In 1989, Team Honda's Rick Johnson was at the peak of his dominance when he was injured during practice at the Gatorback National opener. Not fully realizing just how serious the injury would be, Johnson was set for a midsummer return. In the meantime, Jeff Stanton began coming into his own, winning both the AMA Supercross and 250 Pro Motocross crowns. But knowing team captain Johnson was coming back, Stanton figured that despite his two titles, when the time came for Roger De Coster to name the lineup for Team USA for the FIM Motocross of Nations, Johnson would be the 250 pick, and Kawasaki's Jeff Ward would be the 500 pick. So, Stanton told Roger that he would gladly be the team's 125 rider, despite the fact that he had never raced a 125 as a professional. And to prove he could get the job done, Stanton said he would enter the 125 Support class at the U.S. 250cc Grand Prix at Unadilla. With help from Rick Zielfelder (Factory Connection owner), Stanton and Team Honda got a CR125 together and headed to New York, where he would be lining up against top 125 title contenders Damon Bradshaw and Mike Kiedrowski, plus Larry Ward, Denny Stephenson, Ty Davis, and more. Stanton adapted to the smaller bike quickly and ended up sweeping both motos, proving that he was the man for the job at the upcoming MXoN. But then Johnson, who topped Jean-Michel Bayle in the 250 USGP, hurt his wrist again, unfortunately. That made Stanton's bid to ride the 125 a moot point—De Coster and Team USA needed him on the 250. Instead, his younger teammate Kiedrowski would ride the 125 in Germany at the MXON, with Wardy on the 500, and all three riders would win their classes on a dominant day for Team USA.

In 1993, the last year for the 500 Nationals, Yamaha was no longer interested in sending their superstar Damon Bradshaw to try to compete on their outdated and under-developed open bikes, so they had him drop down to a YZ125 for the four 500 Nationals that ended the season: Washougal, Spring Creek, Broome-Tioga, and Steel City. Bradshaw, who had not raced a 125 since the 1990 Motocross of Nations, finished 6-7-12-13 in the four rounds. 

Suzuki was in a similar situation. They stopped making open-class motorcycles in the early 1980s. And when the 250 Nationals ended and the 500 series started up, the factory Suzuki team had to either have their riders drop them down to the 125s or just stay at home. As a result, riders like Johnny O'Mara, Larry Ward, and Mike LaRocco would race 250 Nationals for the first part of summer and then switch to 125s once the 500 Nationals started. Ward and LaRocco were very good after dropping from the RM250 to the RM125, combining for four total overall 125MX wins in from 1990-1991.

After a lackluster year in his return from a broken leg that saw him sit out the entire 1980, Bob Hannah found himself demoted to the 125 class by Yamaha for the '82 outdoor motocross season, putting the young Rick Johnson and Scott Burnworth on the 250s. As you can imagine the Hurricane hated the move, as he had not raced the 125 class in five years. But after a slow start he picked up the pace to the point where he finished second overall at the last 125 National of the season at Washougal, beaten only by Kawasaki's rising star Jeff Ward. Hannah went 3-1, winning the last moto of his second-to-last race ever on a 125.

The last race on the 125 for Hannah was the 1987 FIM Motocross of Nations at Unadilla, where Hannah was invited to be on Team USA with Rick Johnson and Jeff Ward, but only if he rode the 125. Hannah was riding for Suzuki that year and said sure, knowing that it was likely his last chance to be part of an MXoN victory. And on a muddy day at 'Dilla Hannah came through to win the 125 class, while Johnson (250) and Ward (500) did their jobs as well, giving the home team the win in the first MXoN ever held in the U.S. 

Here’s a weird one: In 1993 Jeremy McGrath, riding a Honda CR250, would win his first of seven AMA Supercross crowns. What made it weird was that Honda had slotted him for the 125 class during outdoor motocross, which back then overlapped with the AMA Supercross schedule. After seven SX rounds, Jeremy was 11 points ahead of Yamaha’s Damon Bradshaw. But then he lined up on a Honda CR125 for the Gatorback National opener! Of course he ended up winning that too—he’s Jeremy McGrath!

