NATVA History and AATV racing questions

[Mike]

The more I learn about NATVA the more I want to know. To the NATVA experts on the board, I have a few more questions:

- What years did the races take place?
- About how many races per year were there?
- Where were these races held? (ie several different tracks across the states or mainly one area)
- Were teams sponsored?
- Was there one person or team that really dominated the races each year?

I have so many more but these are on my mind here lately. If you can answer one or all, please do.

Thanks!

[Don]

Great questions, Mike;

Whipper and some others can give lots more information than I can, but I'll put down a few things that I remember.

As far as I know, the races started around 1969, but I don't know when they finally ended.

Most of the races were in the northeast and upper midwest. I have a NATVA magazine that shows regions covering the whole country, but as far as I can remember they never had a race schedule for all of them. Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia are the states I know for sure, but there are probably more.

There were four "National" events a year and regionals most every other weekend or so someplace in the country.

Most of the teams that did really well owned dealerships or part of an ATV manufacturing company. They had the advantage of cheaper parts and direct tech knowledge from the source. In 1972 and 73 Scott Slonaker was probably the most dominant, then Larry Shorts, Larry Smith, the McKays (all Attex) and the Fischer Scrambler team out of Ashtabula Ohio. There were an awful lot of competitive Max drivers, but the ones I remember were individuals and not part of a race team. I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, and others that took over in later years.

I hope I answered some of your questions, and I'm looking forward to hearing more history myself.


Don

[whipper-ag]

I concur w/a lot of what Don said. My understanding, too was that racing started in 1969, but I was in Nam driving my Real ATV. I didn't start racing till 1971. My first race was at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. It was on somebody's farmland, we had a driver's meeting and asked where the track was & somebody just took off & about 20 of us followed him in our ATV's & that became the track. This 1st race for me was the opening race on my 1st DVD. My MAX ran like a doggg. Races we went to that were at county fairgrounds were Monroe, MI , Erie , PA & Rimersburg, PA. Then we raced in Cooperstown,PA , Bucyrus, OH , East Palestine, OH (that was a mud bath in spring) Akron, NY & Astabula, OH. Don't know whose land we were on, but they had some really nice tracks. Usually there were at least 2 races each during the summer at most of these tracks. My guess was the Monroe MI race had at least 5,000 people in the stands. It was hard to compete against the racing teams w/ factory backing. But we raced strictly for fun. Most everyone did really. Races were weekend events. Heats were on Saturdays & Finals were on Sundays. From what I can remember there were at least 2 races a month , maybe more. Just couldn't afford to go to all of them. Never raced modified, but those guys were fun to watch. They would tag the motors & tear down after some races if someone had a protest. It was serious stuff for them. Stock entry fees were like $25.00 per class. Don't know what modified entry fees were. First place in stock classes usually got some money back. I'm sure they probably got bigger bucks in the modified classes. Some of the best racing was the Junior & Powder Puff Class. The ole lady probably lost 2 first place trophies because of a chain that broke & sent her into a hay bail & then her next race, because the Max ran out of gas. I still hear about that one. We stopped racing in 1974, and moved to AZ in 1976. As far as we know they were still racing then & maybe a few years more. But I never knew why they stopped. Anybody know the answer?

[Mike]

Don and Whipper, you guys rock! Thanks for the info. Whipper, I like your story about the track being made just by driving your ATVs on it, that is too cool.

To the both of you, what machines did you have at the time. I just assumed that you both were in Attex's but Whipper, did you race a Max or was that what your wife raced or both?

Also, can you tell me a little more about the modified machines. After reading Whipper's thread on his springer I realized that there were machines that had suspension then too? Also, watching videos of the races I see some very modified ATVs at times. An Attex with the motor moved to the front maybe? And a stretched machine too?