As we count down the final days to the 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations, which takes place this weekend at RedBud in Michigan, we are looking back at some of our favorite Team USA Moments. Today, it’s the legendary “B Team.”
In 1992, despite Team USA being undefeated for the last 11 years, the Motocross of Nations was not the top priority for those racing in America. The event, which was to be held way down in Manjimup, Australia, came at a bad time for riders on the AMA circuit. The event was scheduled for September 5-6, which was one week after the Broome-Tioga 125/500 National. That wasn’t the problem. It was the fact that after the MXON there would still be two 125/500 Nationals left on the AMA schedule, set for September 27 (Steel City) and October 4 (Budds Creek). The 500 class was dying out—it was only a four-round series in ’92—but it still paid handsome bonuses for the top guys. Team Kawasaki’s Mike Kiedrowski held a six-point lead over Team Honda’s Jeff Stanton, who had already won the ’92 AMA Supercross and 250 Pro Motocross titles. And Stanton was eager to match what his teammate and nemesis, Frenchman Jean-Michel Bayle, had accomplished the year before, in getting three titles in one season. Stanton had broken into the sport as a big-bike specialist, but the 500 title remained elusive, and he wanted it. As a result, neither Stanton nor Kiedrowski wanted to sign-up for Team USA.
This led to a domino effect on most of the top guys, as Yamaha’s Damon Bradshaw, who had infamously lost the SX title to Stanton with his last-round meltdown at the Los Angeles Coliseum, also decided to pass on the event. And so did Kiedrowski’s older Kawasaki teammate Jeff Ward, who was in the last stages of his career. That mean that four seasoned Team USA winners were all passing on the event.
It got worse when team manager Roger De Coster reached across the ocean to see if ’92 FIM 250cc World Champion Donny Schmit would like to race for Team USA. Schmit was still upset at having been passed over the previous two seasons, so he too said no to the mission.
Finally, after 11 years of winning as Team USA manager, Roger De Coster also passed on the ’92 MXON, as he was soon to leave American Honda and knew that competing without any of the guys listed above was almost certainly going to be a fruitless task.
Read More 20 Team USA Moments:
Into the void stepped then-AMA SX/MX manager Roy Janson, who began working the phones trying to line up three riders to try to continue the winning streak. At this point in time the 125 National Championships chase seemed to be a done deal, as Kawasaki’s Mike LaRocco held a 48-point lead on Yamaha’s Jeff Emig, with just those two rounds to go. Neither of these future superstars had raced in the Motocross of Nations before, and both signed up—LaRocco moving up to the 250 class and Emig riding the 125.
For the third member of the team Janson’s options were limited. Suzuki had not made a 500-class bike for more than a decade, while Yamaha’s YZ490 and WR500 had not really evolved during that same span. Kawasaki’s top riders had already said no, and Stanton’s Honda teammate JMB was French (and, ironically, going to race on Team France for the first time since ’88). So he reached across the Atlantic Ocean to another Grand Prix rider who was racing the 500 class that season, Billy Liles. A charter member of Kawasaki Team Green a decade earlier, Liles had become something of a journeyman, racing in Europe with various teams and vying for world titles. He had finished third that year in the FIM 500cc World Championships on a Honda CR500. And he even had MXoN experience, though not for Team USA—in 1989 Liles rode for Luxembourg, probably having never guessed that he would one day be asked to ride for Team USA.
Janson now had his three riders—Emig, LaRocco, and Liles—and moto media all over the world began referring to them as, “The B Team.” Few had faith in these guys continuing the Team USA winning streak. That would all change as soon as the starting gate fell in Australia.
In the first 125/500 moto on the sandy Cosy Creek circuit Jean-Michel Bayle topped everyone on his factory CR500, to no one’s surprise. But the interesting part was second-place Liles, who bettered Great Britain’s Kurt Nicoll and Belgium’s Georges Jobe. And then in the 125 class, after a hellacious battle that saw both go down, Emig topped Belgium’s Stefan Everts, giving the Yanks the lead after one moto.
The second moto was for 125/250 riders. Emig was not as fortunate this time, crashing in the first turn. He would have to work his way past as many riders as possible for the rest of the moto. Up front LaRocco would battle with Britain’s Rob Herring, Sweden’s Peter Johansson and Belgium’s Marnicq Bervoets. LaRocco would end up matching Liles’ first moto with a second-place finish behind Bervoets, while Emig would climb all the way to seventh, and be the second 125 in the race behind the Netherlands’ Remy Van Rees. Afterward Emig would say, “I think that was one of the best races I’ve ever ridden.”
The big news in this moto was what happened with Stefan Everts. The Suzuki rider and sand master was already disappointed with his defeat to Emig in the first moto. Things got worse in the second moto when he suffered a flat tire, disabling his bike completely when the tire came off the rim. He ended up sitting on the bike on the infield, know that his puncture probably blew Belgium’s chances to win the MXoN for the first time since 1980.
The final moto for 250/500 riders would see another first-turn crash for an American, this time LaRocco. Like Emig, he would spend the rest of the moto grinding through the pack, and he would eventually reach an incredible fourth overall, one spot behind his teammate Liles. With British rider Kurt Nicoll taking the win and Bervoets second, Team USA had done more than enough to clinch the overall with their division scores of 1-2 (Emig), 2-2 (LaRocco) and 2-2 (Liles). The B team got it done.
“These guys are America’s A team, always have been,” said proud Team USA Manager Roy Janson afterward. “These three guys are the best in the world; they proved that today. Next year we’re going to make it 13 in a row.”
And he was right.
Images courtesy of MotoVerte