May 1985 And '95The supercross season kicked off later 10 and 20 years ago, so the SX works bikes featured in last month's issue would have appeared in the May issues in 1985 and '95. Moto-historians may recall that '85 was the final year for true works bikes in the United States. Therefore, it wasn't too surprising that Johnny O'Mara's '85 Honda RC250R had trick parts that Jeremy McGrath's '95 factory Honda didn't. The 1985 supercross season also saw the debut of the 125cc class. Some of the early winners were Todd Campbell, Bader Manneh and Mike Healey. Manneh was the first motocross star of Arab descent, and he and Healey found more success in Europe than in the States.
The May '95 issue offered our first "freestyle" cover: a photo of Mike Metzger that he credits with helping the freestyle movement flourish. Metz is still in the trenches, but of the top 10 riders in the SX standings in May '95, only McGrath and Mike LaRocco are currently racing. Mickael Pichon, Kevin Windham and Tim Ferry were on top in the 125cc class, and they are still going strong.
On the off-road scene, Rodney Smith, Ty Davis, Steve Hatch and Scott Summers were all front-runners. Enough said. In the desert, Danny Hamel was a young icon, and he should still be dominating the desert; but a stray police car in Baja robbed the sport, and nearly a decade later his absence remains painful.