The biggest star of 1980s motocross Ricky Johnson was the guest of honour at the weekend’s 10th anniversary VMXdN Vets Nations at Farleigh Castle and was a massive hit with the crowd as he met hundreds of fans and signed autographs for hours. And he presented the trophies to riders in all the classes, told tales of racing and posed for lots of selfies.
He even took to the track on a replica CR250 to do a parade lap, then stopped to present a race shirt to paralysed former racer Adrian Mahoney which was a touching moment.
It was a weekend of USA celebration as the team of John Dowd, Mike Brown – consistently the fastest man – Doug Dubach and Ivan Tedesco won the Evo Vets Nations race and the twin-shock Vets race too. And American Todd DeHoop took the twin shock class, while David Pingree was quickest 125 Evo on his Pro Circuit replica KX125.
Team England’s Kurt Nicoll, Phil Mercer, Mark Eastwood and Stephen Sword put up a good challenge but a few spills and mishaps meant they couldn’t match team America.
But the fastest man all weekend was Scotsman Billy Mackenzie who won the Evo class and the final moto of the weekend in the Evo VMXdN race for team Scotland.