Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1002797
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE D uring his heyday, Gavin Trippe acted as if there was no limit to what he could pull off. Fortunately for us, he had the energy, the right partners, and the ability to get others excited about his plans. Ultimately, motorcycle racing is richer for it. We lost Trippe last week to an auto accident and with his pass- ing the sport lost one of its true greats. The list of things Trippe had his hand in is simply astonish- ing. Trippe was one half of the legendary promotional company Trippe-Cox Associates (along with his partner and fellow Brit- ish expat Bruce Cox). This was the partnership that brought America the Hang Ten U.S. Motocross Grand Prix, the ABC Wide World of Sports Superbik- ers (which helped foster the launch of the AMA Superbike Championship), promoted the Transatlantic Match Races, and published a motorcycle publica- tion that raised the bar on racing coverage in this country. It's not hyperbole to say that Trippe and Cox were two of the most seminal figures in all of motorcycle racing during their fruitful partnership that lasted for 15 years, starting in 1969. P122 A MAN OF UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES sphere of 1970s California. It sat on the end of a runway at John Wayne Airport, and one after- noon Evel Knievel unexpectedly showed up to ask Gavin to come to Las Vegas with him. "I got a new plane," Knievel bragged to Gavin. "But you don't fly," Gavin said. "I got a new pilot, too," Evel came back. With that they were off to a crazy 12 hours in Vegas. While the writing was great, and the race coverage second to none, the business side of the paper was not as successful. In the latter period of Motor Cycle Weekly's run, Gavin began going from print shop to print shop trying to string out credit as much as he could. In the final months, Gavin, a learning pilot, flew edit boards to printers as far A dodgy driving record may have been the deciding factor that led Trippe to say yes when Bruce Cox proposed he come over to America to start a motor- cycle racing newspaper with him. "I was about to lose my license because I had too many speed- ing tickets," Trippe recalled. "I came over and checked it out and since I was about to lose my license anyway I decided to cash everything in and join Bruce in America." Trippe's heavy throttle hand proved to be a massive gain for American motorcycle racing. He and Cox launched Motor Cycle Weekly, which not only put much more emphasis on the road rac- ing coverage that had ever been done before in America, but it also set a high standard of racing journalism. "We commissioned features from freelancers and actually employed full-time two of the finest feature writers in motor- cycle and motoring journalism of those days—Joe Scalzo and Sam Moses. They are still well known and respected worldwide as magazine feature writers and book authors." The office, while business like, also reflected the laid-back atmo- Gavin Trippe, 1940-2018