Joe Kopp
By Shawn McDonald
Background
Born: Spokane, Washington
Height: 5’7"
Racing weight: 140 lbs
Brother/Sisters: Becky, Heidi
Parents: Sue Thomson and Bob Kopp
Married: Deedee
Children: Garrett age 5
Business: Joe Kopp Racing
Championships:
1999 AMA 600 Hotshoe champion
1999 AMA Supertracker champion
2000 AMA 600 Hotshoe champion
2000 AMA Supertracker champion
2000 AMA Grand National Champion
Major sponsors in your career: Westfall Collins Racing, Jim Plunketts Motorcycle Supply, Doug Donally Logging, Harley-Davidson of Sacramento, Dave Burkes Motorsports, Corbin Seats, Harley-Davidson of Missouri
Joe is the "MAN." He is the first racer to grab the hat trick of the AMA in winning the 2000 600 Hotshoe, Supertracker and the Grand National Championships in one year. Joe is also the first NW racer to win the most historic and prestigious title in the AMA. The Grand National Championship started in 1954 and it only took 46 years for a NW rider to win it. Beyond all this is a man, a racer in the truest sense. Born into a racing family Joe’s life look pre-ordained for greatness. Life took a wrong turn for him, but he never gave up. That is Joe’s mantra to "Never give up." I get tired of saying this but Joe is really a great guy. He is somebody that you could just go up and talk to in the pits without knowing who he is. You walk away from Joe not thinking about his championships, his talent, and his wins you just think "He’s a great guy." He may not have the most talent on the track on a given day but he keeps pushing himself to the edge. That edge for every race is what brings him championships. People forget race winners, but they can always remember champions. Joe Kopp will always be remembered because he is now a legend.
Bench Racer:What got you started in motorcycles in the first place?
Joe Kopp: My dad and my uncle were both racers and I have been around motorcycles and racing since I was born. I started off riding when I was four years old riding an Indian 50cc bike. My dad was a real good hill climber and flat track racer while my uncle was good at motocross and flat track in the late 60’s and early 70’s. They were both all around racers in cross country and scrambles also. I have two cousins that I was raised with and we all had dirt bikes. Every day after school we would ride our bikes in the mountains behind us until we ran out of gas. The thing that got me into motorcycling was trail riding and cross-country. I wasn’t much of a racer to begin with I was just into serious trail riding. My first race was on an Artic Kitty Cat snowmobile when I was five years old. The following summer is when I first raced a motorcycle.
BR: What role did your family have in supporting your early riding?
JK: The whole family supported all of us racing. My dad and uncle were always racing, but they never pushed us to race. If we were at the track and wanted to race we did and if we didn’t want to race we just rode around. My older sister Becky raced quads in flat tracking. I just got my sister and my wife to race against each other in the Powder Puff class at an indoor short track race in Spokane. My sister Becky beat my wife Deedee by quite a distance. Deedee is content in beating Becky on horseback.
BR: Were you successful when you first started?
JK: Not really. I was always in the top three, but I was never the dominant rider. Up to a few years ago I would go over to an indoor short track in Seattle and I wasn’t the one who would usually win. I was never overwhelming, just consistent. I was always right there. It was a long time of being consistent and never letting go. I was definitely a late bloomer. I’ll take the dominant rider title now!
BR: What was your first race that made you stand out from the rest of the crowd?
JK: I would say it would be the 1994 AMA Castle Rock TT National. I led the race for a long time until Chris Carr passed me with six laps to the finish. Carr’s mechanic tells me now that all they can remember about me back then was this longhaired kid from Washington who goes really fast on a TT track. I got quickly tagged with the old "He’s a NW TT specialist." They would say "That’s all we do in the northwest is TT racing." Just in this past year I proved to them that I could go around a circle also. When I go to the Peoria, Illinois TT race I’m called the NW TT specialist though. I started riding the big 750’s soon after that 1994 race.
BR: What was your biggest disappointment?
JK: Up to this point I would say it was in 1995 when I lost the 600cc National Championship to Chris Carr. Castle Rock was the last race of the year and all I had to do was to finish third or better to secure the championship. The night before I had won the regional race and was feeling pretty good. Stanley and I were battling back and forth in second and third places with the rest of the pack a long ways back. Then we got tangled up with each other going into turn one. I drifted up high accidentally and bumped Stanley pretty hard. We both saved it. When we got back on the track we ran into a group of riders and Stanley went down. I was now in fifth place with six or seven laps to the finish. I was able to move up one place to fourth and that tied me in points with Carr. Carr got the championship because he had won more races. I would say that was pretty disappointing.
BR: What was your biggest regret?
JK: Not getting into serious racing at an earlier age. Even though I started racing at age five the kids today start racing for national amateur championships at age twelve, four years before they can get their Pro license. I never went to a professional race until I was nineteen years old. I don’t regret it that much because I learned how to ride a dirt bike in all types of terrain in those years. I jumped into flat track racing at a later age than a lot of riders I compete against like the Hayden brothers. I was racing against the Hayden’s when they were 14 and I was 25 years old. That definitely gives you an advantage. I’m 31 now and I race against guys who are 25 or younger and they refer to me as one of the new kids even though I’m only a few years younger than Chris Carr.
BR: Compare Jay Springsteen’s and Chris Carr’s different personalities?
JK: Jay is an all around nice guy who is always a crowd favorite at any racetrack we go to. Jay still drives as hard as he can after 25 years of professional racing. He is such a super guy that after signing autographs for all these years he still takes so much time to sign each and every autograph. He still puts a star above the "i" in his name and never gets sloppy even if there are a thousand people in line waiting. Chris is also good with the fans and is a good public speaker for our sport. Chris is real serious on the track and is kind of hard to be friends with on race day. He thinks that he shouldn’t be talking with you if you are one of his competitors that day. That’s one of the reasons I go over and talk to him during race day because I know it bugs him. During the race day he comes across very cold because he is so intense on winning that it comes back to haunt him when at some tracks he gets booed by the fans.
BR: What attributes make a championship racer?
JK: Just to never give up! If I’m going slow in a qualifier early in the day I find a way to make me mad or some way to fire me up by the final event. I just won’t give up even if I am in the back of the pack that day.
BR: Throughout your racing career who was your greatest national rival?
JK: Chris Carr. Carr is a good TT racer and I am too. Whether it was a TT or a circle track I’ve always tried to beat him because he is a great racer at every racetrack. He is the man to beat. I’m a good friend with all the national competitors. I try to visit at each race most of the other racers in their pits. I think that it psyche’s them out a little bit that I come over to talk to them when later on we’ll be dicing it out on the track. Sometimes I catch myself talking too much when I should be concentrating on setting the bike up for the racetrack. To me it’s just another day in life and I enjoy people and racing.
BR: Who was your greatest NW racing rival?
JK: Danny Stanley would be the man. We have always been rivals up to this very minute. Any time we’re together on the track it’s blood and guts. We have been having this feud ever since we started together in Pro-Am in 1991. We’re good friends until we get on the track and sometimes it gets pretty violent out there.
BR: Who was the best racer you saw or raced against?
JK: I always looked up to Bubba Shobert. I thought that he was one of the best all around riders ever. Bubba accomplished so much in his last years of racing on flat tracks and roadracing before he got hurt. Scott Parker and Ricky Graham were great champions but I think that Bubba had just a little more than they did. Bubba had a lot of natural talent and drive that put him out in front of everyone.
BR: What do you think made you different from all the other racers and made you a champion?
