Tell Us About Your First Local Moto Hero ?

Rusty Holland at Little Okie raceway (Madera,Ca in the early 90’s)

Brock Sellards - came and talked to my elementary school gym class, watched him race at Broken Spokes, local fair races, nationals. 
 

His jersey is hanging up in my local pizza joint.
 

Still get excited when he busts out a bike and rides at our local spot Beans Bike Park. 

Mike Hartwig. He was beast mode in the seventies. Unfortunately, the bikes weren't up to his ability to absolutely pound around a track and then he suffered an injury to his back I believe or developed a chronic issue that took him out of the sport.MXA INTERVIEW: THE BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR CAREER OF MIKE HARTWIG - Motocross Action Magazine

Captain Cobalt! 1975 Supercross champ!

I met Magoo at the old Hangtown track in Plymouth, CA.  in 1979.  He was a normal,happy,cool dude in the pits. When he got on the bike he became a one man stunt show. people bought tickets just to watch him. We are lucky the sport of moto had Danny Chandler.

Met both Mike Schultz and Tucker Hibbert in 2011 my first year racing MX. Two of the nicest dudes you'll ever meet. Havent seen Hibbert since he retired but Schultz still shows up for a race or practice once in a blue moon. 

The baddest dude around. 

I remember being in awe of Jase Lewis when I was riding pw’s. Dude was silky smooth. 

Jeff Shumacher, Doug Stone and Mark Morris - many each had their own style - but man could they fly.

The Stone boys would travel the supercross series on race both 125's and 250's on the same night.

That is 2 heats and 2 qulaifiers and 2 Last chances....then 2 main events.

BTW - Doug Stone is 50+ and in Champion of our Hare Scrambles and Expert motocross series racing against the teenagers.

Still look up to him. He is a tiger cat

Today: Jeff rides a Beta in the woods and Mark is one of the best boat painters in USA.

Magoo all the way.  Met him when I was on 50's, he was parked next to us at a tiny little track in SE KS.  He was there with what I assume was his girlfriend, just before he hit the bigtime, this was 1981.  He was in a mini truck, with no trailer, didn't even have folding chairs to sit on, nor did he seem to care....   tailgate would work just fine.  I vividly remember him cheering for me, with her, as I blasted around this little track as fast as my YZinger would let me go.....  

He even went so far as to come up and be with me on the line before my moto's, and offered some tips at spots to avoid on the track.  Kinda cool having a Pro in your corner, even if it was only for 1 day.  I was just a little boy, chasing glory and a 3 dollar trophy.....  but he made me feel like a factory star.  

After my last moto, he walked over to me and hugged me, and then asked me if I would come to the line with him to "help out".......  Being young and dumb, my idea of helping him out was bring along a cold drink from our ice chest, a Shasta Cream soda.  He laughed on the line, and said "I love cream soda!"  He downed it like a union worker having his first beer after a solid 12 hour shift, belched, and said "stick with her, (his pit sweetie),  you guys can show me the  fast way around the track".  I was THE MAN that day in my little world.......

Funny thing looking back, after the races have ended, folks doing what they do loading up, he came by to visit with all of us.  He reached in his pocket, and grabbed his Copenhagen to for a pinch.  He offered me some (how times have changed.....), my Dad, (a lifelong man of chewing, Union Standard was his label,,,,), said "hold on there Dannyboy, let's make him faster before we worry about that stuff."  Laughing their asses off, he agreed, and the 2 of them had a beer, and shot the shit as red blooded Moto folks do,  What a day I had.....

God bless you Danny Chandler.  MY MOTO HERO.  Forever rest in peace.....  I'll see you again buddy one day, because I know where you are.....  At the best track we could ever dream of.

Love you, Magoo

I have 2 actually. Early 80's in Michigan as a young teenager just starting going to local races, I couldn't believe how fast Eddie and Keith were going and they weren't even pro yet. I'm sure there are other poster's on here from michigan that remember this. Weird how they both won their only MX nationals in the same year.

St Louis Mo. guy named Randy Shekyl (sp). Total bad ass in early 70s on yz125

Jr.high school...7 th grade..1984...someone said you race BMX ..you gatta meet this guy that races motocross...Mike larocco...so someone introduces us...I'm sure he don't remember...

Another D-36er here...Magoo of course! Here he is on his CZ250 at the 20th Street track in Marysville. This would have been '73 or '74. 

My cousin David Dula was a local shoe. He won 6 motos at the first race I ever watched. By the time I could race he had quit and the local fast guys were Wirehead Jones, Sam Dayton, Mickey Wetzel, Eddie Branch and, Mark Ashworth. There were other guys that got around pretty good but those cats won a bunch. Good times!

Mine would be Bryan Johnson and Donnie McGourty, neither are what I would call "local" to me but I watched them race several times in the southeast back in the early 2000's. Both just very fluid on a bike.

