Early racing career Håkan Carlqvist was born on 15 January 1954 in the
Järfälla Municipality just outside of
Stockholm, Sweden, As a youth, he excelled in multiple sports such as
ice hockey,
football, and
downhill skiing. He began riding a 125cc street motorcycle at the age of 16 and within a year, he had progressed to riding a
KTM enduro motorcycle. Despite his lackluster season, the Husqvarna factory offered Carlqvist a factory prepared motorcycle along with mechanic Tommy Jansson for the
1979 season. He also won the 1979
Le Touquet beach race. At the 1979 Trophée des Nations event held in
Barkarby, Sweden, Carlqvist was once again the top individual points scorer.
Yamaha factory team Carlqvist joined the
Yamaha factory racing team for the
1980 season, replacing
Heikki Mikkola who had made the decision to retire from competition. He was also the top individual points scorer at the 1981
Motocross des Nations event held in Bielstein, West Germany. In
1982, he suffered a broken arm in a pre-season accident forcing him to miss the opening rounds and he ended the season in seventh place. In the 1983 500cc World Championship, Carlqvist's main competitors were the Honda teammates Graham Noyce and the defending champion André Malherbe. Noyce faded in the second half of the season as Carlqvist and Malherbe continued to battle back and forth in one of the hardest fought championships in several years. The championship wasn't decided until the final race of the year in Holland where Carlqvist prevailed to win the 500cc World Championship by seven points over Malherbe. He was the first Swedish competitor to win the premier motocross class since
Bengt Åberg in
1970. The 1984 500cc Motocross World Championship featured one of the most talented field of competitors of the 1980s. The 1984 season is prominent for featuring all three of the previous year's world champions – Carlqvist (500cc),
Georges Jobé (250cc) and
Eric Geboers (125cc). Unfortunately, another injury during the 1984 World Championship stopped Carlqvist from defending his title. The setting of the Belgian Grand Prix was a rugged, narrow track in the forests surrounding the picturesque hilltop
Citadel of Namur. First held in 1947, the Namur Grand Prix was revered by motocross enthusiasts in the same manner that auto racing enthusiasts considered the
Monaco Grand Prix to be the crown jewel of the
Formula One season. Carlqvist had won the first heat race and was leading the second heat race by over thirty seconds when, he stopped trackside where his brother was holding out a can of beer. Carlqvist proceeded to drink the beer as the spectators cheered his display of bravado. He was first with Yamaha but in 1986 he rode for Honda and he won the Swedish three wheeled national championship. He had plans to come to the United States in 1987 to race for Honda and several
Honda ATCs were built specially for him. However, under political pressures ATCs and three wheelers were banned in the United States following many reported injuries and pressure from consumer groups. He never made it to America to race for Honda. Carlqvist died on 6 July 2017 at the age of 63 from the effects of a
brain hemorrhage he suffered the previous day. ==Career overview==