Tommy Glass posing with his trophies and Zundapp race bike in 1956. Glass, of Flint, Michigan, was one of the region’s top Scrambles racers, winning dozens of regional events during the mid-1950s.

Before motocross took hold in America in the mid-1960s there was Scrambles racing. This photo of Tommy Glass shows a typical mid-1950s Scrambles racer and his motorcycle. Glass, of Flint, Michigan, was one of the region’s top Scrambles racers, winning dozens of regional events including the Michigan Scrambles Championship (then more commonly not using the plural and being called simply Scramble racing).

Glass rode what appears to be a Zundapp 200S fitted with knobby tires and an aftermarket off-road front fender.

Scrambles tracks were incredibly mild by today’s motocross standards. Gradually the bikes got stronger and more powerful, the tracks got more technical and then in the mid-1960s when the European motocross racers first started coming to America, the sport of motocross was off and running and scrambles largely relegated to the history books.