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Stories and photos from the
Moto Retro Illustrated Archives |
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The First US GP
35 years later, the first 500cc motocross usgp at Carlsbad
still evokes goosebumps. Brad Lackey, Roger DeCoster and
promoter Gavin Trippe remember the good ol' days.. The hundred or so color transparencies in the worn manila folder seemed innocuous enough at first glance. But when I spied the words "Hang Ten GP Motocross (Carlsbad)" written in ink in the upper right corner, I knew I'd stumbled onto something very special. Moto-archaeology at its best.
I was only 11 in 1973, but if my many years of moto-magazine recollection served, that was the year of the very first official USGP at Carlsbad Raceway. A quick call to legendary promoter Gavin Trippe confirmed it.
Carlsbad. The word itself is magical to motocross fans, especially those who followed the rise of the sport in the U.S., and even more so to SoCal fans who packed the dusty, dry arroyo just north of San Diego and only a mile or so east of the Pacific ocean during the '70s and early '80s. The place is just a few miles, in fact, from the beach Mert Lawwill, Malcolm Smith, Bruce Brown and Steve McQueen filmed the ending scenes of On Any Sunday back in 1970. That's somehow fitting.
Today, the racetrack most American motorcyclists know on a first-name basis thanks to years of coverage by ABC television is mostly obliterated, divided by Lionshead Avenue and Eagle Drive—and plenty of new houses. Just as the demise of Ascot Park, Saddleback and Ontario Motor Speedway cast a dark shadow over the Southern California motorsports scene, so, too, did the death of Carlsbad Raceway a couple years ago due to encroaching development.
Looking at the remaining bits of track left on the hills surrounding the neighborhood homes and businesses, it's hard to imagine this dusty little canyon was once the epicenter of the world's motocross scene.
But it was.
From the early-'70s to the mid-'80s, Carlsbad was it—motocross' ultimate crucible. Yeah, you had your Trans-AMA events at Unadilla and Livermore and Rio Bravo and Puyallup, and your 125cc Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio. But no track or event was as hard-fought and bare-knuckle nasty as the annual 500cc world championship race at Carlsbad. The summer weather was hot, the track was dry, rough, blue-grooved and whooped-out like nothing else in the country, and there was incredible pressure, especially with ABC's Wide World of Sports helicopters flying overhead and the knowledge that the race would be broadcast live to millions on national TV.
Adding drama to the scene, especially in '73, was the increasingly competitive relationship between the American and European riders. The Euros had dominated motocross since its inception. But a new wave of American riders, led by Brad Lackey, John DeSoto, Marty Tripes, Jimmy Weinert, Tim Hart and others, were quickly gaining strength and speed.
"Husqvarna importer Edison Dye started bringing over the great European champions to race in the U.S. in their off-season," renowned journalist Norm DeWitt wrote recently, "thereby promoting the sport and increasing his sales. No American rider could provide anything more than token resistance to the Euros in those early days, but the sport began to take hold.
"Englishman Gavin Trippe had covered the European MX GP series since 1961 for Motor Cycle News," DeWitt continued. "Making contacts that would prove essential to his future pursuits, Trippe moved to the U.S. with business partner Bruce Cox, the two immersing themselves in the fledgling motocross scene here. Trippe approached the AMA with the idea of a series of races for 500cc machinery after the European season was over. He hoped this Trans-AMA series could lead to a United States Grand Prix, a real World Championship round.
"As with many big ideas, the concept was driven by well-lubricated discussions at the local bar, Captain's Anchorage, downstairs from the office of famous moviemaker Bruce Brown, then hard at work on On Any Sunday. Trippe approached ABC television, the king of televised sport at the time, about providing coverage of a SoCal motocross race. ABC agreed to televise the event if Brown would produce the program. Brown agreed, and with ABC, Trippe had the publicity hook he needed to make the event a reality.
