Kit Palmer | January 15, 2023
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American Motocross Finals: The Original Anaheim 1
There have been several Anaheim I Supercrosses over the years. However, there has only been one actual Anaheim 1 race, and that, of course, was the very first held on the infield of Anaheim Stadium in 1976, just 10 years after the 43,202-seat stadium was built and became home of the California Angels (as it was called then) baseball team. The stadium has 45,517 seats today but at one time had as many as 65,158 when the Los Angeles Ram NFL football team moved in for a while.
The 1976 race was billed as the American Motocross Finals. In our coverage of the race, written by one of our Cycle News staff editors Jody Weisel, the now longtime editor of Motocross Action Magazine, the word “Supercross” was never used, despite the race counting toward the 1976 AMA Supercross Championship. It was the championship’s final points-paying round and held late in the year on a chilly December 4 evening.
According to our report, the upcoming Anaheim race was one of the most talked about in U.S. motocross history and had its fair share of controversy leading up to the event, which threatened the race from even happening. For the night, race organizers had devised a new racing format that consisted of four heat races, two semi-finals, and a consolation (aka Last Chance Qualifier) that whittled down the 80 racers entered to 24 for the 20-lap main event. This new spectator-friendly format, however, wasn’t a big hit for some of the marque riders who tried to lead a boycott of the race. They also wanted more money. The race offered a $20,000 purse, which we said was, at the time, the biggest single payday in stadium motocross history.
Mike DiPrete, the AMA National Motocross Manager, got the riders together for a meeting and convinced them to try this new “Class C” format.
“We are building for the future,” DiPrete was quoted in Cycle News. “Stadium motocross has the biggest crowds and the biggest purses. It is obvious that more people will be able to get a taste of motocross in the stadiums this year than at any time in the past. All of motocross, both outdoors and indoors, will benefit.”
The riders were satisfied enough with what they heard, and the show went on.
All the country’s top riders came to the original Anaheim I “Supercross” in 1976, including Kent Howerton, Tony DiStefano, Mike Bell, Gaylon Mosier, Danny LaPorte and Jimmy Weinert, to name a few.
The 30,569 fans that nearly filled the stadium loved it. The non-stop racing format was fast and furious, the racing itself was excellent, and the one rider that the fans, and indeed the organizers, wanted to see win the most did win—local hero from nearby San Diego, Marty Smith, the most popular motocross racer in the country at the time. The fan favorite took the checkered flag leading the way as he had done earlier in his heat race.
Smith’s distinctive fire-engine-red Honda and his iconic red/white/blue jersey were chased across the finish line in the main event by fellow Honda rider Pierre Karsmakers, who said the Anaheim track was the “best stadium track ever.”
Husqvarna-mounted Howerton, who had slipped his way past DiStefano less than 100 yards from the finish line, filled out the podium. The four heat-race winners—Smith, Karsmakers, Howerton and DiStefano—made up the top four in the main event.
Maico-mounted Gaylon Mosier finished sixth, and another notable top-10 finisher was Marty Moates, who rode a Spanish-made Ossa.
Weinert rounded out the top five that night and was the year’s official AMA Supercross Champion.
Anaheim Stadium has been a Supercross mainstay since Smith’s big win in 1976. “The Big A” has been one of the most popular venues for Supercross ever since. It was so popular that organizers started holding two Supercross races per season at the stadium in 1999. A third Anaheim race was introduced in 2001 which lasted through 2011. The Anaheim tripleheaders ended the year when Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles hosted its first-ever Supercross race.
This year’s Anaheim 1 will mark the 79th time a Supercross race has been held at The Big A, the most of any venue. Anaheim Stadium has also hosted the opening round of the Supercross Championship 31 times, not including this year’s race, out of the championship’s 49-year history. Of those 31 races, only six A1 winners have gone on to win the Supercross Championship that same year. Ryan Villopoto was the last rider to win Anaheim I and then go on to take the gold that same year, which happened in 2012. CN