Something was lost when Thomas Covington decided to hang up his helmet a week or so ago. Having enjoyed decades of American participation in the Grand Prix series, we suddenly had zero US riders involved, at a time when the American public have fallen in love with the European based series.
Since the early 1970’s, when Mark Blackwell, Jim Pomeroy, Brad Lackey and Marty Smith made appearances in Europe, the relationship has been a healthy one, at times very competitive, but always healthy.
Davey Coombs wrote a brilliant piece on American’s in Europe back in 2014 for his online version of RacerX, called simply, Americans in Europe, and it is 100% worth a look. It goes way back to the 1950s when two guys called Ray McCarty and Bud Ekins raced GP, but to be honest, I never heard of these dudes and another reason to check out that piece by DC, because it tells the whole story.
For me though, having arrived in Europe in 1993, I missed a lot of the American legends. I missed that Pomeroy, Danny Laporte and Brad Lackey era, and I just made the Donny Schmit, Trampas Parker, Bobby Moore era, in fact, my first ever European based GP was at Foxhills in 1994 and Moore won the overall that day.
I also got to see Parker battle Joel Smets in the 1995 500cc championship, and although Parker was probably past his prime and his two World motocross championships had been won in 1989 and 1991, he was still hauling ass and giving Smets a hard time. It was probably the most enjoyable season for the 500cc class in that era.
Mike Brown, Tallon Vohland, Jimmy Button and Ryan Hughes made appearances in Europe in the 1990 and all were a credit to USA, and I loved chatting with all four of these guys. All four men had success, and all four needed a ride and in that era, a middle of the road America was pretty quickly a top three guy in Europe. They came in big numbers in the 1980s and 1990s and they brought new excitement to the GP scene.
Brown rode first for the Rinaldi Yamaha team in 1997, and I remember watching him win the season opening International at Beaucaire. Unfortunately, his season wasn’t as successful as that pre-season race and he quickly returned to the safety of home in USA. Brown returned in 2000 to race for the Dave Thorpe Honda team and battle the likes of James Dobb and Grant Langston in the 2000 125cc championship. For me, in all my time working in Europe, that 125cc championship was one of the most enjoyable GP seasons I have watched, I have never seen such a competitive trio going for the same goal. After heading home and winning an AMA 125cc championship, Brown returned to Europe and raced for the CAS team in the UK. I was their media guy and hung out with Mike on many occasions and had a good laugh. When you think of an American hero racing the World, then Mike Brown was your man.
I also enjoyed when the quiet but friendly Scott Sheak arrived with his wife at the time Erika, or Jimmy Albertson and his brother Greg, all great people and good company. Zach Osborne also arrived with something to prove in the late 2000s and we all know where he ended up. His time in Europe was also a successful one, where he made a lot of friends and won a GP, then headed home to find even more success and more friends.
Finally, the last few years we have had Ryan Villopoto, Michael Leib, Jimmy Decotis, Michael Hall, Thomas Covington and Mitchell Harrison. Covington was the biggest success, winning some GPs and like Osborne making a lot of friends with his friendly smile and happy nature. Of course, the arrival of Ryan Villopoto in 2015 will go down as one of the most exciting moments in GP history and his addition to the series, as short as it was, attracted massive numbers of American fans to the Grand Prix championship.
But now, with the retirement of Covington, we are left with not a single American rider in the MXGP or MX2 championships. Tallon Vohland's son Max (one of the big young stars in USA) made an appearance in the EMX125cc class at Matterley Basin, took a beating (his Dads words) and returned home, probably not to be seen again.
That whole connection between Europe and America still burns, but its struggling to stay alight. A Frenchman is the AMA 250cc championship, Osborne the AMA 450 motocross champion, but in all honesty, with no major American names racing in Europe anymore, or coming out of the winter Internationals like Bercy (hasn’t happened for years), then that flame that has burnt so brightly between Europe and America might just go out.
European riders are not as interested in going to America anymore, and the young American kids are not only not interested, but probably not competitive in the cauldron of Grand Prix motocross, where age rules see young kids thrown into the toughest motocross series in the World, MXGP. To survive now in Europe, you better be very talented and very open minded.
European kids like Tom Vialle, Jago Geerts or Roan Van De Moosdijk in a similar way are not heading to the AMA supercross rounds, because not only would they not be competitive, but that dream of racing in USA isn’t the same as it was for guys like J. M. Bayle, David Vuillemin, Mickeal Pichon, Christophe Pourcel, Marvin Musquin or Dylan Ferrandis, because kids like Vialle, or Geerts never got to watch names like Eli Tomac, Ricky Carmichael, or Ryan Dungey race at Bercy, and that was where the whole American dream came from for the French kids and for so many other European teenagers. Ricky Johnson, Jeff Ward, David Bailey, Johnny O’Mara, Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, and even James Stewart raced Bercy, and we were all in awe of their talents and that American swagger.
In return, with no USGP, and for sure not like it was in the 1980s, where the best US riders battled the best Europeans, a lot of young American riders just don't get the whole euro thing. Names like Lackey, Laporte, Pomeroy, Bailey and Johnson had heroes, and they were European legends like De Coster, Robert, Hallman and Mikkola.
So, as we head into Lommel this weekend, with a field empty of American riders, we can only look back on the amazing history USA had in Europe, when names like Pomeroy, Lackey, Laporte, Parker, Schmit and Moore ruled the World. It has been 26 years since we had an American World motocross champion and it seems like we will be waiting a long time before we see another one, and that is sad.