20 Years of Racing History
February 17, 2005 – ATVA Director Doug Morris shared with ATVAOnline the history of ATV racing in the United States. Here's what he had to say.
Your All-Terrain Vehicle Association is designating 2005 as the year to honor "20 Years of Champions."
Yes, the Grand National Championship (GNC) series has been crowning champions for 20 years.
Did ATV racing exist before 1985? Of course it did. It could have happened like this:
It's 1970 and Honda ATC 90s (three-wheelers) are showing up in dealers' showrooms around the country. As soon as the first two ATC 90s came tire-to-tire on some trail, somewhere in the U.S.A., the first ATC race was on.
ATV racing has gone from racing three-wheelers with no suspension to the state-of-the-art, water-cooled four-wheelers of today.
The predecessor of the ATVA was the American All-Terrain Vehicle Association (AATVA), which was formed by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in 1985—the year we started crowning champions.
In 1986, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was asked by the Consumer Federation of America to ban ALL ATVs. Yes, I said ALL.
The manufacturers came together to defend ATCs and the new four-wheeled ATVs. They agreed to stop building and selling three-wheelers, and all factory ATV race teams came to a screeching halt.
Insurance companies said "no more three-wheelers." The AATVA folded in 1988.
Fast forward 13 years to 2001—ATV sales start to pick back up, many more AMA members ride and race ATVs, and the AMA Board of Directors decides to start up the ATVA.
In 1985 there was GNC racing in California, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The series involved 12 races and required riders to be champions in both motocross and TT.
Do you know who the very first GNC Pro champion was?
(This is a trick question.)
In 1985 there were three Pro winners. Curtis Sparks was the very first Pro 200cc four-stroke champion, Steve Wright was the first Pro 200cc two-stroke champion, and Marty Hart was the very first Pro 250cc champion.
Gary Denton was the champion in 1986. In fact, Denton won more GNC series championships then any other rider in history, with seven consecutive years of titles—1986 to 1992.
It
took Doug Gust to break up Denton's winning streak in 1993.
Denton came back one more year in 1994 to claim his last championship.
Tim Farr claimed the title in 1995.
Starting in 2002, the ATVA chose to recognize three champions—Tim Farr for MX, Shane Hitt in TT, and Darin Ogden for Short Track—signaling to the world that ATV racing was on its way back up, again.
In 2003 there was another change, In MX, the ATVA recognized Jeremiah Jones as the Pro champion and Doug Gust as Pro Production champion. Shane Hitt repeated again in TT, and Brandon Watts was the fastest in Short Track.
Most recently, in 2004, the ATVA combined Pro and Pro Production into a single class and Doug Gust is our current champion. Keith Little won the TT championship and Darin Ogden took the Short Track title.
In future, we plan to bring you more information related to our "20 Years of Champions." And we could use your help.
We are looking for individual race information for the years 1985 to 2000. Dig around in your garage, basement or attic, and if you have any information that might be helpful, please get in touch with us at editor@atvaonline.com or ATVA NEWS, P.O. Box 800, Pickerington, OH 43147.
The ATVA is planning a number of 20th Anniversary surprises. This year is going to be a fantastic year for ATVA racing.
See you at the races!