This Week in Yamaha History: Bradshaw's Final SX Win
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 | 2:30 PM
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The thing the about a rider’s last win is that they almost never seem like they’ll be the last win when they take place. The promoters don’t drop confetti and “Happy Retirement” banners down on the podium when a rider wins his final race—because you usually think after a rider wins one, more are soon to come.
Here is the perfect example (and we’ll have another in a few weeks): The 1993 Atlanta Supercross. Yamaha superstar Damon Bradshaw was the odds-on favorite for the ’93 AMA Supercross Championship after winning nine races in 1992, but narrowly losing the championship to Jeff Stanton. But the Stanton/Bradshaw era faced kryptonite in a rookie named Jeremy McGrath, who reeled off a four-race win streak in rounds three through six to take over the points lead. Was McGrath for real, or would he fade under the pressure like many rookies had before?
The Atlanta race appeared to provide an answer. McGrath had been winning based partially on his awesome holeshots, while Bradshaw and Stanton had been getting terrible starts for most of the season. But in the first-ever SX held in the new Georgia Dome, McGrath started mid-pack, and Bradshaw and Stanton started toward the front. Kawasaki’s Mike Craig grabbed the holeshot and led a few laps, but Bradshaw was soon on him, and then took the lead and pulled away on his YZ250. Stanton eventually shoved his way into second, with Mike Kiedrowski taking third. McGrath finished fourth.
Bradshaw in '93. 'Cept for the dude in the pink hat, this still looks cool.
Fran Kuhn photo
It wasn't a spectacular battle or epic race. Bradshaw just checked out, and it seemed all was back to normal in the supercross world. Bradshaw had taken his 19th career SX win, and had closed to just eleven points of McGrath in the series. More importantly, the race seemed to prove that if McGrath didn’t start up front, he couldn’t win. Surely Bradshaw was about to rip off a win streak and claim the championship.
Nope. Bradshaw never got it going, and never won another race all season. McGrath got on another role and ended up winning a record ten races en route to the title. Bradshaw then retired for a few seasons. He would win one more race at the National level (the epic High Point mudder in 1997) but he would never win another supercross. The 1993 Atlanta race was supposed to signal the start of Bradshaw win streak. It ended up being the last supercross win of his career—but at the time, surely no one expected it would be.
Check out highlights from this race on this YouTube link:
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I hope RV reads this column.
That had to be the fastest fall ever. Late in 92, he was well on his way to his first SX championship, and by the end of 93, he was retired.
Start of 94, retired?
Great read BTW
A fun read. thx
Bradshaw could not have carried RV's boots he was a talent but no will.
RV will be around to stomp these guys until he retires like RC did going out a winner.
I remember when he was still on a 125 and Fox did a video to the song "Youth Gone Wild",it was cool and fitting at the time.Kind of like Barcia now.Both fun to watch ride.
That picture brings back serious memories. Not of pro racing, but just helps take me back as a kid. I was 12 or 13, and that is when yamaha finally decided to re-vamp their p.o.s yz 80 when they came out with that 93 yz 80. That bike was the sickest bike I have ever seen and wanted, to this day. I wanted one so bad it hurt... But my parents would never cave and spend that kind of change on a brand new mini crosser. Upside down forks, on an eighty!!!!???? REALLY!!!!??? Man was it bad to the bone. I stared at pictures of their ad with all three sizes in a line on stands, in the dirt, and just dreamed. Never got one, and had to just make due on my 86 rm 80. I still had the time of my life going to my buddies parents horse farm and riding with him. Those were the days! And still to this day, are my fondest memories as a kid. We have now grown up and become men, and come from such diverse backgrounds, we probably never would see eye to eye enough to still be buddies and get together and ride, but I will never forget those years. THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!
Good article. That is amazing to think how quickly he lost the will to race, from giving a title away in 92 to winning races in 93 to being gone. Man, he was only like 20 or 21 when this went down. Hard to believe. Wonder what could have been with him and Bayle fully into it against MC. He was still younger than MC by at least a year or two. Look at this when wondering what is wrong with Stewart. Everyone wondered what was wrong with Bradshaw too, when he won 9 the year before. MC kept it going for the whole decade.
I am from North Carolina and I was one of the lucky people that got to see Damon Bradshaw ride from minis thru the pro ranks. Not trying to take up for Damon but he was being pressured and pushed from the time he was 4 or 5 years old. I know that this happens to a lot of kids now also but I can understand the burnout he had at such a young age. He was and still is one of the best motocrossers that I have ever witnessed throw a leg over a dirt bike. Watching him ride during his teenage years was just amazing. I remember being at a local pro race in NC and Damon fell in the second turn. By the time he got up and restarted his Yamaha everyone was long gone. An older man standing beside me said " well son we are going to see a show now!" He wasn't lying as Damon put on a riding clinic. He was dragging the bars in the sand all the way around some of the corners never letting off on his way back to the front. To this day it was one of the best rides I have ever seen.
Bradshaw was an incredible rider. His career was way too short for his many fans. I met him as a rookie at Southwick and also when he was doing the AX series many years later. He was still the same guy, great with fans and fast as hell. I'm very happy to see him having fun in his monster truck.
fastest guy ever to not win an sx title