The race that no one won - Carlsbad 1982 (Muddy!) 

Thanks for posting this...brings back memories. I ride past the Carlsbad Raceway Business park every day, sucks that it's gone. It was a fun place.

Just came across this video. Awesome!! Both my brothers raced that weekend, I decided to stay home, glad I did. They said the 1st lap 1st moto, no one could make it up the hill, and they ended up diverting to bypass the hill. The Carlsbad clay was NASTY!!! You almost had to chissel off your bike. Thank you for sharing and bringing back some great memories.

Ahhhh Carlsbad in the rain.. hell it was like that every weekend before practice. Took you life in your hands if you were one of the first ones out.. broke my collarbone on that uphill section during practice once when it was like that. great track though and loads of fun. I think i won more races there then anywhere else.

Hi all These are 125cc bikes. The problem is not any lack of power, but rather lack of speed. I think that any bike would have a problem there, no matter how powerful, the key to this left turn and uphill in these conditions is to keep the speed UP ! Don´t disrespect the old bikes, chances are you might have one nipping at your heels and even crushing the new techno-shits (if well maintained and ridden correctly - that is :) Thanks for a great MX-history video, Mr. racerace

I love racing in those kind of conditions..sure brings back memories..nice video..

I was there on that day and it was maybe october or november of 1982. Like the other guys have said, there are some 1983 bikes in the video. When Carlsbad was this muddy, it was like riding on mud over the top of ice. ZERO traction. Its funny how some of the comments say that the tires were not as good back then so thats why they can't make it through or that the riders suck. Not the case, at all. Pick your best new tire and go ride on wet blacktop and see where it gets ya!

One day when I was riding in the woods on my way over to this little track that was just a good little work out,I run into a bunch of guys just as I get to the track on race bikes,first one I see beautiful MAICO 490 that all these guys worship ed,turned out we all friends of friends and my little track belong to and was built by my co-worker who was good enuf and was the expert in the group...so we all hook up and start riding their old stumping grounds that were mind now...on the way over to the old big track one guy rides over and starts riding a wash out area but his front wheels goes into the mud and three of us could not pull the front wheel out for shit it was like it was super glued in there,I was think some one in China was just holding it messing with us,kind like guy two guys forget go get the backhoe...some dirt when water gets mixed in from heavy rains,I think when there is a heavy rock base it becomes super slick,or just the clay base...like oil..no fun you get more traction in snow...no lie.

The last race I saw there was 1971! Thanks! great Vid ,and choice of background music!!

Great footage,thanks for sharing!

That was the golden era covered in mud, great track.

Anyone see first heat of Unidilla in '77? Pouring rain and the course included a steep downhill, off camber 180° and right back up the hill. The whole field with the exception of Roger DeCoster and an English dude on a 4 stroke Honda, got stuck at the bottom of that turn and most of the riders didn't complete the first lap. There were many frustrated riders and fans but I had a great view and it my favorite mx race of all time. It literally separated the men from the boys.

i never had ridden in clay till i came out west, now when people say 'if it rains a drop, dont go there' i listen. lol it is fun riding in the mud tho

Love that 2 stroke sound.

To all the gentleman from other countries saying the Americans can not ride in the mud. I believe you should type in the search, 1987 Motocross Des Nations. Nuff said.

You SoCal sissies. It looks like just another winter race at Sandhill Ranch in Brentwood, CA. If you showed up, they would race. Tom Anderson made men of us.......

This is too funny! That’s me #B56 at 1:08. As I come into the pic I stop and check things out just to make sure the coast is clear. Lol. Then I proceed up the infamous Carlsbad freeway…..a little squirrely but I think I made it! Probably a CMC points race…..practice maybe. 29 years ago! Ian Fitz-G

oh how motocross has advanced! modern day bikes would breeze this, so cool to look back

If Kevin Windham was there the title would be "The race that everyone got beat" lol

Imagine 8 laps in that shit lol would take all day. That was a real track. Concrete covered w a thin layer of dust. RJ lapped that track faster than any human in history . RIP

Only one weeks worth of rain? Come riding in the UK, My bike once got stuck in so much mud it could support it's own weight, it came up over the discs.

awsome vid

13 years later this is on my feed page.......................wth?

remember guys... its just old bikes, with no power... the bikes we have today its no problem to ride in this stuff... (sry for my bad english) :P

Man this brings back memory's. Gimme a K990ST! And that 48 tooth rear sprocket!

no mano, no. estoy que no puedo escribir rapido, es divertido lo que hacen los corredores, parece q perdieron la ruta, unos van subiendo pero otros bajan x donde estos quieren subir,

@ashman286 carmichael was 17 years old in 97. just a kid. look at the record books NOW.

@nick4tivy 'paddle tires' very good idea

Should have used a lot WD 40 on your bike to shed to mud off of it l still do that to this day on all my bikes..

@gregf509 and 2008 Daytona Supercross :)

Good times 👍🏼🇺🇸

That fantastic hard clay with a bit of water? You'd have better traction on ice with slicks. I bet coming back down the Freeway was a bit eye opening.

@ridebmmxxx the mud in englannd is different than the mud in california... do i need to get scientific with it? because i will

Doug Henry and John Dowd are the only Americans I know of who were great in the mud.

Back in the days when it rained in California

Is there any better footage available?

Wonder whats on the track now..homes condos..someone tell me the track address..where it was anyway.

@macroevolve I agree 83 on it is. Why so many older bikes, was this a newbies comp. The more you go round the drier it gets!

thats how the LLQ was at Thunder Valley this year. it sucked. but i still qualified!

