CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
J
im Pomeroy was pumped even though he
finished second. After all it was his Motocross
Grand Prix debut and he'd scored victory in the
first moto, much to the delight of the Bultaco faith-
ful on hand that day at the opening round of the
1973 FIM 250cc World Motocross Championship
in Sabadell, Spain. Pomeroy watched as German
Hans Maisch was handed the winner's trophy. The
only problem was, the Spanish racing officials had
screwed up. Maisch wasn't the winner, Pomeroy
was! So even though he'd in fact won his debut
grand prix, Pomeroy did not get to enjoy the ac-
colades of victory. Instead he found out days later
that he'd actually won the GP.
How could that happen?
More on that later.
Bultaco gave Pomeroy a sup-
port deal to race AMA in 1973.
Part of the deal was the chance
to go and race in Europe be-
fore the AMA season started,
including the GP in Bultaco's
home country of Spain.
The fact that Pomeroy was getting the oppor-
tunity to race in a world championship event in
Europe didn't draw all that much attention. One
of the reasons, perhaps, was that by '73 Bul-
taco's motocross machines were not considered
to be up to the standards of Yamaha, Kawasaki,
Suzuki, Maico, Husqvarna and KTM. The other
factor was Pomeroy had only just begun to show
promise in 1972 in the American domestic scene
by winning the AMA 250cc Motocross National
at Saddleback. It was the only national he won
that year, so while certainly an up-and-coming
Pomeroy's Unexpected and
Strange GP Victory
P116
(Left) Jim Pomeroy
won the Spanish 250cc
Grand Prix in 1973, but it
wasn't made official until
two days later. (Above)
Pomeroy was America's
first GP winner in
motocross.
