With the coronavirus outbreak having a substantial impact here on the west coast as well as all over the world, I find myself along with my family in stay-at-home mode. Supercross 2020 from Indianapolis was supposed to be on the tube today, but this event along with a number of others in the series has been cancelled due to, yes — the coronavirus outbreak.
With that in mind, I thought I would dig into my own personal "vault" of Pro Motocross history here in the United States. These images, never before seen by the general public are sure to fill your days (hours?, minutes?, wait — were you really getting ready to click that CB1100 Forum Banner to head elsewhere just now ?!) with a fun-filled nostalgic ride through the golden era of motocross in this country (well, golden for me, your mileage might vary).
For Volume 1 (this is not to imply there will be any other volumes to follow) we take a look back to 1978. In June of that year, Cycle World USA in St. Peters, Missouri was hosting a round of the 250 class Nationals as well as a round of the 500 class Nationals. As an avid fan at the age of 16 I was beyond excited when I learned that the motel my parents had booked for a couple of nights for our trip to see the races was actually serving as the race headquarters. This provided my brother and I with ample opportunities to be all-around pests the entire day before the race was to be held. Truth be told, I don't recall a single racer being anything but accessible and nice to the few fans that happened to be there that entire day. My only regret is that I did not own a better camera at the time. I was particularly ill-suited to capturing race action images. But while the image quality is poor, the fairly static subjects at race headquarters allowed me to grab some memorable (for me) images.
Race Headquarters: The St. Charles' Howard Johnsons
It's early in the A.M. as I write this. I'm taking a break from this thread for now, but plan to fill in more details later just in case there are any other older motocross fans out there other than myself and the ferret.
With that in mind, I thought I would dig into my own personal "vault" of Pro Motocross history here in the United States. These images, never before seen by the general public are sure to fill your days (hours?, minutes?, wait — were you really getting ready to click that CB1100 Forum Banner to head elsewhere just now ?!) with a fun-filled nostalgic ride through the golden era of motocross in this country (well, golden for me, your mileage might vary).
For Volume 1 (this is not to imply there will be any other volumes to follow) we take a look back to 1978. In June of that year, Cycle World USA in St. Peters, Missouri was hosting a round of the 250 class Nationals as well as a round of the 500 class Nationals. As an avid fan at the age of 16 I was beyond excited when I learned that the motel my parents had booked for a couple of nights for our trip to see the races was actually serving as the race headquarters. This provided my brother and I with ample opportunities to be all-around pests the entire day before the race was to be held. Truth be told, I don't recall a single racer being anything but accessible and nice to the few fans that happened to be there that entire day. My only regret is that I did not own a better camera at the time. I was particularly ill-suited to capturing race action images. But while the image quality is poor, the fairly static subjects at race headquarters allowed me to grab some memorable (for me) images.
Race Headquarters: The St. Charles' Howard Johnsons
It's early in the A.M. as I write this. I'm taking a break from this thread for now, but plan to fill in more details later just in case there are any other older motocross fans out there other than myself and the ferret.
