No matter, Yamaha responded and held on to the title in 1980 when Mike “Too Tall” Bell rode into his own as a championship winner. By this point supercross was moving into the mainstream, as big events like the ’79 Daytona race were featured on the CBS Sports Spectacular, and massive venues like the Houston Astrodome and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum filled to capacity when the series visited. And new sponsors like Toyota, Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, and Wrangler Jeans were coming on board. And the series schedule, which featured just two rounds in its inaugural season, had grown to 16 rounds a half-dozen years later.

As far as the racing goes, the next brand to have a breakthrough of sorts came for Suzuki in 1981, when Mark “Bomber” Barnett won the SX title in dominant fashion. What seemed like a new era with Suzuki on top did not pan out according to plan, and it would be another 24 years before a Suzuki rider would win the SX title again.

What transpired instead was the rise of Team Honda, which had yet to win its first SX title when the 1982 season kicked off at what is now Angel Stadium of Anaheim, in front of one of the largest crowds in the building’s history. Donnie “Holeshot” Hansen took the first win of his professional career that night, and he would carry that momentum all the way to the ’82 SX championship.

One year later, the whole process repeated itself, only it was a different Honda rider winning for the first time, in this case David Bailey. The “Little Professor” got his debut win on a race that aired on NBC Sports (another first) and then went on to win the title. Incredibly, the exact same scenario happened a third straight year, with yet another Honda rider, Johnny O’Mara, getting his maiden SX win at Anaheim to start the ’84 campaign, launching himself to the championship.

Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward would finally break Honda’s hold on the AMA Supercross Championship in 1985 when he won one of the closest championships ever, barely edging out Yamaha’s Broc Glover and Honda’s Ron Lechien.  Looking a little closer, that ’85 season may have been the most competitive in series history, as there were eight different race winners in eleven total rounds, all of them now in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame: Jeff Ward, Broc Glover, Ron Lechien, Bob Hannah, David Bailey, Mark Barnett, Johnny O’Mara, and Rick Johnson.

(Photos clockwise) Bob “Hurricane” Hannah (1) was the first dominant star; start of the ’74 Super- bowl of Motocross at the LA Coliseum. David Bailey and Rick Johnson (5) duel at Anaheim ’86; Mark Barnett (1) gave Suzuki their first SX title; Jeff Ward (2) broke up the Honda jugger- naut of the ’80s.

Prior to the ’86 season opener at Anaheim, Johnson left Team Yamaha to join Honda, where Bailey and O’Mara were the top dogs. Friction arose immediately as a battle royale ensued, beginning with the first round at Anaheim. That race, in front of a capacity crowd of some 70,000 fans (as Angel Stadium was configured back then) is considered one of the best battles of all time, with Bailey taking the first battle but Johnson taking the war.

Unfortunately, Bailey was injured just before the start of the following season, ending his career as racer, but he soon found himself a second Hall of Fame career as a television analyst. Johnson was expected to repeat as SX Champion in ’87, but no one told Jeff Ward, who rose to the top for a second SX title. Johnson would get back on top the following year, and seemed well on his way to a third SX title in 1989 after he won the first five races in a row, the last of which gave him 28 career main event wins, breaking Hannah’s record. But then Johnson snapped his wrist at an outdoor motocross race, leading to a couple of frustrating seasons of wrist problems before he retired early in the ’91 season.

The vacancy that Johnson left at the top of the supercross heap suddenly had three candidates trying to fill it: RJ’s Honda teammate Jeff Stanton (who won the title in ’89), Yamaha’s “Beast from the East” Damon Bradshaw, and French interloper Jean-Michel Bayle, Stanton’s new Honda teammate. For the next three years the trio won the vast majority of races, with Stanton adding two more titles in ’90 and ’92, and Bayle having one of the best seasons ever in 1991. Ironically, Bradshaw won more SX races than either Stanton or Bayle, but he could never nail down the title. And after a dramatic finale to the ’92 season, where Stanton somehow snatched the title away from Bradshaw, neither would be the same driven competitors as they were before. As for Bayle, his ’91 tour de force was enough for him as well; he parked his dirt bikes after the ’92 tour and went road racing instead.

(Below) Jeff Stanton and Damon Bradshaw were the first great rivals of the ’90s. Jeremy McGrath (15) passes Mike Kiedrowski (3) on his way to his first of 72 career SX wins.