"Trippe secured the use of Carlsbad Raceway and approached the FIM to discuss running a World Championship round of the 500cc Championship. And with help from Rene Brunel—the Belgian czar of MX—and Roger DeCoster, they got approval, though they had to first run two non-championship events. The first came in '71, with only a few Euros showing up: Sylvain Geboers, Torlief Hansen, Dave Bickers, Vlastimil Valek and John Banks. The purse was $15,000, $1800 of which went to the winner. Some 15,000 spectators showed up, the track allowing overnight camping. The tires lining the adjacent drag strip were used to fuel giant bonfires. The situation was completely out of control, and Trippe was a nervous wreck thinking of the $200,000 worth of ABC equipment in place on site."
"It was a Woodstock situation," Trippe remembers.
Somehow, on Sunday morning everything was still in place, and the race went off smoothly, with Geboers taking the overall win on his big-bore Suzuki.
"For 1972," DeWitt wrote, "Carlsbad was the crown jewel of the Trans-AMA series, the format shifting to two 45-minute motos instead of three shorter ones. Trippe had convinced Hang Ten owner Duke Boyd to sponsor the event, and it brought in needed cash. The number of fans had tripled to 45,000 as the popularity of motorcycle racing exploded after the release of On Any Sunday. The Europeans who had ignored the '71 event came in droves to experience the track in anticipation of the following year's World Championship round.
"Most eyes were on Brad Lackey," DeWitt continued, "who had established himself as the top American rider on the Kawasaki. Wearing American ISDT team helmet colors and his long hair flying in the wind, Lackey was the crowd darling, one of us. With the crowd's support Lackey took the early lead from Aberg in moto one, and Carlsbad shook with excitement."
"I had quite an advantage," Lackey says. "The bike had lots of power. The Kawasaki factory built those motors, C&J made the frame, and we developed it. It was a full factory prototype with the first big motor—a 490. Nobody had a motor that size. It was a real tractor, the bike weighing only 197 pounds. I led for a while, but it had a low pipe, which grounded at some point, throwing me sideways and killing the engine. That's how I lost the lead."
As the points-paying '73 race drew near and excitement mounted, Trippe and Cox were offered sponsorship by Otis Chandler and his powerful LA Times, but turned it down. "We were already dealing with massive crowds and the problems that go with it," Trippe says, "and I knew if we went with [LA Times] sponsorship we'd be in way over our heads spectator-wise. As it was we had more then 40,000 at the event! So we stayed with Hang Ten."
Trippe had reason to worry beyond the possibility of messing up the world championship with a bad event. "The stocked concession stands were serving mixed drinks by the gallon Saturday evening," DeWitt wrote, "and X-rated movies were being shown on the sides of paddock transporters, the crowds roaring their approval well into the night. Things were crazy; pity any competitor who thought he could sleep at the track."
The Europeans came into the June 24th event looking strong, Germany's Willi Bauer especially so, his Maico sporting moved-up shocks and a 400cc engine that would be more manageable on Carlsbad's slick, hard-packed adobe than the 450 he normally used. Bauer lay second in points to reigning World Champion Roger DeCoster, who was struggling with a motorcycle that had gone backward from the previous year.
"They added a minimum-weight rule for '73," DeCoster told me recently, "and the announcement came after Suzuki had built our '73 racebikes. So we had to add weight in all sorts of places, which really unbalanced the bike. It wasn't nearly as good as the '72 bike, and it wasn't as good as the torquey Maicos, our bike being peakier and not as good getting power to the ground."
Following Bauer and DeCoster came a host of fast guys – Britain's John Banks (BSA), Holland's Gerrit Wolsink (Maico) and Pierre Karsmakers (Yamaha), Belgium's Jaak Van Velthoven (Yamaha), Ake Jonsson (Yamaha) and Sweden's Chris Hammergren (Yamaha).
