Gary Pustalek roosts on the Husky 430

When winter hit and the Nationals were over, there was only one place a young man like me wanted to be: On the AMA Winter-Am MX circuit. I loved the Florida life, covering the races, and between events it was time for interviews and bike tests.

Here's a couple of photos from yesteryear - Gary Pustelak on the "factory" Husqvarna 430cc Open class MXer. I put factory in quotes, to clarify that in those days the non-Japanese factory guys just didn't have anywhere near the same level of support and mods.

But all that said, Pustelak always had a joke and a smile.  It was a great era of interaction with those who were less than superstars and looking back, that's always where I found the best fit. I knew some of the factory riders but much of my view of the inner circle were among the three-digit pros and guys who ran on the KTM, Maico and Husky teams.

These shots turned into a feature piece, but with a slipping memory I can't remember Gary's mechanic's name...can anyone help me out?

It may be coming 30+ years later, but thanks to all of you who befriended me and made my job so enjoyable. You were truly exceptional men on flying machines.

Tom Weisenberger: Wisconsin motocross pioneer

A good friend and influential character in my life recently passed away.

Tom Weisenberger was a motocross pioneer in the central Wisconsin area.  He was the brains and brawn behind Black Bear MX Park, a top regional track cut into the north woods in the early 1970's.

Tom was also the owner and operator of our local Suzuki, Maico and Hodaka shop. For us, it was all things motocross. It was a place where young, wayward boys could hang out and dream about racing, talk trash about the latest Suzuki TM mods and learn how to hop up a Combat Wombat.

Tom treated me like a man.  I'd always get a loud "What's up, Mueller?" when I walked in the door.  The Honda shop reps down the street would chase me away like a rat underfoot, while Tom treated me like a welcome guest.

I can recall when Tom got the first Suzuki RE-5 rotary engine bike into the shop.  We were in a semi-circle staring at it and Tom looked at me and said "take 'er for a ride!" I became the proud owner of a TS185 Suzuki enduro; we set it up with Preston Petty plastic fenders and an oversize orange plastic tank.

Tom would travel with us to the MX Nationals in Red Bud, Michigan; he was part of the crew on some of our epic snowmobile excursions.  As the decades rolled by, Tom remained adaptable.  He was inquisitive and never judgmental.  Tom always existed on the bright side of life. He wasn't wired for negatives.

We all have MX mentors in our lives.  Special people who took a moment to give us an attaboy when needed, or propped us up with a touch of respect as we found our identities.

Tom Weisenberger was our MX pioneer and leader.  He will be missed.

Selvaraj and the 250cc Maico test

Some guys on the early 80's MX scene were beyond cool.  Intelligent, committed, passionate.

Here's a shot of #1 good guy Selvaraj Narayana helping me set up a photo shoot for the new Maico 250cc MX.  Think this must have been '80 or '81.

Sel was a good friend on the circuit. During that period, I wanted to make sure fringe brands achieved media exposure.  Maico was still doing business in the Open class but it wasn't best of show at the Supercross races.

During the pre-Internet era, Cycle News held a big voice in the MX industry.  We tried to be impartial with editorial content and tell stories that suited everyone.  We were inclusive before inclusive was socially acceptable!

I'll say it again and again, but this was a great time in American motocross and I was proud to be able to bring the stories to life in Cycle News.

Shultz gets air at Daytona Supercross

I am having an absolute big time digitizing my negs. It's a gold mine of memories and images burned in my brain.

Here's a Daytona Supercross shot of Darrell Shultz.  This is what MX was all about in the early 80's. Look at the relaxed confidence in Shu's expression.  The boot gaiters. Fit and cool.  A bit of styling six feet off the ground.  That's what I appreciate most; riders didn't have to be 40 feet in the air to dazzle us!

I was fortunate to get so close to the sport.  A kid from Wisconsin, on the infield shooting the Daytona Supercross.  Sometimes, we do live to see our dreams.

Keith Turpin: Leader in the 80cc era of MX

It's a huge task to tackle my black and white neg inventory.  Boxes of washed out contact sheets with neg strips taped to the back in wax envelopes.  But inside those envelopes lay treasures, memories, my little piece of MX history that I hope to share with you on this blog.

Here's a shot from the first interview I did at Cycle News, circa 1979.  It's Keith Turpin (left) with his kid brother making camera faces.

Turpin was the child prodigy of mini MX.  He was a very early recruit of Dave and Sandra Jordan's Kawasaki Team Green brigade.  It was the era of 80cc mini racing and the factories were poised to grow that displacement model and engage loyalty from racing customers.