Yep, remember him along with Austin Albers.

When I started racing in Eastern NC in 1972 - 76. There was a guy named Russell Leadbetter that would show up driving a new Corvette pulling a three rail trailer with three different size Japanese bikes (100 or 125, 250 and open). He always won all classes. Never knew where he came from anything really about him. But he was really fast. Wish I had photo of him.

Well said. I forgot about the dip. He was 100% red ,white and blue country boy, for sure!

Anthony Pocoroba. He had an attitude and style that stood out from everyone on the track. Fast as shit and intimidating as hell. He's in SMP Disturbing the Peace and has a handful of Mexican MX championships. But I watched him shred Dade City in the 90's.

Pokey would go WFO down the start looking over at the rest of the money class all the way to the first turn. And if you were crazy enough to hold it on longer than Pokey, he'd slam you off the track.

He'd always find some jumps that nobody else would ever think of. There was a huge hip-table that was 110 feet. It wasn't even a jump. But he was the only one I've ever seen hit it and I swear he was 50 feet off the ground. He'd always be the first one to hit the elevator at gatorback in the muddy morning practice.

Dade City was the place to be on a Thursday night. Pokey would show up and just destroy everyone in practice. Some nights Ferry and Pokey would ride a few laps after they red flagged everyone off and Ferry would toy with Pocoroba. It really put into perspective how fast a Factory pro (Ferry) was compared to the local pro.
Ricky Hampshire was the only other dude that could hang with Ferry and Pokey at Dade City. The money classes back then were stacked. Ferry, Pocoroba, Yoho, lots of dudes I can't remember and Carmichael sometimes on his supermini. 

I ran into Pocoroba in 2012 at Hangtown. His wife was wearing a Pocoroba jersey and I yelled out POKEY! Turns out it was him and we had a good chat about the old days. He was living in the area (Hangtown) and had his own carpet cleaning business. I don't think he was riding any more.

Can't find many pics of him online.

Todd Gardner used to win the money class at Lockhart stadium pretty often in the late 80s and would always be up front with Ricky Hampshire (RJ's dad) in the FL winter series and gold cup races in the A class.  And some kid named Timmy Ferry used to whip me in the 80cc class.

Pokey was pretty wild and fast in the early 90s. 

I have been wondering if that is what the 971 in your username meant.

I agree with you, Larry was my first local moto here for a few reasons..  When I was getting into racing in 1987 when I could barely touch the ground, we went to SIR to watch some races.  I saw Larry starting backwards in the 80 expert class, just to make it challenging (and creaming everyone), he raced his big wheel in the 125 intermediate class and creamed them, he would jump the downhill farther, harder, faster than anybody on the track regardless of bike size, it was awesome to see.  Fast forward a couple of years at Thurston County ORV, he took what was just two huge rollers in the middle of the track near the gazebo that nobody even thought of, and hit it WTFO and made it into a double jump, he was dang near wearing a cape at that point, just a massive treat to watch.  Best of all, he was David Bailey kind of nice, and to everyone, kids adults, strangers, just a nice gentleman.  Seeing him grow up locally and make it, was rad.

Honorable mention goes to the Ryan Huffman / Jason McCormick days, but I was way too cool to call guys hero's that were the same age as me :D  Just two classes ahead of me, that I never got anywhere near catching up.

          Jimmy Ellis, Mark Robillard(sp) , Mike Guerra, Ricky Hicks, JOJO, all NESC racers during the mid 70’s.  New England was a hotbed of talent at that time. New Englanders did not care one bit about the AMA, we did it our way !

Jojo keller

Dennis Hawthorne was the guy I looked up to around here in the mid-to-late 80's

I raced against Buddy Antunez a bit in So. Cal. in the mid 80s.  He was so fast that I always wanted to be like him.  I even raced Suzukis because that was his brand.  He was my mx idol as a kid, and he was only a couple years older than me.

Dennis Jonon. I remember seeing him on KX 65 at Challenge Trax in Kingsville, MO and he was so fast. I also got to see Brian Deegan race in Agency, MO. He showed up in box van with someone (I think Denny Stevenson (SP)). It was way before the famous win and the Metal Mullisa days. It was crazy seeing how fast those two were.

Steve Wise. I was racing an XR-75 and he was on a Penton 125 in the 125 class and a CR250 in the 250 class, with the number W. A year later his Dad offered me a fully modified XR75 from his Honda dealership with Steve training me. That led me to a NMA Championship later that year. A few years later it was cool to race Steve in the expert class in South Texas when he had an off weekend from the Nationals. Steve was also the one that shared the Gospel to me in my early 20's. Still a very close friend today. 

Interesting fact...I have been a co worker with two riders mentioned above. Rusty Holland and I were with PU in the 00's and teens. Dennis Hawthorne and I are both District Managers for Kawasaki now.