Main image: Ron Lechien, in 1982
We’ve been here before, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. In fact, it may make this even better, because we’re familiar with the feeling and we know what it’s like when lightning gets captured in the bottle.
As an example, before Jett Lawrence jetted off with his third and fourth straight moto wins to begin his 450 career, Northern California’s own Brad Lackey kicked the day off as Grand Marshall of this year’s Hangtown Classic. Lackey was a God in the Northern California area even before the AMA National Motocross Series ever began, but he set his sights so high that American racing wasn’t even enough. After winning the first national he ever entered (the Cal-Expo race in Sacramento on May 14, 1972) as well as the first AMA 500 National Championship, he toiled through Europe for ten years with a goal of becoming America’s first World Motocross Champion. This was back when Europeans were clearly the dominant players in the sport. Brad finally accomplished his goal in 1982. Brad Lackey is an original hero of motocross. Jett Lawrence is becoming the latest in a long line—riders that have popularity, style and a fan base that stretched beyond just mere results.
Brad Lackey: As mentioned above, Brad was winning before AMA Nationals and AMA Supercross were “the thing.” Then he dominated that ’72 season and left to pursue the GPs. As such, Lackey doesn’t have the place in the traditional record book that he should, because he was absent from the AMA scene in his prime years. Still, he’s a hero for doing what he did, and he also had a style and personality to go with it.
Marty Smith: Hailed as the original American Motocross Superstar, and a teenaged idol, Marty had that “it” factor. He had the look off the track, the style on the bike, and also the bike itself, that famous Elsinore that propelled the Honda to the top. Heck, Marty made the 125 “tiddler” class cool. You could probably do a demographic study and find any motocross fan of a certain age and assume, if you ask them who was their favorite rider growing up, they’d say the late Marty Smith.
Bob “Hurricane” Hannah: If they had social media in Hannah’s age, devices would have melted down. He was take-no-prisoners on the track with the wildest most out-of-control speed you’d find, but also as wild, outspoken and shit-talking as it gets off of it. Then he threw in a flair for “brand” before brand was a thing. Hurricane nickname (coined by Jimmy “The Greek” Gianastis from Cycle News). Lightening bolts. The “Who The Hell is Bob Hannah?” t-shirts when he showed up, and besting Smith at his zenith in 1976.
It’s hard to tell how much of Bob Hannah was just pure competitive desire to win, and how much was real, carefully considered image building. Maybe he didn’t even know. But it was as big as big gets in this sport.
David Bailey: As the son of American motocross pioneer Gary Bailey, David was raised in motocross. He was a talented teenager who helped Gary build out the first supercross tracks, as well as participate in many of his riding schools. He traveled the country racing a Bultaco well past the brand’s expiration date, winning the ’78 AMA Amateur National Championship on it, and then scoring the last AMA Pro Motocross points on a Bultaco in ’79. As a result of all that travel, all of those pro races and all of those schools, he was polished before he ever turned pro. Success was just a matter of time. Even on that outdated Spanish bike, Bailey looked downright cool, and by the time he got to Team Honda and Team USA in 1982, he was setting the standards in moto fashion and cool. He won the ’83 AMA Supercross title, as well as the 250 Pro Motocross Championship, and later the 500 title as well as two AMA Grand National Championships, having the most combined SX/MX points in ’83 and ’84. Bailey’s career was tragically cut short when he was still at the very top of his game, and he’s remained an icon in the sport ever since. David Bailey is just plain cool, still.
Ron Lechien: The Dogger was the first of the amateur-to-pro teenaged phenom program that we know so well today. Lechien competed in the first edition of the AMA Amateur Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s in 1982 and cleaned up. By June of the next year, he had won an AMA Supercross in the premier class at age 16. Plus Ronnie’s riding style made his talent obvious. Really, the way Ronnie rode in the ‘80s is probably the equivalent of what we see from Jett Lawrence today. He could look like he was just cruising while also hauling. Later came iconic gear sets and an off-track rep like few others. Win or lose, though, everyone still loved Ronnie!