There are many theories as to what forces grew the depth and professionalism in motocross.  My nod goes to Dave and Sandra...they were the king and queen of the first major amateur MX program and managed it well.

Turpin when on to a pro career with Kawasaki and then Suzuki.  He suffered some major crashes; I remember going to visit him in the hospital (Pontiac?) after he broke a femur at the Supercross that evening. Keith told me he had encountered enough, it was time to get out.

Interviewing the Turpins was the start of something very big and special in my life.  I had graduated from an obscure university in Wisconsin only weeks before...but at Cycle News East, I became an immediate insider with all things motocross.

How good could life be?  I lived I dream that few would encounter.  Motocross was the best of life.

Doug Domokos: The Wheelie King lives on

Some of the wildest stories I could ever tell (and won't tell on Retro Motocross) happened in the presence of Doug Domokos.

"The Wheelie King" was "thinking outside the box" before anyone had coined that term.  He built a career out of all things wheelie and that was a great asset to the sport of motocross.  Anyone remember being at a National MX or Supercross when Doug wheelied the entire track?

This shot was taken somewhere within the paddock at Road Atlanta.  Doug was in the area for a MX race and I was looking for a cover shot for Cycle News East.  He was working on tricks with this massive six-cylinder Kawasaki.  The challenge was the fact this bike didn't have a small electric motor to keep the front wheel rotating when the bike was lifted - that's a trick Doug  used on many of his MX bikes.

So after several false starts, Doug got the monster up and caught the balance point.  The funny part didn't come until later.  I was following Doug on an entrance ramp onto an Interstate and it was show time.  Doug cracked a major wheelie, picked up speed and merged into traffic.

Sure, there are tons of guys now into sport bike freestyle.  But in his era, no one entertained as well as Doug Domokos.

Doug was killed in an ultralight aircraft crash in 2000.  He was pretty much out of the business by that time, but had left his indelible mark on the sport.

Thanks, Domokos.  You made the memories exciting and they'll live for a long time to come.

The first water-cooled Husqvarna

Here's another photo of Mike Melton from my digital photo archives.  It was prompted by a great comment posted by Kevin Korterud:


"Hi...just started checking out your site. Back in the day (1980s) I raced Huskys and knew Mike from when he lived in Central Ohio. Those early 80's were quite the halcyon days of off-road racing here in Central Ohio when the economy was strong; having Husky US HQ and Burleson here helped a lot as well...and Cycle News East was still around.

I have so many stories from that era but here is a classic Mike Melton episode that really highlights what a good person he is.  One summer afternoon at work I got a call from Mike asking me to be at Honda Hills to "try out something new". I took my then girlfriend now spouse out to Honda Hills to find the Husky team truck parked there with Mike sitting in in a lawn chair. I found it odd that the loading door to the truck was closed. 

I helped Mike open the truck loading door and watched him unload the what was the first Husky water cooled 250 in the US; it turns out it was to be ridden at the USGP the following weekend so essentially it was a work bikes. After watching Mike for a few laps he said "take it for a spin but don't go fast enough to crash it!" Quite a thrill for an IT guy with a day job to ride something like this..

Due to business travel and getting re-qualified to fly again I have not been involved with bikes and racing since the late 1980s. I do miss those times chasing the guys wearing the blue helmets with the white stripes on them in local races."

Wrangler and Broc: Pushing jeans at retail

Thought I'd share just a bit more love and post this Wrangler retail promotion poster.  This creative was designed for the 1983 Wrangler Super Series, which was the AMA/Wrangler initiative to combine points from Supercross and the MX Nationals, so that one rider could be promoted as #1 in the sport (David Bailey won the title in a rather interesting fashion, but that's another story for another day).

Wrangler was a pioneer at retail activation; the company built a highly successful program tying jeans sales to rodeo tickets and moved that same expertise to Supercross. This Yamaha YZ promotion leveraged Broc Glover as celebrity athlete.  The Wrangler sales force coordinated with the special events team to make sure point-of-sale attracted customers to enter to win and hopefully purchase some Wrangler gear in the process.

I learned a ton working on the Wrangler project.  It was a new era in event marketing and I had a front row seat helping to implement the plans.  I'll always be grateful for the opportunity to work the corporate side of a sport I truly loved.

Wrangler Jeans and Supercross: 1982 - 1984

Here's a brand that carried the sport into a new era: Wrangler Jeans.  Wrangler and R.J. Reynolds (the Winston and Camel brands) were both located in the Triad - Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem, NC.  They were both pioneers in sport marketing.  Wrangler followed Camel's footsteps into Supercross and I was fortunate to be part of the action as a contracted PR agent.

Note the rodeo imagery tied to this graphic created for the 1982 series. Wrangler was building a juggernaut effort in special events and had a portfolio that included prorodeo, the Willie Nelson country music tour, Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd in NASCAR, a national country music contest, and Supercross.

Wrangler did some important things during its tenure with Supercross.  It brought cross-over marketing, media, retail tie-ins and rider point fund money.  In 1983, the company hosted the Wrangler Dash, which paid out $30,000 to the winner.  Broc Glover took that cash.

I can remember events where Wrangler rolled semis to the races, then fitted everyone in the Supercross business - riders, team mechanics, etc. - with jeans, jackets, and caps. It was the era of the thin fabric, tight Jordache jeans, with the embroidered rear pockets.  Shifting the MX scene to the Wrangler comfort fit was sometimes a challenge.

I'd be remiss if I didn't state there were some frictions within the sport, mostly between the AMA and event promoters.  Wrangler got caught up in that conflict, as it held its affiliation with the sanctioning body. I regret it happened; Wrangler could have been even a bigger player in the sport.  But sponsors come and go...Wrangler was one of the best there was.

Wrangler Jeans and Supercross: 1982 - 1984

Here's a brand that carried the sport into a new era: Wrangler Jeans.  Wrangler and R.J. Reynolds (the Winston and Camel brands) were both located in the Triad - Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem, NC.  They were both pioneers in sport marketing.  Wrangler followed Camel's footsteps into Supercross and I was fortunate to be part of the action as a contracted PR agent.

Note the rodeo imagery tied to this graphic created for the 1982 series. Wrangler was building a juggernaut effort in special events and had a portfolio that included prorodeo, the Willie Nelson country music tour, Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd in NASCAR, a national country music contest, and Supercross.

Wrangler did some important things during its tenure with Supercross.  It brought cross-over marketing, media, retail tie-ins and rider point fund money.  In 1983, the company hosted the Wrangler Dash, which paid out $30,000 to the winner.  Broc Glover took that cash.

I can remember events where Wrangler rolled semis to the races, then fitted everyone in the Supercross business - riders, team mechanics, etc. - with jeans, jackets, and caps. It was the era of the thin fabric, tight Jordache jeans, with the embroidered rear pockets.  Shifting the MX scene to the Wrangler comfort fit was sometimes a challenge.

I'd be remiss if I didn't state there were some frictions within the sport, mostly between the AMA and event promoters.  Wrangler got caught up in that conflict, as it held its affiliation with the sanctioning body. I regret it happened; Wrangler could have been even a bigger player in the sport.  But sponsors come and go...Wrangler was one of the best there was.

Mike Melton: Off road king of the early 80's

I'm going to deviate for a post or two here and there and throw in some retro off-road images.  Here's go-fast woods guy Mike Melton, hamming it up for the camera.  This has to be 1980-1982 because I was at Cycle News during that era and went to Mike's house to do a feature article.

Mike was AMA National Enduro Champion in 1983, during a long run of Husky-dominated titles (1971-1986). Some of you may remember Husky on the National MX scene during the early 1980's, but the Swedish marque was a bit off the pace on the closed circuit courses.

All of the top enduro riders were linked to the ISDE (International Six Days Enduro) scene.  Melton was the top American at the ISDE in Wales in '83, took a silver medal, and was later named the AMA's 1983 Amateur Athlete of the Year.

The enduro guys never saw the fanfare and big factory dollars, but they were a great group nonetheless who loved their sport and remained accessible to the media.

Here's a shout-out to you, Mike Melton.

Marty Smith: He was essential to American motocross

I've had a wonderful time the past couple of weeks, building my new Retro Motocross site with the help of Facebook.  Having a Facebook page to support the blog content is a big boost and part of that process has been "Friending" with some of the riders we remember from the past...Warren Reid, Donnie Hansen, and Marty Smith, among others.

Marty Smith?  That one made me regroup a bit, because it evokes emotion to think back to what the Honda factory rider meant to many of us in the 1970's. Most of the MX industry might understand with Smith did on the racetrack, which related to sales for Honda.  But what may have gone unstated is the affecting impact he held on those of us who were far, far away.

Prior to my time as assistant editor at Cycle News East, I was finishing my journalism degree at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. That's about as far away from the motocross world as a young boy can get.  California might as well have been Mars. We stayed connected through the race reports, photos, and advertisements.

Seating assignment for class? Back row in the lecture hall. Required reading material? Cycle News, Motocross Action and Dirt Bike magazine. Much of the attention in that day was directed to Marty Smith. We modeled his look, the attitude, and as much of his equipment as we could muster.  The Honda shop used to chase us out if we hung around too much, but they didn't understand.  We were looking at those new silver-tanked CR's and imagining what it would be like to see Smith ride one.

