Legends Attend 10th Annual Event

In the fall of 1981, 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 of America teams. 

Three of these great racers, Hansen, LaPorte and Sun will be attending Diamond Don’s 10th Annual AHRMA Vintage National Motocross in Jefferson on April 20-22, 2012.  Gary Bailey, Steve Wise, Marty Tripes, Brad Lackey, and Trampas Parker will also be in attendance.  It is a rare opportunity to see so many international motocross legends all gathered together in one place.  All of these great racers have been inducted into the American Motorcycle Association, Motorcycle Hall of Fame. 

Donnie Hansen will headline this year’s event as Diamond Don’s Legend for the weekend.  Hansen was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003 as part of the Motocross des Nations team.  He is a former factory Honda rider with Supercross, National Motocross and Motocross Trophee des Nations titles.  Hansen will conduct a motocross school on Friday.  The Donnie Hansen Motocross Academy is a motocross riding school that teaches skills and techniques to all levels and ages of riders - young, old, male, female, beginner, pro, or mini.  His years of racing experience are reflected in his schools.

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.

Marty Tripes will bring his 100cc Works Revenge race to Diamond Don’s with motos on Saturday and Sunday.  This is a race class that reminds us of the old days of racing in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  Back in the day, the 100cc class was the toughest competition of the race day.  Tripes won the Superbowl of Motocross at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972, just a few weeks after turning 16.  He also won the first FIM 250cc motocross United States Grand Prix in Unadilla in 1978.  In his career, he won 11 National Championships and was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2001.

Brad Lackey, another Motorcycle Hall of Famer, hasn’t missed this event yet.  Diamond Don Rainey built a replica of the RN82 500cc Suzuki that Lackey rode to the world championship in 1982 and it will be on display at the event.  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.

Gary Bailey is one of the pioneers of the sport of motocross racing. 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.

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.

Local legend, Trampas Parker was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Bridge City, Texas.  He began riding when he was given his first motorcycle at age 7.  As versatile as he was consistent, 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. 

The weekend will be filled with vintage motocross racing. Many of the legends will be racing on the track and “bench-racing” in the pits.  This is a unique opportunity to meet the heroes of your youth and see all of the great vintage racing bikes dating back to the 1960’s.

The wide, flat grassy pit area offers great viewing of the racetrack that runs through the pasture and into the piney woods.  Rainey has created a natural terrain grass track reminiscent of the early 70’s.  The track runs through the 1880’s ruins of an old sawmill and along the Big Cypress Bayou River.   Spectators will enjoy all of the action and can camp out at the park for the weekend.

Information throughout this article was provided by the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame