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By: Jason Giacchino
Email:
offthepegs@atvsource.com
December 2006
You Had To Ask!
The press seems to act like because of the
new quads coming out that ATV racing is a new
thing. It’s been around for as long as I can
remember, what gives?
Matt Nichols
Butler, Pennsylvania
 To answer this question we must mentally
travel back in time to a period in which the
mullet was not only accepted as a fashion
statement, it was actually encouraged. ATVs sat
on not four, but three bulbous tires, and Honda
had a radical idea brewing that would change the
ATV world forever. That year was 1981; and up
until that point, ATVs were used almost
exclusively for farming or hunting purposes.
In 1981 Honda released a 248cc air-cooled
two-stroke motor nestled into a three-wheeled
frame on an unsuspecting world under their
patented ATC moniker (All Terrain Cycle) called
the 250R. So it was that the world was
introduced to such concepts as adjustable front
and rear suspensions, a front disc brake, and a
close ratio five-speed transmission with manual
clutch. The ATV race scene was born literally at
that moment, and flourished for several years in
various incarnations from stadium motocross, to
oval flat track, on up to desert and rally
racing. Within the next few years race oriented
ATVs had generated enough interest to cause each
of the big four Japanese manufacturers to design
race machines intended for competition use.
Yamaha brought the elusive Tri-Z 250 to
showrooms while Kawasaki was busy campaigning
their highly successful Tecate 3. Best of all,
the sport of ATV racing was being taken
seriously enough by the manufacturers to warrant
yearly updates, not unlike those seen in the
performance motorcycle industry. Updates such as
liquid cooling, ergonomic redesigns, extended
suspension travel, and disc brakes at both ends
were soon to follow.
Interestingly enough, Suzuki had the presence
of mind to avoid the three-wheel race machine
concept altogether, and entered the market late
(in 1985) with a 250cc two-stroke mill mounted
to a four-wheeled chassis. The yellow-and
black-schemed Quadracer awakened another
evolution in the industry that would carry on
until today. What happened next was nothing shy
of disastrous in terms of society’s awareness of
All Terrain Vehicles. In 1986 the Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued the
"kiss of death" for three wheelers by releasing
the results of a two year investigation into the
reasons behind unfavorably high statistics of
bodily injury to ATV riders. Surprisingly, their
results blamed improper rider behavior and a
disregard for manufacturer warnings as the prime
culprit (not flaws in the three wheeler’s design
as originally suspected).
 However, the damage to the reputation of
three-wheelers had already been done and in
effort to counter the success Suzuki was having
with their Quadracer, Honda had fired back in
1986 with the predecessor to the ATC250R throne
in the form of the TRX250R. This new quad would
come to the track with a liquid cooled 246cc
two-stroke and a chassis design that is still
being used today. Kawasaki updated their Tecate
3 to a four wheeled platform appropriately named
the Tecate 4 while Yamaha never bothered to
create a 250cc two stroke competition quad of
their own.
On April 29, 1988, US ATV distributors
entered into a 10 year agreement with the CPSC
called the "Final Consent Decree." Under this
agreement the ATV industry was asked to drop
$100 million in expanding safety programs which
included offering free training and training
incentives. Also, thanks to this agreement, ATVs
wear more warning stickers and labels than any
other form of recreational vehicle (even today).
From that point forward distributors were no
longer allowed to market three-wheel ATVs (and
the manufacturers were instructed to buy back
unsold dealer inventory).
As you may have suspected, around this time
the manufacturers had become a bit skeptical of
the hoopla surrounding the American ATV market.
R&D dollars were no longer being dumped into the
development of competition machines which only
fueled the flames of unsettled lawsuits and
gained the attention of the CPSC’s watchful eye.
As a result, the 1990’s became known as the
Utility Model decade. By 1992 the last
track-intended quad standing (the Quadracer 250)
had reached the end of its run.
The years that followed were especially dark
times for sport quad enthusiasts. The
manufacturers had kept a few underpowered sport
four strokes in their model lines, but the
reality was that true racers were forced to
purchase leftover components from the late
1980’s models (typically Honda TRX250R chassis)
and spend big bucks in modifications to be
competitive. While it is true ATV racing still
existed, factory support had all but vanished.
The turn of the new millennium witnessed the
manufacturers inching ever closer to a return to
the race scene with the release of sport
machines that could finally be taken seriously.
Examples include Honda’s TRX 400EX, Yamaha’s
Raptor 660R, Bombardier’s DS650, Polaris’
Predator 500, and Suzuki’s impressive Quadsport
LT400Z.
 Consumers responded with their wallets and
suddenly the sport ATV market was alive and well
(again). Before the dust could settle on these
new masterpieces, Yamaha "blew the lid off the
industry" in late 2003 by releasing the YFZ450;
a machine often considered the biggest step
toward an off-the-showroom-floor race- ready ATV
available by any the four major Japanese
manufacturers. Honda wasted no time answering
with their own TRX450 for 2004. Suzuki joined
the battle in '06 with their Quadracer LTR450
and Kawasaki has announced its KFX450 to be
released as a 2008 model. The big four have
finally answered the cries of their customerbase
with not only new race weapons but some long
overdue factory support. ATV racing may have
existed all along, but the support it has been
receiving of late is unprecedented and is
certainly a reason for which to be excited.
In fact at the time of this article’s
writing, the American Motorcyclist Association
(AMA) and AMA Pro Racing have announced the
creation of a new professional ATV racing
championship set to begin with the 2007 season.
The series will be based on outdoor motocross
style competition and will feature these new
450cc machines, complete with a television
package and exclusive web site. An expansion to
include a 250cc-based class is expected for
2008.
These are good times for ATV racers indeed!
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