JK: Hard work, training and focus. I really focus on race day, when I’m not talking to someone, on bike setup and track conditions. I worked out this past summer by myself and I think that helped me to focus even more and keep pushing myself. I train by bicycling and running in the heat and humidity of Missouri during the summer race season. I didn’t have a plan for winning three championships this year, but I had a dream. I was able to get a second place at the first race in Daytona and that gave me the confidence from there till the end of the season to go for it. Consistency was going to give me a shot at the Grand National Championship. I had won the 600cc and Super Tracker Championships the year before and felt that I could win those both again with some luck. I didn’t think that I had a shot at the Grand National Championship until half way through the season and then I won in Sedalia and that put me back in the point’s race. I’ve never been a dominant racer and haven’t won a bunch of big races so I knew the path to the championship was to be consistent and on the podium as much as possible. I have only won three AMA national races so it wasn’t important for me to win the race, as it was to be on the podium and picking up points.
BR: If you were to start motorcycle racing today, what type of racing would you do?
JK: GNCC (Grand National Cross Country) and Hare Scrambles. I did quite a few National Hare & Hound races in the early 90’s before I went flat tracking seriously. I wanted to race both but I found out that flat tracking pays you money and cross-country racing costs you money.
BR: What was or is your favorite track?
JK: The Peoria TT race track because it’s an all around rider’s track. The rider is more important than the bike at that track and a good dirt bike rider always does well there. I like the jump, the shape of the track and the whole atmosphere surrounding the event. Everybody in that town knows what’s going on that Sunday. You can go to the local gas station and they will say, "You must be going to the TT race." It’s a big town and everybody gets real excited about it.
BR: Do you still play ride today?
JK: I live in Mica, Washington on the edge of a mountain range and I love dodging through trees at speed. Sometimes I unfortunately hit the trees too often.
BR: What advice would you give to a young racer today on becoming the best?
JK: My motto is to never give up. I was never a dominant rider and didn’t win a bunch of races growing up and here I am today the Grand National Champion. I’ve seen a bunch of local racers who used to beat me, and they just gave up their dream. I’m sure their scratching their heads now and saying "I used to beat that guy." To have the determination and drive to make it to your goal no matter what the obstacles might be.
BR: Best party?
JK: My first mile race was the 1995 Sacramento Mile and I was able to qualify for the main event. After the event with friends, family and sponsors we were walking through the parking lot of our hotel when we spotted this old station wagon with a couple of kegs and two cases of champagne bottles inside. We nabbed the full keg and the champagne and went to a friend’s hotel room and sprayed the champagne in the room until it was dripping off the walls. The next morning as I was checking out there was a lady telling the receptionist that somebody had stolen her kegs and champagne. She said that she didn’t care where the champagne was but I would like to find the kegs since I have a deposit on them. I said "Oh yeah I saw some kegs outside a room down the hall from me." She got her kegs back and was happy and we had a great time.
BR: Most memorable moment as a racer? JK: Winning my first National at the 1997 Peoria TT. The year before I had a chance to win it before I went off the jump and crashed into the creek. So it was great to win my first time and not have to dry out my leathers.
BR: You’re the first rider to win the hat trick by bagging three championships has it gone to your head?
JK: I’m definitely overwhelmed and the Grand National Championship hasn’t set in on me yet. The biggest thing that hit me was every year the AMA sends a letter to you stating your national number and last year it was #43 and this year they sent me a letter saying my number would be #1. I went "WOW!" and my wife Deedee promptly had that letter framed because she knew it was special to me. It’s pretty special to be the first NW Grand National Champion and it’s something that no one can take away from me. There have been a lot of NW riders who have chased it like Sonny Burres and Mickey Fay but I was the first to get it. The main reason I think that no rider until now has won the championship from the NW is the traveling. Most of the races are on the east coast or Midwest where riders from that area only have to drive eight hours to race where for us it takes days. If there was one thing to stop me racing it would be the constant traveling from town to town. I love the racing but the traveling gets real old real fast.
BR: How long is the National circuit?
JK: I leave home at the end of April and the last race is at the end of October. Every other weekend I try to get home for some rest and relaxation. My sponsors have helped me quite a bit in airfares for getting home and hotel expenses on the road. My three major sponsors Corbin Seats, Harley-Davidson of Missouri and Dave Burkes are all super excited about me winning three championships this year. Mike Corbin has had a dirt track team the last 4-5 years and was thrilled to get a National Championship with me this year.
BR: What rider from another era do you wish you had a chance to race against in your top form?
JK: I would like to race against Ted Boody, Ricky Graham, Bubba Shobert, Scott Parker and Jay Springsteen in the mid 80’s. Some of them I have raced against and some I haven’t. I would have really liked to race against those guys when they were all young and at the top of their form.
BR: What do you think was the premier era for flat track racing?
JK: I think it would be from 1983 to 1986 in the Camel Pro Series with riders like Springsteen, Parker, Shobert, Graham. For a rider it would probably be in the late 60’s and early 70’s when you could ride 4-5 times a week and there were a lot of riders at every event.
BR: What was your worst crash?
JK: For flat track racing it was in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Ricky Graham came slamming up underneath me and I went hard into the outside concrete wall. My shoulder got banged up bad and that took me out of racing for a few months. I broke my pelvis racing the Mattawa 100 in 1993. I did finish 2nd overall at Mattawa in 1997 though. I love going real fast in the desert and the wide-open racing it provides. I don’t like the rocks very much though. I currently have a KTM 400 that I train with almost every day. I have a MX track in Washington and a couple in Missouri that I use to train on in addition to weights and bicycle riding. I bring the KTM with me on the national circuit and ride it more than my three flat track bikes combined. It’s in need of a little maintenance right now.
BR: How many bones have you broken racing?
JK: I broke my jaw, my pelvis and my nose and I think that was it. I’ve been real lucky after all these racing miles under me. Strangely enough I broke my jaw and my pelvis not in flat tracking but racing at the Mattawa desert races. The nose I broke when I was five years old so I’m not sure if that counts or not.
BR: When will you stop racing?
JK: I will stop racing in about five years from now. If I’m successful in racing the next five years I will be happy in saving money for what I will be doing in business after racing. I’m a real family guy and I love being at home. I can see the constant traveling pulling me away from racing in the future. I’ve forgotten the last time I had a summer vacation where I can go to the lake and relax with my friends and go water skiing. My son Garrett is 5 years old and my wife Deedee and I plan on having some children real soon. If my kids want to race I’m going to bring them up the way my dad and uncle brought me up by riding dirt bikes in the mountains for a few years and then if they want to race we’ll go racing. I’d love to have a son who wants to go trail riding or racing but I’m not going to push them into anything, I would hate to do that to them. In the next five years I hope to get two more Grand National titles. Hopefully Chris Carr won’t get any more titles and I will have more titles than he will.
BR: What did it feel like to win the PACE Seattle Mile in front of your hometown fans?
JK: It was real awesome especially on the Super Tracker. I went into that race with a lot of confidence after the New York AMA race where I had a 15-point lead over Carr with one race to go. I told myself that I would just work on the Suzuki and not even bring out the Harley and hopefully beat some of them. I didn’t think that I would win it. I even told my wife "Hey, I’ll be real happy if I get into the main event in Seattle this weekend with this thing." I just wanted to prove to everybody that I could beat the Harleys on a mile track. It was kind of a game to me because if I beat them it’s great and if I don’t it’s no big thing. It’s like in football when an offside penalty flag is thrown against the other team and the quarterback just goes back and throws for a touchdown because he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. I wasn’t expected to win so it was a big bonus and just fantastic to win in front of the NW crowd.
BR: You have seen friends who are racers die or become seriously injured in your career. Did this ever want to make you stop?
JK: No. I’m pretty cold when it comes to that. I really feel for the riders and their families if that happens. I’m a racer and we all know what can happen on the racetrack. If it’s a real serious injury I just walk away and try to block it out of my mind. I’m there to do my job and race. I can’t let it get to my head. I see it get to a lot of peoples minds when they see a bad injury and it scares them. I just look right through it. I’ve got to keep racing and remain focused.
