Main image: Eli Tomac at the 2022 MXoN, Photo by Align Media
Yesterday we gave you a list of all of the Team USA riders that participated in either the Trophee (250cc) or Motocross of Nations (500cc) between 1970 and 1984. It was in ’85 that the FIM decided to combine the two events, shrink each team down to three riders, and have one rider per division: 125cc, 250cc, and Open. In Part 2 of this List of Every Team USA Rider, we will gather the years from that first combined event to this year.
If you’re looking to get your own free copy of this 2023 Racer X Calendar, or want to give the Team USA calendar as a holiday gift for a friend, subscribe to the magazine right here (or extend your existing Racer X subscription).
And we’re throwing in a 2022 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations Souvenir Event Program (produced by the Racer X staff for RedBud), as well as a 2022 MXoN event decal featuring one of the all-time Team USA heroes, Michigan’s own Jeff Stanton. We’re calling it the MXoN Celebration Pack, and it’s all yours for just $30.
Read The List: Every Team USA Rider (PART 1: 1970–1984)
The first lineup that Team USA manager Roger De Coster picked for the new format in 1985 included ’85 AMA 250 National Champion and ’85 Supercross Champion Jeff Ward (250) and ’85 AMA 125 National Champion Ron Lechien (125). The Open class rider was Team Honda’s David Bailey, who was actually only third in the 500 Nationals behind champion Broc Glover and runner-up Eric Eaton, a Yamaha support rider, after David dropped down to a 250 for the last national to help his teammate Johnny O’Mara in the 250 class. But then Glover ended the series with a broken navicular that needed surgery, so Bailey got the call to head to Germany and ride the 500 for Team USA. The trio ended up winning in a wild three motos that saw 60 riders out there at one time, as all three riders on the 20 teams rode all three motos. This extended the team’s winning streak to five straight in the MXdN.
1985 (Germany) | David Bailey, Ron Lechien, Jeff Ward | 1st
One year later Bailey was back on the 500, with Rick Johnson on the 250, and rounding out an all-Honda Team USA was Johnny O’Mara on the 125. This was arguably the most dominant Team USA of all time, as they went 1-2, 1-2, and 1-2 in three motos (and almost literally 1-1 as Bailey and RJ went across the finish line in the last moto arm-in-arm). Of course it was O’Mara’s amazing performances in his two 125 motos, where he beat everyone but his two American teammates, that stole the headlines. His performance was historic in another way: O’Mara became the first rider to win in the MXdN and Trophee des Nations on all three sizes of motorcycle: 500 (’81, ’82, ’84), 250 (’81, ’82, ’84), and 125 (’86).
1986 (Italy) | David Bailey, Rick Johnson, Johnny O’Mara | 1st
1987 (USA) | Bob Hannah, Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward | 1st
1988 (France) | Rick Johnson, Ron Lechien, Jeff Ward | 1st
For 1989, the original plan was to have Rick Johnson on the 250, as he had already come back from his wrist injury at the ’89 Gatorback National back in March. He even won the 250cc U.S. Grand Prix at Unadilla, topping French sensation Jean-Michel Bayle. But then Johnson hurt his wrist again and Jeff Stanton was called up to ride the 250 in Germany for Team USA. This was the beginning of a dominant three-year run with Team USA for Stanton. Also on the team was America’s all-time best rider in the MXoN, Jeff Ward, who would end up 7-0 when a member of Team USA in this race, plus 2-0 in the old Trophee races for 250s.