What the American riders lacked in speed and endurance they certainly made up for with enthusiasm. Lackey had already experienced the GP wars in '71 and was competing for the 500cc title in '73, so this was his home GP. Jim Pomeroy was another yank with GP experience, having won a 250 race in Spain the previous year. Pomeroy had no open-class works Bultaco available to him, so he borrowed a stock 325 Pursang for the race. John DeSoto, back on CZs for '73, and Lackey teammate Jimmy Weinert rounded out the top U.S. contingent.
Moto one was a DeCoster-Bauer affair, the Belgian grabbing the lead early but eventually succumbing to the Maico's tractable power and superb suspension—and Bauer's smooth riding. Banks kept DeCoster in sight for much of the race, but nearly got picked off by a charging Van Velthoven at the end. First American was DeSoto in ninth, with Lackey rounding out the top ten. Pomeroy crashed into Husky's Bengt Aberg early in the race, taking both riders out, though the Bultaco flag was held high by Bryar Holcomb, who won the 250cc support race on a 250 Pursang.
Honda's Gary Jones holeshot the second moto, but a broken frame sidelined him early on. Lackey inherited the lead, but was quickly passed by the Maicos of Bauer and Wolsink. "The Maicos were at the top of their game that year," Lackey says. "Everything worked well: powerband, suspension, steering, head angle. It was like riding a Cadillac, especially on a slick, nasty track like Carlsbad."
The works Yamahas of Van Velthoven and Hammergen were next to pass Lackey, along with Banks on the BSA. "I'd watched the Yamaha monoshockers previously," Lackey says, "but we weren't sure what made them work. We couldn't measure their travel, of course, but that's what it was. They had 40% more travel than we did; we just didn't know it!" Lackey ended up sixth in moto two for an eighth overall score—top American on the day. Bauer won with Wolsink second, the Maicos cruising almost effortlessly. DeCoster's Suzuki broke a shock spring, pushing him back and netting him a 5th overall on the day.
DeCoster's string of bad luck continued, many fans blaming a so-called "Carlsbad Curse" on the champ's inability to win there. "I never went into a Carlsbad race thinking bad things would happen," DeCoster says. "Wolsink was amazing there," he adds. "He could do no wrong. It was amazing!"
"Back in the day," Lackey remembers, "Carlsbad was crazy. With Gavin promoting it, with all the TV coverage, with American fans salivating to see the world's best riders, the 500s, the big boys, it was great. We were called Team Acid Rock by some. We had long hair, our mechanics had long hair, we blasted the stereo, had factory rides, had fun in the pits while everyone else was so serious. We had to stay away from the pits at night, though. We'd have been racing minibikes and getting drunk, and the factory wasn't gonna stand for that!"
The craziness would continue into '74, when the USGP almost didn't happen. "The first USGP had been a success and its future seemed assured," wrote DeWitt. "But after the annual FIM fall Congress, the published 500cc World Championship schedule did not include a USGP. Trippe called in DeCoster and Brunel to negotiate, and after a backroom deal was struck, which would give Czechoslovakia the Motocross Des Nations for the '75 season, Carlsbad was back on the schedule—where it stayed right into the 1980s. Amen.
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Issue #4: Honda Z50. Honda V45 Interceptor. Suzuki RM125. Suzuki GSX-R750. Kawasaki Avenger. Kawasaki 903 Z-1. Soichiro Honda. JT Racing USA.
Issue #3: Motocross in America - the early days. Mike Baldwin and Honda's 1982 Superbike. Gold Wing's 35th anniversary. Rupp Roadster. And more.
Issue#2: Kenny Roberts, then and now. The 1975 Indy Mile. Yamaha's DT-1. Honda's SL70. Carlsbad, then and now. Suzuki GS1000S. And more.
Issue #1: Eddie Lawson and the epic ELR. Yamaha's first monoshocker. CB750 on Route 66. 1975 Unadilla Trans-AMA. Jeff Ward. And more.
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