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/127975
Johnny O'Mara . Part One By Eric Johnson ~ ric, Eric," yelled Sefan Everts from the passenger-side window of the silver Honda shuttle van as it rolled down the rock-strewn pit entrance of the FoxhiII Moto Park in England. The four-time World Motocross Champion had just been collected from London's Heathrow Airport' by one of the team mechanics and had just arrived for the Foxhill 250cc World ChampioI)ihip Grand Prix. It was apparent by his waving arms and the smirk on his face that he had something he needed to tell me. "Have you seen my picturebook - the one we've been working on all year?" . Everts asked me a few minutes later, back in his mptorhome. "No," I replied. "I've heard you talk about, but I have yet to see it.,Is it done?" 20 "Yes! Look at this picture!" he said, thrusting the book, which had already been opened to a particular big blackand-white photo, at me. The picture - for any true motocross fan - was haunting. Taken at the 1982 Trophee des Nations at Gaildorf, Germany, the photo displayed a shirtless Johnny O'Mara, sitting in a lawn chair in the American camp, signing an autograph book for a blond-haired 9-yearold boy. His.name? Stefan Everts. Somehow it seems fitting that Stefan Everts - arguably the world's greatest natural-terrain motocross pilot - should heap such undisguised respect and admiration on Johnny O'Mara. Renowned as one of the grea test motocross racers of the talent-saturated 1980s, the "O'Show," as he was known, electrified the motocross circuits of the world with his talent, style, charisma and California-surfer good looks. First kicking a big dent in the National scene aboard an ice-cream-truckwhite Mugen Honda in 1980, O'Mara eventually joined forces with Team Honda in 1982 - the big-brother company of Mugen - and set off on an illustrious career that, in all reality, paralleled the rise to power of the mighty American-based Honda race operation during the early and middle parts of tl)e decade. However, despite all the Grand Prix and Motocross des Nations wins, the international supercross victories, the National Championships, the powerful and exotic Honda motorcycles and the acclaim and popularity he would receive, O'Mara's career was haunted by a series of shudder-inducing incidents that would ultimately leave indelible scars on the Californian's psyche. But it was all part of the ride - a ride that crossed the planet and a. ride that earned him fans in virtually every corner of the world. And while there were certainly some serious ups and downs that led to some serious soul searching for the Southern Californian kid, there was also a hell of a lot of fun and games. Notorious for stunts and gags that were right out of the hammer-wielding, headslapping, eye-pOking Larry, Curly and Moe playbook, O'Mara and his partner in crime, David Bailey, wreaked havoc.in a lighthearted way - on hotels, air-