From Hangtown to Prairie City and Back: A Perspective History of the Hangtown Motocross Classic - the Club - and the Parks Hardcover – Large Print, February 19, 2026

This is the history of the Hangtown Motocross Classic, which has long been the only AMA National Championship race event put on by a club, namely, The Dirt Diggers North MC. The book covers the off-road riding scene of the historical region of the California Gold Rush region of Northern California, which inspired the event's name. Its current home, at the Prairie City California State Vehicle Recreation Area, is steeped in local history, enriching the legendary racing event's story. From the Lynch's Law-inspired name of the event that was once the name of today's nearby Placerville, in El Dorado County, to the ghost town name of today's State SVRA park, to the space age developments on the same land by Aerojet in the 1960s, the land cries out to have its story told. Marc Louis LeRoux spent years gathering interviews and materials to create this book. In 1970, he worked as the sole full-time employee at White Rock MC Park, which, in its short life, established official use of up to then largely ignored land held by Aerojet General (now Aerojet-Rocketdyne) as testing areas for, among others, the Saturn V Rocket engines used in the Apollo Space Program of the 1960s. As Aerojet began moving operations away, some of the land opened up to lease for riding until it was outright purchased by an intrepid member of the DDNMC. Today, as these histories and the land are being encroached upon by suburban development, some remembrance of "how it once was," beyond even the recreational story seems fitting, and Marc does this throughout the book. "From Hangtown to Prairie City and Back," Now, in a completely new edition, features a foreword by Torsten Hallman, the Swedish factory rider who, in 1966, along with Husqvarna motorcycle importer Edison Dye, brought motocross to the American off-road sports public. Read more