Throwback Thursday – The First American Grand Prix Sweep

Larry Lawrence | December 10, 2015

This is an historic photo showing the very first American sweep of a Motorcycle Grand Prix podium. It was the Nations Grand Prix at Monza in April of 1983, where Freddie Spencer won on the factory Honda over Suzuki’s Randy Mamola and Eddie Lawson on a Yamaha. That was the beginning of a golden era for American riders in Grand Prix where podium sweeps became a fairly regular happening. In fact American sweeps happened 19 times in FIM 500cc Grand Prix road racing during the decade of the 1980s. You can read about this race and the other American podium sweeps in the Cycle News Archives located here: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/ (Photo by Henny Ray Abrams)