RedBud is literally two days away, as qualifying takes place on Saturday for the 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations! We have been counting down to the race with some of our favorite Team USA moments over the years, going back to the early seventies and focusing on the riders that have participated, some on winning teams and others not so lucky. Today, we’re shifting gears to look at a motorcycle that has played a part in many big moments in Team USA history, the Kawasaki KX500.
In 1989 Kawasaki gave Jeff Ward a potent motorcycle to ride in the 500 Nationals. Wardy responded with the title, giving him a career sweep of every AMA title from that era: AMA Supercross, 125, 250 and 500 AMA Pro Motocross. So when he was again chosen to ride the 500 class for Team USA in the ’89 MXoN, he was well-prepared. Ward had already ridden a 500 and participated in Team USA wins in 1983, ’84, and ’87. He also had ridden a 250 in wins in ’85, and then in ’88 he was tasked with riding the 125, as his teammate Ron Lechien would ride the KX500 in that race in France. And of course, Ward won again, giving him a career sweep in the three classes of MXoN as well. That’s a distinction shares with Johnny O’Mara, Mike Kiedrowski, and Jeff Emig.
So in ’89 Ward lined up in Gaildorf, Germany aboard the big bike and won, and then he did it again in ’90 in Sweden, helping teammates Jeff Stanton (250) and Damon Bradshaw (125) keep the winning streak going in what would be his final appearance on Team USA. All told, Jeff Ward was on seven winning MXoN teams as well as two Trophee des Nations teams in ’83 and ’84.
Wardy may have been done, but his Kawasaki KX500 was not. Because Yamaha basically stopped developing their YZ490, and Suzuki completely dropped out of the 500 class, Team USA’s 500 class pick each year would have to be either be a Honda of Kawasaki rider, as they were the only ones still making 500cc motorcycles. But Kawasaki did basically quit developing theirs by the early ‘90s, as the 500 class in America was waning. It would go away completely after the 1993 season. The MXoN, though, would continue having a 500 class through the mid-nineties, when it changed to Open. Still, there was no Open class in America anymore, which meant that whoever was chosen to ride the class would probably be racing the big bike only once a year—at the Motocross of Nations!
In ’91 and ’92, Honda riders Jeff Stanton and Billy Liles were chosen, and then in 1993 Team Kawasaki’s Mike Kiedrowski was chosen. Kiedrowski went 1-3 and basically saved Team USA with a late charge to third in the final moto. He was also riding basically the same bike Jeff Ward rode in 1989 and ’90!
The next year in Switzerland it was Mike LaRocco who was chosen, and he too was a Kawasaki factory rider, so it was his turn on the KX500. LaRocco certainly knew how to ride a big bike, as he had won the last-ever AMA 500 Pro Motocross title the previous year, on basically the same bike Wardy had used. LaRocco went 2-1 in what would turn out to be his last race ever on an Open bike, even though he wouldn’t retire until the mid-2000s. Unfortunately, this was the year Team USA’s streak finally came to a close, as Great Britain won in a shocking upset.
Come 1995 it was Ryan Hughes who was chosen for the 500 class, even though he had never raced a 500 professionally and had ridden in the 125 Nationals that summer! Hughes took to the KX500 well and actually went 2-2 in the Slovakia, but a crash late in the race with Britain’s Kurt Nicoll foiled Team USA’s hopes for come-from-behind win. Belgium ended up winning by one point.
Finally, in 1996, the Kawasaki KX500 would enter its last MXoN as Team Kawasaki’s Jeff Emig was handed what was basically the same bike that Jeff Ward had ridden in 1989. Emig took to it well, just as his predecessors had, and he ended up third in the first moto in Spain, but he was top 500, as both his Team USA teammate Steve Lamson and France’s Sebastien Tortelli beat him, and they were on 125s. Team USA did end up winning, as the third member of the team, Jeremy McGrath, destroyed everyone on his Honda CR250.
In 1997 the FIM changed the big-bike class from a mandatory 500cc to Open, as four-strokes were gaining momentum, but they were also all over the map, displacement-wise. Team USA went a different direction, preferring to enter a second 250cc rider in the class instead. The trio of Lamson (125), Jeff Emig (250), and John Dowd (also 250) struggled in Belgium, as the home team won.
With its multiple tours of duty finally over, Kawasaki decided to put their Team USA KX500 in its company museum out in Southern California, where they put LaRocco’s ’93 graphics on it to signify the last title for the bike. Kawasaki had won the very first 500 title, and the old war horse had done its job well at the Motocross of Nations, helping Team USA take home wins well past its time!
