Cycle News

Cycle News 2020 Issue 44 November 3

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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CN III ARCHIVES BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU T here aren't a whole lot of leg- ends and mysteries surround- ing the career of former factory motocross racer Billy Grossi, unless you count his nickname, "Sugar Bear," a rather unusual moniker for someone involved in the tough-guy world that was the 70s motocross scene. There's certainly no mystery as to how Grossi got involved in the sport. "My brother, Bob, who's six years older than me, used to race in Northern California with Brad [Lackey] and everybody," Grossi says. "My dad also was involved in racing, so it was just kind of in the family. I had no choice but to race." Cutting his teeth at places such P102 BILLY GROSSI: ODE TO SUGAR BEAR knew it, I had a mechanic. I started pulling off some pretty good motos. I got second behind Gary Jones a couple of times in some Nationals." It all came together. But after having a solid year with Kawasaki, Grossi was unexpect- edly sent packing after the com- pany elected to retain only Jimmy Weinert for the 1974 season. Grossi found a home at Honda, along with a slew of other young lions. "That's when they had [Rex] Staten, and me, and [Marty] Smith, and [Bruce] McDougal, and [Chuck] Bower and Tommy Croft. It was a big, young team. They made us work out together, play basket- ball together. It was fun." Grossi began his year with Honda in a big way, winning the AMA 250cc National MX opener at as Hangtown, White Rock [Sacramento], Watsonville, Placerville and Carnegie, Grossi raced for the fun of it, never really thinking that it could someday earn him a living. "I just kind of grew into it," he says. "When I turned 16, I went on the road with my brother. I had a sponsorship through a local dealer, and Husky helped me out a little bit. I hit the road and just went for it." Grossi's desire to pin it, win it, or die trying, eventually got the atten- tion of the manufactur- ers. He landed his first real factory ride with Kawasaki in 1973. "It wasn't like a factory ride nowadays," Grossi says. "I had bikes and parts. At the first of the year I was actually driving a truck for them, and then it got so that the bet- ter I did—winning some of the motos in the support classes—[that] before I (Right) Billy Grossi, aka "Sugar Bear," was major fixture in the motocross scene in the 1970s. (Below) Grossi came close to winning the 500cc MX Championship in 1975 while a factory Suzuki rider.

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