Rick Johnson: When RJ came into his own in 1986 with Team Honda, he was ready for his moment. It wasn’t just winning races, it was being media and fan ready, it was throwing in whips and tricks on the track. As his butt patch said, he was “Too Hip!” Johnson was a racer and a promoter. He was the right guy at the right time, despite having solid peers like Bailey, Lechien, Mark Barnett, Jeff Ward, Broc Glover, Johnny O’Mara and more. When the spotlight came, RJ knew what to do with it.
Damon Bradshaw: Bradshaw had that Lechien profile, turning pro at 16 straight outta’ Loretta’s and immediately taking it to the best of the best. His fourth overall in his pro debut at Millville was mind-blowing at the time, and he followed it with a win against superstars like Johnson and Lechien on a 250 at an off-season supercross in Japan. Oh, and a podium in the premiere class at 16, and multiple wins at 17. Plus, Bradshaw rocked the Bon Jovi hair, the radical Fox gear (barbed wire then just like the barbed wire stuff Fox is using right now), the southern rebel image carved by his “Beast From the East” nickname, and fear of no one on the track. Bradshaw would rather crash than finish second, which gave him a bit of a second-coming of Hannah vibe. It was red hot.
Jeremy McGrath: When MC took over, he set the trends. When people talk ‘90s motocross, they look back fondly as a fun, carefree summertime fun with your buds era for the sport. MC was at the forefront of the movement, and then many around him picked up, benefitted and doubled down on that fun theme. He also completely changed the game in supercross, bringing his BMX-inspired techniques to dirt bikes, rewriting the record books and the rules as to how a rider went about his career and personal image. Remember his 1-800-COLLECT commercials? Late night talk shows? SportsCenter? Jeremy was a very big deal, and not just in racing circles.
Ricky Carmichael: The future GOAT was very, very successful as an amateur but perhaps not expected to become, well, The GOAT. However, in a methodical, relentless way, he changed everything again by incorporating many of the best ingredients from success stories that came before him, and sticking with the program. His fitness, skill, determination, and support system are all things almost every rider now tries to emulate. Ricky’s trick was to somehow make hard work cool, and he did it by winning so relentlessly that everyone had to copy it, to the point where the old way of doing things had vanished completely.
Travis Pastrana: Hey, a few phenoms came in and made waves as soon as they turned pro as a teenager. Pastrana had actually already done that before he was old enough for an AMA pro license. Boosted atop the exploding world of freestyle and the X Games, Pastrana was a household name beyond the sport when he suited up for his first supercross. Then he showed crazy speed and won races quickly. This was lighting in a bottle, all the way. And while his racing career didn’t last long, twenty years later he’s still a household name!
James Stewart: Not soon after Pastrana came another game changer. James Stewart turned 16 in December and was winning 125SX races three weeks later! He wasn’t just fast, he was crazy fast, and his elevation of the game on the track became performance art. “Bubba” threw in post-race dances, last-to-first charges, quads and, of course, the scrub. Oh, and beating four-strokes with a 125 two-stroke. The game he changed would never be the same.
Today: We’ve seen a lot of superstars in the 20-odd years between this. Records piled up by McGrath, and then chased by others, to a most ridiculous level by Carmichael and very effectively by others from Stewart to Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey, Eli Tomac and more, have been fun to watch. Winning races and titles remains the goal of any racer and many legends did just that. The phenoms go further, though, with that on-and-off track mashup, that changing of the game, that persona. Jett Lawrence is on his way right now, and the sport could look a lot different if he continues this climb. It’s the combo of results, style, technique, personality and more, both on and off the track, plus the incredible fact that this once-in-generation talent paradoxically has a match in his own brother, making for a double-pronged takeover the likes of which few sports have ever seen. It’s not over, either, because another teen is trying to reach these heights, with Haiden Deegan winning a moto in just his seventh shot at it. The future is bright, and we’ve looked at it before.
