History of Motocross

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Rick Wilder from Portland, Oregon. I currently run Thursday night motocross with my brother, Ron. I am a former Team Green Kawasaki Rider from the 1980's and I'm here to tell you about the history of motocross. Basically motocross uses a very unique motorcycle design to take on the roughest terrain possible and it is all man made for the most part. We go over hill, we go over jumps, we go over stumps, we go over ruts. The motocross bike is very uniquely designed. It is almost 200 pounds at the maximum weight, somewhere around 40 to 50 horse power, acceleration rate is unbelievable. It is one of the lightest fastest machines to do what it has to do. It is a very powerful motorcycle. The history of motocross began back in Europe back in the late 1950's and made its way over to the United States in the late 60's but it really became popular in the 70's with the series called the Trans Am Racing Series. The sport today has basically morphed today into a gigantic empire of opportunity for a lot of kids, a lot of sponsors, a lot of motorcycle manufacturers and today we have super cross, we have outdoor nationals, we have arena crosses. Many of the races and tracks today have been designed by custom track makers who specialize in designing these kinds of motocross tracks to make them very demanding, to be exciting for spectators and fans to watch. For more history on motorcycle racing, motocross specifically go on line and go to local book store, maybe check your local motorcycle store."