E
ven though America was a
latecomer to the sport of
motocross, it only took a little
more than a decade before
American riders dominated the
entire scene. In 1967, American
riders couldn't even run with the
Europeans. By 1982, America
was celebrating the 500cc World
Motocross Championship of
Brad Lackey and the 250cc
World Motocross Championship
of Danny LaPorte. And Super-
cross belonged to America from
day one. First seeing the light
of day (or should that be the
stadium lights of night?) in 1972
at the Los Angeles Coliseum,
the brainchild of promoter Mike
Goodwin was already on the
upswing by the time the third
Superbowl of Motocross rolled
around on June 22, 1974. The
1972 race had been witnessed by
35,000 fans, and the 1973 race
had been witnessed by 38,808
fans. For the 1974 Superbowl,
more than 47,000 fans came to
watch the race.
Despite the presence of top
European motocross talent,
American boy wonder Marty
Tripes had walked away with the
first two Superbowl of Moto-
cross titles in convincing fashion,
claiming the first win aboard a
factory Yamaha and the second
aboard a factory Honda. Tripes
had ultimately put together
consistent-enough motos to
swipe the Superbowl crown away
from Husqvarna's Swedish aces
Torlief Hansen and Arne Kring
in '72, and he won the first moto
and runner-upped in the other
two to stand atop the podium
in '73, with fellow American Jim
Pomeroy finishing second, while
CZ-mounted Czech star Ato-
nin Babarovsky upheld a small
measure of European pride by
finishing third. The Cycle News
reporter writing about the event
CN
III ARCHIVES
P112
Wayback Wake-Up
THE EARLY DAYS OF SUPERCROSS
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
Roger DeCoster was one of the
pioneers of Supercross. The multi-
time world champion was lured by
the promotor to ride the Superbowl
of Motocross at the L.A. Coliseum in
1974. He got paid more in start
money than what the actual purse
was paying.
