VOLUME 58 ISSUE 35 AUGUST 31, 2021 P113
closed out the '73 coverage by
stating: "Marty Tripes proved that
his last Coliseum victory wasn't
a fluke. The Europeans proved
that not very many of them bother
to come, and that they don't
win anyway." A bold statement,
to be sure, but it did appear as
though the mighty Europeans just
couldn't seem to get the hang
of racing on tight courses with
artificial whoops and jumps un-
der the glare of stadium lighting.
Come 1974, however, that would
change drastically.
Having switched to Husqvarna,
Tripes returned to try and give
the European brand its first win
in 250cc Supercross against
the usual American stars, such
as reigning AMA 250cc Na-
tional Motocross Champion Gary
jones, future titlist Tony DiSte-
fano, future AMA Supercross
Champion Jimmy Weinert, the
Pomeroy brothers, Rich Thor-
waldson and Billy Grossi, just to
name a few. Making the competi-
tion far more intense, however,
was a contingent of killer Euros,
led by reigning World 500cc
Motocross Champion Roger
DeCoster and 250cc World
Championship contender Jaro-
slav Falta. Other Euros included
Montesa's Raymond Boven and
Peter Lamppu, Suzuki's Gerritt
Wolsink, Kawasaki's Jan-Eric
Sallqvist, CZ's Zdenek Velky and
Husqvarna's Gunnar Nilsson,
making for the toughest field in
the young history of the Super-
bowl of Motocross.
All eyes were on DeCoster,
whose exploits in Europe were
chronicled well enough in Cycle
News and whose Inter-Am visits
to America had been frequent
enough to gain him "favorite Eu-
ropean" status among America's
growing motocross fan base.
Promoter Mike Goodwin damn
well made sure that DeCoster
was part of the '74 Superbowl.
"Goodwin had contacted me
about coming over because I
guess they [Americans] knew me
from the Trans-AMA races, and
he was just trying to build up his
program," DeCoster said."I guess
I was a big draw."
Indeed, DeCoster had already
scored karma points earlier in
the year when he won the 500cc
class at the Daytona Supercross,
but he admits that, unlike the
Coliseum, Daytona wasn't really a
Supercross in the truest sense of
the word.
"Daytona was outside, like it
still is today, so it was not an en-
closed stadium," DeCoster says.
"The Coliseum was an enclosed
stadium. It was my first time
there, and it was big because
there was a lot of history with the
stadium; they had held the Olym-
pics there and so on."
Call: DECOSTER AND
SUPERCROSS
Peter Lamppu, Suzuki's Gerritt
from the Trans-AMA races, and
DeCoster leads eventual
Superbowl winner
Jaroslav Falta in 1974.
