The History Of Motocross And Supercross

Who Invented Motocross?

No single person invented it. The sport grew out of British trials, where riders were scored on how cleanly they rode through observed sections. On March 29, 1924, a group at Camberley Heath in Surrey, England, ran an event decided purely on speed: two laps of a long, rough course, first rider home wins. A.B. Sparks won on a Scott. The governing body would not let the organizers call it a trials event, so they called it a scramble. Racer X marked the hundredth anniversary in 2024 with a detailed history of that day.

Scrambling spread across Britain and Europe, where it became moto-cross in French. Through the 1950s it was a sport of big four-stroke singles from makers like BSA, AJS and Belgium's Saroléa. Our history of dirt bikes follows how the machines changed alongside the racing.

Nations And World Titles

After the Second World War the sport went international. The first Motocross des Nations ran near The Hague in the Netherlands on July 20, 1947, with teams from Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Britain won with Bill Nicholson and Fred Rist on BSAs and Bob Ray on an Ariel.

The FIM ran its first 500 cc European Motocross Championship in 1952, won by Belgium's Victor Leloup on a Saroléa. In 1957 it became the first 500 cc Motocross World Championship, and Sweden's Bill Nilsson won it on an AJS he had converted himself. A 250 cc European class started the same year and gained world championship status in 1962, when Torsten Hallman won it on a Husqvarna two-stroke. From there the light two-strokes took over both classes; Roger DeCoster won five 500 world titles for Suzuki between 1971 and 1976.

Motocross Comes To America

In 1966 Edison Dye began importing Husqvarnas into the United States and brought Torsten Hallman over to race. Hallman won every moto he entered. Gary Bailey, who raced against the touring Europeans, told the Gypsy Tales podcast they were not quite lapping the Americans, but "they were gone", and called it a rude awakening. Bailey says he became the first American to beat the touring Europeans at Saddleback Park on July 4, 1969. That is his own memory, so treat the date as his account.

Dye's tours became the Inter-Am series, which was not sanctioned by the AMA. The AMA answered with its own Trans-AMA series, which started at LaRue, Ohio, on October 11, 1970; Dave Nicoll won that first series on a BSA. In 1972 the AMA National Motocross Championship began, with Gary Jones winning the 250 title on a Yamaha and Brad Lackey the 500 on a Kawasaki. That championship is today's AMA Pro Motocross.

The Birth Of Supercross: The LA Coliseum, 1972

In the summer of 1972, promoter Mike Goodwin put a motocross race inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and called it the Super Bowl of Motocross. It was an invitational, not part of a series. A 16-year-old American, Marty Tripes, beat the visiting Europeans. Blend "Super Bowl" and "motocross" and you get the name the sport still uses.

Sources disagree on the details. Racer X gives July 8 and Cycle News gives July 9, and attendance figures run from about 27,000 to 35,000, so the honest version is "summer 1972, in front of tens of thousands". Cycle World reported about 40,000 at the second Coliseum race in 1973.

There are two tellings of who came up with it. Davey Coombs, on Gypsy Tales, gives the standard account: Goodwin had the idea and the Coliseum. Gary Bailey says Goodwin sketched the plan after seeing a track Bailey had built at Ascot Park, and that Goodwin "just happened to be the guy with the money". Both agree the Coliseum race was the start.

Step Through The Timeline

Press each step, or drag the year slider. The track changes from an outdoor hillside to a stadium as supercross arrives.

The First Stadium Series

Stadium racing became a championship in 1974, when the AMA ran its first stadium series, the Yamaha Super Series, with rounds at Daytona and the Houston Astrodome. Pierre Karsmakers won the 250 title. The Daytona infield race was older. Bill France Sr. added motocross to the Daytona infield in 1971, and Bailey says France walked the site with him and handed him the job of building the track. Bailey says he also built the first two Astrodome tracks while he was still racing.