1989 (Germany) | Mike Kiedrowski, Jeff Stanton, Jeff Ward | 1st
1990 (Sweden) | Damon Bradshaw, Jeff Stanton, Jeff Ward | 1st
1991 (Holland) | Damon Bradshaw, Mike Kiedrowski, Jeff Stanton | 1st
The legendary B team came along in 1992 after several top riders—including Stanton, Ward, Damon Bradshaw, and Mike Kiedrowski, as well as GP riders Donny Schmit and Trampas Parker—all passed on the MXdN in Australia, as there were still a couple of outdoor nationals to be run. Even De Coster passed on the chance to be team manager again, as he was no longer with Team Honda. So the AMA tasked then-MX/SX competition director Roy Janson as team manager, and he went with MXdN rookies Jeff Emig (125) and Mike LaRocco (250) as well as GP veteran Billy Liles, who had actually raced the Nations before—for Luxembourg in 1989! No matter, Team USA won for the 12th straight year.
1992 (Australia) | Jeff Emig, Mike LaRocco, Billy Liles | 1st
1993 (Austria) | Jeff Emig, Mike Kiedrowski, Jeremy McGrath | 1st
Team USA’s epic winning streak would finally end in 1994 at Roggenburg, Switzerland, when the underrated British trio of Kurt Nicoll, Paul Malin, and Rob Herring posted an epic upset. The Yanks would narrowly lose again the next year in Slovakia, giving them their first losing streak since the 1970s.
1994 (Switzerland) | Jeff Emig, Mike Kiedrowski, Mike LaRocco | 2nd
1995 (Slovakia) | Jeff Emig, Ryan Hughes, Steve Lamson | 2nd
The closest competitor to the ’86 team and performance as the greatest Team USA ever has to be the ’96 team of Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig, and Steve Lamson. McGrath dominated both his motos in Jerez, Spain, on a Honda CR250, Emig got the job done in his one and only ride on the Kawasaki KX500 workhorse, and Lammy became the first rider in MXoN history to win a moto outright on a 125. (In ’86 O’Mara beat everyone but his two Team USA teammates, Bailey and Johnson.)
1996 (Spain) | Jeff Emig, Steve Lamson, Jeremy McGrath | 1st
The dominance in ’96 would be followed by a rough patch of three straight bad years, including Ricky Carmichael’s first and worst rides ever, in the mud in England in ’98 and then a terrible outing in Brazil in ’99 when he DNF’d both motos.
1997 (Belgium) | John Dowd, Jeff Emig, Steve Lamson | 8th
1998 (Great Britain) | Ricky Carmichael, John Dowd, Doug Henry |5th
1999 (Brazil) | Ricky Carmichael, Mike LaRocco, Kevin Windham | 4th
Carmichael’s redemption came in 2000 when he led the veteran Ryan Hughes and the rookie Travis Pastrana to a big win over the heavily favored home team from France. The Americans did get a lucky break—literally—when 250cc World Champion Frederic Bolley of France suffered a broken nose in practice when a rock hit him right in the face.
2000 (France) | Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Hughes, Travis Pastrana | 1st
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001, Team USA pulled out of the race the following week as international travel was severely restricted and no one felt like going to a race after such an unexpected calamity. The team would have been RC, Kevin Windham, and Mike Brown. One year later the race was supposed to be held at Competition Park in San Jacinto, California, but the track never got built as the promoter turned out to be unreliable. This team would have been Ricky Carmichael, Tim Ferry, and Mike Brown.
2003 (Belgium) | Ricky Carmichael, Tim Ferry, Ryan Hughes | 2nd
There was a myriad of reasons why Team USA did not race the MXoN in 2004, but the main reasons were the fact that Ricky Carmichael was in the midst of switching from Honda to Suzuki, James Stewart was moving up from the 125 class to the 250 class, and both wanted to focus on getting ready for the coming “perfect storm” that was the 2005 AMA Supercross Championship.
When the team did get back together in 2005, Carmichael was again the leader and dominant winner, with Ivan Tedesco in the MX2 class aboard a Kawasaki KX250F and Kevin Windham in the Open class aboard a Honda CRF450. Team USA ended up winning for the first time since 2000.
