Carlsbad Raceway was always a special place for Gavin Trippe. The transplanted Brit came to California in 1968 and with partner Bruce Cox started Motor Cycle Weekly, a race-oriented newspaper. Promotion of races soon followed, as the pair put on everything from motocross to flat-track to speedway to roadracing. It's for two events held at Carlsbad, though, that Trippe is best remembered. Starting in the early Seventies, he and Cox organized the USGP of Motocross, American round of the 500cc world championships, universally acknowledged as instrumental in helping the sport grow in this country. Then in the Eighties came the "Superbikers" competition, which pitted racers from motorcycling's various disciplines on a part-dirt/part-asphalt course to determine the best all-around rider. ABC-TV's "Wide World of Sports" liked the concept and it became one of their highest-rated segments. Today Superbikers lives on in supermotard racing.

"Trippe will always be remembered as one of the premier promoters in the history of American motorcycle racing and an innovator who helped create an entirely new genre in the sport," said the AMA upon his induction into their Hall of Fame in 2005.

The YZ250F on offer here, one of the first production examples in the U.S., belongs to Trippe's son, Gavin Jr., and was the last bike ridden around Carlsbad before it was plowed under to make way for yet another Southern California industrial park. It has not been ridden since. The rider that day? None other than 1980 USGP winner Marty Moates. Trippe himself scraped the storied Carlsbad mud from the Yamaha's fenders and stored it in a glass jar, included in this sale. Offered on a Bill of Sale.