What is your 1st memory of Motocross

[middo24]

I have 2 memories of mx the 1st was at moorebank in the late 60s watching my dad racing with matt dailey the Alderton brothers the 2nd was at mt kembla early 70s laurie & dennis alderton , they had a wheelie comp & dennis killed everyone he was my hero for many years but i changed to laurie about 15yrs ago after racing with him if I can go that fast at his age I will be a very happy man, cheers middo 

[shelpi]

My first memory of motocross was in the early 70's around 1974 at Morgan it was easter and they had the big mile on the saturday and the motocross on the sunday, the main memory is seeing DAVE BASHAM on his CZ getting huge air over the main jump, i was hoocked instantly, i also remember YZA'S, MONTESA'S, BULTACO'S And the smell of two stoke, the noise f8uck they were loud

[VMX247]

early 70's around 1974 at Morgan

Hey great memories,I believe Cowboy is still grading the MX track for MMCC since the mile meetings.
A few of us on here where after a few old photos of Morgan Mile.
Got any stashed away ?? 
cheers west side of oz

[John Orchard]

Oooh, '73 my dad had a business next to a bike shop in Mordialloc (Vic) called Alan Lambert Motorcycles (who went on to 'Lambert Leathers'), then a Suz & Bultaco dealer, I started working there on Sat mornings while still at school.

Alan Lambert's son 'Roger' was racing sub juniors on a Suz TM125K, I went to a race meeting at Bairnsdale with them one weekend, the smell of methanol & R30 had me sucked in big time.

[shelpi]

YEP COWBOY IS STILL DOING IT ALL THE ONLY PHOTOS OF MORGAN I PERSONALY HAVE ARE ONLY THE MOTOCROSS IN ABOUT 1977-78 NON OF THE MILE, BUT I WILL ASK COWBOY AT THE FIRST MORGAN CLUB MEETING AHH MEMORIES A STONE BROKE TWO LAYERS OF NUMBER PLATES, DENTED EXHAUST PIPES, BROKE FINGERS AND NOSES AND I BELIEVE ONE BLOKE GOT BLINDED IN ONE EYE, THATS HOW WE GOT STONED IN THOSE DAYS YOU DID'NT FALL OFF BUT STILL CAME BACK WOUNDED, WE HAD ALL THE INSENTIVE YOU NEEDED TO GET A HOLE SHOT AND STAY THERE, DOES ANYBODY ELSE REMEMBER THE MUD HOLE AND THE DOUBLE JUMP(WAS IT CALLED HALEY'S JUMP?)

[cr4ever]

Shelpi, I think the Easter meeting was usually Port Pirie, the half mile long track on Saturday and the MX meeting on the Sunday at Backstrom's pits. The Pirie disco was Saturday night, Clarrie Jones used to play up no end and the bouncer was a big Maori boxer named Joe?, luckily he took it all in good fun. Pirie half mile was very scary with those big wooden posts all the way around the track, killed Brian Schultz - RIP. Morgan meetings were usually the May and October long weekends, the mile on the Sunday and the mx on the Monday. Many outfits came to grief on the mile but it was pretty safe for solo's. I remember that mudhole on the MX track very well! I've got a few Pirie half mile and Morgan mile photo's from the late seventies but can't post them up - I can scan them and email them to someone else to post though if you send me an email address.
My first meeting I ever went to....Roger de Coster, Joel Robert, Willi Bauer, Bengt Aberg, Andy Roberton etc at Basham Park (silver lake) Mylor in December 1972?....I think they lapped Dave Basham on the CZ who was at his peak then....Lester Rowley was wheelstanding his BSA Victor 441 the whole back straight...I made up my mind then and there that I was going to race "scrambles"- but my BSA Bantam was pretty slow!

