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/1007261
VOL. 55 ISSUE 29 JULY 24, 2018 P127 had to live in the U.S. for at least two years before they were eli- gible to earn points in the Ameri- can national championships. With those rules in place Karsmakers was not allowed to earn points towards the 1974 AMA National Championship. Karsmakers raced the complete '74 AMA 250MX Championship, winning three of the nine Nation- als in '74 and earning what would have been the most points, but because of the Karsmakers rule, the official 1974 AMA 250 National Championship went to Gary Jones. Ultimately the AMA Champion- ships reopened its borders and the series became a showcase for riders from across the globe, rivaling, and at times, surpassing the prestige of the world champi- onships. But while he could contest but not win an AMA Motocross Na- tional title in 1974, that happened to be the year supercross was born in the form of the Yamaha Super Series. Karsmakers was ready. He won the inaugural AMA (250cc) Supercross Champion- ship in 1974, taking a win at Day- tona, scoring a runner-up finish in Houston and finishing fourth in Los Angeles. Karsmakers had also won at Daytona in 1973, in the pre-supercross days and he would always call that his favorite race. Karsmakers said he realized early on that supercross would become a major hit. He talked about racing in the L.A. Coliseum for the first time. "You know, there was maybe 50 or 60 thousand people inside the stadium at that time? I'm not sure, but I think that was around the number," Karsmakers told Mike Emery in a 2016 interview. "The passing was just fantastic, and the fans were really enthusi- astic. I remember, like I said, one time passing Jimmy Ellis on the double jump, but nobody doubled it. I really wanted to pass him so I thought, 'well, I'll have to go for it.' So, I passed him in the air; I actu- ally jumped over him. Right after the landing there was a right-hand turn and I missed the berm, so he got me right back on the inside line and I can still hear the spec- tators scream about that pass. I'll never forget that, I knew this would be a hit in America." One of the things often over- looked was the work Karsmakers did promoting motocross in this country when he wasn't racing. "I did motocross schools for Yamaha all over America, just really started to promote motocross," Karsmak- ers recalled. Karsmakers went to race for factory Honda in 1975. He had some great perfor- mances, including winning the 500cc National in Mex- ico, New York, that summer, but injures start plagu- ing Karsmakers, and he finished third in the final '75 AMA 500cc MX standings to Jim Weinert and Steve Stackable. Karsmakers won his final AMA National at St. Peters, Missouri, in July of 1976. He was just a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday. After retiring from full-time mo- tocross in the late 1970s, Kars- makers moved back to his home country of Holland and opened a motorcycle dealership. He con- tinued doing some off-road racing and had some solid performances in the Dakar Rally. A few years back, Karsmak- ers came back to America when he was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. He was also honored at an Anaheim Su- percross in 2014 when the AMA Supercross series celebrated its 40th anniversary. Karsmakers will always be remembered not only as the first ever AMA Supercross Champion, but as one of the key players who helped make motocross such a popular form of racing in America. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Karsmaker finished out his career in the U.S. at Honda.