Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I t's the dream of motocross fans that rarely happens. At Castle Rock, Colorado, on June 13, 1982, every- thing came down to the final moto of the season—Broc Glover, Donnie Hansen and Rick Johnson all had a shot at winning the AMA 250cc Mo- tocross Championship, and the trio was battling up front. The mere fact that all three were fighting it out for the title in the final moto of the series was a fluke in itself. The 1982 season was a transi- tional one. The previous generation of motocross stars like Bob Han- nah, Kent Howerton, Marty Tripes and Steve Wise was on the back- side of their careers due to age and or injury, and a younger group of riders were starting to infiltrate the ranks and make their own mark. Coming into '82, the defending 250cc champ Howerton was mov- ing to the 500cc class, leaving the title vacant. Yamaha did some shifting around of its riders in '82, perhaps in a bid to win all three MX Championships. They took Glover, who'd dominated the 500cc class in '81 and moved him to 250s. They put Mike Bell in the 500cc class and moved Hannah down to the 125s, perhaps hoping to break the stranglehold on that class held by Suzuki's Mark Barnett. On paper, the lineup looked brilliant. As it turned out, things didn't go according to plan for the tuning fork brand. Honda had a nearly unbeat- able bike in the 500cc class, and Darrell Shultz and Chuck Sun went P126 tory. The win put him straight back into the championship hunt, in third, just nine points behind John- son, who finished second overall. Hansen landed on a downed rider's bike causing him to DNF the sec- ond moto. Things were not looking good for him at that point. He left Saddleback ninth in the standings. It seems out of sorts, but the or- der of riders winning their first-ever 250cc nationals went Johnson, Glover and Hansen. Hansen got his at round three on a sandy and loamy Lake Whitney (Texas) track with a 2-1. Hansen had an epic bat- tle with Glover in both motos. The crowd was running back and forth between different sections of the track to watch the riveting second- moto duel for the win. Afterward, Hansen just shook his head at the torrid pace of the moto and said, "You couldn't back off." Glover's runner-up in Texas, 1-2. Bell was fourth. Barnett won his third consecutive 125cc title after some epic battles with Jeff Ward and Johnny O'Mara. Hannah didn't win a national and finished sixth in the final standings. In the 250cc class, things almost worked out for Yamaha, but not in the way they might have expected. The 250 series consisted of just eight rounds in '82. It was fast and furious, starting and ending in the span of just two-and-a-half months. Johnson shocked the 10,000 hardcore Hangtown fans that en- dured intermittent rain to watch the 250cc rookie ride his Bob Oliver- tuned Yamaha YZ250J to victory with a 1-2 in the season opener. It marked Johnson's first national win. Glover and Hansen both suffered crashes and finished eighth and ninth, respectively. At Saddleback Glover went 1-1 to earn his career first 250cc MX vic- THE EPIC '82 AMA 250 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP Donnie Hansen chases Broc Glover at the 250cc MX National Championship final at Castle Rock in 1982. PHOTO: MARK KARIYA