Greg Albertyn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greg Albertyn (born October 13, 1973 in Johannesburg, South Africa), is a former World Champion motocross racer. He is now a real estate developer in Riverside, California.

Affectionately nicknamed "Albee", Greg won several South African and Dutch national motocross championships before moving onto the World Motocross Championship Grands Prix. Based in Europe, Greg and Belgian Stefan Everts had a fierce rivalry in the early part of their careers, with Albertyn usually getting the upper hand. Greg won the 125cc World Championship in 1992, and moved to the 250cc class for 1993. Greg won that premier class in his first attempt. He successfully defended his championship for '94. By that time he was already fielding offers to race in America for the National motocross and supercross championships.

Suzuki team manager Roger DeCoster hand picked Albertyn to return his team to the top. Greg came over for the 1995 season. Supercross racing was completely foreign to Albertyn, as he crashed his way through that series, his injuries hampered him for the outdoors where he was expected to shine. He did score and handful of podiums, showing his potential.

1996 was more of the same, with Greg only scoring a handful of top-tens in supercross. However, he did manage to stay relatively injury-free, and by the time the outdoors rolled around, Greg scored his first win at Unadilla and a few more podiums.

Teamed with Jeremy McGrath on Suzuki for 1997, Greg greatly improved his supercross technique, and had finally begun to adapt. He won the Supercross season opener in Los Angeles, and scored many other podium finishes. He won the Hangtown National and was very competitive outdoors, but DNFs riddled his season. For '98, Greg improved his consistentcy to finish second outdoors behind Doug Henry.

1999 would be Albertyn's greatest year. In one of the most competitive AMA National Championships ever, Albertyn bested Kevin Windham, Mike LaRocco, Doug Henry, Ezra Lusk, Jeff Emig, Sebastien Tortelli, Mickael Pichon, Jimmy Button and John Dowd to earn his first AMA title. It was the first premier-class championship for Suzuki in almost 20 years.

Greg broke his femur at the 2000 Atlanta supercross. He hastily returned to defend his outdoor title with the rod still in his freshly-healed bone. He was very competitive, but could not hold off the emergence of Ricky Carmichael. Greg announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Today he works as a real-estate developer, and still rides regularly. Periodically, he comes out of retirement to race select events. In the last 3 years, he's scored top-10 finishes in every one of his outings, such as the 2003 Glen Helen National and the 2004 South African Grand Prix.