4 Stroke Nationals

That will be a neat project. I’ll do some looking too and if I find anything in the way of pictures I’ll send your way.

Guy Cooper raced them. Not sure if he did any / many National MXs, but he did ride them in Off Road events.

I may have the name wrong, but I think it was Dale Lineweaver / Linaweaver ( that's the best I can guess as to the spelling of his name) that did a fair amount with them. Dirt Bike Mag had a few articles on his mods / bikes.

Watch out for the bloody SEM ignitions, they are absolute bastards of things . I went through a fair few of them. Sure, you could vent the ignition cover with in and out lines, to try to cool them, but the bloody magnets would break from the aluminium flywheel itself, to trash everything. It wasn't just 'Bergs that had problems, Huskies, my Maico 320, and other bikes with them had problems.

todd dehoop raced one in the 4 stroke nationals also

This picture came to mind

Smets' 1993 GP bike.

Mike Young on a 97 model.It really is difficult to find pics of the 4 stroke nationals.

From what I remember and the rare pictures I've seen, the US 4 stroke championship Husabergs were pretty much stock. All the trick ones were in Europe. And "trick" was very relative, not exactly 82'Hansen HRC trick.


The most interesting bike probably was Smets' 94 Vertemati, which actually was a heavily modified HSB. Smets was back on a factory Husaberg by 95.

1997 Husaberg 400 at The Raymond Wa Rnd of the 4 stroke Nats. Russ Fletcher motor. Still have this bike.

Unmistakable style...

Someone find pics of the one Naughton rode in the four stroke nationals that used dry ice to keep the fuel cool.

Back in the late 90s my dad got a chance to race a Husaberg in the "thunder bike" class at a US off-road championship event that they did in a few stadiums. It was like a monster jam type of event with race trucks, four wheelers and dune buggies. I asked him about it and he thought it was one of Lance Smail's bikes. It had a 49 on it, but I can't find any pictures of it anywhere. I'm not totally convinced that it actually was Lance Smail's bike though because I can't find any pictures of him racing a Husaberg. I remember thinking the bike looked wild, because I hadn't seen a four stroke like that ever.

According to the vault Smail raced a Husaberg twice in 98 at Hangtown and Washougal so he may have raced one in the 4 stroke nationals.

Lance was at the Redmond race (Ward Creek) as I remember. there was a short uphill landing with a immediate left turn. Lance would launch into the corner deep, land on the front wheel and swing the corner. Pretty cool to watch.

Nice, this will help me on my Google expedition to track down pictures of the bike.

Not the best picture but I had found this article in an old Cycle USA (Midwest mag) while cleaning stuff out of the basement this past year.


Looks like Jim Neese was riding them in the fall of 97.

I raced Husabergs a fair amount back then as well. My dad had a 95 and 99 FC501. They were very quirky, but neat bikes. Im pretty sure those 94/95s didn't have a rev limiter, so you need to be careful...

I found one picture in a facebook group. This is from the 1996 four stroke nationals. They were thinking it was Todd Dehoop who raced the 49 bike, but that is definitely the bike in this pic. I remember the really bold numbers.