[sahd03]

OK. So my bro-in-law is constantly testing my knowledge of motorcycle racing history and the latest one is causing me one little problem...

He wanted me to name 5 AMERICAN moto gp stars from the early 80's... The ones I've come up with are:
Kenny Roberts, Sr
Kevin Schwantz
Eddie Lawson
Randy Mamola

But there I am stuck. I cannot come up with any more Americans...

[35racer]

Wayne Rainey

[35racer]

Freddie Spencer

[sahd03]

I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T HELP ME?! ! ! !

Duh on Rainey... must be the heat...

[35racer]

You worded it different. :-)

[a13x]

Bubba Shobert

[Karaya One]

rainey and Shobert wouldn't qualify for early '80's. Neither would Schwantz.

Shobert - 1989

Schwantz - 1987

Rainey - 1988



Spencer, Lawson, Mamola, Baldwin, Roberts.

[sahd03]

Thanks Karaya - I lost trivia points because of Rainey... DOH!3
He hinted that one of them is from Connecticut - would that be Rich Schlachter from Old Lyme? I'm not sure if he qualifies in the "early 80's" timetable...?

Now, the bonus question: Can you name the brands they were on? This one, kinda tough for me... i'm working on it slowly...

[OreoGitorio]

Originally posted by sahd03
Now, the bonus question: Can you name the brands they were on? This one, kinda tough for me... i'm working on it slowly...

they all rode Kawasaki's, they wre the only motorcycle manufacturer at the time.... well, Kawi and Ford of course, but Ford wasn't into racing yet.

[Karaya One]

Schlachter is late 1970's. I don't think he was in GP in the 1980's.

And Baldwin may be wrong on my part. He was AMA F1 champ 83-84-85. He got his Roberts Yamaha ride in 1986. I think...

Mike Baldwin is also from CT.

Baldwin - Honda / Yamaha

Schlachter - Yamaha

Spencer - Honda / Yamaha / FBF Ducati

Lawson - Kawasaki / Yamaha / Honda

Roberts - Yamaha

Mamola - Suzuki / Yamaha / Honda / Cagiva

Rainey - Kawasaki / Honda / Yamaha

Other common thread here? Dirttrackers.

[OreoGitorio]

Originally posted by Karaya One
Schlachter is late 1970's. I don't think he was in GP in the 1980's.

And Baldwin may be wrong on my part. He was AMA F1 champ 83-84-85. He got his Roberts Kawasaki ride in 1986. I think...

Mike Baldwin is also from CT.

Baldwin - Kawasaki

Schlachter - Kawasaki

Spencer - Kawasaki

Lawson - Kawasaki

Roberts - Kawasaki

Mamola - Kawasaki

Rainey - Kawasaki

See? told ya. Dave, how'd you get to be as smart as me? where ya gettin all your info?

[sahd03]

Dman you're good. I had noticed that they seemed to all come from the dirt, but i couldn't be sure since i'm doing this kinda quickly.

Thanks for the help. Now I know where to go for my next trivia blitz!!!!

[Karaya One]

Out of ALL the American GP riders of the last 25 or so years, the only non-dirttracker was Schwantz and Russell.

All of the other guys came up through either the what became the Camel Pro Series or like Nicky Hayden just did dirt track first.

OMT - Doug Chandler also came out of that series.

If you put another WSB World Champ in the mix - Doug Polen - what you have is a lot of guys who got their start in Suzuki Cup back in 1986 until today.

These would include Russell, James, Hayden, Polen and Chandler.

The odd-man out is Edwards. He was a 250 guy who had a great ROC at Daytona back in 91-92(??), got a V+H ride and never looked back. Did NOT hurt at all that dad had a pile of cash to keep him in new bikes each year....

And the grandfather of it all is Kenny Roberts. His influence is still felt today.

Spencer may hold the records, but Roberts made it possible for Americans to succeed in GP.