As we arrived to the track on Sunday morning, Kory came and asked if I would handle the duties of his mechanic for the day. We're not talking about rebuilding the bike in between races, but just taking care of sweeping his gates for each moto and keeping him informed on the track with the pit board. While this doesn't seem like a glamorous job, I gladly offered to help. I was a professional MX racer's mechanic and didn't even have to worry about cleaning the bikes after the races-how lucky was I?
As I watched my friend out on the track, I was blown away at him and all of the other riders out there. I never realized the level of fitness it took to compete at the top level on an ATV. As athletes, pro ATV racers are not rated very high by many people, but they should be as they must muscle huge machines around rough tracks in the scorching and sometimes humid months out East. These guys have my utmost respect for doing what they do.
During these years was also the uprising of the Pro-Production class, where aftermarket chassis were not allowed and riders needed to utilize bolt-on components to make their machines handle better. I watched in amazement during both motos as "Digger" Doug Gust came from the back of the pack and proceeded to smoke the rest of the field on a Suzuki Z400. At that time I don't think anyone realized how much four-stroke engines would revolutionize our sport and put us where we are today.