VOL. 55 ISSUE 27 JULY 10, 2018 P123
away as Bakersfield, as progres-
sively more printers in the LA area
refused to extend credit. In the
end they ran out of options.
"Our decision wasn't the result
of much thought and anguish,"
Bruce Cox remembered. "I re-
member sitting in the office one
Monday night. The artwork was
ready to go and only Gavin
and I were left in the office.
We were wondering where
to find the money to pay the
printer the next day and we
just kind of looked at one
another, said something to
the effect of 'well, that's that
then,' left the artwork on the
desk, walked out the door
and drove down to Newport
Beach for a couple of beers."
With his contacts in Eu-
ropean motocross, Trippe
pitched the AMA on applying
for a Grand Prix motocross
race in America, featuring
the best from Europe and
America as part of the World
Championship.
"At the time, the AMA's
leadership knew very little about
motocross," Trippe explained.
"Bruce and I had a meeting with
them and went to a chalk board
to explain the motocross scoring
system, as they didn't actually
sanction motocross back then or
have a rule book."
As a result of the meeting,
Trippe promoted one of the first
Trans AMA Motocross race series
in 1969, which eventually led
to the first United States Moto-
cross Grand Prix, sponsored by
Hang Ten—a first—being held at
Carlsbad Raceway in June of
1973. The USGP was a water-
shed event in motorcycle racing
in America. Not only did it bring
the World Motocross Champion-
ships to the United States, but
also ABC's Wide World of Sports
which televised the race live with
Bruce Brown being the producer.
It was a huge ratings success and
was instrumental in transforming
motocross racing from a hard-
core enthusiast niche sport to the
most popular form of motorcycle
racing in America in a relatively
short period of time during the
1970s.
He copied the motocross
model of bringing international
stars to America in road racing
and promoted a major AMA road
race national at Ontario Motor
Speedway in 1972. The race,
sponsored by Champion
Spark Plugs, paid an unheard-
of purse of $50,000, with
$20,000 going to the winner.
He attracted many of the top
world championship racers to
compete against the top AMA
riders in the hugely popular
event. Some of those racers
included Giacomo Agostini
and John Cooper of England,
who nipped Kel Carruthers
at the finish line for the big
money.
In an interview, Trippe gave
some insight into the mentality
it took to be a race promoter.
"You had to have a great
deal of intestinal fortitude," he
said. "At times, every nickel I had
was wrapped up in an event. You
might be sitting in a room coordi-
nating everything and suddenly
the pitter-patter sound of rain-
drops start falling and the sinking
feeling hits you that you could
lose everything. On the other
hand, there was the euphoria you
felt when you had a successful
event. There was really nothing to
compare it to." CN
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Gavin Trippe in the 1970s at the
Match Races with Gerard McCaffrey,
the third guy, along with Bruce
Cox, a kind of Three Musketeers of
motorcycle promotion, according to
Cox. (Bruce Cox Collection).
