Doug Dubach was a factory Yamaha rider and won an AMA Supercross, but he is best known for being the greatest Vet motocross racer of all-time with 26 class win. He will be looking for number 27 on November 3-4 at Glen Helen Raceway.
Eventually every famous racer will be old enough to race the Dubya World Vet Championship — if they can still swing a leg over a bike when the turn 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 years old. We don’t know if Eli Tomac, Ryan Dungey or Ryan Villopoto would follow in the footsteps of other AMA National Champions, but it would be a shame if they didn’t.
Famous riders who have won titles at the World Vet include four-time 250 National Champion Gary Jones, Rocket Rex Staten, Warren Reid, Kent Howerton, Erik Kehoe, Rich Thorwaldson, Jeff Ward, Feets Minert, Andy Jefferson, J.N. Roberts, Eyvind Boyesen, Tom White, Kyle Lewis, Thorlief Hanssen, Lars Larsson, Travis Preston, Kurt Nicoll, Jim O’Neal, Daryl Hurley, Brett Metcalfe and Mike Brown.
Steve Machado won the Over-70 Expert class at last year’s World Vet Championship.
Equally important are the riders that no one paid any attention to when they were young, but now that they are old (and have kept racing all these years) they are finally getting some recognition. You may not recognize their names, but if you were their age and in their class, they would probably have lapped you. Especially riders like AMA Supercross Mechanic of the Year Alan Olson, Canadian Champion Zoli Berenyi, Sr., Japanese Champion Hideaki Suzuki, Ike DeJager, Swede Hans Hansson, Terry Sage, Canadian Kim Houde, desert race Bill Maxim, Canadian Pete DeGraff, Oklahoma’s Jimmy Redwine, Baja star Brent Wallingsford and Steve Machado.
And that is just the short list