1st 4 stroke to qualify for a supercross main?

[mainline]

I would have thought Doug Henry on the YZM400, but no



http://www.enduro360.com/2010/08/19/featured/ktm-supercross-the-bike-that-made-history/

[motomaniac]

Interesting read but a bit off about Joel Smets being the only guy on a 4 stroke .

[JohnnyO]

He was probably in an earlier heat race than Henry so officially the KTM was the first 4 stroke to qualify. Henry won some races that year on the factory YZM but you can be sure that KTM was nowhere near the front...

[JohnnyO]

Interesting read but a bit off about Joel Smets being the only guy on a 4 stroke .

Yeah Jacky Martens had already won the '93 world 500 title on a 4stroke Husky.

[BAHNZY]

Around the same time here in Australia the ThumperNats were up an running and KTM's like this one were being run by the Castrol/KTM team with guys like Craig Anderson steering them. Whilst they wern't technically as good as the Husaberg, the KTM team had the best riders and were at the pointy end of every race. If i remember correctly the Husaberg riders were Vaughn Styles, supported by Suttos along with Andy Caldecott and Andy Haydon sponsored through the Caldecott shop and SA Plasterboard, but weren't technically a "factory" team. Of the rest of the bikes on offer, Honda battled with the XR400 until the XR650 came along and Michael Byrne gave it a fair shake, although steering a leopard tank on steroids must have been a challenge. Kawasaki had a crack with a KLR 650 but never got the right rider/reliability combination. There were a few DR350R's getting around until the DRZ400 came along and i remember a really trick DRZ450 running at the time with essentially a RM250-2T chassis and a carbon fibre fuel tank being punted by Darryl Huley. I don't  remember much of the Huskies, i guess cause the were a bit un-reliable. Of course the YZ400 was the bike to have and pretty much changed the sport.

One of the Castrol KTM 540's that looks identical to this one (less tank & air box) is owned by someone in the Latrobe Valley and we see it from time to time in he shop. It's still in its original livery with black anodised forks and FMF exhaust system.

Re the forks they refer to, i have a set of those Marzocchi forks and corresponding tripple clamps and they are/were a disaster and not much better than the WP Extremes which I also have a set off, both fitted to my motocross Husabergs and the bloody things leak oil just looking at them. For some reason the top guys that raced Finke on the big bore 2 strokes some years back loved the Marzocchi forks over the offerings from Honda & Kawasaki.

[ola_martin]

They write about the US, not the GP's, there where many riders at the GP's with Husky and Husaberg thumpers. ( Smets also tried a couple of US Nationals.)
But I think Smail was one of very few in the US, I think the Husabergteam of Mike Young and Shaun Kalos tried some nationals also at that time, but don't know about SX. Pretty sure they never made the main anyway.

Those 3 rides together with WhiteBrosHonda's Spud Walters? made up the 4st. nationals those years.

I think the SX debut with Henry on the YZM was a year after this KTM.

Many years ago already, I might remember it wrong.

[JohnnyO]

Henry rode the works 4 stroke in 97 and the production bike came out in 98.

[BAHNZY]

At the world GP level, lets not forget the Vertemati before the company became VOR.

[BAHNZY]

And the real motocross 4 strokes
Remember this is 1993

[BAHNZY]

And of course the man himself.

[BAHNZY]

[BAHNZY]

And the bike that most "husabergites" consider to be the last true Husaberg motocross bike. The 2000 model.

[JohnnyO]

Bahnzy you're forgetting the Husky race team in the mid 90's thumper nats. Lyndon Heffernan won the series twice on Husky's against the KTM team which had Dave Armstrong and then Jeff Leisk before Ando.

[BAHNZY]

Strange about the Husky team. I was at most of the southern state rounds but either I wasn't interested or didn't pay notice to the Husky guys. For a very short period of time I helped Stacy Alderman on a Husky 610 till he went back to his bad ways and they took the bike back from him.

I was lucky enough to be involved (in the distant background) with Jacky Martens when he was team manager for the Husky factory team at the time that they competed at the Aussie MX GP. Even then I still didn't warm to the brand, I guess I was already DNA'd with the Bergs by then.

[motomaniac]

They write about the US, not the GP's, there where many riders at the GP's with Husky and Husaberg thumpers. ( Smets also tried a couple of US Nationals.)

Huh? read again :- "Joel Smets was campaigning practically the only true thumper race bike, the Husaberg, on the world GP scene. Here at home there was a burgeoning national four stroke mx series that was..."