Who was at the 1987 Motocross des Nations?

sandman768 wrote:

I was there...this is my story.......1987, I was fresh out of high school, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I...

I was there...this is my story.......1987, I was fresh out of high school, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I did know I wanted to race MX! I hung around with a like minded group of guys that rode hard and partied even harder. We were a rag tag group of guys just getting into MX, we did not have anyone to show us the ropes, we never raced minis.... hell , we did not even know anyone that raced. 1987 was also the year I bought my first brand new bike...a 1987 Suzuki RM250..As a longtime Suzuki fan, I bought into their reemergence with the hiring of Hannah & O’Mara to develop the bikes, unfortunately it would take A few more years for the bikes to come around but I was an aspiring novice racer and the bike was plenty good enough for me.
Growing up 2 hrs southeast of Unadilla, My brother brought me to my first Unadilla in 1982, I did not miss another race there for some 25 years. The early years were just magical when the Euros would come over and still dominate. The track morphing from tall grassy fields to rough, dark rich loam over the weekend was epic, the smell of 2 stroke oil in the air. There was no way in hell we were going to miss the MXDN in our own back yard. We had been going for years, so we knew the last few years they had really started to crack down on The craziness that was going on, we heard that NO alcohol would be allowed in the camping area”s....Ya, right........there were about 8 of us that decided to rent a big RV camper for the weekend. We were going in style!
The RV rental place was hesitant to rent us the RV, not sure why, I guess we looked like goons...the first thing we did was bring the RV back to my friends garage, we tore open the back interior and hid a unbelievable amount of beer and........ Hashish! That’s right, a brick of black hash that stunk like a fucking skunk! I did say we partied hard right? So, off we were, heading out to The MXDN at Unadilla 1987. 2 or 3 hrs later, I”m not sure on the time, as we had been smoking hash the whole way there, and I had no idea how we even made it there, as we pulled onto RT 8 heading towards the track, we noticed a very heavy police presence about a mile from the entrance. I”m taking drug smelling dogs, state troopers etc. as we got closer w could see all the alcohol that as confiscated and they were doing vehicle searches with the dogs! We were like a big rolling Cheach & Chong RV ...I though, shit, we are going to jail! We have a block of hash the size of a fucking brick! We were in line, we could not turn around, we were fucked! I was scared shitless, I made my way out of the RV using the side door before we got up to the police check point, I slithered around and starting walking away from the RV, down RT 8. I was so sure we were going to get arrested I felt it was every man for themselves. I was kind of just hanging around other vehicles, when our vehicle was next to pull into the camping area, I seen the dogs go into the RV, I”m sure it’s over, we’re going to jail....the cops come back out....nothing..”.ok, go on in” I ran over to the RV, paid my entrance and we pulled into the camping area! The dogs were just for show! .... needless to say, that night we partied all night long!
Saturday was awesome! Qualifying and the track was epic! It did not start raining until later that day or night, can’t remember. I did get Hannah’s goggles from Saturday, he threw them after practice and I caught them. I still have them! By Saturday night, we had at least 20 guys at the RV parting with us. We were some of the few who did not lose their beer on the way through security check points, and we had a lot of hash!
Sunday....was miserable, it never stopped raining, I remember hoping Hannah’s Suzuki would not blow up! how 3 guys from California won in that shit was beyond me. Hannah, Johnson and Ward solidified their status as legends that weekend.
Amidst all the party goers and mud Saturday night, the RV sustained heavy damages...And the interior never quite went together the same way after we tore it all apart ......I guess the RV rental shop was right....I think we lost our deposit......here is my well worn T-shirt and Hannah’s Smith goggles from Saturday’s practice