Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

beginning to the season and a strong ish ",._ .... Having won the first GP of the season in . .....-.--r!!l Switzerland, he continued a pace to win the last . one five months later held again in Luxembourg. the site of his ultimate defeat in 1974. He became the first man in history to win four 500cc World Championship titles in motocross. Roger's shattering competition performance en route to that historical achievement incl ud ed 12 moto wins and overall victo ry in seven Grands Prix . DeCOloter's dominance of the 1975 Grand Prix season was. in reality, even more impressive than mere statistics suggest. Again , after Italy, failure of the Suzuki's electronic ignition (new for the '75 season) robbed him of an overall GP win j ust minutes from the end of a moto. There were happily few other breakdowns that year as the RN works bike developed a reputation for reliability which it still enjoys. For Roger, that season marked a brilliant comeback, crafted with the preparation and dedication of a man who would be World Champion again . His only significant frus tration was an inability to put together overall victories in the North Ameri can swi ng o f the W orld Championship tou r. Despite winning th e firs t moto ofthe U.S . 500 Grand Prix in California and some white knuckle cha rges through th e pa ck toward a seeming victory in Canada , th e points and the wins eluded him. Somehow, the setbacks fired him to try harder rather than demoralize him . Roger , the man, had grown in maturity and understanding of how to achieve a cham pionship . After finishing t ha t last moto in Ettelbruck , Luxembourg the champagne flowed once agai n for the DeC oster family a nd friends . There were no excuses, no broken pans , no "m ight -ha vebeens . " The 1975 World Champ ionsh ip established Roger DeCoster as th e winningest and perhaps most complete motocross rac er of the decade he cont inues to dominate . Not IA bovel DeCoster made up time after cras h i ng in his effort t o catch Mikkola atthe1975 Swiss GP, incidentally, Suzuki was very happy about ha ving Mikkola and DeCoster t ied on points; Roger won on elapsed t ime.(Below , leftl Roger and Brad Lackey the yellow and black International color #1 p late compare comments on t he course before the 1975 Easter Trophy in Be lg iu m . ' Roger w ent on t o win, back on the front of one of their machines. Lackey was f ourth overall after two days of racin g. (Below, ri ghtl"l don't enjoy going t o the race s Wi th a fourth World Championship added to an ymore: ' said Roger in 1976. "I only li k e it when I'm ri ding." his string of accomplishments, Roger returned to the U .S . in the fall of the year for th e T ransAMA series. He was now the defending TransAMA champion - th e maximum U .S. ac hievement for International motocross riders . After his crush ing victories in Grands Prix , th ere was no com pe lling reason for him to put ou t a special effort to win th e TransAMA again . But he won it anyhow. Asid e from personal reasons , his main motivation for winning was for the benefit of the growing numbers of American motocross fans, many of them his fans . It has been est imated that as many as 40 percent of th e crowd at any American TransAMA race has come there primarily to see Roger DeCoster race motocross , Racing in America was good for Roger that year. He took the winner's share of a lot of purses and enlarged his already considerable image. A sense of awe and geunine affection seemed to pour from the American fans wherever he ra ced , or merely mingled with the crowd . The brutal conclusion to his season's racing came on a warm afternoon at Carnegie Cycle Park near Livermore, California . Working up from a bad start on the dusty course , DeCoster sailed over a straightaway jump rid ing flat out on an RN400 Suzuki geared for 84 MPH. When he touched down on the far side of the jump, the fro nt fork and wheel assembly parted fro m the rest of th e machine . Roger skidded 50 feet on his fa ce , tearing off helmet viso r, mouth guard, and goggles before he started bouncin g and roll in g ' across th e hard-packed cou rse . The new World and TransAMA Champion was a bloody, dirty mess by the time th e racer's reflex sent him internal messages to get off th e course. A deathly hush came over the crowd when they saw the works bike split in two and their hero crawling painfully through the dust. He was air-evacuated to a nearby hospital where a surgeon went to work with disinfectant , needle, and sutures. The doctor was used to sewing up rodeo cowboys and did a decent job of rep airi ng Roger's face though it wasn't until he was through the he knew he had stitched a World Champion back togeth er . It was the worst crash Ro ger had had in five years of Interna tional racing . People who saw the get-off that day feel he is lucky to be alive. Miraculously, nothing was broken , though his face was a complete disaster area. DeCoster had already amassed enough points to ensure the 1975 TransAMA victory for himself and his sponsors. He still felt a responsibilit y. He had the stitches taken out by th e followi ng Friday and was ta lking with some di fficul ty, abou t racing in th e fina l event of the T ransAMA series that Sunday at Saddleback Park , in Sou th ern California . Suzuki U .S. Competition Manager Me rv Wright and Roger's wife . Laurie , both prevailed on him not to race. Roger felt he should m ake an effort to race whether or not his bruised and lacerated body was telling him he could ra ce . He understood why many people came to that last Int ernation al motocross of th e yea r: to see Roger DeCoster. They did see him . Roger was there , scabby , black and blue , fac e swollen but stitchless. Wearing the cap and jacket of two of his sponsors , he mingled with the crowd , watching his first complete TransAMA race from the other side of the fence . Between motos, he worked along with the mechanics on the .ot her Suzuki riders' machines . The racing pits were open to the public after this event and , within minutes, Roger was surrounded by a crowd eager to hav e th e autog ra phed pos ters he was m ak ing avai lab le to . them as partia l co mpensa tio n for not raci ng that d a y. T he dem a nds were ge nerall y ord erly bu t th ere was an insistence from th e cro wd. Winner of th e da y. Am erican Tony DiSt efano, and seco nd overall Suzuki teammate . Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink , were in the same pits. It .was Roger who was mobbed by t he American motocross fa ns . He tri ed a victor's smi le when presented with th e silver cu p, wreath , and champagne in celeb ra tion of his overall TransAMA victory. But his m outh hurt too much from its ope n cu ts and the pleasure was more reflected in his eyes - one of whi ch was still bruised blue and purple. Fans still waited to see him or to get his autograph whi le Roger talked for a while with race promoter and CBS Vice ' President Joe Parkhurst. The cloud of people follow ed him ba ck to the Suzuki pits where he kept talking to them and autographing scraps of paper , programs, .posters and T vsh irts until it was too dark to see . • (Con tin ue d next week) 29

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