Motorcycling 3. Post-War Amalgamation
World War II shut down motorcycle racing but, after the war, both the AMA and FICM moved quickly to get races going again. Their efforts were aided by the fact that a lot of returning soldiers had been introduced to motorcycles during the war. In the U. S., dirt track racing was still supreme, but the AMA gave other forms of racing a boost by creating the Grand National Series in 1954. The series combined dirt-track races at three different distances with a road race and a steeplechase to determine the best all-around racer.
The AMA's first secretary, A. B. Coffman, had wanted the organization to join the FICM way back in the 1920s. However, U. S. manufacturers rejected the idea mainly because they didn't want the smaller, lower-priced European motorcycles suddenly entering the domestic market. In 1970, though, the AMA finally became affiliated with the international governing body, which had been renamed the Federation Internationale Motocycliste (FIM).
The affiliation was a natural move, since the sport had begun to take on an international flavor. Two foreign manufacturers, Husqvarna of Sweden and Honda of Japan, had begun selling motorcycles in the United States during the early 1960s, and both used racing for advertising and promotion. Husqvarna brought its team of professional riders over to demonstrate motocross, which caught on quickly. The AMA created a national championship motocross series in 1972 and added a series for the American offshoot, supercross, two years later. Honda invested a lot of money in road racing, increasing purses and competition, which led the AMA to establish the Superbike series for that form of that sport in 1976.
Those AMA moves pretty much reflected what the FIM had been doing. In 1947, the first Motocross des Nations was held in the Netherlands. Although Grand Prix motorcycle racing had begun as early as 1904, there was no world championship until 1949, when the FIM established GP series for four different classes. Individual world motocross championships were created in 1957 for 500cc machines and in 1962 for the 250cc class.
From the 1960s on, professional motorcycle racing grew rapidly, fueled largely by competition among manufacturers, especially in the spotlighted Grand Prix series. The two-cycle engine, introduced by Motorradwerk Zschopau (MZ) of East Germany in 1959, came to dominate racing by the 1970s.
Also in 1959, Honda entered international racing, with a 125cc, two-cyclinder bike that lacked speed but was highly reliable. By finishing sixth, seventh, and eighth, Honda won the manufacturer's prize at the famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Race. Three other Japanese manufacturers, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki, also got involved in racing within the next couple of years.
Until the mid-1970s, almost all of the top riders were from Europe, though there were a few from Australia, Rhodesia and South Africa. The greatest of the post-war racers was Giacomo Agostini of Italy, who won 122 Grand Prix races and 15 world championships (8 in 500cc and 7 in 350cc) during a 17-year career. When Agostini won the Daytona 200 in 1974, it brought that race international attention and recognition for the first time.
In 1975, 19-year-old Johnny Cecotto of Venezuela won the 350cc Grand Prix title; he was not only the first South American, but the first teenager, to win a world championship. Two years later, Takazumi Katayama became the first world champion from Japan.
Led by Kenny Roberts, American riders took over the prestigious 500cc Grand Prix category in the late 1970s. Roberts was very popular in the United States and his move to the European GP circuit in 1978 focused American attention on international racing for the first time.
Once the AMA joined the FIM, the U. S. could host world championship events. The first was the 1973 International Six Days Trial in Dalton, Massachusetts. Since then, world championships in road racing, motocross, observed trials and speedway have also been held in the United States. Laguna Seca Raceway in California hosted the U. S. Grand Prix from 1988 through 1994 as a race in the 500cc GP world championship series. The USGP will resume at Laguna Seca in 2005 as part of the renamed MotoGP world championship.