by Davey Coombs
The List: Top Ten Suzuki Riders in American Motocross
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 | 4:45 PM
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PrintOkay, we caught some flack when we listed the ten riders who most exemplified Honda over the years and now we expect to do likewise with this list of the Top Ten Suzuki riders in American Motocross history. Read 'em and Tweet!
10.) Gerrit Wolsink: Okay, he's from Holland, not Florida or California, but for a generation of American motocross fans, "the Flying Dentist" was one of the best of his generation, winning five 500cc U.S. Grand Prix races at Carlsbad, blanking his Suzuki teammate Roger DeCoster once a year on ABC's Wide World of Sports. But The Man more than evened the score with Wolsink by winning five world titles.
Danny LaPorte would have great years on Honda and Yamaha, but his best came while on a Suzuki.
Photo: Alfred Intrabartolo
9.) Danny LaPorte: With a nod to one-off AMA Motocross Champions on Suzuki like Greg Albertyn (1999) and Chad Reed (2009), Danny LaPorte gets above them on this list by virtue of winning practically two titles on Suzuki. First he tied for the '77 AMA 125cc National Championship with Broc Glover, only to lose on a tie-breaker. Then he he went out and won the '79 500cc title. LaPorte would find more greatness on Honda (the '81 Trophee and Motocross des Nations) and Yamaha ('82 250cc world title) but his best U.S. years were on yellow. (To learn more about LaPorte's time on the AMA circuit, check out his finishes right here in the Racer X Vault:
http://vault.racerxonline.com/rider/danny-laporte/points
9.) Danny LaPorte: With a nod to one-off AMA Motocross Champions on Suzuki like Greg Albertyn (1999) and Chad Reed (2009), Danny LaPorte gets above them on this list by virtue of winning practically two titles on Suzuki. He tied for the '77 AMA 125cc National Championship with Broc Glover, only to lose on a tie-breaker. Then he he went out and won the '79 500cc title. LaPorte would find more greatness on Honda (the '81 Trophee and Motocross des Nations) and Yamaha ('82 250cc World title) but his best U.S. years were on yellow. (To learn more about LaPorte's time on the AMA circuit, check out his finishes right here in the Racer X Vault.)
8.) Guy Cooper: Super Cooper spent a lot of time earning oohs and awes for his jumping prowess, but he was also extremely fast -- especially on a Suzuki RM125. He won the 1990 AMA 125cc National MX title on a 'Zook.
7.) Travis Pastrana: The brilliant, incandescent motocross career of Travis Pastrana did not work out the way many expected, but he's probably been seen by more fans around the world than anyone else on this list due to his X Games shenanigans, all of which happened on yellow motorcycles. Had he only stayed healthy and focused, he would have been much higher on this list of racing successes, though he did win the '00 AMA 125cc National MX Championship.
Pastrana took Suzuki to another level with his motocross talent and X Games shenanigans.
Photo: Fran Kuhn
5.) Kent Howerton: He started his career winning nationals on Husqvarna and ended with a win on a Kawasaki, but the Rhinestone Cowboy is forever etched in the history of Suzuki for his three AMA 250cc National Motocross Championships, plus a few Trans-AMA wins, and even a Unadilla 250cc USGP win.
Howerton won three AMA 250cc National Motocross Championships while on a Suzuki.
Photo: Racer X Archives
4.) Ryan Dungey: He was brought up by Roger DeCoster, racing straight from the B class to a factory deal, then he delivered three major titles to the brand, including the 2010 AMA Supercross and AMA Motocross titles. He also helped Team USA win three times at the Motocross of Nations. He may be orange now, but there's still Suzuki yellow in his blood.
3.) Roger DeCoster: Of course we know The Man is from Belgium, but he racked up 26 Trans-AMA wins here in the seventies and helped put American motocross on the map by simply showing up and letting top Americans like Bob Hannah and Marty Smith challenge him. DeCoster won four Trans-AMA titles when that series was at its peak, and he also won an AMA Supercross race way back in the early seventies at Daytona. His work later with Travis Pastrana, Ryan Dungey and of course Ricky Carmichael meant just as much to Suzuki here in the states.
