Hawaiian-born motocross legend John the “Flyin’ Hawaiian” DeSoto will be the 2013 recipient of the Edison Dye Lifetime Motocross Achievement Award at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California, in November.
DeSoto was one of the most influential and prominent early pioneers of American motocross, rising from the ranks as an unknown young racer to earn factory rides, win national races and become a top competitor in both the Trans-AMA and Inter-AM motocross series. He also represented Team USA in the 1973 Motocross des Nations in 1973.
DeSoto’s is a compelling rags-to-riches story. Born and raised on the “main island” of Oahu in Hawaii, he came from a poor background.
“We didn’t have shoes or even underwear, and we ate rice, sugar and cream for dinner,” as he once described it. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities for work, and so you could see how my peers and the adults fell into a lot of bad things like drinking and other stuff.”
DeSoto’s father, John DeSoto Sr., aka “Cobra,” was a well-respected motorcyclist in Hawaii, and young John followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a top local racer before leaving his home behind in the late 1960s and heading to America in an attempt to make it as a professional. Entering his first race, a scrambles race in Encinitas, California, exploded DeSoto into the consciousness of the burgeoning sport
“Long Beach Honda loaned me a Husqvarna to go race this scrambles in Encinitas,” DeSoto said. “So they brought the bike down there for me to ride, and I went to sign up as an Expert, but then the AMA people asked me if I had an AMA card, and I told them no but that I would be happy to join. “Then they asked me where was from, and I told them Hawaii. They just started laugh-ing at me and said, ‘Well, maybe you are an Expert in Hawaii, but it’s different here.’ So they put me in the Novice class, and I went out and raced. It was a two-mile loop, and when it was over I had lapped everybody but the second-place guy. When the race was over, the officials wouldn’t even give me the trophy! I guess I was an Expert after that.”
Even so, a lack of early support eventually left DeSoto homeless and nearly destitute.
“My dad had a friend who I stayed with in Long Beach for a couple weeks, but then I left there, and I still didn’t have a job,” DeSoto recalls. “So, I wound up homeless, living in an old abandoned Corvair in North Hollywood for about six months. It was so much colder in Southern California at night than it was in Hawaii, so in the evenings I would go to the laundromat with an army blanket because the dryers would run and their heat would keep me warm.”
A major turning point in DeSoto’s career came in 1968, when he made a deal with Montesa Motors USA’s Kim Kimball to race the Spanish-built machines that Kimball imported.
“But I didn’t have a salary, and I didn’t have a car; all they gave me was the bikes,” DeSoto says. “So I would borrow this Volkswagen bug from a guy at Long Beach Honda, take out the front passenger seat and the back seat, and then take off the front tire and the handlebar off the Montesa and put it in the Volkswagen to drive to the races. Then I would sleep in the Volkswagen when I got there. People used to laugh at me like, ‘Who in the heck is this guy?’”
It wasn’t long before they knew. DeSoto’s talent flourished aboard the Montesa, and he became a feared competitor, recognized for his aggressive, go-for-broke riding style and his willingness to soar off of jumps. In fact, DeSoto often turned two jumps into one, spanning the gap between them, which earned him the nickname, “The Flyin’ Hawaiian.”
Eventually, DeSoto’s Montesa bosses got wise to his living situation.
“Then one day I had come out of the Corvair to go to the Montesa factory,” DeSoto says. “Later, when I was going to leave the factory, the parts guy said, ‘John, where are you going?’ I told him I was going back to my apartment. He said, ‘I’ll drive you there.’ So I jumped in his car, and he asked me where to go, so we drove here and there and then I just pointed to some apartments and said, ‘It’s right over there.’ I got out and walked to the front gate of the apartments, and thankfully the gate opened, and I went inside. So I thought he had left, but when I came back out, he was still there and said, ‘John, now where are you going?’ I said, ‘Oh, just to the store,’ and then he said, ‘I’ll take you to the store.’ But I didn’t even have any money to buy anything.
“So then we went to drive away, and he finally looked at me and said, ‘John, I know you don’t live there. I saw you coming out of that abandoned car for the last four days. We’re going to the factory right now to see Kim Kimball.’ I thought, ‘Uh oh, I’m going to lose my ride.’ When we got back there, he sent me in to see Kim, who was on the phone, and Kim was talking to somebody, saying, ‘Okay, okay, I will tell him. Okay, I will tell him.’ He hung up the phone, and I said, ‘Am I going to lose my ride?’ He said, ‘This is what’s happening: I just got through talking to (team sponsor and world famous automobile racer) Dan Gurney, and we are going to give you a salary and give you a van. That’s when it really started for me.”
DeSoto would go on to make his mark in America and abroad, racing in the legendary Baja 1000, FIM World Championship GPs and anywhere else he could. He went on to earn factory rides with Husqvarna, CZ, Suzuki and Kawasaki before retiring from the sport in 1975.
Returning to Hawaii, DeSoto then created a string of successful business ventures with his wife. He started a Hawaiian canoe club, using his charismatic charm to cultivate sponsors to support competitive paddling events. He also purchased a horse ranch that continued to thrive today. In 1986, on the advice of friends in the Hawaii business community, DeSoto ran for and won a seat on the Honolulu City Council. He would go on to serve the maxi-mum four terms before retiring in 2001.
DeSoto’s horse ranch keeps him busy these days, but he still loves to race motorcycles. And he still does double jumps.
“When I ride, I still feel like I’m 25, DeSoto says. “But when I get up the next day, that’s when I know I’m 65!”
DeSoto will be receive his Edison Dye Lifetime Motocross Achievement Award during MTA World Vet Motocross Championships at Glen Helen Raceway on Sunday, November 3 at around noon. The special presentation will be conducted by Edison Dye award founder Tom White and will include testimonials by a few of John’s friends and competitors such as Tony DiStefano, Brad Lackey, Roger DeCoster and Ricky Johnson among others. The ceremony will conclude with DeSoto’s inclusion to the Glen Helen Raceway Walk of Fame. DeSoto and and other famous riders and dignitaries from the early years of motocross will also conduct an autograph signing session after the presentation. A collectable souvenir poster of DeSoto will be given to the first 100 fans in line.
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