Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

here is no sha me in the persist en t a ttemp ts of Jona thon Beasley and G uiseppi Luongo (hea d of the Ac tion Group, the producers of all th e FIM World Cham pionship MX races) to p ro mo te GP mo tocro ss racing. Th ese two men fro m differe nt backgrounds and di fferent parts of the world sha re a common goal: to bring to the people the pageantry, the po mp and the athleticism of world -class motocross raci ng for all of the world to see . The USGP tha t took place in Budds Creek, Maryland, in the good 01' U.s. of A. was a racing jackpo t. The only thing missing we re the droves of fans such an epic battl e sho uld have drawn. The even t was tel eca st li ve... yes, live, to ove r two hundred million people all over the world. America's shame lies in th e fact th at a mer e handful of spec ta tor s sho wed up to wi tness history in th e making . Th e 250cc class o f GP racing has stead ily become the most difficu lt class of racing in th e w orld . For th e la st seve ra l yea rs, th e t it le ha s boiled down to the las t rno to of the last ra ce of the season. It doesn't get a ny be tte r tha n this, folk s. Fre deric Bolley , the French co n tender (w ha t's u p with France, anyway?) rode through a slim poi nts lead over the fierce German, Pit "Pitb ull" Beir er , and the ne rve-wra cking final mot o to clinch his first World Cham pions h ip. The re seemed to be as many Eu ro pea n fans supporti ng th eir rid ers as there we re Americans rooting for " Ry no" and " K-Du b ," the ra ce ' s winner. Whe re' were all the fans th at line d th e fe nces for the Moto cro ss De s Na tions in 19871 I was at that race and the mud was 2 feet d eep - on the spectator s' side of the fence (the track's mud was at least 3 feet d eep ). We, the Am erican fans, sho wed up in droves to cheer ou r boys o n a nd ba s icall y to " rep resent" in fro nt of the whole damn world. We w er e Ame rica ns, damn it, and we had to show the world that we weren't scared of an ything. Through the heroic efforts of Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward and Bob Hannah, we sque aked by with the wi n . T We squeaked by, and that should've been the writing on the wa ll.·The Euros we re catching ba ck u p to us from our early-'80s domina nce. But we didn't see the writing. Even w hen a French in terloper (what's up wi th France, anyway?) wandered on to our scene and in a matter of three years wo n every title ther e was to wi n, we still d idn' t pu ll ou r collective hea d out. Much of the American press was still living off the past glory of previous MX des ations victo ries, and d eridin g elite World Champions such as Dave Tho rpe. The u.s, p ress of the '80s is dir ectly r esponsibl e for th e pla cati on of t he America n motocross racer / fan's psyche. We we re all lulled int o thinking we we re hot stuff and could n't be tou ched . After losin g the MX d es Nation s a few times in a row , we sim ply decid ed it was n ot a w orthwhile effo r t to loo k more closely a t the Euro pea n supers tars. The ,real sha me of it all is th at an yone wh o didn't trek down to Budd s Creek th is tim e missed the mo st aweso me racin g of th e entire year. Imagine for a m inute a race w it h some of th e best American ri ders, going a t th e ir ty pical quasar speed. Now add all of the best race rs from t he re st of the wo rl d . T h at is w h a t yo u mi s s e d at Budds Cr eek. Ryan Hugh es, spurred on by the few manic Am ericans w ho d id sho w up to lin e the fence and cheer ou r boys on, rode himself int o a stupor. At the awards presenta tio n, Ryno passed ou t an d had to be given oxygen. Troo per that he is, he struggled throu gh the p resentation to the d elight of the fans t h a t h ad ro oted h im o n. That is th e kind of effort that is displayed a t a GP , rarely at a ati on al. You sho u ld feel bummed tha t you missed it. lf you wa nt to blow it off by saying