November 2
2009
Mike Brown and Paul Whibley share the cover of Cycle News after Brown clinches the 2009 WORCS Championship and Whibley claims the AMA Grand National Cross Country title.
The versatile Brown was the 2001 AMA 125cc National Motocross Champion, while the New Zealander Whibley kept the international champions streak in GNCC going that started in 2005 with Juha Salminen of Finland winning twice, then the Isle of Man's David Knight won two times. Whibley would be followed by Australia's Josh Strang as champion. Also, Kawasaki has not repeated as GNCC champion since Whibley's '09 title. Whibley himself would win again in 2012 aboard a Yamaha.
1975
Another Trans-AMA, another win by Roger DeCoster, only this time it's also a Suzuki sweep of the podium. The race is in St. Peters, Missouri, and DeCoster, at this point a four-time FIM 500cc World Champion and reigning Trans-AMA Champion, is followed in the results by his teammate Gerrit Wolsink and Tony DiStefano, the AMA 250cc National Champion.
That same order of Suzuki riders—DeCoster, Wolsink, DiStefano—is also how the 1975 Trans-AMA Series rankings would turn out. It was the highest overall finish to date for an American, and it followed Pennsylvania's Tony DiStefano winning three of the last four rounds.
1977
The cover of the November 2, 1977 Cycle News features a collage of Trans-AMA contenders, with America's best chance to dethrone DeCoster—Bob Hannah—at the very top. But the dethroning of The Man will take another year for Hannah to accomplish.
1980
The ABC Superbikers, produced by Gavin Trippe for Wide World of Sports, is run at Carlsbad Raceway and the winner turns out to be Team Honda's Steve Wise, who beats defending race champion and the AMA's 250 National Motocross Champion Kent Howerton. Both hailed from Texas.
