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VOLUME 57 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 13, 2020 P153 another four on Van der Ven. La- Porte finished fourth, 27 seconds behind the Dutchman. The momentum shift after moto one was obvious, as Jobe was clearly relaxed and confident while LaPorte appeared to be more tense, seriously concentrat- ing on the task at hand. He still held an 11-point advantage over Jobe going into the final moto. "It was like serving for the match in the final at Wimbledon," LaPorte recalls. "The nerves kind of get to you, and you start to double fault. There was a lot of pressure connected to winning that title." Anything could happen in moto two, and it did, to Jobe, not unlike the miscue that destroyed Andre Vromans' chances to steal the title away from Lackey. Jobe was knocked down on the opening lap of moto two after making con- tact with Heinz Kinigadner. Jobe remounted and charged from last to 15th by lap five. Before the moto was over, he would pass a total of 32 riders to finish third. LaPorte was not one of them, however. More relaxed on the track than he had been before the start of the final moto, he moved into second place on lap 12 and rode conservatively, doing the job that he had come to do. "I knew that all I had to do was stay near Jobe," LaPorte says. "I knew that he had nothing to lose, and I think that he just got over-amped, trying to create something." Although LaPorte finished some 19 seconds behind Hansen, it didn't matter. LaPorte was America's first 250cc World Motocross Champion. As he crossed the line, Yamaha team manager and former World Champion Heikki Mikkola blasted LaPorte with champagne, bless- ing the moment with both gravity and levity. With the title, LaPorte joined road racer Kenny Roberts as the only American ever to win a World Championship title on his first try. He may not have been the first in his sport, but ever the team player, LaPorte says he has no regrets about that. "What was really cool is that I was there to watch Brad win his championship, and then I won mine," LaPorte says. "And the money didn't matter." Always in search of another goal, LaPorte actually stayed in Europe longer than he would have liked, defending his 250cc title the following season before taking a brief fling in the 500cc GPs aboard uncompetitive factory Yamaha 500s in 1984. "I did go back and defend the title in '83, and I had some mechanical problems and a few DNFs that were really critical, but I still feel like I had a better year that year," LaPorte says. "I won more races. In '84, the goal was to be 500cc World Champion, but I didn't really get the support from Yamaha. They had a lot financial difficulties at that time." LaPorte returned home to America to finish his moto- cross career as a member of Team Husqvarna in 1985. He later switched to off-road racing, partnering with off-road legends such as Larry Roeseler and Paul Krause to win the Baja 1000 aboard a Team Green Kawasaki in 1988. With Ted Hunnicutt and Roeseler, LaPorte went on to win the next three Baja 1000s in a row, 1989-'91. He also scored a gold medal at the ISDE in Ger- many in 1989. He also contested the Paris-Dakar off-road rally five times, his best finish being second overall, and he won the Pharoahs Rally. Today, LaPorte holds a position with FMF Rac- ing. Like a lot of his peers of the era, LaPorte has done a lot in the sport of motorcycling. "When I was a kid, Malcolm Smith was my hero," LaPorte says. "The reason I even went over to Europe was because when I was a kid, I wanted to be the best dirt bike rider in the world." It would be hard to argue against him. CN This Archives edition is re- printed from issue #29, July 28, 2004. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Ar- chives articles while still plan- ning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor. Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives