Posts
270
Joined
4/30/2008
Location
Pasco, WA
US
Edited Date/Time
8/27/2020 1:04pm
I used to race against/with/around....
Lowell Thomspon
Brian Thompson
Larry Ward
Butch Smith
Rick Simmet
Paul Winn
Jeff Dailey
John Calhoun
Jamie Munson
Ryan Huffman
Rod Tapia
Shaun McCallister
Jason McCormick
Danny Ulven
Tony Graves
Grayson Hart
These were all guys that were either at most two years older, same age, or a couple/few years younger than me. So I raced with all of them at some point on either an 80 and/or 125 bikes.
Those were great days of motocross in the 80 and 125 ranks in the Pacific Northwest.
We had our version of Southern Cal minicyle motos up here in the Northwest when all these guys lined up for a big regional race. At the big races we would have a solid 12-15 mini experts on the line and those were great. There were a few other riders as well, but names ecscape me right now. Everyone had the one track they seemed to be better than everyone else at (home track), and we had our mix of sandy tracks, clay tracks, rocky, mud, hills, flat, etc. We had it all out here. It was a great time!
Let's talk about those 1980-90 Northwest riders. Larry Ward, Lowell Thompson, Rick Simmet, Butch Smith and Jason McCormick all won Amatuer Nationals. Eric Eaton won at Washougal National in the 80's, and I think Jason McCormick won a moto there as well.
Anybody have any great memories of these Mini experts and into their 125 rides please share them. Would love to revive some of the great memories, some of the great races from Washougal to SIR, Horn Rapids, Sandy, Moxee, Cour de'lene, Albany, Roseburg, Woodland, McMinnville, Thurston, Starbuck, Jolly Rogers, Kingdome, Monroe, Puyallup etc, etc.
Lowell Thomspon
Brian Thompson
Larry Ward
Butch Smith
Rick Simmet
Paul Winn
Jeff Dailey
John Calhoun
Jamie Munson
Ryan Huffman
Rod Tapia
Shaun McCallister
Jason McCormick
Danny Ulven
Tony Graves
Grayson Hart
These were all guys that were either at most two years older, same age, or a couple/few years younger than me. So I raced with all of them at some point on either an 80 and/or 125 bikes.
Those were great days of motocross in the 80 and 125 ranks in the Pacific Northwest.
We had our version of Southern Cal minicyle motos up here in the Northwest when all these guys lined up for a big regional race. At the big races we would have a solid 12-15 mini experts on the line and those were great. There were a few other riders as well, but names ecscape me right now. Everyone had the one track they seemed to be better than everyone else at (home track), and we had our mix of sandy tracks, clay tracks, rocky, mud, hills, flat, etc. We had it all out here. It was a great time!
Let's talk about those 1980-90 Northwest riders. Larry Ward, Lowell Thompson, Rick Simmet, Butch Smith and Jason McCormick all won Amatuer Nationals. Eric Eaton won at Washougal National in the 80's, and I think Jason McCormick won a moto there as well.
Anybody have any great memories of these Mini experts and into their 125 rides please share them. Would love to revive some of the great memories, some of the great races from Washougal to SIR, Horn Rapids, Sandy, Moxee, Cour de'lene, Albany, Roseburg, Woodland, McMinnville, Thurston, Starbuck, Jolly Rogers, Kingdome, Monroe, Puyallup etc, etc.
I think it was Jeff Daily that would never let off the throtle just pull in the clutch over all the jumps, every time I watch Barcia ride it reminds me of him with all the reving sounded cooler on a 2 stroke.
Grason Heart and Tony Graves were 2 of the nicest guys you would meet. Lary Ward would come to town and everyone was gunning fo him. Good Good times.
The Shop
A bunch of the late 70's mini-experts turned 125 Pro about this time seemed to have great shop classes at their high schools which a bunch fo them used to weld water jackets on their YZ125G barrels and make thermo-siphon water cooled setups.
I think it was summer of 1980 that Eric Hall reportedly had the record lap at Washougal on his YZ80.
heres my hand made water cooler yz 125g at washougal circa 1980 . i agree with stacy about jack mcgill and eric hall . i raced against eric hall alot back in 78/79 he had a very trick rm 80 with a chrome tank that was the envy of us all . i never raced against jack but we became friends during the nma qualifiers , i looked up to him and stole his style =) . beating larry ward in the 80 class was always one of my claims to fame =) my home track was clarks branch roseburg . there were a lot of great riders in the pnw stacy thornton included .
Sondra
Spanaway 81
https://youtu.be/ekc101ZdjOU
I looked for you on Facebook but you're not listed there, at least not what I could find. Do you stay in touch with Jimmy Larson?
Hope you're well and safe and would love to hear from you, talk about the old days and share some stuff I've collected over the years with regard to bikes. I'm on Instagram as @gappman and on Facebook as well. Dawn's last name now is Stob. You can find her there as well. As for this thread, yeah, it's pretty cool. Raced with all of these dudes and I don't know if you remember, but Larry Ward and his family would stay with us when they raced Woodland or Washougal. Dawn and Larry were an item for a while.
Hope you're well and safe, and would love to hear from you.
Gary
Pit Row
Post a reply to: Pacific Northwest Mini Experts 1980-90