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This weeks collection comes from Chris Westall.

I was recently cleaning out a closet full of old photos and ran across some I took at the 1981 Trans-USA at Rio Bravo and 1982 USGP at Carlsbad and realized these were great shots of future Hall of Famers. Good stuff here- Hannah running "100" the year after his waterski accident, Lackey the year he won the world title, Magoo on a LOP Honda with three digits, Bailey on a Kawi, RJ "getting rad" on a YZ (one-handers were still kind of a big deal then... laughable today); a young Wardy absolutely flying on a KX-500, as well as O'Show, Marty Smith (on a Suzuki), Broc Glover, Bomber, and Mike Bell.

The last shot is a nod to future HOFer (and recently retired) Kevin Windham from his big win in 1999 at the 250 USGP at Budds Creek- I was one of the 12 people that was actually there to witness it ;-). BTW, I got to see Kevin in his last "great" race- The 2012 Houston SX qualifier where he battled back and forth with Stewart the whole race before that big get-off that ended his season. If you don't remember it, YouTube it- it was a classic battle (and crash). See you in the Hall, Kevin!

- Chris

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The Conversation

Johnmotoman wrote: 10:38am March 10, 2013

Nice old photos Chris!!! Thanks for sharing. I too have a closet full of black and white photos from the 70's. I have Trans Am and USGP photos from Saddleback and Carlsbad. Would love to share some but don't know how to turn my prints fo digital. Any hints would be appreciated!!!

John

BD25 wrote: 11:38am March 10, 2013

John take the pics to a camera shop or to moto photo and for a small fee you will have your pics on a disc..

Johnmotoman wrote: 11:56am March 10, 2013

@BD25 Thanks for the info!!! Hope to eventually put some out here to share!!!

xr21 wrote: 11:57am March 10, 2013

You can always scan them and save them to your hard drive, flash drive or a disc as .jpg

xr21 wrote: 12:02pm March 10, 2013

In case anyone is wondering, the order of the riders in the photos is:

Hannah
Lackey
Glover
Magoo
Bailey
Ward
O'Mara
Windham
Barnett
Smith
Bell
RJ

Welker wrote: 3:44pm March 10, 2013

Those are pics of the way I remember Motocross. Yes I was able to name them before I got to the xc21 post! Great memories!

smoooker wrote: 4:52pm March 10, 2013

Another way 2 copy a pic is take a pic . Eye don't know about an iPhone but with my cool pix camera and good lightig they come out real good. It's not just the over size # plates it's the lack of radiators that looks weird. I raced an 83 CR 480 great memories . THNX 2 Chris Westall for sharing that

motorhead620 wrote: 5:09pm March 10, 2013

Nice work Mr. Westall
Great pics,cool to see some different vintage pics instead of the same old ones from the old mags.
Really like the #42 Wardy pic on the 420. Met Goat Breker and Jeff at a diner eating pie before Red Bud 82-they were cool.
I was near speechless.

dsileo wrote: 8:52am March 11, 2013

Ahhhhhh, The greatest days of motocross....thank you for sharing these !

CR500AF wrote: 4:42pm March 11, 2013

@xr21 - Isn't that Moates and not Magoo? Moates rode for the LOP folks for a few years on different bikes, including the Yamaha when he won the 500 USGP at Carlsbad. I don't remember Magoo ever riding a privateer Honda.

xr21 wrote: 1:38pm March 12, 2013

@CR500AF- This is definitely Magoo- he got the ride just for the Trans-USA support class (after riding a Suzuki in 1981 125 nats) and won the title over HOFer Jimmy Ellis. That title proved to be a major launching pad to the full Honda ride and winning his first national (Red Bud), the Carlsbad USGP and sweeping the MdN and TdN within a year of this photo being taken. Quite the whirlwind year for Mr. Magoo.

BigUglyManiac wrote: 9:30pm March 13, 2013

I was thinking that this would be a snooze, but it really is a cool collection of some pretty quality photos. Thanks for sharing them.

Looking at the greats in the heat of battle - it is startling how similar they look to the current crop of contenders when at full song. The more things change...

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