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/126620
Interview: Ron Hendricksen Pied piper to the MX youth By Lance Bryson They came from 46 states last year; 7,000 people descending upon Ponca City in Oklahoma for the grand finale in the National Motosports Association's Grand National Champions hi p MX Series. Of the 7.000, there were over 2.000 entries in the race itself. Sixtyseven classes ran tWO rno tos 24 apiece, and that was before th e run offs for th e larger divisions. And it wasn 't the first time, nor th e last , th at th e NMA ha s hosted a big event. There have been five Grand National Championships a t Pon ca City, and th e first NMA championsh ip race ran a t Houston 's Rio Bravo Cycle Park in 1977. The NMA 's other big single event is th e World Mini G P. which has run annua lly in southern California since 1972. T he NMA was fo u nded in the year befo re, spearhea ded by p resent head honcho Ro n Hendricksen and a group of other fat hers of mi nicycleriding you ngsters . T he NMA started with a regular program of minicycle-on ly races at India n Dun es, and from th at they expanded across the co unt ry beginn in g in 1974. Hendricksen's cu rrent partner, Ted Moorewood, joined the orga nization. Like Hendricksen, he came in th e world of mini cyc1ing through his son. Since then, the NMA has expanded to 20 regions across the country. a nd their progra m to incl ude up to 250cc motorcycles. Graduates of th e NMA program incl ude J eff Wa rd (one of th e ea rliest NMA stars ). Broc Gl ov er . Bria n Myerscough, Scott Burnworth, Erik Keh o e, George Holland , Johnny O'Mara and Jim Holley. Georgia's Billy Liles went from win ni ng th e 250cc Expert class in Ponca City last year to making the finals of Supercross races this yea r. To find out how this a ll came about. we recently sat down to talk to He ndricksen. The discussion took place at h is other place of business, a pr inting company that he ow ns . How did the NMA come about? We sta rte d in 1971. I and two other fat he rs were ta king o ur kids individually out to Saddlebac k with their littl e minibikes. T hey were true m in ibikes with Briggs & Stra tto n type engines and eigh t-inc h wheels . T here wasn't a ny p lace for th em to rea lly rid e suc h a th ing so we set u p a li tt le ma keshift co u rse in the parking lot , usi ng th e track barrels for the kids to ru n around. We were ab le to convi nce Saddleback to start a mini raci ng activity, and it started out wi th probabl y about 20-25 people, young riders and their parents . As tha t pr ogr essed , we went up to Indian Dunes and convinced them that we'd like to start a mini activity there too. The World Mini Championsh ip Nation al - how did that come about? The Worl d Mini Grand Prix started in 1972 and has a un ique name; in fact it's somew ha t of a m isn omer. We got to th in kin g that it wou ld be reall y neat to ha ve a big event at Indian Dunes and we looked at the regular motocross track as opposed to the little mini track that we were runn ing on and we thought , " Boy, that thing is so long." It 's almost a mile long. If we send the kids out there on their little bikes alter we smooth it all off it would be like they were in a long course grand prix. So we decided to call it a grand prix world championship. Of course today. with th e eq u ipment the kids hav e and the ability that we've developed through NMA, the Experts are covering that same kind of course as fast as 125cc Pros are. Bu t at the time it looked like a giant grand prix, a 7-8 mi le co urse to a motorcyclist in the eyes o f the yo ung m in ib ike rider. So tha t's the reason for th e name a nd we've kept th e name because of its world-reno wn ed h istory. And we now h ave the World Min i Grand Prix at Sad d leback Park " t it is a motocross bu event for m in icycles a nd mot orcycles. H ow did yo ur national program come abo ut? Well, we were doi ng the World Mini GP and a lo t of o th er events. We went to Texas and put on a major event. We went to Florida a nd had a major event in O rla ndo . This was all during 1972 and 1973 a nd just pa rt ofthe growth that started deve lopi ng wi th w hat we were doing in NMA . Fi nallv we decided tha t in 1974 we would start wh at we would call our "Nation al s." o r a nati on al progra m a nd tha t began with a four-race series across th e co u nt ry. It was in In dian Dunes in Ca liforn ia ; Houston , TX; Tuscal oosa, AL ; and Orlando , FL. T ha t was th e beginning of o ur nationa l progra m. T he n in 1975 we expa nded that. Agai n it wa s a tour, so to speak. of II races across th e Un ited States. Then as we grew furth er with it into 1976, we ca me up with th e idea of involving more kid s an d more families and making it more economically feasible to separate the country into regions and we separated th e country in 1976 into four regions . And then the regional top qualifiers , moved on to Springfield, MO , where we had our very first Grand Nationa l Championsh ip. In 1977 we had q u ite an expansion, growi ng to eigh t regions. We moved o ur G rand Na tio na l Champ ionship to H ouston 's Rio Bravo Raceway. The eig ht reg io ns brought us some 600-plu s entr ies fro m about 22 stat es. A lot o f th is ac tivity. of co urse, was wes t o f th e Miss issip pi at the tim e and th en down th rough the sou th and into Florida. In 1978 we expanded agai n to 12 regi ons a nd that was o ur firs t year we had th e Grand Nationa l Champion - ยท shi p a t Ponca Ci ty. OK, which now ha s become. we believe. the mo st well -known m otoc ro ss event in the world. In '79 we moved up to 14 regions a nd it has been a growth factory right up to the present. Las t year we h ad 17 regions and this year we have 20 regions wit h the co untry virtually comp letely covered to p resent a true Grand National Championsh ip. Can you go from regi on to region to qualify? Whichever region that you begin yo u r act ivity in , you stay in as far as qua lify ing. In other words, the Western I reg io n . began on May 8-9 at Las Vegas . If yo u raced that event yo u're in that region. You ca n' t switch over to the Arizo na regio n or go to northern Ca li fornia a nd race in th a t region to q ua lify. Wedo a llow you to go race th e events but yo ur p oints won 't q ua li fy yo u or tran sfer to your regio n to qualify yo u to go to Po nca City. We don 't disa llow anyone wh o belong s to NMA to race an y N MA races. With th e amount of tra vel and th e amount of money being spe n t at rac es, do yo u find some of the race rs and parents gelling burned out and coming up short of dough? Well, I think it 's th e American way to find your way to progress and if you ca n 't afford it, you can't afford it and yo u 're simply aren ' t in it . We do everything we poss ib ly can from the standpoint of cos t; w het her it be the fact tha t you are able to sta y pretty well in yo ur own local e a nd qualify and then pla n your vacation and pl an yo ur econom ics for that o ne big tr ip to wh at we th in k is a very wellru n a nd a very worthwhile event. We do feel th at th ere is a n econ omic p in ch . but by th e same token to th e best o f our kn ow ledge, we th in k we'v e go t to th e pulse of th e country. Why Ponca City in Oklahoma for the Grand Nationals? Ponca Cit y is probabl y th e most un ique fa cilit y a n d to wn in th e Un ited Stat es when it co mes to th is kin d o f ac tivi ty. First of all. Pon ca City is righ t in th e center of th e co u ntry. We a ll h ave to go the same di sta nce, mea ni ng the ri der in Florida, th e rider in Was h ington , the ri der in T exa s, the rider up in New England, etc. So it is centraIIy located. Secondly, I've personally seen some 60 to 70 motocross faci lities through-