Issue 22

We’re running shots of Brad Lackey’s 1980 500cc Kawasaki in this issue’s Precious Metal (pg.104). It was the bike that Bad Brad campaigned when he first came to Europe to race the entire GP circuit. It was always his ambition to be a world champion. That’s right, an American that wanted to come over here. My, how things have changed. Brad was hungry like a wolf and it only took him three years to accomplish his dream. There are riders like Brad all over the world today who share that ambition, you may even be one yourself, but ultimately for riders on this side of the Atlantic that doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. Now the trend is to almost use the FIM world championships as a meal ticket to the corporate bucks in the land of the free.

It’s no secret that our very Tommy Searle has one eye on the US scene while he races here at home. As much as we’d all love to see Tommy win a world championship and as much as we know he wants to, we know he’s running out of time to achieve it. Of course he wants a slice of that big fat dollar but that’s not the real reason for him setting his sights on the AMA tour. It seems now that for many the AMA championship has more meaning than an FIM world crown and what a shame that is. There’s no escaping the bright lights and big city action of supercross and what it can bring, it attracts them like moths to a light. The outdoor on the other hand is much more brutal and a tougher nut to crack, Chad Reed will testify to that. I’m sure he has no regrets about not winning a world or AMA motocross championship as he rests easy on the cash under his bed. He earned it and never said anything but he wanted to be AMA supercross champion, just like Lackey wanted to come to Europe and be World motocross champion.

It’s just the way it’s become. Young Max Anstie is the next in a long line looking to get his hands on a green card and is already setting up a foundation to build on out there (pg.82). Everyone it seems wants to go there, even Tony Cairoli can’t fight the resistance for very long but at least he seems hell bent on getting his hands on the MX1 title to go alongside his MX2 crown before he goes. We’re going to see the best in Europe go stateside, it’s inevitable. Still I must look on the bright side, at least I’ll have Sky+ by then so I won’t forget to set the video recorder to see how they all get on.

This magazine is dedicated to the late and great Jan DeGroot. A man who epitomized the word ‘gentleman’ and who helped make many motocross heroes realize what they could become. Thank you Jan.

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