Name the rider.....!

Who are you? Let's hear it....

Mr James had the rider and track, but was a year late.

Still wanna know who 'rjs' is though....

Old school baby!!! Fired up the scanner tonight....



Nils Arne won the first 125 USGP, held in Aug of 73 at St Louis. More on that one in a minute....


Ray Lopez, riding a Penton won the first 125 National Championship held that same year at what was then Arroyo, and is now REM track at Glen Helen. Marty Smith finished second on a factory Monarch. The following year Honda picked him up and the rest it history. What if it had been Lopez that got that ride though??


Back to St Louis now... on an extremely hot and unbelievably dusty day, Nils Arne Nilson on the factory Husky 125 rode to victory over Bob Grossi. Mickey Boone, on a TM 125 finished third. The Americans were suffering badly with the 45 minute motos, as we were used to a 3 twenty minute moto format for all our events.


Nilsen, #66, showing some excellent form for 1973, no?? Kenny Zhart and Doug Grant shown in the insets.




Some other trivia from that race....a certain tall, native American, soon-to-be factory Honda rider straddled a factory Hodaka Combat Wombat that day. Yes, Tommy Croft.


Arkansan Tony Wynn, #9 on right, rode the very first Honda CR125 Elsinore to land on US soil. Finished a respectable 7th overall. That's future factory Honda rider Bruce McDougal on the Mettco Penton with him.




Marty Smith and Ray Lopez were both there, Smith DNF'ing on the Monarch and Lopez on his Penton, if I recall, DNF'ing the second moto?


Without a doubt the biggest surprise of the day was the fourth place overall of Mark "John" Harrington from Amarillo, TX. This guy, extremely short on style and amazingly long on fitness, rode himself to the front of both motos for a fourth overall. Since he regularly came over to Oklahoma to kick our asses, it was cool to see him do so well. That's him in the pic with the face shield and duckbill visor!!




I was a 15 y/o local Oklahoma punk, six months away from turning 16 and getting my pro license. We stayed at the race headquarters and from the moment we pulled up, I was in awe. As we walked from the car to the lobby, we were totally soaked by guys dumping trashcans of water from the 10th floor balcony attempting to hit their friends walking in front of us. Getting on the elevator, we took a ride with a Maico 250 to the 7th floor, where the guy pushed it off down the hall to do some last minute maintanence! I stepped out into the hallway the next morning and almost got nailed by Kenny Zhart doing a wheelie down the corridor on a Z-50 Honda. What a blast...


Check out these last two shots. That long necked dude in second on the start is unmistakable....err....unmiSTACKABLE! Har! Steve Stackable on an AMP CZ125!!


Ok, enough nostalgia for the evening...one of these nights we'll have to do this again!

Ray, you need to go to the Monsters of Motocross dealio this weekend. Lots of old school guys show for that thing.

http://www.monstersofmotocross.com/