Gavin Trippe
| Gavin Trippe | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1940 England |
| Residence | California |
| Occupation | Motorcycle racing promoter and publisher |
| Organization | President of Trippe-Cox Associates, Inc. |
| Awards | Motorcycle Hall of Fame (2005) |
Gavin Trippe (born 1940 in England) is a motorcycle racing promoter, journalist, and publisher who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2005. Trippe was a motorcycling journalist in the UK until he founded a motorcycling magazine, Motor Cycle Weekly, in the United States in 1969. In the early 1970s he brought European style racing to the US by founding the Carlsbad USGP. Trippe is also the creator of supermoto racing, which attracted a large US television audience from 1979–1985, and had a resurgence, first in Europe and then beyond, since the early 2000s. Since 2007 Trippe has been working to create a new single cylinder racing class with low barriers to entry for amateur racers and young riders.
After working for the British publication Motor Cycle News, he co-founded, with Bruce Cox, Motor Cycle Weekly in America in 1969. Motor Cycle Weekly ceased publication in 1975.
As of late 2010, he writes "The Spoken Wheel" column for the online publication Motorcycle USA.
Trippe started the Carlsbad United States Grand Prix in 1973, and invented supermoto in 1979. Trippe also helped create the AMA Superbike Championship in 1976. Other events Trippe promoted included the , the Trans-Atlantic Match Races, and Ascot half-mile dirt track racing. In 2007 he proposed a new American single cylinder class based on the success of European supermono.
Trippe introduced European-style 500 cc racing to the US in the early 1970s, creating an event at Carlsbad, California which grew into a major international venue. The 1971 motocross race at Carlsbad Raceway attracted 21,000 spectators and 15 million television viewers. In 1973, his company, Trippe-Cox Associates, secured the sponsorship of leisure apparel maker Hang Ten International, and the event became the Hang Ten Carlsbad United States Grand Prix (USGP), run under the auspices of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), and sanctioned as a Grand Prix event by the (FIM). It was the 7th round of the 1973 Trans-AMA, the only US event at the time to pay points in the FIM World 500 cc Championship. For the race, Trippe-Cox Associates made improvements to the Carlsbad facility, including new water sprinklers, fencing, spectator bridges and billboards. The series proved commercially successful, with a significant television audience. For second year of the event, 1974, the course was lengthened by ¼ mile, to 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km), with the new section having a left turning uphill corner followed by a sharp right turn into a ravine. The 1974 purse grew to US$30,000, and 60 riders from 13 countries competed in the race, by then the eighth stop on the race circuit earning points to the 500 cc championship.
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