ASK THE MXPERTS: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Dear MXperts,

I grew up as a wide-eyed Motocross Action fan. Although I lived in Iowa, I lived vicariously through the MXA test riders and wanted to have my photo in the pages of MXA. I never made it past the ranks of the 250 Novice class, but I loved every minute of my time in motocross and couldn’t wait for the next issue of MXA to be in my mailbox. I have to ask, whatever happened to Ketchup Cox, Daryl Ecklund, Lance Moorewood, Larry Brooks, Tim Olson, John Basher, Willy Musgrave and Jimmy Mac?

Ketchup Cox came from Texas with Jody back in 1975 to work at Cycle News. When Jody moved to MXA, he brought Ketchup with him. Then, Ketchup went down the hall to MOTOcross Magazine, then across the hall to Dirt Bike. Eventually, Ketchup went up the hall to Dirt Wheels Magazine. Today, Ketchup is retired.

Daryl Ecklund is still at Motocross Action, but as his family grew, he wanted a more stable home life and moved into management at Hi-Torque. He is a front-office guy now.

Lance Moorewood was MXA’s main test rider for a decade. His parents were instrumental in the running the NMA, Ponca City and World Mini Grand Prix. After retiring from racing and test riding, Lance worked in the auto industry and spent a lot of time on golf courses.

Larry Brooks started at MXA as our minicycle test rider in 1983 and eventually appeared on more MXA covers than any test rider in history. Today, he is the team manager for the Progressive Insurance Suzuki motocross team of Ken Roczen.

Tim Olson’s father, Alan Olson, was an  MXA test rider for over 20 years. Alan also wrenched for Doug Dubach, Paul Carpenter, Craig Anderson, Steve Lamson and Chad Reed in Supercross and the Nationals. In 2006, he was given the “AMA Mechanic of the Year Award.”

Tim Olson started at MXA straight out of college and stayed for 14 years. Since leaving MXA, Tim has worked at Yamaha, Suzuki, Mazda, Peterbilt trucks, Genesis automobiles, and now works for Bombardier, aka Can-Am, but lives in Huntington Beach.

John Basher started as a summer intern at MXA while he was going to college. His brother, Mike, worked at MXA as a photographer, so it was only natural that John would get hired full-time. He worked at MXA for over a decade before moving to North Carolina and is now Director of Digital Media for the Joe Gibbs NASCAR team.

Willy Musgrave owns Musgrave Racing Company, which builds its own race karts under the name Factory Karts. Willy’s son Billy, also an MXA test rider, is a four-time SuperNationals Kart Champion. 

“Jimmy Mac” McIlvain, who is most famous as Jody’s racing buddy, worked at U.S. Suzuki, Bell Helmets, Husqvarna, JT Racing and Troy Lee Designs before working at Motocross Journal, Road Bike Action and Motocross Action. Jimmy eventually settled in at Mountain Bike Action, where he was the editor for 13 years before being inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Jimmy retired in 2014 and now spends his free time riding his adventure bike on the TransAmerica Trail system.

Today, MXA is manned by Jody Weisel, Josh Mosiman, Dennis Stapleton, Justin Lee and Trevor Nelson.