Vintage Roadracing pictures

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all images © Alpinestars

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Michel Rougerie

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Michel Rougerie (April 21, 1950 in Montreuil-sous-Bois - May 31, 1981 in Rijeka) was a Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from France. His best year was in 1975 when he won the two races and finished in second place in the 250cc world championship behind his Harley Davidson team-mate Walter Villa. Rougerie actually scored more points than Villa that season, but because only the best six results of the season were counted, he lost the championship. He was killed in 1981 while competing at the Yugoslavian Grand Prix.

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Racers

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pictures via : Moto Revue Classic

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Barry Sheene

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Barry Sheene, two time World champion in 1976 and 1977, began his sports career with the Bultaco TSS.

Barry Stephen Frank Sheene MBE (11 September 1950 – 10 March 2003) was a British World Champion Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He became the British 125cc champion aged just 20, and finished second in the World Championships for that class a year later. Sheene won the newly formed Formula 750 European championship for Suzuki in 1973. A spectacular crash at the Daytona 200 in the 1975 season threatened to end his career, breaking his left thigh, right arm, collarbone and two ribs, yet he recovered and was racing again seven weeks afterwards.
In 1973, he won the Formula 750 World Championship. In the 1976 season, he won five 500cc Grands Prix, bringing him the World Championship. He repeated as champion in the 1977 season with six victories... Read more


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Graeme Crosby

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Graeme Crosby (born in 1955) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from New Zealand. A supremely versatile rider, Crosby holds the distinction of having won the Daytona 200, the Imola 200, the Suzuka 8 Hours, and the Isle of Man TT.

Crosby began his racing career in 1974 in the New Zealand racing scene. In 1976, he made an impression in the Australian Superbike championship. He then left for Europe in 1980 to compete in Britain where he won the Isle of Man Senior TT. By 1980, he had worked his way up to the 500cc road racing world championship on a Suzuki RG 500. Also in 1980, he teamed up with Wes Cooley on a Yoshimura Suzuki to win the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, and he was the TT Formula One World Champion for Suzuki. After finishing fifth in the 1981 500cc championship - the year in which he was British TT F1 champion - he made a move to the Agostini Yamaha factory racing team. He began the 1982 season by winning the prestigious Daytona 200.

Despite injuries, Crosby still managed second overall in the championship. Frustrated by the internal politics of his race team Crosby quit the Grand Prix circuit after the 1982 season... Read more


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Daytona 1970

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Via the amazing site : Jack Middelburg motorrace

Jack Middelburg (Naaldwijk, April 30, 1952 – Groningen, April 3, 1984) was a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. Together with Wil Hartog and Boet van Dulmen, he was part of a contingent of Dutch riders who competed at the highest levels of Grand Prix racing in the late 1970s

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Yvon Duhamel

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Yvon Duhamel (born October 17, 1939 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a French-Canadian professional motorcycle racer and father to current AMA Superbike roadracer Miguel Duhamel. He won the World Championship Snowmobile Derby in 1970. He was also a very active ice racer, using hockey shin pads to allow him to lean over farther, scraping his knee on the ice rather than merely sliding his foot as did speedway racers.

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A Tribute to Gary Nixon

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picture courtesy of phillybeef via : www.southbayriders.com

picture courtesy of Mahony Photos

Gary Nixon (January 25 1941 – August 5 2011) was an American motorcycle racer who, when on Triumph motorcycles, most notably won the A.M.A. Grand National Championship in 1967 and 1968. He was also a former winner of the Daytona 200 motorcycle race on a 500cc Triumph, claiming a victory in the 1967 event. Nixon was also known for his partnership with legendary tuner Erv Kanemoto when they won the 1973 U.S. National Road Racing Championship for Kawasaki. In 1976 he competed at the international level, laying claim to the Formula 750 world championship until international politics denied him that prize. He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2003. He last resided in Maryland and participated in vintage motorcycle racing as well as testing motorcycles for the locally produced syndicated public TV automotive review program MotorWeek.

Nixon suffered a heart attack on July 29 2011 and died on August 5 from complications.

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Dale "Lynn" James vintage motorcycle photos

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All pictures via the fabulous website : www.americanbantam.com

Dale pictures copyright : John Ramos

Back in the OLD days Dale used to race motorcycles. He raced from 1970 -71 very competitively and a few years after just for fun until the mid 70's. Most of the races after 1972 were marathons and enduros with his dad (who was quite fast by the way :-) He raced a 250cc Bultaco most of the time. It was a very fast and reliable bike for it's time. Here are some pictures taken by a professional photographer (John Ramos) who went from race to race taking pictures of everyone.

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Bubba Shobert's flat-tracker

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Harley-Davidson has dominated the AMA’s Grand National Championship since the inception of the series in 1954. But there was a time in the mid-1980s when Honda took over as the series king—winning four championships in a row.

