Reason For Being

If you’re a student of the sport, you know the story of Team USA 1981. That’s the year a group of four relatively unknown American Honda riders—Donnie Hansen, Danny Laporte, Johnny O’Mara, and Chuck Sun—shocked the world by winning the FIM Trophee and Motocross des Nations. They were chosen after most of the top riders at the time passed on representing the U.S. at the annual Olympics of Motocross, just as they did in 1979 and ’80, when Team USA didn’t even bother to send a team to a pair of races they had never won. The riders were inspired by a grassroots effort to just get Team USA back in the competitions—no one thought they would actually win, with the possible exception of Team USA manager Roger De Coster. Their stunning and historic victories in Belgium and Germany would mark the beginning of the golden era of American motocross and supercross.