They dabbed more than me, and that is hard.

those riders have been raised on fancy dry dirt the way we were tought out on the farm is hammer down nd go not go half way nd wonder should da power band flip me

Putting silly music over the awesome sound of 2 strokes was sacrilege.

Did a 5 hour enduro that was like this........never EVER again!

I think this single race furthered the advancement of better tires Lol

us here in england are use to the wet mud and non pristine tracks, to be honest if i was there id have ripped the lot of these people.. not that thats really an achievmant ANYWAY good vid :D i love seeing the old mx vids

I have been in some rase like that

because the 450 is to slow for the next class up so they threw it in with the 250 2-T's, cant remember the whole story but the rules alowed them to race in the same class as one another.

@racerace Great Video!

Does anyone have a link to the full video of this race?

i always struggle with a 2-stroke in the mud... i need to get used to it :P

@ridebmmxxx there is a difference between clay and mud... wet clay is mushy and unpredictable, mud is more conforming and predictable

This is not a race. Its probably just an open practice time. If it were a race, there's wouldn't be any doubt which direction to ride in.

too bad KDub wasnt racing back then, lol hes a mud expert!

@CODEEmx527 And the track went on to win the championship :P

And their still talking about all the fun they had that day . . .

any day u wanna hit the track buddy

I would imagine this is just practice as I see 125 250 and open all on the track at the same time.

Looks more like a mud bog competition than a motorcross race!

This cant be 1982. Theres 1983 production bikes which wouldnt have seen a track in April of 1982. Your video begins with a 1983 CR250 shortly after you see a 1983 YZ250K.

Ah, isn't that just lovely? All the bikes are 2 strokes. I wish it would be like that these days as well

this is like arcos tt its a free for all lol nice vid

wow i want to do that now

That would because if you took the average 2-stroke and 4-stroke, the 4 stroke is about half as powerful as a equal sized 2 stroke. This does not mean one is more "Bad ass" They each have there perks. A 2-stroke is obviously more challenging to use. Having to shift, and clutch alot. But the four stroke is alot easier to work with. The reason you race a 250 2 stroke witha 450 4 stroke, is just that. They are close to equal. A 500cc 2 stroke against the same size 4 stroke is unequal.

I can! In my last mud race I passed 34 people to go from dead last to first in 4 laps

looks like Southwick last weekend...

yes, most of the bikes at this time were 2 strokes, and the very few 4 strokes they had were too big and heavy.

Reminds me of the first and last time I raced at Carlsbad. I let off the gas on one of these muddy downhills and the killer compression of my 125 two-stroke made the bike slide totally sideways. Ree-Dick-U-Lus. Good riddance Carlsbad. Hello Legoland.

the guy at 6:10 til 6:23 was goin good as.

More throttle, they need to work on their skimming technique, similar to the way I cross my pond, and the exit from the pond is very similar to the consistency of this muck. Momentum is your friend, never forget or at least close your mouth if you do! That muck taste turrible after it's cooked for a few years!

that was 'long winded' but funny... I wonder how much of their troubles was because of limitations of the bikes? Didn't they make 'mud' tyres in 1984? Nice one....

Not to many good mud riders in this vid, (ho hum SoCal), but one guy is roosting OK (min 6:10, #22 on a 1983 YZ 250). I bet he has sand tires, instead of following MXA's tire choices, who always favored hard pack tires,---because it never rains in SoCal.

I must say I live in wales and its basically those conditions for like 8month of the year.... You ask that looks like a shit load of fun. those yanks just can't ride.

was this pro or amatuer?

LMAO that was SWEET. But please do tell how no one won that with guys flying around in that soup like a few of them were?

Radiator on the bars. What a joke Yamaha really messed up with that design.

His father was a mudder, his mother was a mudder

the days when 2 strokes ruled the show :) the good days

i feel bad for that one yamaha dude at 5:40-6:20

@kaseycoleman993 It dosen't Snow in Florida!

are they riding with supermoto tyres lol !!! O and motocross has sure came a long way

It's obvious Ronnie Mac wasn't in that race cause he dang sure would have won it.

Funny seeing how bad riders were back then. Our generation would smoke those guys on their own bikes. We're just so much more well trained and knowledgeable about throttle control and body positioning in muddy conditions

Now That was Pathetic. Carlsbad always had the slimy'st slippery'st mud around even worse than Saddleback. I'll bet them poor souls spent DAYS cleaning that Crud off their bikes, & didn't even make it past the 1st lap because the Freeway is impossible under those horrid conditions. HeHeHe. Rider #37 gave it a descent shot though.

0:50 hahaha nice line!

Traction is 100% in this race I don't see why no one could finish? :P

oh guys. Come to germany and i bet u get conditions like this at least once a month ^^. when trains and races have to be ended because uphills cant be riden any more ^^

Is that a motocross race? :) looks more like enduro :o

Never rains out there so no one knows how to ride muddy conditions

That hill is very slippery.

Thats some funny shit. To bad M5B's we'rent available back then.

so why wouldnt you just go faster through the sticky sections.

where's dowd & henry when you need them!!

if i had to choose a bike for this i would probably choose a 2002 ktm 520

hahahaha the funniest thing I've seen in a long time! They got bald tires or what? Just hold it flat and hang on!!

@motoxdoc21 That was funny.. You looked around like you were questioning the whole race/situation

haha rider 12 if you are reading this then you should know that you had a good idea going on the edge lol

cool helmets :DD

I wonder if you need a whole bike to race. What I mean is suppose I just had a grip in each hand and stuck numbers on the side of my head. I think I could have won running around the track instead. I could even make 2 stroke bike noises as I go. waaaawaaaa

at 6:10 thats how your supose to be riden thought the mud.

@HeffoG35 I'm sure..

Yes, and #37 made it too.