The Birth of Motocross: An Illustrated History of the Early Years of America’s #1 Dirt Sport – The Tracks – The Riders – The Machines

In the Fifties and Sixties American dirt track motorcycle racing fans’ attention was focused on half-mile and mile oval flat track races and the occasional TT race looped inside the half-mile tracks to include a jump. There were a few “scramble” races on tracks but the surfaces were graded and smoothed so they were more-or-less flat track races with a few more left hand turns and a jump or two. Motocross, as we know it today was the sport of Europeans. All that changed in 1968 when motocross was “imported” into America, first as the “Inter-Am” series in 1968-’69, then as the ‘Trans-Am” series in 1970. Classic race tracks ranged from the movie backlot at Westlake Village and the arid Carlsbad and Saddleback Park in California to Linnville, Ohio, and Unadilla, New York, and Pepperrell, Massachusetts. The best European riders – Roger Decoster, Jeff Smith, Joel Robert, Torsten Hallman, Bengt Aberg, Arne Kring, Vic Allan, Dave Bickers and others – competed against the brash new American like Gary Bailey, Dick Mann, Marty Tripes, Brad Lackey, Jim Pomeroy, Gary Jones, Rex Stanton, Barry Higgens, Preston Petty and more. This is the story of the beginning of what has become America’s #1 dirt sport.