Stadium tracks are short and man-made, packed with big jumps, rhythm sections and whoops. Outdoor motocross tracks are long, use natural terrain and run longer motos. That difference put enormous demands on suspension in the years when rear travel went from about four inches to about twelve.

The American Era

• Bob Hannah won three straight AMA Supercross titles from 1977 to 1979 and became the first dominant American stadium star.
• Team USA won its first Motocross des Nations at Lommel, Belgium, in 1981, and then won 13 years in a row through 1993.
• Brad Lackey became the first American 500 cc world champion in 1982, on a Suzuki.
• Jeremy McGrath won seven AMA Supercross titles between 1993 and 2000, the record according to Guinness World Records.

The Supercross Boom And The Tug Of War

Coombs says Goodwin predicted supercross would replace motocross in America, and the stadium boom helped end the Trans-AMA and Inter-Am tours. By about 1985, by Coombs's count, there were roughly 18 supercrosses on the calendar, pulling riders and sponsor money away from the outdoor nationals. The same year the 125 class split into East and West regions, the origin of today's 250SX East and West.

The mid-1990s were rough. Coombs recalls a troubled 1995 Las Vegas Supercross, after which Gary Becker and Charlie Mancuso consolidated the promoters. Eric Peronnard, who created the US Open of Supercross at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, told Gypsy Tales he modeled it on the Paris Supercross; the first one, in 1998, was won by Damon Huffman, and it ran until 2010. In 2008 Feld Entertainment bought Live Nation's motorsports division, including supercross, and it promotes AMA Supercross today.

The bikes changed under the riders, too. In 1997 Doug Henry won the Las Vegas Supercross on a four-stroke prototype, the first AMA Supercross win on a four-stroke, and by 2006 the premier class had become 450 four-strokes against 250 two-strokes. That story is in the four-stroke revival.

One Championship: SuperMotocross

A separate world supercross series, the FIM WSX, relaunched with two rounds in 2022. In the US, MX Sports and Feld tied supercross and motocross together into the SuperMotocross World Championship, which ran its first playoff season in 2023. That same year Jett Lawrence won all 22 motos of his rookie 450 outdoor season. Electric bikes are the next question for rule makers; MXGP's promoter has announced a separate electric class, covered in how electric dirt bikes work.

Motocross And Supercross Milestones

You Are Your Own Mechanic

Factory riders have a mechanic for every session. The rest of us have to remember when the oil, the air filter and the chain are due. MotoMind keeps your service history by engine hours and by date, shows each task as upcoming, due or overdue, and its GPS ride tracker can add ride time to your hours. See dirt bike maintenance schedules for model-by-model intervals.

FAQ

When was the first motocross race?

March 29, 1924, at Camberley Heath in Surrey, England. Riders raced two laps of a long, rough course and A.B. Sparks won on a Scott.

Who invented motocross?

No one person. It grew out of British trials. The 1924 Camberley event was the first race decided purely on speed, and because officials would not call it a trial it was called a scramble, later moto-cross.

Why is it called a scramble?

The 1924 event was planned as a trial, but the governing body ruled it could not be called a trials event because it was scored on speed with no observed sections. The organizers called it a scramble instead.

What was the first supercross race?

The Super Bowl of Motocross at the LA Coliseum in the summer of 1972, promoted by Mike Goodwin and won by 16-year-old Marty Tripes. Sources disagree on July 8 or 9 and on the crowd, from about 27,000 to 35,000.

When did AMA Supercross start?

In 1974, with the first AMA stadium series at Daytona and the Houston Astrodome. The Daytona infield race had run since 1971.

What is the difference between motocross and supercross?

Motocross is raced outdoors on long tracks over natural terrain. Supercross is raced on short, man-made tracks inside stadiums, with big jumps, rhythm sections and whoops.

What is SuperMotocross?

A championship that ties AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross together into one playoff. Its first season was 2023.

Who has the most AMA Supercross championships?

Jeremy McGrath, with seven titles between 1993 and 2000, according to Guinness World Records.