that an Am eri can won anyway, yo u only hav e half of the picture. You wou ld n' t know that a Belgian, Stefan Everts, w on the fir st moto by a good margin - a nd looked as ruffled af te rward as if he had been sitting on th e s o fa w a tch ing football. You al so wouldn't know that at any of this year's Nationals, the pack started to string out after two or th ree la ps. At th e Creek, clusters of riders ba rreled down the huge hills side by side a nd exited the turns still side by side. No one gav e up at all until the mo re fit rid ers kept their blistering pace past the halfway mar k of the 45-minute moto. You sho ul d have been the re! The "old school" pres s d erid ed th e Euros fo r thei r lac k of s tyle . Ha h! They simp ly did n't ri de th e way the supercross-bred rid ers do. Th ey didn't care a bout s u perc ross to th e extent t h at we d o . M ot o cr o s s o n a wi deopen, ro ugh-a nd- tumble track is what th e GPs a re abou t. Th ere are ou tdoor rid er s a nd th ere a re indoor rid er s a nd , . fa ct or y em p loy men t p o li ci es aside, ra r e ly th e tw a in s h a ll m e et. G uess what? At th e USG P, rid ers we ha ve n ever o r ra rel y ever heard of wou ld ha ve blown a certain su perc ross-only specia list away. The U.S. b o y s n e ed ed b erm s to bounce off to keep m omentum in th e corners. The Euros have a stran ge, wid eo pen-aro u nd -the- inside, flat-track style of corne ring. lt doesn't look as flashy as o u r rid ers' , but it is d eadl y effect ive. Everts' total dominance in the first mot o was testa ment to that. Some w ill cry that the FIM ru le of no doubles is a copout. It is not; d oubles are for a su pe rcross track w he re tim in g is key . GP motocross is about all the things tha t made motocro ss what it is today - the most d ifficult of th e ex tre me s po rts o n th e p lanet: courage to keep it p inned, st re ngth to hang on when yo u' re tired and mental toughness to put it all together w he n yo ur body keeps tellin g yo u to quit. Th e Am erican heroes o f yes teryear, Pom eroy, Hannah, DiStefano and Weiner t ra ced agai ns t th e G P rid ers when "Firs t America n" was an honor. They laid the grou n dwor k for th e mod est d ominance we enjoy ed in the '80s. They were n ' t "c o w ards," as Mr. Ever ts so bluntly put it. The excu se of fati gu e a t the end of the season is half-truth. The top riders who bailed out of the USGP did the Am erican MX fan a disservice as mu ch as them selves , Why a re th es e same rid ers not too tired to go race a Europea n supercross for b ig bucks in the off-season? All praises go to Kevin Wi ndham, Greg Albertyn (a Euro, who wasn't too tired), and Ryan Hug hes for defend ing the Ll.S, honor . Also to Trampas Parker, Mike Brown, Jeff Dem ent an d any other America n vying for the title of World Cha m pio n. Wake up, Ame rica: The Euros aren' t comi ng, they' re here! When two European GP racers are the front-runners in ou r own ational Cha m pionship, we n e ed to r e think ou r p o s it ion i n th e World MX com munity. We can' t res t on the laurels of the Stanton -era rid ers. The changin g of the gua rds is at han d, an d unl e ss w e p a y m ore at te ntio n a n d respect to the World Ch am pi onship s, w e a re in for a lot of o the r G P rid ers winning ou r titles . Shad es of the bygon e days of "Firs t Am eri can " ca n' t be too mu ch further beh ind . If by some miracle Jonathon Beasley promo tes an other USG P (e ve n a t th e risk of common sense), I for one will certain ly be there to root for my country's riders. The British, Belgian, Dutch.Cer. m an a n d French fans w ho trave le d across the po nd seemed to think it was importa nt enough to ma ke the trek from where they live. I am em barrassed at the fact that so few Americans sho wed up to su ppo rt the spo rt at its highest level. The Eu ropean contingen t mus t su rely be snickering at us by now. Motocross is at a worldwide crossroa ds . On one