The List: Banner Days

The team scored the win in both classes again over the weekend at Thunder Valley, with Ken Roczen emerging with the 450 win and Jett Lawrence winning again in the 250s. Chase Sexton came within about a second-and-half, total, of winning both motos at Hangtown, but had to settle for second overall with one of the closest 2-2 finishes you’ll ever see. Honda very nearly has won all three races in both classes so far this year.

Which got us to thinking about some other banner days for one particular team in recent motocross history, and we can go all the way back to the first year of AMA Pro Motocross, 1972, to find the first such days. This is not a comprehensive list. If you can think of something as dominant as what Honda did on Saturday, let us know in the comments.

First, lets find the only other time (as far as we know) that a team went 1-2 in all four motos. It was the 1990 Gatorback National in Gainesville, Florida, also the season opener. It was also Team Honda doing the winning. 250 superstars Rick Johnson and Jeff Stanton split the moto wins, with Johnson netting the overall with 2-1 scores. It was a memorable one, because Johnson suffered a devastating wrist injury at the race one year earlier, and that injury essentially ended his time at the top of the sport. RJ wouldn't give up, though, and despite the ailing wrist, he managed to best his teammate Stanton (who had taken over on winning once Johnson got hurt) in a huge second-moto battle that day.

 In the 125 class, Honda’s Mike Kiedrowski and Jean-Michel Bayle also split the motos, with Kiedrowski’s 2-1 taking the overall.

That’s it for 1-2 in all four motos as far as we know. There have been other “big days” of other types, though. In 1972, at the first two rounds of the inaugural series, at first Road Atlanta and then Memphis, two riders from the same team—same bike shop, actually—swept the 250 and 500 classes. Sonny DeFeo and Barry Higgins were both New Yorkers and both rode for the same Long Island motorcycle dealer, Ghost CZ Motorcycles, which was owned by DeFeo's father Salvatore.

One year later, in 1973, Team Honda had its first banner day when brothers Gary and Dewayne Jones finished first and second at the Lake Whitney 250 National in Texas. It marked the first time that a pair of brothers finished 1-2 overall in an outdoor national.

The Lawrence brothers have now collected two 1-2 finishes this year, both Fox Raceway and Thunder Valley. Other brothers have done it, though, namely the Martin brothers, who went 1-2 at the 2016 Glen Helen National (Alex Martin went 2-2 for 1st overall and Jeremy Martin went 4-1 for second overall) and the 2018 Thunder Valley National (Jeremy Martin went 2-1 for 1st overall and Alex Martin went 3-2 for 2nd overall.)

At the 1974 Grand Prix of West Germany at Bielstein, Team Suzuki's entire 250cc team ended up on the podium. All three were Belgians too. Gaston Rahier took the overall with 1-3 moto finishes, Joel Robert was second with a 4-1 score and Sylvain Geboers ended up third with 3-7 moto finishes.

At the 1982 Road Atlanta 250/500 National in Georgia, Team Honda riders won all four motos and finished 1-2 overall in each class. Donnie Hansen won the 250 class with 1-1 finishes while David Bailey notched second with 3-3 scores (and this was the year he wore #23 and looked very much like Chase Sexton's kit last at the opener). In the 500 class Darrell Shultz went 2-1 for the overall ahead of his Honda teammate Chuck Sun. And winning the first moto was their third teammate, Danny "Magoo" Chandler.

One of the most famous days in motocross history was already referenced by David Bailey himself above: Maggiora 1986. That was the day that Team Honda teammates Bailey, Johnson, and O'Mara made up Team USA and stomped everyone in the '86 Motocross of Nations. Johnson won the first moto on his CR250 with O'Mara second his CR125, then Bailey won the second moto on his CR500 and O'Mara again placed second on the 125. Finally, in the last moto, Bailey and Johnson rode across the finish line arm-in-arm, sharing the win and hammering home the victory in what was arguably the peak moment in Team USA's epic 13-year winning streak.

Honda had two incredible starts to the 1999 season. First, Ezra Lusk led a 1-2-3-4 sweep of the Anaheim SX opener, leading teammate Michael Pichon, Factory Connection Honda's Mike LaRocco, and a third Team Honda rider in Kevin Windham past the checkered flag. Later that year, when the AMA Pro Motocross Championships kicked off at Glen Helen, Honda riders actually went 1-2-3-4-5! This time it was Sebastien Tortelli winning in his AMA MX debut, followed by LaRocco, Pichon, Lusk, and Ryan Hughes, who was actually taking a break from the FIM Motocross World Championship 250cc circuit.  But here's the thing about those two amazing starts: Chaparral Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath would end up as the '99 AMA Supercross Champion while Suzuki's Greg Albertyn ended up the 250 National Champion.