23rd edition
Museum News
6 November, 2022
Welcome to November! First – my apologies for not getting a newsletter out last week. I have a series of excuses, my wife had a partial knee replacement and I am the primary caregiver. It is also fall, and as we all know if you live on property with trees – that means lots of leaf raking. I have 13 acres, and lots of hardwoods where the house sits. I do have a large zero turn mower with a bagging attachment that saves me lots of time – but I still have to collect leaves twice a week, at about 4 hours per instance. Then there is that job thing, yes I still must pay the bills :-). I do my best to get the newsletter out weekly, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen – please accept my apology. I know Terry has taken a much needed vacation and the rest of the planning team has gotten to know their families again. I cannot begin to tell you how much time and effort went into the Sept fundraiser – this team we have is simply the best – but they are also human (except Joe Abbate – he is superhuman).
And speaking of Joe Abbate – be sure to tune into his show on Wednesday, 9 Nov on VMX Q&A for his in-depth interview with none other than motocross legend and pioneer Gary Bailey! If you have ever had the pleasure of talking with Gary, you know he is a very humble and down to earth man, who just happens to be one of the founding fathers of American motocross. There are many reasons why he is called “The Professor” of motocross, find out why on Wednesday at 6:00 on the left coast, 7:00 in the Mile High city, 8:00 for us Mid-Westerners, and 9:00 for our East Coast friends. I know this will be and event for the ages, Gary’s history and knowledge coupled with Joe’s cutting edge interview techniques – don’t miss it!
So last night we gained back that hour of sleep we lost back in the spring, Denver has had their first measurable snow, and MX racers around the world are planning for next season, another year of international motocross is in the books. As is always the case with history, changes are exposed to us so gradually that we typically fail to grasp the significance of what we have been witness to. The 2022 season here in America will go down in the history books as one of the best ever. Team USA won the Motocross of Nations for the first time in 11 years – and did so on American soil! If you are my age, you tend to savor the experiences because you have seen many seasons come and go, so we tend to want to preserve the history so we can relive it and share with generations to come. This is why we are working so hard to build the IMM. When I was younger, I simply did not understand the significance of the historic events I was living. After watching Team USA come up short for the first 10 years, only to start dominating in the 1980s and 90s – getting that trophy back IS significant and IS historic! I want to thank my friend and IMM supporter Jeff Kokoskie for sending me a short history brief on the MxdN. Over the next few weeks – I will be sharing some if the facts he sent me. So lets begin...
After World War, II, off road motorcycling exploded in popularity, especially in Europe. During the war, motorcycles were used by practically all countries and generally ridden in rough terrain. When the war ended, those motorcyclists craved off road riding and competition...without being shot at! In mid-summer 1947, the Dutch national motorcycle federation decided to host a competition for international off-road teams and staged a motocross event on an estate near Wassenaar (voss en hour) in the Netherlands. Only three countries entered the competition; Great Britain, Belgium, and the host country Netherlands. Each country fielded multiple, three-man teams mounted on 500cc four stroke machines and raced two, eight-lap heats over a two mile circuit, and team scores were computed using the aggregate times of those three racers on each team. BSA mounted riders Bill Nicholson, Fred Rist, and Ray Scovell from the Great Britain “A” team won that first event, besting the Belgium “B” team by only 9 seconds. And, the Motocross des Nations was born! It’s been 76 years since that first race was held, and this year at Red Bud, MI was the 75th running; in all that time, the event was only canceled once, in 2020 due to COVID.
The IMM are finalizing discussions now with the Legends and Heroes tour – and hopefully starting in the 2023 SX and MX seasons, you will see our presence at every event. We look forward to meeting and chatting with all of you, answering your questions and getting your thoughts on the museum. This partnership will expose the museum to approximately 1.5M visitors per season. That is a lot of eyes on our sponsor banner!! We have also been talking with KTM who wants to continue supporting the IMM. KTM has done an incredible job not only stepping up to help preserve the museum, but in truly understanding the mission of the museum and its importance. There may not be as many true motorcycle enthusiasts working in the industry as there was 45 years ago – but KTM management shares our enthusiasm and wants to ensure the history of motocross is preserved! Thank you KTM – we look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with you!
We are finalizing plans for our ”donor wall” that will allow the names of every person who donates ($100 or more) to the museum to have their name displayed in the IMM forever. We are planning plaques that will have the name, city and state of donors memorialized for the world to see as long as the museum doors are open. We do not have all the details worked out yet – but the initial vision is a large wood plaque (we expect multiple plaques) with the IMM logo on top and approximately thirty, 1” x 3” is brass name plates with the name, city and state of our donors mounted to it. As donations go up - the size of the nameplate will increase. These are the details we are working out now. Also in discussion is what do we call the donor levels? Gold, silver, bronze? Ruby, emerald, diamond? Privateer, satellite team, full factory rider? Things to ponder! So in addition to a tax deductible donation – your name will forever be known as a supporter of the IMM.
Remember your first top end rebuild? Remember the first time you split the cases on your bike? Remember using screwdrivers to remove your tire? Remember pinching tubes? Remember bring on the starting line with 40 or 50 bikes that included Montessa, Ossa, Husqvarna, Bultaco, Maico, Hodaka, CZ, Greeves, Suzuki, Can-Am, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha? Remember when you could often distinguish the brand of bike just by hearing it run? Remember your first real mudder (I remember a race in a rainstorm back in the mountains of NC where it was raining so hard you could not even see the first turn)? Remember trying to forward mount your own shocks? Remember drilling holes in the airbox so it could breath better? Remember your first trophy? Remember when you barely made enough money at your “job” to keep your bike together and had to improvise wherever possible to keep her running? I know personally I raced a few bikes in the early days that, let’s just say would not make it through tech inspection :-) Remember when you realized motocross will forever be part of your DNA? We grew up in a magical time of motocross history and that history must be preserved!
If you were a part of the motocross scene at any point since it exploded in the United States in the early 1970s – you want that history preserved so your kids, grand-kids and great-grand-kids can see what we did, what YOU did to make motocross the greatest motorsport in history! This museum simply cannot happen without substantial funds. We need your help!
If you are interested in a corporate sponsorship, send us a message via the contact link or send me (Tom Miller) a PM on Facebook. We would love to make you part of our venture!
Thanksgiving is waiting in the wings and Christmas will be upon us before you know it. Be thankful for all you have, and start preparing for the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Make sure those asking you “what would you like for Christmas” have easy access to the IMM gift shop as there are so many great gift ideas there (including the new poker chip set)! And now is the time to begin shopping for the motocross fan on your Christmas list. Great quality hats, shirts, clocks and posters for the mancave, and the new poker chip sets are all available now! I highly recommend the documentary video from the first fundraiser event – truly a must see! (Video for the Sept fundraiser is in work). Please follow us on Instagram @themxmuseum, and follow me @imm_pm_114.
Let’s build a museum…
Tom Miller