The Man...enough said.
Photo: Dick Miller
2.) Mark Barnett: The Bomber was a true badass, winning three straight AMA 125cc National Championships as well as the '81 AMA Supercross title. He also won a 250cc SX main event in his one of his first tries, something almost unthinkable in the pre-125/Lites SX days.
The Bomber ranks second on the list behind...
Photo: Dick Miller
1.) Ricky Carmichael: He started his career on green, then went to red, winning multiple titles along the way. He would rank high on either list for Kawasaki or Honda's greatest riders. But even though he only took four titles on Suzuki, RC picked the brand up in 2005 and pushed them back to the forefront of American motocross by sweeping both SX and MX titles for two years (including a 12-race sweep of the '05 outdoor nationals) and then adding a bunch more wins in '07, even as he was retiring. RC did what McGrath, Windham and Pastrana could not do: Get Suzuki back on top, and he did it against the likes of James Stewart and Chad Reed.
The GOAT tops the list.
Photo: Simon Cudby
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The GOAT, what else do you need to say.
Rich Thorderson, Billy "Sugar Bear" Grossi, Darrel Shultz all had grreat years on Suzuki also
Come on Davey, Dungey fourth? Overrated.
Dungey is not over rated he deserves the spot were he is for sure.
@ bd200 How appropriate that your comment is at the top of the conversation.
"He would rank high on either list for Kawasaki or Honda's greatest riders"
Funny you mention that because he definitely wasn't on "The List" for greatest Honda riders that Racer X did a while back.
Howerton should be #2
The Goats number one on Honda and Kawasaki's list also!
GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT
I'm pretty sure that Howerton only won 2 250 titles on a Suzuki not three.
Tony D should be ahead of Howerton.He's the one that won three 250 titles for Suzuki.
Ricky Carmichael should have occupied all ten spots on this list.
I think it would have been hilarious if -- as a bit of joke -- Davey would have put Dungey at number 1 and RC at number 2. Imagine the attention this article would have gotten both here and on the message boards!
"The Bomber was a true badass"
Nuff Said....
they are all badass...!!!!!! how many could you have beat?
that pic of laporte is sick its southwick 79 i believe, i was there time flys.
What a great "10".
Love seeing the old two-strokes -with two rear shocks no less!
(need some Fox-Air Shox pictures here, DC ?).
Feel fortunate (as do a lot of others here) in that I got to see everyone of these guys win in a dominating way; in some cases multiple wins over the years.
The Man" and The Bomber" ...lifetime favorites...
but all of them -and some not on the list: True Legends of Motocross.
I agree, Howerton should be ranked higher. Don't forget with Dungey he not only has his 450 titles but also a pair of 250 titles.
CHAD REED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 AMA Suzuki titlestitles
2 Australian Suzuki titles,
1 junior Suzuki title
Davey- KAS447MX makes a good point. You did not rank Carmichael in the Honda list awhile back.
Love them all!!! Nice to see Cooper listed here.... I beleive he was pushing 30 when he won his 125 title. Way to keep after the goal!!!!
I would like to know about the three 250 championships that Kent won. I only knoe of one, on a Suzuki.
J_slone , your a funny guy. But your right, people would freek! Buy the way I think Dungey should be higher. Considering the 3 MXDN titles and what he did in his first year on a 450. He won everything that year.
Not that he has a lot of titles with Suzuki, but someone like TP deserves to be higher on the food chain! Just saying!
Uh, WORLD champion Donny Schmit.
I think it is a pretty fair list we can all debate and yes some might have been left off the list that some of us think should be there but hey this is Davey's list nont mineI too have saw all in action live exept Travis.
