Motocross Flashback: 2001 White Brothers Four-Stroke Worlds 5

Let's go back to when it was a sea of blue bikes...and one red one.

GuyB

4/15/2020 12:11pm

As ubiquitous as Honda 450s are these days, it's hard to remember when they weren't so common. Back in the early days of the current generation four-strokes, White Brothers hosted an annual Four-Stroke Worlds at Glen Helen. For this race, Honda brought out a prototype of their 450, with Ryan Hughes on board.

Honda brought out a whole crew of people to tend to the bike, including Dan Betley (second from right), and the late Dave Chase (second from left).

Ryan Hughes was still competing in Nationals at this point, and was one of the first Honda converts to the four-banger.

Back then, this bike was drawing a lot of attention. Hmm...is that veteran wrench, Eric Crippa, lurking in the background to the right?

This was back in the era where Yamaha was still maxed at 426ccs for their big-bore. Doug Dubach was the primary threat to Ryno at this one.

Want to flash back to the really old days of four-strokes, before lighter, faster two-strokes took over? This Triumph Metisse is a good example. Tom White had brought out a bunch of examples of four-strokes from his collection.

Back then, Husqvarnas were stil under Italian ownership, and this was one of their early four-strokes.

Maybe the most exotic bike of the day? This Powroll-built 150, which used a CR 85 bottom end, and was stuffed in a BBR mini chassis. This particular bike had more handbuilt pieces than the most works bikes.

To no one's surprise, here's Doug Dubach grabbing a holeshot in one of the motos. Check out that sea of blue, with one KTM, and a lone Honda.

Charging up one of the hills at Glen Helen. This was certainly a shade of things to come for the future of MX, even though two-strokes were still in the majority for pro racing at the time.

Terry Fowler.

Michael Brandes.

Whoa! Check out the size of the small-bore class. There was a lot going on with pit bikes back in the day. Hmm...that might be a fun way to get more people back to racing. Add some limits, limit the speed, and keep it affordable.