This makes you wonder what would of happened if Cagiva then MV would of done somthing like this as have a good USA factory team. I know back in 1999-01 Fast by Ferracci had the Husqvarna Super Cross team. In those years in the USA there where a lot more Huskys sold they anytime in the 90s. The thought at that time was Husqvarna is back, but not to be.
The Swedish knew a good American team would sell bike here Malcolm Smith, Brad Lackey, Kent Howeton, Dick Burleson and Terry Cunningham are just a few who where on USA Team Husky. The Italians where never that into racing here in USA. Never understood that. The Italians had a good race teams in europe, but I guess they thought the USA was not worth it.The Swedish knew win Sunday sell on Monday or Tuesday.. I really think BMW with Andrew Delong got the idea but gave up on it to soon.
Cagiva never quite got racing right in the US... The second coming of Cagiva NA in the early 90's didn't have enough passion or resources. Kevin Hines and Fred Hoess competed in the National Enduro Series and GNCC in '92 and '93. Kevin did pretty well. I know 2 people who worked for Cagiva NA then and they say that sales were higher in those years, than in the early Cagiva USA/Ferracci early years. I would have thought like you, that '00-'02 were the really big years.
It always seemed that as US market started to build steam, Italy would falter. In the mid 90's Cagiva started to falter under the financial strains of their vast racing program... 500GP road racing, World Superbike, World Enduro, MXGP, Rally-Raid. The Cagiva 500 GP road race program was almost all paid for by the Factory, with minimal sponsorship. This period ended with the sale of Ducati to raise cash. They would work after that to build the moribund MV, into their premiere marque, but it never made the money Ducati did.
Ferracci tried hard with racing Husky, but their mainly road racing background didn't transfer over to MX/off road that well. They did get the 125 SX win, with Travis Preston and Fred Hoess was close to a National Enduro Championship twice. Then the '02 factory flood and other factors caused a financial crunch, that would continue until MV sold Husky to BMW. Ferracci sunk a lot of money into Husky in the US and Italy, that the never saw back.
It may be too cynical, but the BMW owned Husky USA, just never really got it together. The main people involved saw it was temporary and used it to leverage a more permanent position in other parts of the BMW family.
Andrew Delong, really clicked with the X-Lite, more than any other rider and if he hadn't a few unfortunate injuries, he would have had two GNCC XC2 Championships and possibly a few more National Enduro wins.
The new Husky seems to be getting it, as did the old Swedish one.