybe not so much Metcalfe, but he did show some pretty phenomenal speed before leaving our shores. I think you’ll find it will be a case of that one guy every few years that will stand out and have a chance to give it a shot. People disagree, but I think our level in Australia is quite good compared to what it was years ago. For example, if you take the top rider from Australia and put him into an American supercross he’s probably going to finish somewhere between 10^th to 20^th, where as back when I was racing the top Australian guys couldn’t even qualify for a supercross in America. So I think our level is a lot closer to that of the Americans these days, which is why you see the likes of Reed and some of those guys go there and do pretty well straight off. Look at Chad, he came straight out of Australia and finished second in the world championship at his first attempt so he was already at a fairly decent level. The other thing I’m noticing is these guys can come pretty much out of Australia and jump into a pretty good ride. When I first came out of Australia no one would give me a ride straight up. They’d be like “Australian”, who are you? Best I could get was a few free bikes and parts, the rest I had to pay for myself. The opportunity is greater for our riders to make a break overseas now thanks to the riders who have made their mark and earned respect oversea,s and there’s no doubt we’ll be seeing more heading over in the near future. Riders often ask me what money was like back when I was racing in Oz and I think there’s not too much difference between then and now. It’s all relevant really if you compare it to what real estate or things are worth these days”.
• MX Des Nations – Australia’s best ever result in the MX Des Nations was a fourth place finish overall by team members Jeff Leisk, Craig Dack and Glenn Bell. We haven’t been able to repeat that result even though we have some of the best riders in the world. Why? “I think we could for sure, but the frustrating thing is we don’t seem to be able to get the likes of Reed, Burner and McFarlene together at the same time due to injury or whatever. I’m sure if we could enter our best team we’d have every chance of finishing fourth or better. I really respect Ricky Carmichael for making a big effort in representing America every year and showing the world that he really is the best rider in the world. I really hope that our guys can pull together to make a strong team and show the world that we are among the best too.
•  Aussie scene and that “Big Rig” – “Regarding our KTM race truck; we were quite keen to lift the level of exposure and professionalism of the sport in Australia, which is why we invested heavily in the KTM Team transporter. In saying that though we always thought, and still to this day that Craig Dack’s team is one of the stand-outs in professionalism and set-up, so we try and aim at their level and even take it a bit beyond. I think these days you see all the manufacturer’s representing themselves extremely well. The thing we need to work on though is improving some of the events, which is hard considering we don’t have the population to draw from compared to Europe or America. We do have some good events out there such as Gosford and others that pull great crowds, but there’s definitely room for improvement. But putting it into perspective I think the Aussie scene does really well most of the time.”
• Riders aspired to growing up – “I always thought Bob Hannah was a great rider and racer, mostly because he was so determined. I also like Donny Hansen as he was a very strong rider, and obviously some of the all-time legends like Roger Decoster, Johnson and the like who influenced my racing over the years.”
• Toughest competitors – “I would have to say Rickey Johnson was the toughest guy I’ve ever raced against no doubt about it. He and Jeff Ward were two tough competitors that really proved themselves in both supercross and motocross. They, like Carmicheal today, showed they’re not just one discipline wonders like so many riders in the sport. Not many riders can be so competitive in both elements. Chad’s really good at supercross, but is yet to prove himself at the same level in motocross. In Europe somewhere between Thorpe and Geboer’s, but definitely Thorpe was very strong physically and as the race went on that was his strong point. His fitness was quite phenomenal.”
• Most memorable race – America: “One race I really enjoyed was winning the second moto at the US G.P held at Hollister Hills in America. It felt good to beat the European Geboer’s and American’s Broc Glover and Jeff Stanton who were in the mix. Roger Decoster was part of the team then and he came up and gave me a big hug after the race, which felt pretty good. I think anytime I stood on the podium in American SX was also pretty damn good too considering the talent on the track.” Europe: “Winning my first Grand Prix in Finland also stands out as a memorable win as an Australian hadn’t won a G.P up until that point. I actually should have one two before that one, but with running out of fuel and chains coming off I didn’t quite get there. So to finally get one it was like yeah!” Australia: “As for Australia winning my first 500 title at Toowoomba at the age of 17 was pretty amazing. I also never forget a supercross at Burswood here in Perth that Broc Glover came out for. We went head to head in a really strong battle that came down to the last race to decide the winner, and I recall feeling really inspired as I rode by the parochial West Oz crowd of around 13,000. I ended up beating Broc and the atmosphere was just incredible, and I just remember it for those reasons.”
• Training – It went up and down from year to year. Sometimes you’d wake up in the morning and have the motivation to do it, but at other periods of times you wouldn’t. But I think across the board I was an extremely hard trainer and did my fair share of work otherwise I don’t think I would have won the races that I won over the years.

Rival rider’s quotes…

• Ray Vandenburg – “We both pretty much came into senior ranks at the same time, and as far as rivals go he was the best, and the closest I’ve had through my whole career. I’d say I’d be closer to Jeff as a friend more so than any other rider I’ve raced against. Leisky is a realist – there was no bullshit, we’d go out and race head to head with the attitude being the best man will come out on top. Even now personally I respect him more than any other bloke I raced against. Jeff Leisk is the most successful rider prior to Chad Reed to make it overseas, but the difference being Jeff pretty much did it off his own back and the success he had was fantastic, which is a credit to him. He’s a top bloke and a good mate.”
•  Glen Bell – “We had some good battles, but the one that really stands out in my mind was the time he returned from the States for the Australian Championship at Mackay, 1988, right before he headed to Europe the following season. Jeff’s plan was to come back and win the 500cc title as it would guarantee him good start money when he went to Europe, as being your countries champion makes a big difference. I remember he won all three classes, the 125/250/500, but I went so close to beating him in the one he wanted most, the 500 class. I thought my best chance of beating Jeff was in the 125 class, but I seized an engine, and when I beat him in the first 500 moto I was really surprised. It was really hot that day and Jeff was on my tail the whole 30-minute race, and each lap I was waiting for him to pass me, but I’d look at my mechanic Mark Lushic(spelling?) and the pit-board showed me I was pulling out half-a-second every lap. Even Mark said to Leisky’s mechanic Budda, ‘Leisky will probably pass him soon I reckon’, but he never did and I beat him by a small gap come the end of the race. I couldn’t believe it; I’d beaten him in the race he came back to win. The second moto decided the overall winner however, and I nailed the holeshot for the second time. Jeff was on my tail once again and he knew that if I won I’d take the title he wanted so badly, and he just hounded me and pushed me so hard until I was totally buggered and he went on to pass me and win the race and therefore taking the title. It’s one race that stands out strongly in my mind when I think of Jeff Leisk. I hold Jeff in high regards as do a lot of other people that’s for sure.”
• Stephen Gall – “My initial impression of Jeff Leisk was – a  young rider with an abundance of talent with an equal amount of determination. The areas that I thought would hopefully keep me in front of him for a couple of years where race craft and fitness. This proved correct until around1984/85 when he was the one to beat. Jeff was also unique in the respect of having so much determination to reach the level in the world MX scene that he achieved, yet he came from a wealthy family. Usually, from my experience in Australia, those two ingredients don’t mix very well. Personally, I have loads of respect for his efforts and achievements.”