This is the bike that made it happen: the RS750.

This actually was Honda’s second attempt at building a flat-track bike. The first was the NS750, based on a bored-out version of Honda’s street-going CX500 motor. The company campaigned that bike in 1981 and ’82, and it managed to win one race.

Then Big Red used all it had learned to create the purpose-built RS750 for the next season. The new dirt-tracker made several shakedown runs in the 1983 Grand National Championship, even winning the Du Quoin Mile with rider Hank Scott at the controls.

By 1984, Honda was ready to go championship-hunting in earnest. The company hired ’82 champ Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert to make a full assault on the title aboard RS750s... Read more

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Wheelings Champions

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Alan Kenyon. His helmet has a 96 on it. The #96 was his number at Road Atlanta. He just hadn't taken it off the helmet yet.

Gary Scott as a Jr.

Jim Rice

Donnie Castro

all pictures via the amazing Bill Barret's gallery : Here

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Donny Schmit's 1990 Suzuki

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Via : www.americanmotorcyclist.com

Many of the bikes in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum tell the story of technological progress and innovation. This bike tells the story of one very determined racer.

Donny Schmit carved out his own career path to motocross success. The Minnesota native got off to a good start by winning the 125cc West Region title in the 1986 AMA Supercross Series. But Schmit then struggled in the premier 250cc class, particularly on tighter Supercross circuits.

Recognizing that his skills translated better to outdoor motocross, Schmit dropped out of Supercross to focus on the 125 MX series, losing his Suzuki factory ride in the process. Focusing on a grueling training regimen, he was picked up in 1990 by Team Bieffe Suzuki to race the 125 Motocross World Championship. Schmit won four races on this motorcycle en route to the 125 Motocross World Championship... Read more


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Brad Lackey’s Nor Cal Classic Vintage MX

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MotoUSA just got done participating at the West Coast Moto Jam at Infineon Raceway. Peruse our racing pages for details on the roadracing action and electric bikes, but I spent my time out on the rolling grassy hills for the AHRMA vintage motocross event hosted by Brad Lackey. This was my first attempt with racing old dirt bikes but I can say that it definitely won’t be the last. I can’t believe how much fun it is.
... read more

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Racers

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Via the fabulous Lee Sutton Gallery : HERE

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Jeffrey Vincent Smith MBE (born 1934 in Colne, Lancashire, England) is a former world champion motocross racer.

Bill Nilsson (born December 17, 1932) was a Swedish motocross racer. He won the first ever F.I.M. 500cc Motocross World Championship in 1957 riding an AJS

Sten Lundin (born November 20, 1931) was a Swedish motocross racer. He won the F.I.M. 500cc Motocross World Championship in 1959 riding a Monark

Jaromir Cizek was the 1958 Coup d' Europe champion.

Hubert Scaillet was one of the motocross champions in the 50s and the early 60s.

Rolf Tibblin (born May 7, 1937, in Stockholm Sweden) is a former world champion motocross racer. He was one of the top riders in the Motocross Grand Prix World Championships during the 1960s. Tibblin is remembered as one of the more physically fit motocross racers of his era.

Nic Jansen won the Motocross des Nations in 1951 with the Belgium Team

Roger Vanderbecken was the only one from the Belgium Team to be qualified for the 1960 Grand Prix des Nations in France .

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A vintage racer takes on the “Isle of Man Challenge”

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By Legacy Motorsport

Ron Halem has been riding BSAs for a while. “I don’t know why I chose the BSA, I just did. Over the years I acquired more Gold Stars, some as basket cases and some as complete bikes. At the time, I had no idea this bike would turn in to an obsession!” says Ron. “I moved from Los Angeles to northern California in 1990 and it was then that I found the BSA Owners Club.

I began to put a lot of miles on two of my Goldies riding the back roads of the bay area and I found myself going quite fast, indeed, for such an old bike.” Then, in 2000, Ron and a few buddies flew their bikes to England and made the pilgrimage to the Isle of Man. Ron remembers “the Isle of Man was like no other place in the modern world. We saw thousands of old bikes being ridden.

And then there was the Manx Grand Prix where many of these old bikes were being ridden very fast! I was hooked.” And so began the “IOM Challenge.” According to Ron, no one has ever completed a lap on the IOM TT course at over a 100 mph average on a BSA Gold Star. The late Paul Dobbs had come close several times at a bit over 99 mph, but never passed 100... Read more

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Motocross Racers

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Via the coolest : ltthor.home.comcast.net

David Bailey, #93, at National Qualifier at Lake Sugar Tree, 1980. 

Greg Brown, #18, at White Oak.

#129, Bill Butcher, at Cedar Ridge.

John Graumann, #8, at SME.

Howie Roberts, #15, at White Oak.

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