"One Day of Magic"

[redrocket190]

This is a forthcoming movie about Marty Moates' privateer win at the 1980 US GP at Carlsbad Raceway.



The premiere will be on June 22nd at 08:00 p.m. at Spreckels Theater in San Diego, CA.
http://carlsbadusgpmovie.com/

Tickets are $20 from Ticketmaster. I'm going and I think Big Bob and Jack are going too...
http://www.ticketmaster.com/venue/81973

[AlisoBob]

Marty Moates' 1980 victory in U.S. Grand Prix
By Bill Center
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The 1980 U.S. Grand Prix of Motocross is the most historically significant motorsports event ever held in San Diego.

Until that event at Carlsbad Raceway, Europeans ruled motocross. And they thumbed their noses at the young American hybrid of Supercross.

After all, no American had beaten Europe's best on our soil. The Europeans annually came to Carlsbad and whipped the Americans.

Then along came 1980 and a 25-year-old privateer from Santee named Marty Moates.

On an extremely hot day in a rock-hard canyon south of Palomar Airport Road, Moates stunned the world and changed the course of motocross/Supercross history.

“I don't know why an American rider had never won the U.S. Grand Prix before Marty,” Broc Glover said several years later. “I thought we were better riders by that time. It was like they had a spell over us.”

Marty Moates broke that spell before more than 30,000 flag-waving spectators at the site and a national television audience. And in the wake of his great – and wild – ride, the popularity of motocross and Supercross took off with the American riders.

No European rider ever again won a U.S. Grand Prix at Carlsbad. Two seasons later, Brad Lackey became the first American to win the world championship. And starting in 1981, Team USA – which included such locals as Glover, Rick Johnson and Ron Lechien over the years – won 13 straight Motocross des Nations championships.

“The riders of my generation and the sport owe so much to Marty Moates,” Rick Johnson said last week. “He opened the door. No, he blew through it.”

By now, everyone in racing knows what happened last Thursday night. Marty Moates took his life. Why exactly remains a mystery we'll probably never solve.

We do know this. Like so many other motocrossers turning 50, Moates lived in great pain. He had recently gone through a third round of back surgery without achieving much relief.

Days after Moates died, Mark Simo opened a box of Moates memorabilia at the offices of the No Fear apparel line Mark and Brian Simo co-founded with Moates.

“There was a pile of Marty's X-rays in that box,” said Mark Simo. “I have no idea how many. A lot. Knees. Arms. Back. I know his fight against pain became a fight against painkillers.

“He smiled through the pain so you tended to overlook it. In my mind, there's no question the pain contributed to what happened.”

As a rider, Moates did nothing to avoid pain.

“Marty always rode on the edge,” said Mark Simo, who served as Moates' mechanic. “When he was 18 or 19, he was already in pain. He led almost everything he started. But he didn't win as often as he crashed.”

He even crashed twice during the two greatest rides of his life – that historic 1980 U.S. Grand Prix at Carlsbad.

American riders had come close at Carlsbad before. But each time, the Europeans had turned away the upstarts. So American fans turned out in record numbers in 1980, most waving tiny American flags.

They were for Lackey, not Moates. Lackey was already riding on the European circuit. He was considered the top American threat. Then the first of the two motos started.

As Moates was getting an exceptional start, many of the favored riders tangled and fell. So, too, did Moates. But he scrambled back onto his bike and won.

Even after he won the first moto, however, few gave Moates a chance of being on top at the end of the day. But as the second race unfolded, it became a dogfight between Moates and Lackey. Behind them, the Europeans wilted in triple-digit heat. The Americans pulled away. Both fell without losing position.

And the checkered flag fell on Marty Moates – the first American to win the U.S. Grand Prix.

“What I remember most about that day is that Marty was so humble about it,” said Mark Simo. “It was an electric time. The rest of us were going crazy and Marty was like, 'What have I done?'

“Marty was a great rider. But he always had junk as a privateer. He was a perpetual underdog. Anything that could go wrong, would go wrong. Things were always breaking. But when the bike held together, Marty would ride his junk faster than the factory riders rode their good stuff.”

Marty Moates never won a championship as a rider.

But he won thousands of fans with that one great ride on a hot June afternoon in 1980.

“The Greatest day ever,” said Rick Johnson, who six years later dedicated his victory in the last USGP at Carlsbad to “the rider who made it possible.”

[redrocket190]

http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/201 ... glen-helen
Special Marty Moates trophy for first american at this year's US GP at Glen Helen...

I wondered where his bike ended up and I guess the answer is the Primm Collection...

[britincali]

That a YZ465?

[AlisoBob]

That a YZ465?

A stroked YZ465