Larry Lawrence | June 20, 2018
Archives: Trophee des Marques
All motocross fans worth their salt know of course of the Motocross des Nations and even some veteran fans recall the Trophee des Nations. Hardcore fans might even recall the short-lived Coupe des Nations. In the earlier incarnation Motocross des Nations was for 500cc machines, Trophee for 250s and Coupe for 125s. But while scanning the photo collection of the late great photographer and racing journalist Henny Ray Abrams, I came across an intriguing set of negatives which were marked “Trophee des Marques”. That led me to research the event and as it turns out it was frustratingly difficult to find anything about it. As I write this story I still feel like I only know a small portion of the story of the Trophee des Marques. Hopefully someday I’ll discover the complete story of the event, but it was such an interesting concept I felt I needed to at least write about what I found.
Archives: Trophee des Marques
The Trophee des Marques was a pre-season event held in March, in which each manufacturer would field their best motocross riders and it was brand versus brand. So, it was Suzuki teams versus Honda teams versus Kawasaki, etc. Interestingly, the top brands often fielded a couple of teams to increase their chances of winning and to give opportunities for more riders to compete and warm up for the GP season.
The only two Motocross des Marques that I actually found extensive info on were the 1982 and 1983 editions. The Trophee des Marques featured top GP riders and even at times some AMA MX riders in the mix. The races were held in Vorselaar, Belgium, just outside of Antwerp in northern Belgium. While crowd estimates weren’t mentioned, photographs show a large turnout.
Now here’s where the research gets sketchy. The 1982 coverage indicates that that year was the 6th Annual Trophee des Marques. That means the competition began in 1977. Emails to the FIM, messages on motocross Facebook pages and calls to riders who participated resulted in minimal information. I failed to find how long the competition continued after 1983, if at all.
It appears the roots of the des Marques went back to 1974 when Vorselaar first host a pre-season International Motocross event. The first International at Vorselaar featured 250cc machines. It was won by Belgium’s own Sylvain Geboers on a Suzuki with a 2-3 moto finish. Fellow Belgians Jaak Van Velthoven (5-1) on a Yamaha and a rider named Roger DeCoster (6-2) riding a Suzuki rounded out the podium finishers. Even though it was the Belgians who swept the rostrum, the ’74 event drew an impressive field of riders, including Harry Everts, Heikki Mikkola, Joel Robert, Adolf Weil and America was represent by Brad Lackey.
Again, very little info on the races preceding the 1982 and ’83 des Marques, but there were at least small news items in Cycle News in 1978 showing Brad Lackey won the overall on a Honda over Andre Malherbe and Hakan Carlqvist. In ’79 it was Suzuki’s Harry Everts scoring the overall ahead of Malherbe (Honda) and Gerrit Wolsink (Suzuki).
Little was found on 1980 or ’81 (except that Vromans won the overall in ’81), but then comes the excellent coverage in the pages of Cycle News on the 1982 race by Henny Ray Abrams, who was living in Europe at the time. His coverage helped fill in some of the gaps.
In 1982 it was Suzuki winning with newly-signed Andre Vromans sweeping both motos on his home track. But it was a nail-biter with Suzuki barely edging out Yamaha (led by Johan Martens) by a single point (13-14). Maico was third with 28 points with its top rider Eddy Sterckx finishing third overall.
Ten teams represented seven brands (Suzuki, Yamaha, Maico, KTM, Honda, Husqvarna and Kawasaki) in the ’82 race.
Americans were part of the 1982 event with Danny LaPorte riding with Yamaha, Mike Guerra with Husqvarna and Marty Moates with Honda. None of the Americans had good outings. Moates, riding a Honda CR480, ran into visibility problems in the first moto when he lost his goggles. Guerra was caught up in a first-turn pileup in the first moto and dropped out of the second moto.
LaPorte DNF the first moto when he lost the clutch on his Yamaha. He finished seventh in the second moto.
“I was second in the first corner,” LaPorte explained. “but the ruts and groove got even deeper in the second moto. You couldn’t see very well either. First, you’d go through your tear-offs and then you’d just have to wipe your goggles with everybody roosting you. At least I put in one good moto finish.”
Yamaha was on the verge of winning the ’82 event when the bike of team member Marc Velkeneers ran out of gas just a few hundred yards from the finish while he was battling for second. That opened the door for Suzuki to score the narrow victory.
Archives: Trophee des Marques
In 1983 Suzuki won the trophy behind the strong performances of Georges Jobe, Andre Vromans, Eric Geboers and Harry Everts. Suzuki dominated the team competition, winning by a score of 16-37 (the lower score wins) over the Yamaha squad, which featured two Americans, and consisted of World Champion Danny LaPorte, Jim Gibson, Hakan Carlqvist and Johan Martens. KTM took third. It marked the fourth time, according to the report, that Suzuki won the prestigious race and the third year in a row.
Trophee des Marques allowed riders to race 125, 250 or 500cc machines. Malherbe qualified fasted on a new works water-cooled Honda 500cc two-stroke. With the 125cc World Championships starting the following weekend, some riders elected to race their 125 machines to prep, including Geboers and Gibson. So all three sizes of bikes were out on the course at the same time.
Gibson found the deep, rutted loam and sand difficult to plow through on his 125, He was constantly fanning the clutch and he said he was not pleased with how he rode. LaPorte, coming off his world title, battled a stomach flu and pulled out after the throttle on his bike began sticking. Suzuki rider Ivan Van Den Broeck won the first moto in a close one over Martens (Yam) and Jobe (Suz). Suzuki went 1-2 in the second moto with Vromans winning ahead of Jobe and LaPorte (Yam) third.
Coverage of the Trophee des Marques again went dark after the ’83 event. So far, I’ve found no evidence the manufacturer’s team competition continued, but for a golden era the race was a great showcase for brand against brand and was perhaps the most unique of all team motocross competitions.