40 Years of Supercross

By Keith Lair, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Early riders, promoters, technology helped transform the sport

 

If three-time reigning Monster Energy supercross series champion Ryan Villopoto put his motorcycle in Dr. Emmett Brown’s DeLorean, dialed it in for 1974 and landed at the L.A. Coliseum for the first supercross race, he would win every time.

“Jump-wise there is a lot more double and triple jumps,” said three-time 1970s supercross series champion Bob Hannah, comparing the years. “Those courses would be easier now than when we rode them because of the development of bikes. If you took a modern-day bike on an old course, it would be pretty easy.”

Suspensions, traction, tires, power; it all adds up.

“You can’t compare,” Villopoto said on the fortnight of the 40th anniversary of the series. “Bikes have changed; the sport has changed. The amount of riders who can win races; that has changed. It was not even like that when Ricky (Carmichael) was racing or (Jeremy McGrath) was racing.

“But every one of those top guys way back when built the sport to what it is now.”

Supercross made its debut as an AMA series on March 10, 1974 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. There were only three races, the final one two months later at the L.A. Coliseum.

The fifth decade of supercross begins Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

“So many things have changed,” series vice president Todd Jendro said. “It’s changed tremendously in just my 18 years in the sport.”

Hannah, nicknamed “Hurricane,” was one of the pioneers of the sport, which has grown into an industry that generates millions of dollars. The Lancaster native won three consecutive series titles, from 1977 through ‘79, capturing 18 of the 33 races in those three years. A water skiing accident derailed his racing career. He won nine more races after the 1979 Colorado River accident. He then took up flying and eventually competed in the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nev. He operates an airplane sales business out of his Caldwell, Idaho home. 

His old Yamaha bike, Hannah said, could not handle the courses built today.

“The bikes are light years of difference,” said Tom White, who operates the The Early Years of Motocross Museum, a private collection in Villa Park. “There have been a lot of changes. When Doug Henry rode the first four-stroke in 1997, it really changed the sport. It made for huge jumps. Those old bikes just could not do these jumps.”

AMA sanctioned a motocross race inside Daytona International Speedway in 1971, but the race was more of a traditional motocross track and it had two 45-minute motos. Concert promoter Mike Goodwin took the concept a step further a year later, putting motocross in the Coliseum. Goodwin, who was convicted in a Pasadena court for murdering fellow promoter Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, called the event the “Super Bowl of Motocross,” which eventually just became supercross. 

“He’s the architect of supercross,” White said of Goodwin. “He thought it up and designed it.”

But there were no pre-race fireworks, no booming voice-overs, no theatrics before Marty Tripes won that Coliseum event or Pierre Karsmakers of The Netherlands won the first supercross series race and the 250cc series title in that first series-sanctioned year, 1974.

That first season had only three races; Daytona, the Houston Astrodome and the Coliseum. The second season added only one more date, the old Texas Stadium. Both 250cc and 500cc bikes raced, but the major champion came from the 250cc class.

“Obviously they have come a long way since Goodwin started it,” Hannah said. “There are a lot bigger sponsorships and a lot more money.”

Now, there are 17 events and each one is televised live.

“We drew 68,000, 70,000 then and stadium sizes have not changed, so the crowds are not any bigger,” Hannah said. “But it is TV that has made the sport pretty famous. We had very little TV. But once it got on TV, it got pretty popular.”

Before the races, there are fireworks, lasers and videos.

“It is a spectacle,” Jendro said. “It’s true entertainment and a well-rounded motor sports package.

“We put on a gigantic atmosphere to put a personality on these athletes, so they are not a robot. They’re great personalities and we’re trying to expose that on TV and at the stadium.”

Hannah said he watches the races on television and attends one or two events a year, usually the April race in Seattle. He will likely be in Southern California on Jan. 18 for Anaheim 2, when the series holds a ‘74 throwback race. In the meantime, he sells airplanes, from Piper Cubs to bush planes to Lear jets out of his home office, which overlooks a stream, pistol and rifle range and a grass airstrip.

He no longer races drag boats or airplanes. He rides his bicycle, something he did before turning to motorcycles as a youth at Soledad Sands in Acton, on trails nearly every day.

“I have a cushy job now,” he said. “I do not miss it.”

It’s the body, the 57-year-old said of why the sport is a young man’s game.

“Once I started to (race), it was in me to win,” he said. “You have to have the ego to do that stuff. And some talent and some heart. You have to have all three. But really, you need heart to win races.

“You have to be a kid to do that. I never missed it after I quit. When you’re young it’s the greatest thing to be at the top of a world-class event, but it beats the tar out of you. After 10 years, you’re beat up pretty good.”

Last season, Villopoto passed Hannah and Ricky Johnson for supercross wins. His 34 series victories ranks fifth. McGrath, Ricky Stewart, James Stewart and Chad Reeds have more.

“A lot more stuff is going on with lights and big screens,” Hannah said. “It was purely racing then.”