I still rmember Barnett in 75 at a $10,000 Dallar outlaw race passing me in the qualifier at St Peters Mo. I had pulled the holeshot and this little guy geos by with his but about 4 inches off his seat and the Honda bouncing up and hitting him in the but in the braking bumps. Did not know who he was then but his Dad had a Hendrix t-shirt on and a red bandana. Yes he won the whole shabang that day!
Where's Albee on that list? Three world championships (one of which on a Suzi) and Suzuki's first AMA 250 National championship in the premier class for quite some time.... and he doesn't make the list. Cooper was one of my child hood legends, but only one 125 championship and he's up there in 8th... I reckon Albee got forgotten by you cats...
Think about this: Decoster is pretty much responsible for 4 of the top 7 on this list and how did Suzuki reward him? "uh..we realize we've won all but maybe 2 or 3 of all championships we've entered since we hired you in 2005 and you just swept everything this year but uh, we can't offer you a 3 year deal. We'll let you come back for one more and see if it might work out though..."
And KTM is laughing all the way to the bank!
We're talking about American mx, not GP's. That would be a very different, but cool list. Guys like Rahier, Geboers, Robert, Watanabe, Rinaldi, Schmidt, etc.
They must be counting Trans-USA championships with Howerton.
It's tough to narrow these down to 10. A lot of fast guys rode factory 125 Suzukis over the years. Lusk, Reynard, Larocco, and Schmit come to mind.
Lackey won his world title on a Suzuki. Also, George Holland, Brian Meyerscough, Brian Swink were yellow and fast for quite a while.
Thanks for the feedback and reading my stuff here. As far as the Honda list goes, it was for "the embodiment of what was once the New York Yankees of motocross" and not the ones with the most wins or titles. I know that's confusing, but RC was not on the list because he is more known for his Kawasaki years or his Suzuki years, not Honda.... But if you lined them up and raced? Yes, RC would be right there in the mix with McGrath, RJ, Bailey, etc.
As for Reed, I think he only won one title on Suzuki here, and the same goes for Albertyn. And while Lackey and Schmit won world titles on Suzukis, this list is about U.S. races, including the old USGP, which Lackey never won on any brand....
Thanks for the bench racing, gang.
DC
Thanks for the feedback and reading my stuff here. As far as the Honda list goes, it was for "the embodiment of what was once the New York Yankees of motocross" and not the ones with the most wins or titles. I know that's confusing, but RC was not on the list because he is more known for his Kawasaki years or his Suzuki years, not Honda.... But if you lined them up and raced? Yes, RC would be right there in the mix with McGrath, RJ, Bailey, etc.
As for Reed, I think he only won one title on Suzuki here, and the same goes for Albertyn. And while Lackey and Schmit won world titles on Suzukis, this list is about U.S. races, including the old USGP, which Lackey never won on any brand....
Thanks for the bench racing, gang.
DC
Isn't it time that the true"GOAT" of motocross be named. RC this andRC that! Enough already! Motocross Monthly had an article listing the most influential riders of the past and this man was not even listed! Isn't it time that "THE MAN"RODGER De COSTER be recognized as "THE GOAT". Five world titles (not racing in one county and being
called champion), his accomplishments as a team manager, as well as his role in turning on the US to. motocross. I've ridden "dirt bikes" for 38 years(im 46) and it all started with ABC Wide World Of Sports
coverage of Carlsbad and seeing the defending World
Champion from Belgium. He turned a whole generation on to motocross.
Isn't it time that the true"GOAT" of motocross be named. RC this andRC that! Enough already! Motocross Monthly had an article listing the most influential riders of the past and this man was not even listed! Isn't it time that "THE MAN"RODGER De COSTER be recognized as "THE GOAT". Five world titles (not racing in one county and being
called champion), his accomplishments as a team manager, as well as his role in turning on the US to motocross. I've ridden "dirt bikes" for 38 years(im 46. Champion from Belgium. He turned a whole generation on to motocross. Isnt it time that he be given his due?
G.O.A.T for president!