CAN-AM SPYDER RT - Cycle Torque

dirty torque
From Bunting To The Bush
TOBY Price and Josh Strang are the latest
in an extremely long line of motocrossers
who have taken to the off-road scene like a
duck to water, so I thought it was time we
looked at some of the greats who have gone
from racing between trackside bunting to
smashing their way through the bush.
Before we go much further I will say this
from personal experience: it is no picnic
racing enduros, pony expresses, cross
countries or desert races. I was once of
the opinion that I, as a reasonably handy
motocrosser, I could go across and whip the
off-road boys if that ever took my fancy.
And sure, I won my class at Finke and took
wins at a few small local off-road events
but whenever I had a crack at anything at
either state or national level I got smoked. I
was at the first ever endurocross at Dargle
(around 1991) and was third in class and
something like 150th outright after riding
my arse off all day on Kawasaki’s then allnew
KLX650R.
And I am sure that a lot of the tattooed,
earinged, sub-whoofa’d, hat-on-sideways
young motocrossers of today have a similar
view to mine many years ago but nothing
is surer that their results would emulate my
failures if they had to go head-to-head with
the likes of Stefan Merriman or Kirk Hut-
56 - APRIL 2010
ton in the bush.
My first memory of a motocrosser doing a
serious enduro was a guy by the name of
John Behrens (I think that is how you spell
his second name). John was a nationally
rated motocrosser who either won or got
close to winning a major enduro on an
IT490 back in around 1981. Apparently he
was seriously fast and as loose as it gets
and one of the mags ran a photo of him doing
a monster wheelie out of a gully.
Next was multi Queensland Motocross
Champion David Armstrong who took a
bog-stock KX250 and gave the world's best
enduro riders a lesson at the 1988 A4DE
held on the Sunshine Coast. I was there
and Army tore the place apart with sheer
determination coupled with a little local
knowledge and his motocross skills.
One of the legendary performances put
in by a motocrosser doing enduros has to
be Stefan Everts when he won the 2003
ISDE in Brazil OUTRIGHT. Everts did the
event after winning the 2003 World MX1
Motocross Championship and absolutely
stomped the best enduro riders in the world.
In 2006 former World Motocross Champion
Shayne King rode his first enduro: it was
the ISDE at Taupo and the Kiwi legend
managed to win quite a few special tests
Stefan Everts successfully mastered both MX
and enduro disciplines.
and ended the event 11th outright while
just last year former motocross GP punter
Johnny Aubert won the World E2 Enduro
Championship with another GP top runner
Rodrig Thain finishing the championship
in fifth.
AMA motocross and supercross regulars
Guy Cooper, Kyle Lewis and Rodney Smith
all extended their careers by hitting the
GNCC series with some success while former
AMA 125cc Motocross Champion and
Motocross GP winner Mike Brown moved
to the WORCS series in America last year
and won it on debut.
And here we are at the start of the 2010
season and former Australian Motocross
Championship mid-packer Josh Strang
has won the opening round of the GNCC
series in America while former Australian
Junior Motocross Champion Toby Price has
started his AORC defense with wins at the
opening two rounds at Port Macquarie.
So the bottom line is this, if you are a
motocrosser and want to have a go at the
off-road riders on their home turf I applaud
you: it will be a humbling experience for
99 per cent of you and from my experience,
that never hurt anybody.
– Smarty