1977 & 1978 US Motocross Grand Prix - De Coster, Mikkola, Malherbe, Wolsink, Lackey, Pomeroy & more

Wow! What a time warp. 56 years old now but remember in '77 & '78 when I was 11 & 12 years old watching these races on tv. Had a KX80 when I was a kid. Offroad motorbiking, what an incredible sport.

The bikes of this Era were works of art ridden by Iron men

Jim Pomeroy maybe the fastest man to never win a Championship!!

Went to a race at Unadila in july '77 . Believe it was a Trans Am. Sunday morning , massive hangover, pouring rain but we drove over 6 hours to see this race and i was determined to see some racing. It was still raining hard when they dropped the gate. Can't remember who grabbed the hole shot but I didn't follow MX that closely to care who won so was going to walk around the track and find a jump , tight corner or other interesting spot to watch the race from. . Believe they raced counter clockwise here and if i walked around the track that way it would require me to go down and up this steep canyon. Still suffering with all the Genesee Cream Ale i drunk the night before i walked clockwise from start/ finish line because there was a path that was much flatter. Heard the bikes coming toward me climbing the far side of the canyon but could only catch a glimpse of them through the trees. When they reached part of track that went doan my side of the.canyon it was somewhat weird. On this first lap you could hear the raunchy caunaphony of a few dozen two strokes still tightly packed on this first lap and then , almost right in front of me it suddenly got a lot quieter. Not totally quiet but it no longer sounded like a swarm of hornets. Saw one bike. It was Rodger DeCoster on his Suzuki smooth as silk even in the pouring rain. Seemed like minutes later and i heard the sound of the only 4- stroke of 600 plus cc that were allowed to be much bigger than the 500 cc limit of the open class two strokes. Finally reached the area where the rest of the field was. They were all bunched up on a part of the course i believe they called " gravity cavity " . It consisted of a sharp left that went straight down but not all the way down this canyon and a180° off camber turn and right back up almost the way they went down. Well in the pouring rain on a track like Unidilla which really isn't a track 99% of the year but a cow pasture which is nice loam including some cow poop just to give iit that authentic country smell and be really annoying when your body, bike and goggles are completely covered with it.
So there i was at the top of this little detour watching America's top motocross riders as they repeatedly attempted to get back up this hill and no one but Roger and the Brit on the four stroke could manage it. Bob Hannah, Jim Pomeroy Brad Lackey and even the other Europeans couldn't get up this hill from a dead start. At first they tried to keep their cool but it quickly got ugly. A lot of the Americans were from Southern California where the song claims it never rains. Well Unidilla is northern New York and it was really pouring. I would have normally been somewhere dry when it rained this hard but you couldn't have dragged me from this spectacle. Guys starting their bikes and fishtaling wildly trying to get their bikes pointing up hill until they were thrown off and their bike flying into ropes and then tumbling end over end to bottom. Some riders wheelieing out but with same result . Bike tumbling or sliding right back to bottom. The bikes were so covered with sticky mud that the riders got confused on what bike belonged to who and some riders, probably frustrated by the situation , got into minor scuffles. Smarter riders tried collaborating but it was to no avail. None but the previously mentioned could navigate that part of the track. Some riders gave up and slipped their bikes under ropes and quietly slipped back to the pits. And that was it. Twenty minutes were up. Race over. Cleared up and second moto they just eliminated that part of track by moving some ropes and most spectators and racers were much happier. I enjoyed the second race but not as much as i enjoyed watching the mayhem of the first. Really separated the men from the boys.

Love the footage! Thanks!

I think 1978 was the beginning of the Modern Era of Moto Cross. The bikes changed and become much lighter.

Seeing this brought back a lot of memories as a little kid watching ABC's Wide World of Sports. I remember thinking, "this is the coolest thing I've ever seen!

I rode a 250 Maico in 1978 and was 20. These guys were my hero’s. Thanks for your vid 👍

Really enjoyed watching, Thanks..

Great video MX racing Americans and Europeans and its supercross now (sucks)

The Carlsbad blue grove. The same bumps were there year after year. Too bad it's all gone now.

This was the best vintage motocross video ever. Never before seen footage and nice look at the works Suzuki's and Honda's of that era. Thank you.

Great video, great footage!

These Champions of THIS era are so much greater than todays motocrossers. It's really not the same sport is it? These giants of the sport had to make insufficient machinery work and THEY DID that so well. You can visually SEE the difference from this era to today so clearly. Guys like Mikkola, DeCoster and Lackey and a few others are supermen, and now history's immortals.

Quins anys tant meravellósos.
Els millors pilots.... Gràcies!!!

Brilliant footage of probably the greatest era of moto x .

Great footage from the greatest era

Yes, thank you ! We're finally getting some good footage from 74 to 79 Carlsbad!!!

Great film, thanks.

Good stuff here, love the video.

Uncredible, thank you for sharing.

Awesome footage!!!

These are great thanks 😊 for sharing