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The result of Dewhurst's ex- haustive work is Motocross: The Golden Era. The book covers the period from 1970 to 1986. When asked why this timeframe, Dewhurst said, "Those dates are significant from my point of view in that the early 1970s was when motocross technology really took off. Long-travel suspen- sion systems, engine technol- ogy, exhaust technology, all this exploded in the very early '70s. And then the ending date, 1986, was the end of the factory-bike era in the U.S. So, it is the story of an era of unbelievable techno- logical advances." As a photo enthusiast, De- whurst has been through it all, from the complete manual settings and film days to the modern digital era. He said he started shooting races with a simple Nikkormat and a couple of basic lenses. One funny pho- tography story has to do with the book's cover shot. It's an image of Roger DeCoster taken in 1974 at the British Motocross Grand Prix at Donington Park. "I had this old Rolleiflex, which was this twin-lens reflex, 2 ¼-inch square negative cam- era usually used for portraits or landscapes back in the day," Dewhurst said. "And with this Rolleiflex you looked down through a viewfinder at the top of the camera. The problems is what you see through the viewfinder is laterally inverted, so you're looking at a subject that is upside down and flipped from back to front. If you're trying to follow a motocross bike across the track it gets a little confusing to get your brain around doing everything backwards. Luckily, I did get some good action pic- tures and the one I liked most of all is the cover of the book." Dewhurst saw it all up close in that era of motocross, and he admits that clearly, Roger DeCoster stands out as the rider who was his biggest hero. "Even today, if I get a text message from him, it gives me chills that I'm getting a text from Roger DeCoster!" Dewhurst said. "But there were so many heroes of that time like Heikki Mikkola and Brad Lackey. God bless him for slogging through 10 years, almost 11 years of racing in Europe, before finally winning a World Championship. That was something anybody could be proud of. People like Graham Noyce, who was amaz- ing, and David Thorpe, who did an astonishing job of winning the title and making it look so good. And then everybody's hero Bob Hannah, who I talked to the other day and, in his unflinch- ing manner, said that guys like Roger and Heikki would blow away the riders of today. "There are so many… David Bailey. I was and still am such a fan of David. His riding ability, his technical approach to riding and racing is something that we hadn't seen before, and he set us on the path of today where riders look at racing in a more technical way versus just hav- ing a wide-open throttle. And then guys like Ricky Johnson and Broc Glover who were able to win titles on pretty mediocre machinery when you look back on it. So many racers, and that's been the fun of doing this book, getting to sit down and interview these riders and renew those friendships that we had so many years ago when we were travel- ing around week after week on the motocross circuit." In terms of races, Dewhurst looks back and says the most exciting and fun race to cover was the epic David Bailey versus Ricky Johnson battle at the Anaheim Supercross in 1986. "The battle lap after lap, the fans on their feet the whole race, they almost went down several times but didn't. It was probably the best race I've ever seen." While Dewhurst's book fo- cuses on a period of motocross racing that ended nearly 40 years ago, he does not live ex- clusively in the past. We finished our conversation with how lucky we were to witness this year's Team USA victory at the Moto- cross of Nations. Dewhurst said shooting that event and watching the fan reaction is right up there in terms of all-time great memo- ries he has from a lifetime in the sport. CN You can get Motocross: The Golden Era by visiting www. motocrossthegoldenera.com. CN III ARCHIVES P92 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives