Donnie Cantaloupi is fast off the gate

I used to love making this shot for my Cycle News race report.  Walk past the first turn, take a stance coming into turn two, where riders will thread the needle and settle into race order for the first lap.

I'm always a bit foggy on my photos, but I think this shot is from a Trans-USA race at Unadilla.  Can't remember what happened that year but the factories weren't supporting the series...it was still excellent racing and Michigan's Dave Hollis won the title.

Pretty sure this is Donnie Cantaloupi taking it off the front.  Donnie was always an easily accessible rider and was fun to interact with.  I can remember this series being more laid back than ever, sans the factory riders and teams.

It's great fun to study this photo.  I love to check out all things retro motocross. Let's start with that Superfox decal on the visor.  My cool meter just pegged.

Leon Wolek invented energy drinks

I loved candid shots.  Here's Ricky Johnson hamming it up for the camera while Leon Wolek was doing his best to promote Leon's QEM...the precursor to what became the huge energy drink market.

Leon was mixing his special elixir and getting to some of the top riders.  Barnett used a lot of it.  This was still the early era of the sport and hawking your goods in the pits didn't yet requier a million dollar commitment for site rights.

As I peruse all these great pics from yesteryear, it's like a time portal into the past. I'm amazed at the memories that are triggered when seeing these images. That's why I want to share on Retro Motocross.  It's sorta magic.

I was thick but David Bailey looks good...

Here's a photo that brings back golden memories...got this yesterday from David Bailey.  A great shot of me - in my former thick 214 pound body - helping with a video segment in the pits.

Bailey looks good and is telling me about his chances of winning the Wrangler Super Series Grand National Championship, after taking the 1983 Supercross title.  He thinks this was taken at Millville, Minnesota...with his steel trap of a mind I'm sure that's correct.

The Wrangler Super Series was a bittersweet journey.  Wrangler had the sport's best interest in mind when it wanted to create a program that named one specific motocross champion, which could then be marketed similar to a NASCAR Winston Cup champ.

All good in theory, but the motocross industry and teams never truly supported it. As a matter of fact, I took Bailey's Motocross Action pickup, threw a box stock CR250 in back, and drove it from Axton, VA to the Talladega Supercross that year - so he could gain points and chase the Wrangler program title.  Guess it was evident Honda wasn't too supportive of the title.

Whatever, that was then and this is now.  And what remains is a solid friendship with a guy who rode well and lived an exemplary lifestyle.  Can't ask for more than that.

Who is this famous MX pioneer?

Here's a famous MX athlete serving as test rider for a KTM 495 feature in Cycle News East.  Can you name him?

A few hints:

He was one of the first national MX riders...(I think) Montessa.

Became a great hare scrambles and ISDE rider.

Was a top Maico then KTM dealer out of Georgia.

Post a comment...

Hannah offered Shultz a hundred bucks to make the jump

Noted that Shu came onto Retro Motocross and dropped a comment.  Here's how the 500cc champ remembers a day at the SX races when Hannah was on the team:

"Hi Tom, what a bike that '82 RC was. Hannah, me and a couple other riders were looking at an impossible looking double at Seattle SX. Bob says 'Shultz I'll give you a hundred bucks if you jump this'. I jumped it once with the panic-rev of death but Bob didn't believe me or the flag man and I didn't try that one again. Good times, Darrell Shultz."

Hey, it's Jeff Jennings!

Several Retro Motocross readers dropped a comment or email and identified this rider as Jeff Jennings.  Thanks for contributing!

Can someone help me with this post and tell me who #156 was? For some reason I think this is Todd Harrell...but that's a fading memory from a long time ago.

This has to be from 1980 - 1982.  Wasn't this the top heavy Yammy model that shrouded a radiator behind the front number plate?  

Just as I love to study static shots of riders, I greatly enjoy perusing a retro MX bike while it's in flight.  Always fun to see how the motorcycles are prepped at the factory level.  And when you're deep into the sport (as I was) you watch for every decal size, placement and location.

Things like that matter when you're about all things motocross.

More Shultz...those gunfighter eyes

Here's more Darrell Shultz, prepping out at the race.  I used to love taking pit shots, capturing all the behind the scenes action and detail.

Maybe it's because the riders were flying closer to the ground...but open face helmets and cotton tight fitting jerseys were the order of the day.

That said, everything was tight fitting in those days.  Jeans and shorty shorts for men in the pits.

Also note the retro New Balance running shoe.

What's fun about revisiting these old pics is that my former demeanor returns. I love to relax and study the detail in each shot.  That's something that may have been lost in our fragmented media society.  To stop and linger over the fine nuance of each image.

Marty Tripes had a lot of game

Here's a great shot of one of America's most interesting MX characters and also one of the greatest natural talents in the sport.

This shot was taken at Daytona.  Marty Tripes always seemed to see the fun in racing.  His demeanor was jovial and on some occasions he went very fast.

I was at a Gary Bailey MX camp and Tripes came to the school with former Supercross promoter Mike Goodwin.  It was supposed to be a boot camp to get Marty back in shape, but what I remember most was:

1) Marty could load an entire hot dog into his mouth, chew and swallow it in one efficient effort.

2) He could ride a motorcycle effortlessly.  He had a sit-up-very-straight riding stance.  From there he'd simply roll on the throttle and rocket away.

As I look back at the sport 30 years later, it's the individuals and personalities I remember most.  It took the colorful antics of guys like Marty Tripes to make motocross legend.

Bailey is ultimate cool

I think this shot defines my era in motocross. It's the peak of all things cool.  Here's David Bailey (23) making short work of a whoop section with Broc Glover (6) hammering the inside line.  What a day at the races.

I have this shot on my screen saver at university and get to examine it often. It's Bailey being cool without even trying. Check out the body stance...has there ever been one better?  And how about the Fox apparel, boot gaiters and Scott face protector? And the obligatory duct tape across visor?

Put that rider on top of the potent RC250 and you had one heck of a show. Maybe it's only because I lived inside that period of time, but those factory riders on their flying machines were the greatest.

Kenny Roberts @ Houston Astrodome, circa 1979

Here's how it looked from the field at my first stadium race...the Houston Astrodome short track in 1979. There I was, watching some of the best road racers in the world make it happen on dirt.  Kenny Roberts was amazing to watch.  No, not 40 feet in the air, but you don't have to be above the clouds to demonstrate prowess on a motorcycle.

I can remember feeling like an alien; who were these guys - Roberts, Spencer, Parker, etc.?  I hadn't read about these racers in Dirt Bike!

That's where my editor Jack Mangus came in.  He forced me to look at the sport as a whole, to become educated, to understand where the competition and talent was in all forms of motorcycle racing.

That's one of the problems with our open-source media content today.  There's no editor like Mangus standing over your shoulder, making sure you have the facts and that the new makes sense.

It wasn't always easy working for Jack, but I learned.  A lot.

Bayle, Stanton and Kiedrowski rule Daytona

Here's Speed TV's main man Dave Despain, getting the inside info from the Daytona Supercross top 3 - Jeff Stanton, French rider Jean-Michel Bayle and Mike Kiedrowski.

I think this is 1990, correct me if I'm wrong.  By this point in the sport, I was popping in and out of events on occasion, doing freelance work for "Back Off," a Japanese publication.

Stanton reminded me of the reincarnation of Barnett. No nonsense and hard work.  No other BS, just get the job done.

David Bailey paid high compliments to Stanton.  Bailey told me that Stanton came to his SX track in Virginia, early in Jeff's career.  According to Bailey, he really wasn't that good.  Natural talent wasn't there.  No Lechien or Tripes stuff going on.

Instead, Stanton worked his way to the top.  Then stayed there for a long time.

Have to love a good work ethic in motocross.  Stanton was that man.

MX mud bath

The years may roll by, but Mother Nature remains the same...you never know when she'll unleash the skies and bring a massive mudder motocross upon us.

Here's a shot from somewhere in the south, think it was an AMA regional MX qualifier race in Tennessee. Try as they might, these top area pros were having a hard time getting 'er done...or even getting over the next jump, for that matter.

Letting my mind wander back to these days assures me I truly loved all things motocross.  It didn't matter, rain or shine, I was there to capture the images that told the story.  It might have meant mud head to toe and trashed Nikon bodies and lenses, but nonetheless it was why I existed, my place in the world at that time in life.

Mike Guerra: The deep thinking MXer

One of the things I enjoyed most during my Cycle News East tenure was getting behind the scenes and telling the story of riders, mechanics, their home lives, etc. Seems today we have a ton of technically perfect race photography...but the expose' side of motojournalism has diminished.

He's a shot I found buried deep in my archives - go fast NESC (New England Sports Committee) racer Mike Guerra.

Guerra may have existed a bit on the fringe of the national motocross scene, but that in no way reflected on his intellectual prowess.  I enjoyed interviewing Mike while at the races, but his persona played out a bit differently than most.  There always seemed to be an unspoken agenda behind his sometimes cutting eyes.  As if he was living and thinking on a different plateau.

On some occasions, Guerra would respond to my questions with his own questions...comments that led to  a deeper level of introspection regarding the state of the sport.  It was his way of demonstrating he was not content with the status quo, neither on the race track nor in his own mind.

The world of motocross is rich in personalities.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems we may have embraced the rider as an individual a bit more when the sport was less commercialized.

Mike Guerra: The deep thinking MXer

One of the things I enjoyed most during my Cycle News East tenure was getting behind the scenes and telling the story of riders, mechanics, their home lives, etc. Seems today we have a ton of technically perfect race photography...but the expose' side of motojournalism has diminished.

He's a shot I found buried deep in my archives - go fast NESC (New England Sports Committee) racer Mike Guerra.

Guerra may have existed a bit on the fringe of the national motocross scene, but that in no way reflected on his intellectual prowess.  I enjoyed interviewing Mike while at the races, but his persona played out a bit differently than most.  There always seemed to be an unspoken agenda behind his sometimes cutting eyes.  As if he was living and thinking on a different plateau.

On some occasions, Guerra would respond to my questions with his own questions...comments that led to  a deeper level of introspection regarding the state of the sport.  It was his way of demonstrating he was not content with the status quo, neither on the race track nor in his own mind.

The world of motocross is rich in personalities.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems we may have embraced the rider as an individual a bit more when the sport was less commercialized.

Billy "Sugar Bear" Grossi

Here's a shot of Billy "Sugar Bear" Grossi flying high during his factory Husqvarna days.

I associated the Grossi brothers as being pioneers in motocross.  The name "Grossi" is unique and speaks a lot about the sport; goes with other names like Pomeroy and Lackey.

My love for MX racing ran deep.  It never mattered how spread out the field might be, or how far back a specific rider was in respect to the leader.  Every athlete presented a  work of art - on each portion of the race track. Body position, turn techniques and of course, the beauty of a rider in flight.

Thanks Billy, for your wonderful contribution to motocross.

Roxy Rockwood with Freddie Spencer and Eddie Lawson

As we scan through hundreds of negs, please humor me and allow a few things that aren't all things motocross.

Here's a shot from one of the hottest spots during Daytona Cycle Week in the early 1980's - Roxy Rockwood's radio show, held at the Hawaiian Inn.  Seated to the left of Rockwood is a young Freddie Spencer and to the right, Eddie Lawson.

One thing I'll always remember about my tenure at Cycle News is the direction and advice of the editor, Jack Mangus.  I was a total MX head and Jack wouldn't have it that way.  He taught that if you wanted to be a well-rounded moto-journalist, you needed to be informed about all forms of racing.

That's one of the reasons I went to Roxy's show and later covered dirt track, road racing, trials and drag racing.  It's part of being integrated into the industry as a whole.

Larry Maiers and Supercross in the 80's

Here's a shot of Larry Maiers chatting up the winner's circle with (left to right) Supercross stars Donnie Hansen, Mike Bell and Jim Gibson (first female is Donnie's former wife Lisa - the Wrangler rep is Margaret).

Maiers, along with Supercross super mouth Larry Huffman, were the voices of stadium racing.  My mind continues to associate their voices with play-by-play and floor interviews.

Supercross seemed much more accessible in my day.  I held full access to the track for photos and could work the impromptu winner's circle gatherings, which usually took place on a random tabletop jump.

I considered it a privilege to get this close to the sport and be part of the action.  In the day, it seemed like many of us worked hard, then played hard too.  What a great way to spend a few years growing in a career and learning how to communicate the experience to Cycle News readers.