Bill Van Vugt Wins 80+ Class at 2025 Dubya World Vet Championships

Bill Van Vugt Wins 80+ Class at 2025 Dubya World Vet Championships

By: Alyssa Roenigk

If Canadian sports fans need a salve to soften the sting of the Toronto Blue Jays’ World Series loss, here it is: Bill Van Vugt, an 80-year-old motocross racer from London, Ontario, became the first Canadian to win the +80 title at the 41st annual Dubya World Vet Motocross Championships at Glen Helen Raceway in California last Sunday. “I still don’t believe it,” Van Vugt says. “It’s been a long time since I won a race – even in Canada. It always sounded impressive when I heard someone won one of these titles. It hasn’t sunk in yet that I won.” 

Van Vugt, who turned 80 in April, went 2-1-1 to clinch the title over Steve Machado of Hawaii and Donald Cox of Arizona, becoming the fourth rider to win the +80 class, which was added to the World Vet schedule in 2019. Since then, racing in the +80 has become a goal for riders who’ve won championships in the +60 and +70 classes. Just making it to the starting gate in the +80 is considered a feat.

“A few people came up after the race and said they couldn’t believe I was 80 and that I was so fast, especially in the corners,” says Van Vugt, who is also one of few Canadians to win a title at Loretta Lynn’s. He took the W in the Masters +50 class at Loretta’s in 1996. 

Van Vugt first traveled to Glen Helen in the early 2000s to support his daughter, Jolene, a Canadian champion who was racing in the WMX series. He entered the World Vet Championships for the first time in 2006 alongside his son, Billy, a former motocross racer and freestyle performer who, along with Jolene, spent more than a decade traveling the world with Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Circus. Before Sunday, Van Vugt’s best finish at World Vets was second in the +70 class in 2017 and 2019. Glen Helen, he says, is unlike any track in Canada: “We don’t have 400-foot uphill and downhill sections. Our tracks might have 100 or 150 feet of elevation change.”

Van Vugt hadn’t planned to race again this year, but a few weeks before the event, he decided it was now or never. He called Billy and Jolene, who live in Big Bear Lake, and told them he was coming for a visit. He arrived in California a week before his first race to acclimate to the track and said each day he grew more comfortable with the downhills and Glen Helen’s rough, rutty terrain. 

“On Friday, I felt uncomfortable on the whole track,” Van Vugt says. “But each day I felt better and more confident.” He credits his championship performance to strong starts, which he’s been known for throughout his career. “I don’t think about my age when I’m on the starting gate,” he says. “The gate drops and I go. I was as fast off the start this weekend as I was 20 or 30 years ago.”

Born in The Netherlands, Van Vugt moved to Canada at 21, where he met his wife, Tina, who is also a Dutch native. After breaking his femur racing in his mid-20s, he took a break from the sport to focus on starting a family and returned to racing in his 40s alongside Billy and Jolene, who cheered on their dad in the finish last weekend. “He’s had an epic race career,” Jolene says. “He’s been my hero since day one. We’re so proud!”

So, what’s Van Vugt’s secret to longevity in the sport? “Good metabolism, I guess,” he says with a shrug. “Genetics?” He pauses to think about the question and decides maybe it’s not just good luck. It could also be his ability to adapt his riding style as he’s aged. “You’ve got to think long-term rather than trying to win on the first lap,” he says. “Pace yourself, make the right decisions at the right time. Don’t do a jump until you feel comfortable. Stay within your capabilities. Be in control and don’t ride over your head.”

Van Vugt hasn’t decided whether he’ll return next year to defend his title, but if he does, he says he’ll focus on making the most of every lap. “I love competing, and whether it’s at the front or mid-pack, as long as you’re racing, it’s a challenge,” he says. “I don’t want to think, ‘I got to win and if I don’t, that’s no good.’ It’s like the Blue Jays – you celebrate that they got this far in the first place. You have to think positively, because only one team can win. This year, it worked out good for me.”