Each week throughout the 2018 Monster Energy Supercross season, we’ll dig deep into the Racer X photo archives and select one memorable photo to spotlight.
With Smartop/Bullfrog Spas/MotoConcepts Honda’s Justin Brayton winning the Daytona Supercross last night while riding for a private team, we thought we’d look back at this photo.
In 1987, San Jose, California’s Rick Ryan accomplished the unthinkable, winning a supercross main event as a true privateer. Making this historic first even more impressive, he managed to do it on the notoriously demanding Daytona Supercross circuit.
Despite his upset win, Ryan was unable to get a factory job for 1988, and he went on to make a career as a journeyman racer, chasing contingency and start money all over the world before disappearing from the sport in the 1990s.