hand lays the ma ins tream and the bigtime, where our best rid ers U'S, and European - beco me hou seh old names. On the other hand lies the obscuri ty of the fad -ex tre me spo rts fad eo u t. Unless we Ame ricans start put ting more im po r ta nce o n t he World Ch amp ionships, we will never be able to ma rket th is , s po r t g lo bally. Jon ath on an d Giuseppi, I sha re your vision of a world where m otocr oss is o n th e air live as often as socce r or auto racing. A world where everyone kn ows who Fred eri c Bolley, Aless io Chiodi and Andrea Bartolini are as well as they do Mika Hakkin en , Michael Schumach er and Ala in CI/I Prost. It is about pride! Looking Back 30 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 14, 1969 teve McLa ughlin co uld do lit tle e lse bu t s mile ove r w h at was left of his ba rbecued Yama ha 350 road racer. See ms that 01' Steve was running the bike in practice for an AFM eve nt when it broke a fuel line and sprayed down the rear tire. McLaug hlin crashed, the crash created spa rks, you can guess the rest ... Mert Lawwill (H-D) proved that he was cham p and not chu mp by winni ng the Ascot Na tiona l Half Mile w hen d irt track 's best returned to Sou thern Cali fornia. Gene Romero (Tri) was second , a nd Mel Lacher (H-D) was third ... The Jackass Enduro near Red Mou ntain, California, had a reasonable tu rnout - 885 riders!... Englishmen Dave Smith and M ike Runyard u sed America n bikes - Ame rica n Eagles - to wi n the 500cc and 250cc Senio r classes, respectively, a t the Saddleback Park Motocross in Southe rn California ... Steve Bast wo n the U.S. Na tional Speedway Championship at Costa Mesa Speedway in Ora nge Co un ty, California. John Carter was second, and Rick Woods was third. S 20 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 10, 1979 eir to the Grand a tio na l thron e - a lbeit a yea r away - Randy Goss (H- D) ou tra n th e rest o f the field to wi n the Ascot Natio nal Half M il e , thu s w ra ppi ng . u p the 1979 seaso n. Mike Kidd (H-D) was second, and Gary Scott (H-D) was third ... Kent Howerton (Suz) fought off the flu to wi n rou nd tw o of the Tr a n s - USA MX Se ries at Red Bud Track ' n Trail in Buchanon, Mich igan. Mike Bell (Yam) was seco nd, while last week's w in ner Andre Malherbe . (Hon) finished th ird ... We gave read ers a brief phot o review of the ISDE from West Germany . Inclu ded in the photos was a pic of a trick-looking Sachs-powered KTM 50. Th e bike was ridden to a Gold meda l by its West German rid er... We took a look at the Kawasaki factory enduro team... We took a rid e on the World Cha mpio ns hi p 500cc MX Series title-winni ng Hon d a RC -450-79 of Graham Noy ce... .N e w AMA 500cc ational MX Champion Danny LaPorte was also profiled . H 1 0YEAR SAGO... OCTOBER 4,19 89 d d ie Lawson was cro w ned ·500cc Wo rl d C ha m pion fo r th e fo u r th ti me in his career - and the first on a Ho nda - at the Brazilian GP . Kevin Schwantz (Suz) wo n the ra ce ... Damon Bradshaw (Yam) ripped th e Binghamton, ew York, rou nd of th e AMA 125cc National Cham pionship MX Series with the same force that Hurricane Hugo ex hi bited w he n it ripped th rou gh h is ho me tow n in Sou th Carolina . Jeff Stanton (Hon) wo n the 500cc Na tio nal ro u nd held the same day... BMW 'u nveiled its new RIOOGS Pari s-Dakar adventure bike... Duane Conner (Yam) ou tdueled Mark Hyde (KTM) in a la te-race spri nt to the fin ish, winning th e Buc keye GNCC in Waterford, Ohio... England won a tragedymarred Worl d Team Cup Trophy at Bradford, England. The race was clouded by the career-ending crash of three-time World Speedway Cha mpion Eri k Gundersen of Denm ark, who received near-fatal injuries in the very first hea t race . Gu ndersen would survive and go on to foste r the careers of two future World Champions - Billy Hamill and Greg Hancock. CI/I E ( Hon) . 0> 0> 0> ui ~ C1l .c o U o 95

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