Last week word broke that seven-time supercross champion Jeremy McGrath was returning to Kawasaki Team Green as a brand ambassador. To many motocross enthusiasts around the world this was surprising news and cause for the social media universe to light up like a Christmas tree with photos of “Showtime” whipping around a KX450. It was also cause for others to wonder how Jeremy McGrath, long associated with Honda and their MX racing exploits, could be “returning to Kawasaki.” For the fans perhaps a little more new to the sport, the thought of MC riding green was a bit odd. Truth be told, while McGrath did win four consecutive SX titles for the Big Red Machine, he actually lined up his first true semi-professional ride with Kawasaki Motors Corp USA in the form of the marquee’s iconic Team Green program. And to illustrate how important that relationship was to both McGrath and Kawasaki, Racer X is going to turn the clock back to Saturday, March 17, 1990.
The 1990 AMA Camel Supercross Western Regional Supercross Series was four races old when the traveling circus rolled into Las Vegas, Nevada and set its big top up at the Silver Bowl. Scheduled to be the sport’s premiere engagement in Las Vegas (remember, this was almost twenty-five years ago), The Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group that promoted the event went for the smoke, mirrors, and fireworks to max-out the razzmatazz factor of the event, and 18,197 fans filled up the NCAA Division 2-size football stadium (think of that number the next time you want to think about the growth of supercross over the last twenty-five years). Leading the way in the West Region points war was a full-on privateer Honda rider named Ty Davis. Also in the mix were young factory and factory support riders such as Jeff Emig, Ryan Hughes, Jimmy Button, Michael Craig, Buddy Antunez, and a somewhat-anonymous 19-year-old from Sun City, California named Jeremy McGrath.
“In 1990 I was a part of Team Green, and it was my big year as both an A rider and as an amateur,” said Jeremy McGrath the day after his brand ambassador announcement. “The plan for me was to ride West Coast supercross and then still ride the World Mini and Lake Whitney in Texas and to then ride Loretta Lynn’s and Ponca City later in the summer. Nineteen ninety was basically my last year of, like, either you’re going to do it and make it in the sport or you’re not. At that point I didn’t really have a job, and I was racing and doing just enough to get by. I had my own checking account and kind of was able to get to the races because I had bought my own box van. I was sort of making it work as a Team Green rider/privateer guy.”
His Team Green deal basically consisted of a few bikes and a parts allowance. McGrath, while appreciated by Kawasaki, was by no means an amateur sensation of the period and was dramatically overshadowed by young racers such as Jeff Emig and Buddy Antunez.
“My amateur career was horrible,” scoffed McGrath. “All I ever dreamed of was just getting to the supercross track and racing in the stadiums because I knew that I would do well. I knew that if I could get to supercross, then that’s where I would have my best shot.”
Heading into the Las Vegas round that March, McGrath had picked up his game in supercross, running to eye-opening runner-up finishes at both San Diego and Seattle a month earlier. In the opening heat in Sin City, McGrath rode his Kawasaki KX125 to victory over future AMA 125cc National Champions Steve Lamson. When the gate dropped to catapult the pack down the abbreviated start straight into the tight left-hand first turn, it was McGrath and Davis out front fighting to take the point before the conclusion of lap one. By the start of lap two it was McGrath in the lead, and just behind were Davis, Craig, and Hughes. Looking calm and super-fluid out on the slick Vegas circuit, McGrath slowly began to edge away from Craig (who had zapped Davis for second) and Hughes, firing off one precise lap after another. And so it was. Jeremy McGrath and his #125 Kawasaki KX125 raced to victory, the first of his very young career. Little did all the fans present that night realize what they had just witnessed the start of.
“That win was huge,” said McGrath. “To get that win was huge. It was awesome. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven that night. I mean I was just really doing supercross as an A rider. I wasn’t even a pro yet and I beat everyone.”
The next morning the McGrath family turned around and headed right back home to Southern California’s Riverside County. While still beaming from his big win, it wouldn’t take long for reality to set in.
“I won, but I don’t think the doors were busting down with people trying to get to me—that’s for sure,” said McGrath. “However, I do think it put my name on the map a little more and established people thinking, ‘Wow. Maybe we should look at this guy.’ I didn’t really get any calls, though. Not like Emig or Bradshaw would have.”
Yet he did get a call, albeit during the month of August. While sitting in his hotel room during the Loretta Lynn’s AMA Amateur National Championship in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, Jeremy McGrath picked up a surprise phone call from Rick Johnson, one of the greatest motocross riders of all-time. RJ was calling to see if McGrath would be interested in riding for Honda.
“Ricky Johnson called me while I was at Loretta Lynn’s,” said McGrath. “I didn’t know him up to that point, but he called me in my hotel room and told me that Honda wanted to hire me. I was like, ‘Whoa! Somebody is playing a joke on me.’”
While McGrath would only win one solitary 125cc supercross for Kawasaki, it was in fact the Team Green program that very much helped establish and define the future of Jeremy McGrath—a future that would be defined by seventy-two premiere class main event victories and seven supercross championships, both all-time records. Funny now how McGrath has come full circle from that one big night in Las Vegas, a night that launched the most illustrious supercross career the sport has ever seen.
“Obviously we know the story of what came after that win in Vegas,” said McGrath in conclusion. “For sure that win came at the right time for me. Was it the defining race that made me believe could get me to the top? No, I don’t think so, because I know the next year when I rode on Mitch Payton’s Honda team, I found a whole other level of confidence and belief, like, ‘I can do this.’ Those kinds of things come in steps. However, I will say that Vegas race with Kawasaki was definitely the first step.”
