Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES P130 BY LARRY LAWRENCE MR. HOLESHOT W yman Priddy was known by a couple of nicknames. One was "The Father of Texas Motocross" and the other was simply "Mr. Holeshot." Priddy was the first big name to emerge from Texas in the early days of motocross in America and in 1972, the first official year of the AMA Motocross Championship, he was a top contender. He won a 500cc National in Washington, Indiana, in what may have been the closest AMA National Motocross finish in history, and he went on to finish third in the series riding a CZ. Those results earned him a ride with Kawasaki, making him one of the first factory supported motocross racers in this country. Priddy, born in 1946, was of the first generation of American racers who helped pioneer motocross racing in this country as it emerged from the TT and scrambles form of motorcycle racing in the 1960s. A hillclimber in his teens, by the time he was 19 he was racing a 500cc Triumph and winning Texas scrambles events. When motocross launched on a national basis in the late 1960s, Priddy was well positioned to be one of the sport's first stars from the Lone Star State. When the AMA officially launched its first sanctioned motocross race, the seminal Trans-AMA in LaRue, Ohio, in October of 1970, Priddy was part of the grid. In a field that was star-studded with top American and International motocross racers, Priddy, riding a Bultaco, finished 10th (just behind David Aldana). When talking with other racers about Priddy, the one thing that is constantly mentioned was Priddy's uncanny ability of being the first rider out of the gate and into the first turn earning him the nickname of "Mr. Holeshot." "I didn't get to race Wyman all that much, but when we did race with each other he was very fast and was always getting the holeshot," said fellow Texas motocross legend Kent Howerton. "I will never forget one time I came to Dallas to race and Wyman was there, it was purely aggressive bar banging between us. At the scoring tower waiting to get our money I asked Wyman, 'Why are you trying so hard?' Wyman says, 'because my wife needs a new pair of tennis shoes.' Wyman had a really strong desire to win and was one of the nicest people I had ever met." Maybe it originated from his years of hillclimbing, where a perfect start is so essential, but Priddy's flawless starts were so routine that when he didn't earn the holeshot there had to be a reason, as Motocross Action's Jody Weisel recalls. "Once at an AMA National in Kansas, I saw Wyman after the first moto. 'I think that something is wrong with that starting gate,' he said. I wanted to know what was wrong with it, so I pressed Wyman for his analysis about the flaw. 'I don't know what's wrong with it, but I know that I should have had the holeshot and I didn't get it. I'm pretty sure that the gate is messed up.' The strange thing was

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