2005 (France) | Ricky Carmichael, Ivan Tedesco, Kevin Windham | 1st
Carmichael was again expected to lead, but he separated his shoulder at the last outdoor national at Glen Helen and was replaced by his Suzuki teammate Ivan Tedesco. The Americans managed to win again, despite Stefan Everts topping James Stewart (in Stew’s Team USA debut) for the individual overall. The real surprise, though, was rookie Ryan Villopoto, who put in a superb performance on his Pro Circuit Kawasaki KX250F. But that was just a preview of what he would do in 2007, when he won both motos outright on the 250F at Budds Creek—the one and only time that a MX2 rider has ever done that at the MXoN.
2006 (Great Britain) | James Stewart, Ivan Tedesco, Ryan Villopoto | 1st
2007 (USA) | Ricky Carmichael, Tim Ferry, Ryan Villopoto | 1st
2008 (Great Britain) | Tim Ferry, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto | 1st
Team USA found itself in a jam in 2009, in that they didn’t have a top 450 rider available, so newly crowned 250 National Champion Ryan Dungey volunteered to move up and race a Suzuki RM-Z450 for the first time in Italy alongside Honda’s Ivan Tedesco and Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider Jake Weimer on the 250. Team USA won again, giving them a fifth straight win. It was also Tedesco’s last of three appearances, on three different brands of motorcycles, all of them wins.
2009 (Italy) | Ryan Dungey, Ivan Tedesco, Jake Weimer |1st
2010 (USA) | Trey Canard, Ryan Dungey, Andrew Short | 1st
2011 (France) | Blake Baggett, Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto | 1st
The ’11 win was Team USA’s last of seven straight, as well as Villopoto’s last of four solid appearances, all of them wins. A long and ugly run would come for Team USA after this, as bad luck, injuries, and some very competitive squads from Europe began to assert themselves. The low point would be 2017 in Great Britain, where the unlikely lineup of MX2 GP rider Thomas Covington on a 450, Cole Seely on a Honda CRF450, and Zach Osborne on a Husqvarna 250 got clobbered in the mud. There were some close ones, like Italy in ’16, where Team USA might have won, only to see MX3 moto winner Jason Anderson get landed on by a lapped rider as he rolled the finish line. It was an ugly streak.
2012 (Belgium) | Blake Baggett, Justin Barcia, Ryan Dungey | 3rd
2013 (Germany) | Justin Barcia, Ryan Dungey, Eli Tomac | 2nd
2014 (Latvia) | Ryan Dungey, Jeremy Martin, Eli Tomac | 3rd
2015 (France) | Justin Barcia, Jeremy Martin, Cooper Webb | 2nd
2016 (Italy) | Jason Anderson, Alex Martin, Cooper Webb | 3rd
2017 (Great Britain) | Thomas Covington, Zach Osborne, Cole Seely | 9th
2018 (USA) | Justin Barcia, Aaron Plessinger, Eli Tomac | 5th
2019 (Holland) | Jason Anderson, Justin Cooper, Zach Osborne | 6th
The 2020 FIM Motocross of Nations was canceled due to COVID-19 and the global shutdown. When it returned in 2021 to Mantova, Italy, with some travel restrictions, Team USA decided not to go—lining up a team and all of the mechanics and technicians and support staff proved to be costly and difficult.
So Team USA looked to 2022 and a home race at RedBud MX as the time to get back in the big race. And with 450 National title combatants Eli Tomac and Chase Sexton in, as well as Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper on the 250, Team USA manager Roger De Coster had a solid lineup. The boys went out and finally got the Peter Chamberlain Trophy back in American hands for the first time since 2011.
2022 (USA) | Justin Cooper, Chase Sexton, Eli Tomac | 1st
Racer X Illustrated Motocross Magazine
The January 2023 Issue
Team USA is back on top at the Motocross of Nations. We also revisit some of the all-time great individual performances from the MXoN over the years. Eli Tomac’s first professional sweep of MX and SX made him an easy choice for Racer X Rider of the Year. The natural grandeur and luxury amenities of the Mountaineer GNCC belie its grueling, gnarly racecourse.