PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY
The Owyhee Motorcycle Club was formed in 1940 to promote motorcycling in what’s known as the Treasure Valley of Idaho. They’ve held countless events out there, everything from TT to trials, poker runs to enduro. As a matter of fact, motocross history was made there on June 25, 1972, when a California kid named Gary Jones became the first American to win a major international motocross race, blitzing his 170-pound Yamaha “Y2” MX 250 to all three moto wins at the Boise Inter-Am. Finishing second was Torsten Hallman, the Swedish motocross legend around whom promoter Edison Dye had built his Inter-Am Series in the late sixties and early seventies. Cycle News described Jones’ day as “an absolutely superb performance of motocross artistry”—and it would have to have been to finally beat the Europeans, Hallman included. It was such a surprise that the promoter didn’t have a tape of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to play during the trophy ceremony, and the person who sang it before the race having left shortly thereafter. Jones’ non-contingency bonus for being the first American to do it? A crisp $100 bill.
PHOTOS: SIMON CUDBY
The Owyhee Motorcycle Club was formed in 1940 to promote motorcycling in what’s known as the Treasure Valley of Idaho. They’ve held countless events out there, everything from TT to trials, poker runs to enduro. As a matter of fact, motocross history was made there on June 25, 1972, when a California kid named Gary Jones became the first American to win a major international motocross race, blitzing his 170-pound Yamaha “Y2” MX 250 to all three moto wins at the Boise Inter-Am. Finishing second was Torsten Hallman, the Swedish motocross legend around whom promoter Edison Dye had built his Inter-Am Series in the late sixties and early seventies. Cycle News described Jones’ day as “an absolutely superb performance of motocross artistry”—and it would have to have been to finally beat the Europeans, Hallman included. It was such a surprise that the promoter didn’t have a tape of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to play during the trophy ceremony, and the person who sang it before the race having left shortly thereafter. Jones’ non-contingency bonus for being the first American to do it? A crisp $100 bill.
allman’s Inter-Am tour marked the birth of professional motocross in America. The series itself disappeared in 1975, a victim of the growing interest of supercross—which, coincidentally, started as an Inter-Am race held in the Los Angeles Coliseum. And though the actual series never returned to Boise after that ’72 race, the spirit of those pioneering days remains embedded in the dirt of the Owyhee Motorcycle Club, which is still running strong.
For more than a dozen years now, Racer X publisher Scott Wallenberg, who lives in Boise, has been hosting a vintage race (along with longtime friend Tim Kennedy) at Owyhee called the Racer X Inter-Am. It’s an homage to those early days of motocross, a reunion of old friends and new.
“Boise is a long way from anywhere, so we knew we had to try and make it as easy and inexpensive for people to attend, hence no gate fees and no camping fees,” Wallenberg says. “Our inaugural event drew 67 entries and a total of six sponsors. This year we have 640 entries and 30 sponsors.”
Wallenberg also likes to bring in old racing friends and industry legends as guests of honor, including Gary Jones, Damon Bradshaw, Broc Glover, David Bailey, Danny LaPorte, Bob Hannah, Pierre Karsmakers, Thorlief Hansen, Hakan Andersson. . . .
“For many years, I have had a standing invitation from my longtime friend Scott to visit his Inter-Am race in Boise,” Hallman explains. “Unfortunately, other appointments at the same time had always been a hinder, at least until this year. My friend Håkan Eriksson and I both wanted to finally come, so we booked our tickets from Stockholm for Chicago.”
allman knew that the race was taking place in the middle of the 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship—a series in whose very first race he competed, also back in 1972 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. When they realized that the Houston round was the weekend before the Inter-Am, they decided to go from Chicago on to Houston. Once there, Hallman would be greeted by an old friend.
“The word that we were coming to Houston reached Roger DeCoster, so he called and invited us for dinner Friday night in Houston,” Hallman says. “Dan Cogdell, a friend of Roger’s, sets up a dinner there every year when supercross comes to town. This time the theme was to celebrate Ian Harrison taking over Roger’s responsibility as Red Bull KTM team manager, so after dinner, Ian was presented with some big clown shoes with a plaque stating, ‘Ian, you have some pretty big shoes to fill!’ The atmosphere was great, with lots of laughs, and it was nice to meet many old and new friends.”
