Motocross des Nations 1981: the American 'B team' that won Lommel and Bielstein in eight days
In September 1981 four Americans nobody in Europe rated took the Trophée des Nations in Lommel's sand, then the Motocross des Nations at Bielstein by a single point. Europe never had the event to itself again.
Graham Noyce, the British rider whose flat tyre decided Bielstein in 1981, at the Dutch Grand Prix in Markelo, 1979.. Photo: Koen Suyk / Anefo, Nationaal Archief (CC0)
Two laps from the end of the last moto of the Motocross des Nations 1981, in the rain at Bielstein in West Germany on 13 September, the United States took the lead. Britain's Graham Noyce had a flat tyre. His teammate Geoff Mayes had crashed. In the mud, the riders could barely tell who was winning.
"It was hard to tell your position," Danny LaPorte later told MX Large. He finished second. Johnny O'Mara was eighth and Donnie Hansen 13th. Chuck Sun had already pulled in, his ankle hurt again in a crash.
It was enough. Britain, ahead after the first moto, lost it in the last two laps, and the Americans won by one point. A week earlier they had won the 250cc Trophée des Nations in the sand at Lommel, in Belgium. In eight days, a team the Belgians had written off as a "B team" had won both.
Motocross des Nations 1981: what the des Nations was
The Motocross des Nations is motocross's team world cup, run every year since 1947. In 1981 it was really two events a week apart: the Trophée des Nations for 250cc bikes and the Motocross des Nations for 500s. Each nation sent four riders. Places in each moto, a single race of around 40 minutes, became points, the worst scores were dropped, and the lowest total won.
Not everyone got a start. At Bielstein the gate held 24 of the 32 riders, so short qualifying races came first; at Lommel only Belgium, as defending winners, skipped them, according to MX Large.
For 34 years the event had belonged to Europe. Belgium, Britain and Sweden had won most of the editions, and the United States had never won either one.
The Americans first entered in 1972, with Brad Lackey, Jim Pomeroy, Jimmy Weinert and Gary Jones, and finished seventh, according to Motocross Action. They improved through the decade, then sent no team at all in 1979 or 1980, because neither the factories nor the star riders were interested.
The team nobody wanted to ride
The 1981 team came together because two men pushed for it. Roger De Coster, the Belgian five-time 500cc world champion, wanted an American team at the des Nations. So did Motocross Action editor Dick Miller, who ran a campaign in the magazine to fund one.
"I had to convince American Honda that this was worth the cost," De Coster told MX Large. Honda agreed, with Bel-Ray oil, Hi-Point and JT Racing behind it, and Honda's Dave Arnold ran the team.
The established stars said no. The four who said yes all rode for Honda, which made the 1981 squad a single factory team rather than the usual mix of makes, as the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum points out. Two had been champions: LaPorte won the AMA 500cc title in 1979 and Sun in 1980. Hansen and O'Mara were still making their names. None of them had won a title in 1981, and O'Mara had never raced a 500, according to Racer X.
They wore matching white JT gear and rode red Hondas numbered in sequence: 46 to 49 at Lommel, 53 to 56 at Bielstein.
Lommel: the sand
The Trophée des Nations ran on Sunday 6 September 1981 at Lommel, a track Racer X has called a "bottomless sand pit." Belgium, the defending winners, were racing at home.
Each moto ran for 40 minutes plus two laps, and Belgium's André Vromans won both. Behind him, the Americans kept piling up places. In the first moto they finished second, third, fourth and eighth; in the second, second, third, sixth and 11th. LaPorte and O'Mara were the constants at the front.
With the worst two scores dropped, the United States had 20 points. Belgium had 37. The Netherlands were third, according to MX Large.
Bielstein: one point
A week later the team moved to Bielstein, on a hard-packed track in West Germany, and onto 500s. The first moto went wrong in every way it could. O'Mara was caught in a first-turn pile-up. Sun's chain kept coming off and he finished 20th. Hansen's throttle stuck open and a rock hit LaPorte in the neck. Even so, Hansen finished second and LaPorte sixth. Britain, led by David Thorpe, went into the last moto ahead.
Before it started, the crew found Hansen's rear tyre flat and changed the inner tube just in time. Then it rained. Sweden's Håkan Carlqvist won both motos, but the team result was settled behind him in the mud, where Noyce's flat and Mayes's crash cost Britain the point it needed.
The United States became only the sixth nation to win the Motocross des Nations, according to MX Large, and took home the Peter Chamberlain Trophy, according to Motocross Action.
What it took to win in Europe
What it took was mostly mechanics who didn't panic and riders who adapted fast. The team went from 250s in deep sand to 500s on hard-pack in seven days. At Bielstein, Hansen won the first qualifying race and Sun was second in the other; LaPorte, tenth in his, had to start from the back row. "I felt slow," Hansen told MX Large about Bielstein. "But I guess that's how it's supposed to feel on these big bikes."
Behind them was a small crew. Dave Arnold, the head mechanic in MX Large's account and the team manager in the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum's, worked with mechanic Bruce Lunnis. When the problems came at Bielstein, "all hell broke loose," Lunnis told MX Large. The tube change on Hansen's bike before the last moto was the kind of job that decided the day.
Two American riders who weren't on the team, Mike Bell and Marty Tripes, watched from the crowd at Lommel. "These guys are determined to win," Bell said, according to MX Large.
J.J. Hanfield, Bel-Ray's man on the team, told MX Large it was "absolutely the high point of my 12-year association with motorcycling."
Why it still matters
The 1981 wins were the start of a long American streak. The United States won the Motocross des Nations every year from 1981 to 1993, 13 in a row. It took the Trophée again in 1982, 1983 and 1984. In 1982, LaPorte won the 250cc world title and Brad Lackey the 500cc, the first Americans to win either.
It also brought American fans and factories back to the event, which had barely mattered at home two years earlier. "Even the Europeans rallied around us and celebrated our win," LaPorte told Motocross Action.
The balance of motocross had moved across the Atlantic, and the man who helped move it stayed involved. De Coster later managed Team USA at the des Nations himself.
In 1981 the Belgians had a name for them: the B team. For the next 13 years, nobody else got a turn at being A.
Quick answers
When did Team USA first win the Motocross des Nations?
Team USA first won the Motocross des Nations on 13 September 1981 at Bielstein, West Germany, beating Great Britain by one point. Danny LaPorte, Johnny O'Mara, Donnie Hansen and Chuck Sun rode Hondas. A week earlier the same team had won the 250cc Trophée des Nations at Lommel, Belgium.
Who was on the 1981 Team USA for the Motocross des Nations?
The 1981 Team USA was Danny LaPorte, Johnny O'Mara, Donnie Hansen and Chuck Sun, all on Hondas. Roger De Coster pushed for the team and Honda's Dave Arnold ran it. The Belgians wrote them off as a "B team" because America's established stars had declined to go.
Where was the 1981 Motocross des Nations held?
The 500cc Motocross des Nations was held at Bielstein, West Germany, on 13 September 1981. The 250cc Trophée des Nations was held a week earlier, on 6 September, on the sand at Lommel in Belgium. Team USA won both.
How many Motocross des Nations did Team USA win in a row?
Team USA won the Motocross des Nations 13 times in a row, from 1981 to 1993. The streak began at Bielstein in 1981, when an underdog Honda team of LaPorte, O'Mara, Hansen and Sun beat Great Britain by a single point.
