Torleif Hansen

Hansen was born on 5 October 1948 in Upplands Väsby, Sweden. He idolized World Champion Torsten Hallman and began racing motorcycles at the age of 16. At the age of 20, Hansen scored in his first Motocross World Championship points with a fifth-place finish at the 1968 250cc Austrian Grand Prix riding a Husqvarna motorcycle. He suffered a broken leg while racing which forced him to miss the entire 1969 season. In just the third Grand Prix race of his career, the 21-year-old Hansen scored a surprising victory at the 1970 250cc French Grand Prix. After the 1971 World Championships, Hansen traveled to the United States to compete in the 1971 Trans-AMA motocross series. The Trans-AMA series was an international series established by the American Motorcyclist Association as a pilot event to help establish motocross in the United States. He finished the series ranked third overall behind the overall winner Sylvain Geboers (Suzuki) and Adolf Weil (Maico).