In 1985, after Broc Glover had clinched the 500 title early, Honda asked runner-up David Bailey to drop down to the 250 class in an effort to try to help teammate Johnny O'Mara beat Jeff Ward for the 250 MX crown. They also asked Ron Lechien to move up after clinching the 125 title early. Both did as asked, with some reluctance. It didn't matter as Ward would close up the title, finishing second to O'Mara and just in front of Lechien, while Bailey ended up ninth overall after DNF’ing the second moto. But the moves by Team Honda did have the effect of allowing AJ Whiting (125) and Eric Eaton (500) get unlikely AMA National wins. 

There are a couple of other legendary drop-downs that happened in the 1980s for Team USA. In 1986 Johnny O'Mara famously blitzed the entire pack of 250s and 500s in both of his motos on the Honda CR125 at the FIM Motocross of Nations in Maggiora, Italy. At the end of the day only his teammates David Bailey (500) and Rick Johnson (250) were able to beat the O'Show on that screaming toddler. And in 1988 Jeff Ward volunteered to ride the Kawasaki KX125 for Team USA alongside Johnson (250) and Wardy's fellow Kawasaki star Ron Lechien (500). Ward did get beat in the first moto by Jean-Michel Bayle, but he took the second and the overall. Ward helped lead Team USA to victory all seven times that he lined up, and on all three sizes of Kawasaki motorcycles.

In 2001 Ricky Carmichael had his eye on an old record. He was tied with Mark Barnett for all-time outdoor national wins in the 125 class with 25 apiece. Having already clinched his second straight 250 title, RC decided to use the last round at Steel City to go for the tie-breaker, so he organized a Kawasaki KX125 with his team (in what would be his last race on green) and entered Steel City. This caused a bit of an uproar since Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Mike Brown and KTM's Grant Langston were locked in a summer-long duel for the class title. In the end it would go to Brown, as Langston's rear wheel collapsed in the late-going, robbing him of the title. But then Brownie decided to help Carmichael out by slowing down once Langston was out and allowing Honda rider Branden Jesseman to pass him, giving the long-gone Carmichael the overall win with 3-1 scores to Brown's 1-3, as well as that 26th win.

Kevin Windham had been doing SX-only seasons towards the end of his career but in the summer of 2009 he decided to go race at Unadilla, a track he'd always done well at, but he was going to ride the 250 class—something he had not done in nearly a dozen years. "I'm not really sure that the thinking was there," laughed K-Dub when we asked the soon-to-be AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer about it at Loretta Lynn's earlier this month. He did qualify third-fastest in the morning but after that the wheels fell off. He was giving up 20 pounds to most of the rest of the field, and as a result his starts were terrible. He ended up finishing 12-21 for 20th overall.

Similar to Windham’s misadventure, only worse, was Damon Bradshaw’s unfortunate attempt at racing a Factory Connection CR125 at the Daytona Supercross. “The Beast from the East” did not even qualify. When asked about it on a Racer X Podcast, Bradshaw said that he didn't know what he was thinking, and he didn't want to talk about it!

After nearly winning the '91 FIM 250cc Motocross World Championship, Mike Healey signed with Bieffe Suzuki for the '92 season, and absolutely nothing went according to plan. He struggled with the bike, had a falling out with the team and came home to the U.S. as soon as that series ended. He had a Suzuki RM125 in his garage in California and decided race the last two 125 Nationals of the season, driving himself across the country in an old van to race at Steel City and Budds Creek. Healey shocked everyone at the first race, going 4-1 to very nearly win the overall. Budds Creek did not go so well, but that Steel City race would be remembered as the last best race of Healey's career. "Gunner" Healey passed away early this year due to a probable heart attack.