[VMX247]

YEP COWBOY IS STILL DOING IT ALL THE ONLY PHOTOS OF MORGAN I PERSONALY HAVE ARE ONLY THE MOTOCROSS IN ABOUT 1977-78 NON OF THE MILE, BUT I WILL ASK COWBOY AT THE FIRST MORGAN CLUB MEETING

Thanks !! Great to see some more South Aussies (crow eaters)  on this site.
We have great memories of Morgan in 04 and 06 ASA Sidecar events..Road trip's      though never got the time to venture into the Morgan Museum-bound to be some pics in there..
There was a pic on Laurie Boulters 1936 Ariel on the Motorcycling Aust website when we searched earlier,but its probably long gone now.
TT5 Matt on here also spent some time at PP and Morgan 20 odd years ago.
cheers A

[shelpi]

yes you may be right but will look for me old race programes if the mice have not made a nests in them, but i do remember it was cold in the morning with light frost, but i can tell you my memory is not what it was either and it takes me all night to do what i used to do all night . :'( me old mate marty moose reconds the older we get the faster we was , i too raced at pirie, motocross that is, hope more memories will return ahh yes i raced the mr motocross at claredon and got laped by Greg Toyama and all of his calibre, where the hell are those damn programs? we might have a chance i got the wife onto it. YAY The wife found them yep the Port Pirie 1978 motor cycle club Programme says Easter Sunday March 26th 1978  and hows this Morgan Big track and scrambles (not motocross) May 14th and 15th 1978, hmm make a mental note don't use memory what did i just say?

[pancho]

Hey middo who was-is your dad  at Moorebank? I probably rode at that meeting as I rarely missed a ride there in the sixties.
 First memory- my cousin Jim took me to Henry Lawson drive on the back of his new matcho twin about 1949-'50.  Saw this old codger named Stan Ward riding round in the mud wearing an old high dome Crommwell. Years later he was still riding round looking the same age!
Over the road from that place [Carramar] there was this steeep hill that blokes road up in organised hillclimbs that I watched after riding there on my pushy from Canley Vale.
 The first Moorebank I saw was after a ride on the back of my cousin's Matcho to spectate about the same time, the stars that day included Charlie Scaysbrook, and the Jarvis boys screaming around on an outfit.
 cheers pancho.

[shorelinemc]

watching the scrambles/mx at the cleveland show grounds and watching the ABC showing mx as a filler between shows i think the back ground music was river deep mountain from memory

[John Orchard]

I remember watching Calder Rallycross on Channel 0 (now Channel 10), I had a TM125L so I was rooting for Gary Adams on the Suz 400 but I remember Karl Morlang & Bernie Ryan were up there on CZ's.

[Curly3]

As with Middo, Moorebank in the mid 60's.
I never really had much interest in MX or Scrambles as it was, my family were heavily involved in Speedway & Short Circuit.
I did follow it more when the Mr MX series was at it's peak.
A lot of people don't realise that there was a point when MX was the little brother to Road Racing, Short Circuit & Speedway, not in any particular order.
Dirt Track / Short Circuit is on it's way back.
I'm off my soap box, for now.

[oldie]

Reading all the posts, it seems that nobody remembers a one horse town just out side of Ararat called Doby, my first memory of a scramble was in 1958, my mate & I rode our pussies about ten km to watch those awesome blokes dressed in black riding their striped down road bikes in the mud, I still remember this fat bloke riding a Trumpy & fell off twice, coming of a small jump & into a left hander, there was a little bit of off camber & when the back wheel hit it loosing the back-end, I thought he would have learnt from the first time.
Then another bloke going up the hill flipped the bike & broke his collar bone,I was hooked but I knew I would never be able to afford to do it for a long time to come, but in 1969 I did start racing scrambles I couldn't afford it but I did it anyway

[chrisdespo]

My first memory was at a track i think it was at Narre Warren  somewhere between Wellington rd and Heatherton rd. Bultaco's ruled Black and grey or Red they looked so cool they sounded and smelled even better. Bert was riding i know that cause my dad said gary and trevor may have but i cant remember pretty sure #8's dad may have been their as well must have been late 60's or real early 70s. thinking it may have been hallam scramble but i will never forget the real cool boots they were wearing laces with 3 buckles at the top i just had to get a bike to have a pair of those. I have always been a slave to fashion, now 40 odd years later i have to wear boots like that just to hold ankles together Ha Ha Ha!   

[211kawasaki]

The smell of R30, the shitty pits at Amaroo both MX and DT. Terry Hills camping for weeks in mud and dust; same at Hungry Creek, Speedway at the showground and collecting the whynn stickers always inside the programe.
But most of all was going to the shop in the centre of Sydney and dribbling over the 73 TM250, hooked me right there and then for life.