“He told me how he got interested in motorcycles as a young kid in Texas working at a motorcycle shop selling Pentons, Husqvarnas, and Hallman Products,” Hallman says—“and that I was his first motocross idol!”
“Race day, just walking in the pit area, we met many friends, and in the evening, we saw some fantastic racing, especially from the two KTM factory riders, Cooper Webb and Marvin Musquin,” Hallman adds. “I am happy to see that motocross and supercross came such a long, long way since I helped bring it here more than 50 years ago.”
rom Houston, the Swedes went to San Diego to meet some friends and visit the THOR offices. THOR—Torsten Hallman Original Racewear—was the groundbreaking aftermarket company Hallman started while he was still racing professionally. It essentially marks the start of the motocross industry in America. Hallman no longer owns THOR, but he remains its spiritual leader. He was impressed by the new Hallman Collection as well, which is many ways a throwback to his time as the world’s most popular racer.
Finally, it was time—47 years after his first visit—for Torsten Hallman to return to Boise.
ack to Torsten’s first trip here: “We started the trip to Boise in two vans,” he recalls. “Arne Lindfors was driving one of the vans, Lars and I in the other one. As we were unfamiliar with distances between the gas stations in the desert, we did not have any spare gas cans in our cars. Arne, who was driving behind Lars and I, was the first one to find out that he was out of gas. He saw us disappear in front of him. He was alone in the desert and scared like hell of snakes—he didn’t want to get out of his van. And he couldn’t call us on a cell phone—this was 1972!
“Anyway, Arne managed to get gas out of our race bikes and got the van going again. After just a couple of miles, Arne saw Lars and I parked on the side of the road, just waiting for him. We were also low of fuel and didn’t dare to drive back to help him because then we would be out of fuel. We managed to continue and finally found an old gas station out in the middle of nowhere. Inside the gas station they had an old piano. I was in such a happy mood to have found this gas station that I sat down and played a boogie-woogie tune on that old piano to everybody’s surprise—especially Arne. He had no idea I could play! What a memory. I can still laugh at the mood we all were at that moment.”
As for the ’72 race itself, Hallman had to do some research to find that he took second to Jones, who won all three motos on that historic day. “My second-place was a surprise to me, as I more or less stopped riding the year before,” Hallman admits. “For more than a year and a half I had been too much involved in the development work of the new YZ race bikes, work I was hired by Yamaha to do as of the beginning of 1971.
“The reason behind my suggestion for Marty was that I was often in contact with Lars Larsson, who was running the Hallman Racing office in El Cajon and racing every weekend in Southern California. I asked him for his opinion of a future top rider. Right away he suggested Marty Tripes. He was dominating the races in that area on a Penton 125, even when he was just 15 years old. Lars was right, as Marty was going to show the world that he was a future top rider as soon he turned 16.”
n Saturday morning, everything went on fast-forward for Hallman and friends as they rolled into the Owyhee Motorcycle Club Grounds.
“What a difference today to see the pit area with colorful tents, flags and banners, catering and all, compared to the old black-and-white era,” Hallman said of the day of the 2019 Racer X Inter-Am. “But the biggest change was the attitude among the riders. They came here to ride and have fun, rain or shine. Everybody was smiling, laughing, and having a great time. Everybody just loved to get a chance to ride their old bikes on a well-prepared motocross track.
“I was also surprised about the mix of riders, young against veterans, everybody smiling and racing each other. After the race I was talking to Broc Glover, now close to 60 years old and still blistering fast and riding in the same style as during his prime. After winning his class in the Pomeroy Cup he said, ‘If you add the age of the second- and third-placed guys, they are still younger than me!’”
Hallman himself no longer races, so he spent his afternoon under the Hallman Racing display tents: “They gave me a perfect place to relax and to meet people and sign autographs—and I have never signed so many racing bibs in my life!”
With the last checkered flag on Sunday afternoon, Hallman’s return visit came to its conclusion. He was soon at the airport and on his way back home to Sweden, thrilled to have been able to visit with so many old racing friends. His profound influence on the sport and the industry in America remains intact, and it will be hard in the future for Wallenberg and friends to outdo having the ultimate guest of honor at the Racer X Inter-Am. 