Our Story...    At the age of nine, I raced at a local dirt track on a Yamaha 60 Mini-Enduro. The first time out I won and after that I was forever hooked. That was in 1971 and in 1972 that track closed so I was confined to our family farm.

I started back at it in 1979 on a 125 than I raced a Yamaha TT 500 which was the first big bike that I won on. In 1980, I went from amateur to expert in my first full year and took the Expert Championship in 1982 at the Hamburg Fairgrounds, in Hamburg, New York. I was a frequent competitor from 1980- 1986 at many tracks, in New York, Pennsylvania and Canada.

Around the time of 1986, flat tracks popularity died out around our area and I started racing local motocross events. I raced motocross until 1995 and took two Senior Championships and one Vintage Crown. Motocross was great for the conditioning and endurance but I loved flat track racing more. I started back racing flat track in 2000. It felt good to get back to my roots and at that time senior classes were being offered which let me run against many of the fastest riders in our area. I am still racing the senior divisions and last year at the DuQuoin Amatuer Nationals, placed second in the Plus Forty Class and third in the Plus Thirty Class overall. I am also the Plus Thirty Champion in the state of Ohio for 2007.

Having not ridden a Harley-Davidson early in my career, I was never a die hard Harley fan. My heros were Bubba Shobert and Ricky Graham on Hondas. Seeing the under dogs do well is what has always gotten me excited. I have always felt that the more manufacturers you can have the more support and recognition our sport would get.

I went to Bike Week in Daytona in 2004 with RJ and that time KTM was there with a V-Twin LC8 motor on a bench that was supposed to be there new twins power plant. I studied it over carefully and determined that this could be the future of racing. It was light weight, small and powerful. I believe that KTM was there with Kenny Coolbeth and Joe Kopp, but the project didn't really get off the ground. While surfing the net in 2007 I realized that KTM had come out with a new style bike called the Super Enduro 950. Knowing the engine that it had in it, I immediately started calculating how this could be turned into a dirt tracker. My goal was to keep the bike as stock looking as possible so that brand association would be there for the fans. The KTM has a 92 horsepower stock engine which is very comparable to a fast running Harley-Davidson. With a little motor and pipe work I thought that this could be a real contender. It was built to run the Paris-Dakar Rally so it was accustomed to being run wide open so durability was also a huge factor in it's selection.

I contacted the closest dealer to me but due to limited production he did not have one available for me to purchase. Then at the end of 2007 I received a call back from Bud at Matto Cycle in Pennsylvania, who also is a huge dirt track fan, and he said one was available and that he wanted to help me with the project.

I was able to solicit some financial help from Stacey Spears of Five Star Steel & Fabrication, a local businessman, that helped me with the purchase of the bike. We knew it would be a two year project with the first year being a lot of research and development, but with the expertise of our team and sponsors I feel confident that this could be an exciting possibility for the resurgence of motorcycle dirt track racing.

I choose RJ Overholt to pilot the new project based on one main reason, he is the most naturally talented rider that I have ever seen in my thirty some years of racing. I started sponsoring him in 1991 when he was fifteen and riding the wheels off at our local tracks. We lowered a stock YZ 250 and we also had an old Knight Frame Rotax 500 that we took to Florida for the Winter Nationals and he won four out of the five classes on our stock bikes. People were awe struck that this kid was so fast on stock equipment and didn't believe that they were. My wife and I have sponsored RJ throughout the last ten years whenever finances and time would allow. He became big into motocross for a few years as well and we eventually talked him back into dirt track and has been our local track champion more times than I can recall. A great highlight was when he got his National Number in Peoria in 2004.

I have also sponsored many younger riders since that time. This sport is my passion and I know in order to see it thrive that we need to keep the younger generations interested. My wife and I are also actively involved in our local dirt track. We know that racing starts at the grass roots level and we have seen some great "kids"progress through the ranks. This sport is one of the most exciting and if marketed correctly could see great growth in the years to come..