Yvon Duhamel
It’s hard to believe that during the 1960s motorsport legend Yvon Duhamel helped supplement his racing income performing such tasks as pumping gas and working on a Montreal garbage truck. Yet that, and other equally menial jobs one would never associate with a man who is arguably the most successful and best motorcycle and snowmobile […]
Jean Sebastien Roy
Compared to most of his contemporaries, who started racing dirt bikes as early as the age of nine, Jean Sebastien Roy, who was affectionately known as “JSR” to his legion of fans in Canada and the United States, didn’t get into sanctioned motocross competition until the age of 14. The fact that he was a […]
Darcy Lange
Courtenay, British Columbia’s Darcy Lange started riding dirtbikes when he was four-years old. He began sanctioned racing at the age of 12. Two years later he garnered the 80cc BC Provincial Championship. It was evident from early on that Lange, who spent most of his career racing Kawasaki both in Canada and the U.S., was […]
Jay Kimber
Fenwick, Ontario native Jay Kimber belongs to a group of unsung Canadian motocross heroes who have been all but forgotten. Kimber, who graced the Canadian motocross circuit from 1971 to 1981, was one of the toughest competitors of his generation. Although none of his friends were into racing bikes, and he knew very little about […]
Ron Keys
Ron Keys is another case in point for those who believe that champions are born, not made. One weather-perfect Saturday in 1966, when Keys was 19 years old, he showed up out of the blue at a motocross track not far from his home in Oshawa, ON with a 305 Honda “Superhawk”, much to the […]
Jan-Eric Sällqvist
Although 1960/70s Swedish motocross sensation Jan-Eric Sällqvist wasn’t the first foreign import to contest the Canadian National Motocross Championship, he was by far the most successful. Riders like Finland’s Seppo Makinen and Jorma Rautiainen, and Czechoslovakia’s Zdeno Syrovy and Vlastimil Valek, had preceded and won national No.1 plates before Sällqvist but none tallied his total […]
Glen Nicholson
Although Glen Nicholson never captured the elusive National No.1 plate during his career, he was one of the best riders to grace the Canadian Pro motocross scene during the 1980s, especially in the 500cc class. Nicholson started racing in the Schoolboy ranks in 1979 and showed great promise from day one. In 1981, as a […]
Doug Hoover
When Doug “Sweeper” Hoover retired from motocross in 1988, at the relatively early age of 24, the sport lost one its best and most colourful competitors. In a career that spanned 11 years, the Mount Albert, ON native not only won all the pre-requisite amateur championships, he garnered two Expert National titles and numerous Ontario […]
Carl Vaillancourt
Although Quebec has produced many great dirt bike racers from day one, Carl Vaillancourt may be considered the La Belle Province’s first big-name motocross star. In 1990, Vaillancourt, nicknamed the “Drummondville Flyer,” established himself as the top rider in Canada by defeating arch-rivals Ross Pederson and Allan Dyck. In a National series that was still […]
Bill McLean
British Columbia’s Bill McLean was one of a handful of 1970s motocrossers who managed to give the European, American and Japanese import riders a run for their money. In addition to winning all the requisite provincial titles, he grabbed the No.1 plate in the 1973 Canadian Nationals and won the Open Championship in 1978. Like […]