MARCH 25, 2008
Anyone that’s a fan of motocross has a race or two that sticks out above the rest. Maybe it was a legendary battle, a runaway win over a stacked field, a David beats Goliath tale, or else they forget the entire race because of a wicked afterparty. This new feature on www.racerxcanada.com honours those great moments in racing. For the first edition, we rang up industry moguls John Nelson and Rick Sheren, and MXForum’s Billy Rainford. Enjoy!
Ryan Gauld, John Nelson and Brad Coles hang out at the Sand Del Lee national. What's in the cup, Brad? photo: Dan Stenning
Machine Racing’s John Nelson
“It was the `79 Daytona stock car race. Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers fought. That was one of the best races I ever saw. I wasn’t there, but Yarborough and the Allison brothers pounded the piss out of each other [laughs]. [Richard] Petty won the race. Yarborough and one of the Allison brothers, Bobby I think it was, smashed into each other and Petty won! Yarborough was on Bobby’s bumper—he was never off it for 25 laps. It was mint. Then on turn two or three, Yarborough gets the run on him and Allison lets him have it. They were smashing into each other and sliding up and down the bank of Daytona. It was the first time it was live on TV on CBS, and there’s Yarborough and the Allison brothers fighting, and he smashed the one he had an altercation with in the face with his helmet.”
“The most memorable race that I went to that stands out was when I was a kid I went to St-Gabriel-de-Brandon in 1977. It was a real GP race, a 500cc GP race. [Roger] DeCoster was there, the really cool Honda factory guys were there, Tommy Croft, Chuck Sun, and [Jim] Pomeroy were there. I don’t remember a lot—that was like 30 years ago—but it was the first time I saw DeCoster. That was back when men were men and motocross was motocross, they weren’t like these bed-wetters around now.”
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BigWave145 prepares for the 30-second board girl shot. |
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photo: Jason T. Griffiths |
MXForum’s BigWave145 (Billy Rainford)
“The 1984 Canadian GP at Moto Park. The racing wasn’t the greatest, but it was cool to see all the Euros on a track that I could ride. And, of course, Ross [Pederson] getting third in one moto on that clapped out junker he was on! That bike Ross was on, heck it could have been a `78 [laughs]! It was cool seeing Georges Jobe and André Malherbe and [Eric] Geobers.”
“Then there was the 1987 Motocross of Nations in Unadilla, and [Bob] Hannah was going crazy in the mud on his RM125! I think Team Canada had [Al] Dyck, Ross, and Mike Harden [Ed. note: Team Canada 1987 included Glen Nicholson, Doug Hoover and Jeff Surwall. Surwall, an American citizen, was allowed to ride for Canada due to his residency status.]. We stood at the bottom of the screw-u and Hannah was just launching out of that thing on a 125.
“The 2007 Des Nations at Budds Creek was pretty memorable, just the whole rode trip down and back and watching [Ryan] Villopoto destroy everyone by over a minute on his 250F. It was pretty interesting at the afterparty on Sunday night, and, of course, camping out in the “cattlegrounds” for three nights [laughs].”
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Rick Sheren's watched more than his fair share of races. We're surprised he didn't mention his infamous holeshots at the Hangtown national in the `70's! |
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photo: James Lissimore |
SixSixOne Canada’s Rick Sheren
“I have to say, and it’s the most recent in my mind—and Ryan [Lockhart] was sitting there with me and agrees—is the Phoenix Lites main event this year. There were about six guys going wheel-to-wheel. Guys were checking over their shoulders because they had to check behind even though they were racing for the front. It was a pretty damn good race for 10 of the 15 laps.”
“Another one that comes to mind would be any of the Ross Pederson Toronto supercross wins. As everyone knows, the guy was a bull. He had to work for every win; he never won easily except in Canadian-type races. I don’t count those races as Canadian ones; they were more like international races. Any of the Toronto supercrosses Ross won were exciting to watch since I was a friend and sponsor, especially the ones with Jim Holley.”
“It is my son, so I have to throw one in. I believe it was 2003 at Loretta Lynn’s, and it was Brady’s last year on 80s when he led several laps ahead of Mike Alessi and Ryan Villopoto. That was an exciting race for me, obviously, and seeing him up on the podium was especially sweet.”
“For trivia purposes, I would add the Marty Smith and Bob Hannah battle at Hangtown in `76. That was the one where Hannah started to take over.”
