In the Fifties and Sixties American dirt track motorcycle racing fans'
attention was focused on half-mile and mile oval flat track races and
the occasional TT race looped inside the half-mile tracks to include a
jump. There were a few "scramble" races on tracks but the surfaces were
graded and smoothed so they were more-or-less flat track races with a
few more left hand turns and a jump or two. Motocross, as we know it
today was the sport of Europeans. All that changed in 1968 when
motocross was "imported" into America, first as the "Inter-Am" series in
1968-'69, then as the 'Trans-Am" series in 1970. Classic race tracks
ranged from the movie backlot at Westlake Village and the arid Carlsbad
and Saddleback Park in California to Linnville, Ohio, and Unadilla, New
York, and Pepperrell, Massachusetts. The best European riders - Roger
Decoster, Jeff Smith, Joel Robert, Torsten Hallman, Bengt Aberg, Arne
Kring, Vic Allan, Dave Bickers and others - competed against the brash
new American like Gary Bailey, Dick Mann, Marty Tripes, Brad Lackey, Jim
Pomeroy, Gary Jones, Rex Stanton, Barry Higgens, Preston Petty and more.
This is the story of the beginning of what has become America's #1 dirt
sport.