By this point AMA Supercross was approaching its 20^th season. Advancements in television coverage made the series more popular than ever, and there was another opening at the top of the class that was just waiting to be filled.

Enter Jeremy McGrath. A former BMX rider-turned-late-blooming motocrosser, McGrath first entered the pro ranks as a local hotshoe from Southern California. He immediately excelled in the 125 class, earning a pair of titles for Mitch Payton’s new Pro Circuit venture. Honda signed him to a 250 contract in 1993, and it took McGrath just his third race with the team to get his first premier-class SX win. Using a low-jumping and energy-saving technique he first picked up on bicycles, Jeremy changed the game, using skill and precision more than just brute strength. By the end of the season Jeremy had won a then-record 10 rounds.

Photos: Ricky Carmichael (4) won five SX titles, first on Kawasaki, then Honda, and finally Suzuki, but first he had to defeat seven-time #1 Jere- my McGrath (middle). Once Jeremy and Ricky retired, James Stewart (7) and Chad Reed (22) would be- come the main rivals in the late ’00s, each winning two SX titles.

McGrath was even more dominant the next year as he roared to his second title. Along the way he came up with a new signature trick called the nac-nac and picked up a fitting new nickname in process: Showtime. By 1996, as he was working on his fourth straight title, McGrath was so dominant that he won the first 13 races in a row and only lost a single race in the 15-round series. Jeremy was making a splash in mainstream media as well, making his name the first household name ever. 

But then everything took a brief detour. McGrath unexpectedly left Honda just before the ’97 season after a dispute over the rights to his image, as well as his comfort with the new CR250. McGrath’s turbulence opened the door for his main rival Jeff Emig—the only rider to beat him in ’96—to take the championship in ’97. But by ’98 McGrath had found his comfort zone again—this time with Yamaha—and the undisputed King of Supercross would notch three more SX titles and ended up with a career wins total of 72, a record that may never be broken. 

(Photos) From 2010 through 2017 Ryan Dungey (1) and Ryan Villopoto (2) split every Monster Energy Supercross Championship between them. After a nearly three- month delay due to the pandemic, Eli Tomac and his team celebrates his first SX title in 2020 with Team Kawasaki. Chase Sexton ended Honda’s 20-year title- less streak with the ’23 SX Championship.

As we’ve seen time and again in supercross, all good things must come to an end. For McGrath, his unprecedented reign ended when Ricky Carmichael came along and changed the game in his own way. A 125cc prodigy in the ’90s, Florida’s Carmichael needed a couple of seasons to work his way into fighting shape in the premier class, using a spartan-like training regimen. He started the ’01 season on par with McGrath, as the two split the first four rounds, but then the Kawasaki-mounted Carmichael went on his own 13-race winning streak, usurping Jeremy as Supercross Champion. He then took a page out of McGrath’s pack and switched teams prior to the ’02 season, only in his case he went to Team Honda. Two more SX titles would follow. Carmichael was hoping for a third in 2004 but a training injury left him on the sidelines instead, opening the door for Australian newcomer Chad Reed to earn his first title. Carmichael would return to action in 2005 for what the SX media were calling “the Perfect Storm” due to so many great story lines forming—including the arrival of teenage phenom James Stewart in the premier class—and Ricky won again, only now on a Suzuki. Carmichael closed out his career with his fifth final SX title in 2006, the first one ever won on a 450cc motorcycle, following the motorcycle industry’s shift from two-strokes to four-strokes.

The next big storyline for Monster Energy Supercross would be the heated rivalry between Reed and Stewart that saw each win two titles, entertaining fans for much of the rest of the ’00s as they both placed their names and win totals among the sport’s all-time greats. When their time in the middle of the ring was up it was time for the two Ryans—Villopoto and Dungey—to pick up the reins. From 2010 through ’17 they would share every title, with RV in the driver’s seat for four straight years (2011-’14).

Beginning in 2018, a whole new generation of champions rode into the spotlight, led by Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, Jason Anderson, defending #1 Chase Sexton, and more. Now, as Monster Energy Supercross celebrates 50 years in existence, those current title contenders are joined by the Lawrence brothers, Jett and Hunter, with other even younger superstars in the staging area. If the next 50 years are anywhere as successful as the first 50, Supercross fans are in for quite a ride!