Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/774093
VOL. 54 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 17, 2017 P97 Friend and burgeoning GP racer Rod Gould and Cox went to check out America for an extended working vacation in the winter of 1967. Gould knew Cycle World editor Ivan Wager, having met at the Isle of Man. "The first stop we made in California, having just driven cross country from New York, was the Cycle World offices hoping to get a lunch," Cox remem- bers with a laugh. "Joe Parkhurst and Ivan took us out and before the lunch was over Rod was set up to help at a dealership and got a Kawasaki ride with Chief Galbraith, who had a dealership in Goleta and sponsored Reg Pridmore, and I was hired to work at Cycle World for the three months I was there." While in America, Cox surveyed the landscape, and felt there was room for another weekly motor- cycle racing publication in America. He recruited fellow British journalist Gavin Trippe, who bravely agreed to join Cox in America along with another young writer named Bob Berry early in 1969 to launch Motor Cycle Weekly, even scoring some generous help from his friend Joe Parkhurst, in the form of Cycle World's mailing list! It wasn't long after starting the new publication that the owner of Ascot Park somehow convinced Cox and Trippe to take over the promotions of the weekly flat track races. "He told us we had the newspaper to advertise and cover the races and that was half the battle, so we suddenly became race promoters," Cox said. That was the beginning of Trippe-Cox Associ- ates, a company that would become arguably the most important motorcycle racing promotion group of the 1970s. It was Trippe-Cox which began promoting motorcycle races at Laguna Seca Raceway and helped back a group trying to get superbike racing on a national level by becoming the first promoter to hold superbike events alongside the regular AMA National Road Racing weekend. That helped foster the formation of the AMA Superbike Series by 1976. Perhaps most importantly it was Trippe-Cox who first brought Grand Prix Motocross to America. To this day, Cox remembers the meeting at AMA headquarters in Ohio where he sat and explained to a perplexed group of AMA senior leadership and select promoters on the particulars of moto- cross scoring. Numerous national events in road racing, motocross and flat track racing were promoted by Trippe and Cox during the period between 1970 and 1984. Also of major significance was the cre- ation of the Transatlantic Trophy Series of match races between the top riders in the UK and USA, which ran from 1971 until 1986. Along the way, the duo also helped produce and promote the wildly popular ABC Wide World of Sport Superbikers competition. It was an unbelievably productive period for the pair of Brits and their activities changed the course of racing in America. By 1984 the business relationship between Cox and Trippe had run its course. "I'd gone back to take on a major project with Yamaha in Europe," Cox said. "Our partnership was more of a drifting apart rather than a formal split." Cox continues to be an idea man to this day with boundless imagination. After developing several racing series in Europe, Cox eventually moved into television and video production. He had a hand in producing over 100 programs on automotive and motorsport subjects and remains involved on proj- ects in which he has a personal interest. Cox is semi-retired now and is working on a producing a book series with popular motorcycle journalist Alan Cathcart. At the end of this year he and his old friend Rod Gould plan on reunit- ing and retracing their trip across America on the 50th anniversary of their first visit. It was a trip that ultimately not only changed Cox's life, but also the history of motorcycle rac- ing in America. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives