Denny Swartz and Marty Tripes were racing hard

I like what's happening in modern day Supercross - guys like Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen are putting KTM on the podium and into the winner's circle. When I was traveling the circuit for Cycle News East, I was at the end of an era where many of the brands were in the hunt - Maico, KTM, Husky, etc.

Here's an example of how it looked in the early '80's.  Maico go-fast rider Denny Swartz (usually best on the 490) was making a run on Marty Tripes in this photo. But even at this time, it's evident technology was shifting; Tripes had the YZ monoshock while Swartz was on the conventionally-suspended twin shock system.

What I like to note about this photo is that the racing was great...but look how close the riders are in respect to the ground.  We didn't demand that our stars were 40 feet in the air.  Riders went fast and stayed low and with that, they had more time to keep power to the ground, which translates to better racing.