Legends Of Racing

Brad Lackey
Brad Lackey was the 1972 500cc National Champion and in 1982, he became the first American to win the World 500cc Motocross Championship.  To this day, no other American has duplicated what took Lackey over 10 years to achieve.  Lackey was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Chuck Sun
The team of Donnie Hansen, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O'Mara and Chuck Sun swept the 250cc Trophee des Nations and the 500cc Motocross des Nations, beginning a 13-year period of domination by the United States teams. The team was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003.  LaPorte and O’Mara are the first “double inductees” having been inducted on their individual performances in 2000, and then as part of these teams.

Danny LaPorte
Danny LaPorte helped the United States make the transition from underdog to world leader in the sport of motocross. The rider from Los Angeles scored an AMA 500cc National Motocross Championship in 1979 before going on to become the first American to win the FIM 250cc World Motocross Championship in 1982. LaPorte was also a key member of the 1981 Team USA Motocross and Trophee des Nations squad that brought America its first win in the prestigious international Olympic-like competition.
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Donnie Hansen
Donnie Hansen is a former factory Honda rider with Supercross, National Motocross and Motocross Trophee des Nations titles.  The team of Donnie Hansen, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O’Mara and Chuck Sun swept the 250cc Trophee des Nations and the 500cc Motocross des Nations, beginning a 13-year period of domination by the US teams.  This team was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003.

Gary Bailey
Gary Bailey is one of the pioneers of the sport of motocross racing in the U.S. Bailey began winning AMA nationals in the early 1970s, and later parlayed his racing experience into the nation's top motocross racing school. Bailey also was an early designer of supercross courses. He has designed the Daytona Supercross course from the beginning of that race in the early 1970s. The father of motocross great David Bailey, Gary trained David as well as numerous other national champions during their formative years of learning the sport.
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Marty Tripes
Marty Tripes was a leading AMA motocross and Supercross rider of the 1970s and early 1980s. He will always be remembered for winning the Superbowl of Motocross at the Los Angeles Coliseum in July of 1972, just a few weeks after turning 16. That race was a seminal event in American motocross history and was considered the first true stadium Supercross race.  In all, Tripes won 11 AMA nationals during a career that spanned just over a decade. He also won the first United States 250cc Motocross Grand Prix at Unadilla in 1978 against Europe’s best.
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Rik Smits
After 12 years of playing professional basketball in the NBA for the Indiana Pacers, Rik retired and has pursued his childhood love of off-road motorcycling.  He started out trail riding on a Berini 50cc bike when he was seven years old in Eindhoven, Holland.  As he grew up, and up, and up he became involved with basketball in his high-school years, eventually moved to the United States, joined the ranks of the NBA and “the rest is history.”   Rik got hooked on vintage motocross racing by attending an AHRMA event with his friend Brian Borshoff, who was entered in a cross country race, and just happened to have a spare bike in the trailer.  Brian offered the bike for Rik to race, and again, “the rest is history.”  While he has been out of the AHRMA racing circuit for a few years, he will be racing at Diamond Don’s 10th Annual National Vintage Motocross in April 2012.  

Steve Wise
Steve Wise will go down in history as one of the most multi-talented riders in the history of motorcycle racing. Wise earned the distinction of becoming the only rider in history to win AMA motocross, AMA Supercross and AMA Superbike nationals. The Texan further proved his all-around talent by earning a podium result in the AMA Grand National Championship when he took third, in his very first Grand National Dirt Track appearance, at the Houston Astrodome TT National in 1982. 

In addition, Wise twice won the popular ABC Wide World of Sports Superbikers competition in the early 1980s, an event that featured the top motorcycle racers in the world from all disciplines. ABC’s Superbikers was a predecessor to Supermoto, which flourished in Europe and later attained AMA national status in 2003. Wise’s versatility helped him earn the prestigious AMA Pro Athlete of the Year Award in 1982.

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Trampas Parker
As versatile as he was consistent, Trampas Parker made history as the first American to win two World Motocross Championships. He was an unknown American rider living in Italy when he burst onto the world motocross scene by winning the 125cc championship in 1989 with KTM. Two years later, he repeated the feat for a 250cc championship, this time with Honda.

Parker was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was raised in Bridge City, Texas.  He began riding when he was given his first motorcycle at age 7.
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