I'm currently a communication professor so it's important to consider how media affects our lives.  Advertisers strive for engagement with media. In today's market, we glance and move on to the next image. Prior to the Internet, we could stare at a JT or Fox ad for 10 minutes!  I'd look at every fine detail, as if the final exam was based on what I found in that ad.  I wasn't the best student at that phase of my life, but I was at honors level when it came to motocross. I read voraciously and digested anything and everything I could locate.

I remember going to the local MX track, Black Bear, and watching the best rider in the area - Tim Miller.  He'd come up from the south (Milwaukee, I think) and would blister everyone in the A class motos, both 125 and 250.  Miller was a Marty Smith clone.  He had the gear, the hair, and the CR's to match.  It wasn't Marty, but it's the best we could get living in the nether regions of the USA.

I'll be looking for Marty shots as I dig deeper into my negs and scan more images.  I remember Marty later in his career when he was finishing out his pro days with Suzuki. With the factory guys, you could tell when they respected you as a person, or when their arrogance got in the way of acceptable human relations.  Marty was a class act, who always had time for a quote or a comment for the Cycle News report.

Here's a segment on Marty from Speed TV's "The Motocross Files." Watch and enjoy.

http://www.streetfire.net/video/the-motocross-files-marty-smith_175511.htm

Retro fitness: A game changer

Here's a shot of David Bailey spinning the crank, this must have been 1983 or 1984.  It was the start of the defined fitness component in motocross.

I stated "defined" as many prior MX riders worked to stay fit, but Johnny O'Mara and Bailey took it to another level.  Bicycles came into the game as did trail running.  It was the convergence of endurance sport and motorsport...both of the two-wheeled variety.

It seems that motocross fitness and training saw the normal bell curve of activity. Few riders during the inception of motocross performed additional exercise or training.  Then it became all the rage in the mid 1980's.  In later years, Bob Hannah would comment the new era of riders weren't fit and weren't strong; many couldn't hang on for a 30 minute +2 lap moto.

A top motocrosser may not be dependent on an ancillary fitness program. However, some of the best I have known were kings of fitness and it translated to the race track.

Bob Hannah: The media's lightning rod

Here's another shot from the Unadilla 250cc USGP, with Bob Hannah working the fans and media after a moto.

I think it might be 1984, can anyone help me on the date?

Hannah attracted the masses.  His words were as exciting as his riding and he was always good for a quote.  He never pulled punches, remained outspoken, and you could count on him to comment on the race track, other riders, the bike he was riding, and the promoter or AMA.

It seems all forms of motorsport have morphed into a milquetoast existence; Hannah was the lightning rod of all things controversial and the sport was a more colorful place because of it.

The ultimate retro MX fan

Think this was Mid-Ohio 1980.  It's the ultimate fan...this is like looking in the mirror.

Brewski in one hand and survival pack with a few support bottles...leg brace from being a really bad rider and attempting motocross...furry forest on the chest...shorty shorts.

But in the end, there's the essence of happiness, the contentment that can only come from being on the sidelines where the best in the world race motocross.  Heck, I made a career of it.

I have quite a few more "fan" stories, so if you're interested, drop a comment.

The ultimate retro MX fan

Think this was Mid-Ohio 1980.  It's the ultimate fan...this is like looking in the mirror.

Brewski in one hand and survival pack with a few support bottles...leg brace from being a really bad rider and attempting motocross...furry forest on the chest...shorty shorts.

But in the end, there's the essence of happiness, the contentment that can only come from being on the sidelines where the best in the world race motocross.  Heck, I made a career of it.

I have quite a few more "fan" stories, so if you're interested, drop a comment.

Rod removal from reconstructed ankle

I'm a bit off the path on retro today, but thought many of the Retro Motocross readers would like an update on my buddy Wes' shattered foot and subsequent rehab.

Guy fell 20 feet out of a coconut tree.  I don't know the entire story, but he's a big dude and fell hard, shattering his foot.  Surgeons rebuilt and caged his heel and inserted several rods to stabilize the numerous breaks.

Wes went in today to have the rods removed.  Doc tried to get a long one out, was gripping it with a pliers.  He pulled until the pliers slipped off the rod and he fell backwards.  Doc said he didn't know what to do...might require surgery.

My buddy said hold on...drove to Home Depot and bought a super Vise-Grip.  Went back to doc, told him to clamp it down on the rod.  Doc pulled again, this time when he fell backwards the rod pulled out.

Here's a great example where mechanics meets medicine.  Clamp and pull.

I think this is St. Pete...306 and 89?

Retro Motocross readers...help me out on this one.  Fill in the blanks.  Who are these guys?