Torleif Hansen (born 5 October 1948) is a Swedish former professional motocross racer. He competed in the FIM Motocross World Championships from 1968 to 1983, most prominently as a member of the Kawasaki factory racing team.

Biography 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).Trans-AMA Motocross Records, American Motorcyclist, January 1975, Vol. 29, No. 1,

In 1974, Hansen won three 250cc Grand Prix races, but failed to score points in over half of the races and finished the season ranked fourth in the World Championship. He won two Grand Prix races during the 1976 250cc Motocross World Championship, putting himself in second place behind the points leader Heikki Mikkola (Husqvarna) when he suffered an injury that forced out of contention. He would finish fifth in the final points standings.

Hansen had his best season in 1978 as a member of the Kawasaki factory racing team when he won five Grand Prix races and finished second to Gennady Moiseyev in the 250cc Motocross World Championships. He won the final two races of the season allowing him to leap from fourth to second place in the championship final points standings. Hansen, Hans Maisch (Maico) and Vladimir Kavinov (KTM) finished the season separated by just three points in the final standings. Hansen competed in his final World Championship race at the 1983 250cc Finnish Grand Prix at the age of 34.

Hansen won 12 individual heat races and 12 Grand Prix victories during his world championship racing career. He was a 250cc Motocross Vice Champion (1978) and won six Swedish Motocross Championships (1973, 1975-1978, 1982). Hansen was a member of six Swedish Motocross des Nations teams (1976-1979, 1981-1982) and ten Trophée des Nations teams (1970, 1973-1979, 1982-1983).

Motocross Grand Prix Results Points system from 1952 to 1968: Position  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th  Points 8 6 4 3 2 1

Points system from 1969 to 1980:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

Year Class Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Pos Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 1968 250cc Husqvarna ESP- ESP- BEL- BEL- CZE- CZE- FRA- FRA- NED- NED- GER- GER- LUX- LUX- POL6 POL- USR- USR- YUG- YUG- FIN- FIN- SWE- SWE- UK12 UK- AUT4 AUT6 22nd 2 1970 250cc Husqvarna ESP16 ESP- FRA3 FRA1 BEL4 BEL14 YUG11 YUG- ITA- ITA3 USR5 USR- POL5 POL- UK7 UK3 FIN3 FIN3 GDR9 GDR- CH4 CH- AUT- AUT- 8th 35 1971 250cc Husqvarna ESP7 ESP- CH- CH- POL- POL- GER4 GER1 YUG8 YUG6 ITA- ITA- NED- NED- GDR- GDR- FIN- FIN- SWE- SWE- UK- UK- AUT- AUT- 12th 17 1972 250cc Husqvarna ESP- ESP- FRA- FRA- NED- NED- CZE- CZE10 YUG- YUG- GER- GER- POL- POL- USR- USR- FIN- FIN- SWE7 SWE4 UK8 UK13 CH- CH- 18th 9 1973 250cc Kawasaki ESP4 ESP- ITA- ITA4 BEL6 BEL- CH5 CH- POL6 POL3 YUG4 YUG- FRA- FRA- FIN- FIN- USR3 USR3 SWE2 SWE2 AUT2 AUT3 4th 111 1974 250cc Kawasaki ESP- ESP- ITA- ITA- CZE4 CZE- POL- POL- YUG1 YUG3 UK2 UK1 GER- GER- NED5 NED- FIN- FIN- SWE1 SWE3 CH- CH3 4th 101 1975 250cc Kawasaki ESP- ESP4 AUT7 AUT- BEL7 BEL- CZE- CZE- POL- POL- YUG- YUG- GER1 GER- UK- UK- FRA- FRA- SWE- SWE3 FIN3 FIN- CH1 CH- 10th 66 1976 250cc Kawasaki ESP2 ESP2 BEL- BEL- CZE3 CZE2 POL3 POL2 USR- USR- YUG- YUG- ITA- ITA- FRA- FRA- UK- UK8 GER- GER- NED2 NED- SWE- SWE2 6th 95 1977 250cc Kawasaki ESP- ESP- CH- CH3 BEL- BEL4 CZE- CZE- ITA5 ITA3 AUT- AUT- USR- USR- YUG- YUG4 GER5 GER3 UK- UK- SWE- SWE- FIN- FIN- 11th 58 1978 250cc Kawasaki ESP3 ESP- ITA- ITA- CZE1 CZE3 YUG1 YUG2 AUT- AUT- GER2 GER2 UK- UK- FRA- FRA- USA- USA4 SWE- SWE6 FIN1 FIN2 USR2 USR1 2nd 153 1982 250cc Yamaha CH- CH- ESP- ESP- BEL- BEL- CZE- CZE- ITA- ITA- FRA- FRA- UK- UK- NED- NED- USR- USR- USA- USA- FIN5 FIN- SWE- SWE5 22nd 12 1983 250cc Yamaha ESP- ESP- FRA- FRA- ITA- ITA- NED- NED- BUL- BUL- GER- GER- UK- UK- CAN- CAN- USA- USA- CH- CH- SWE1 SWE2 FIN- FIN2 10th 39Sources:

References