BR: Why were you such a late bloomer in racing?
JK: When I was younger my dad was real involved with me racing. In the mid 80’s when I was about 15 my dad and I started getting in to flat track racing really seriously. The winter of 1988 my dad got injured in a snowmobile accident at his job that resulted in a severe head injury and he has been in a wheelchair at a nursing home ever since. I just lost my driving force for racing after that. I started working for bike shops and saving whatever money I could to buy bikes. My uncle took over for my dad after that and helped me out as much as he could with my two cousins also racing. The main reason for being a late bloomer was that my dad got hurt and I lost his support, and I lost my direction. My dad is still alive but he doesn’t know who I am for the last 12 years. I was 15 years old and ready to take on the world and everything stopped.
BR: What will it take to revive flat track racing in the U.S.?
JK: That answer changes all the time. We have to get the young riders in a beginning series that they can buy the bike straight from the showroom floor like the PACE 400cc four stroke singles class. There were many new faces and that was great. I don’t think you should have to put the motor in a flat track frame to be competitive. To get the manufacturers involved the bike has to look like a dirt bike and not a flat tracker. I rode a couple of events this year on my KTM 400 and finished 4th at the Dallas half-mile on a stock frame. They should have made a rule that everybody has to use the stock manufacturers frame to build the class up.
BR: What is the difference between the Super Trackers and the Grand National bikes?
JK: The Super Trackers are the production-based 1,000cc V-Twin engines used for street and put into a special made flat track frame. You have to put those 120 horsepower motors into a flat track frame or your looking for a disaster. It’s a night and day difference between riding my Suzuki 1,000 Super Tracker vs. my Harley-Davidson XR 750. The Super Tracker revs really quickly to develop that horsepower and is violent to ride at times. The Super Tracker goes faster than heck once it gets hooked up. The problem is getting it hooked up on the track. You think that you can control it by the throttle but it hits so hard that you lose your groove. I have 25 more HP on the Super Tracker than I do on my H-D 750 but I still have faster lap times on the H-D. The H-D just pulls slowly through the revs and constantly builds torque and HP and just plain hooks up. The quickest bike is not always the fastest. The Suzuki is super fast down the straights and a real handful in the corners.
BR: Favorite off-season activity?
JK: My wife and I go snowmobiling all the time when the snow hits the ground. I go out during the hunting season for elk and deer to stock up the freezer. As a hobby over the past few years I have been building log furniture to go with my future log house. My wife Deedee brought out my artistic side by introducing me to bending and welding old horseshoes that I sell in local western stores.
BR: In one word what would you say about your racing career?
JK: Steady.
By Shawn McDonald
Background
Born: Spokane, Washington
Height: 5’7"
Racing weight: 140 lbs
Brother/Sisters: Becky, Heidi
Parents: Sue Thomson and Bob Kopp
Married: Deedee
Children: Garrett age 5
Business: Joe Kopp Racing
Championships:
1999 AMA 600 Hotshoe champion
1999 AMA Supertracker champion
2000 AMA 600 Hotshoe champion
2000 AMA Supertracker champion
2000 AMA Grand National Champion
Major sponsors in your career: Westfall Collins Racing, Jim Plunketts Motorcycle Supply, Doug Donally Logging, Harley-Davidson of Sacramento, Dave Burkes Motorsports, Corbin Seats, Harley-Davidson of Missouri
Joe is the "MAN." He is the first racer to grab the hat trick of the AMA in winning the 2000 600 Hotshoe, Supertracker and the Grand National Championships in one year. Joe is also the first NW racer to win the most historic and prestigious title in the AMA. The Grand National Championship started in 1954 and it only took 46 years for a NW rider to win it. Beyond all this is a man, a racer in the truest sense. Born into a racing family Joe’s life look pre-ordained for greatness. Life took a wrong turn for him, but he never gave up. That is Joe’s mantra to "Never give up." I get tired of saying this but Joe is really a great guy. He is somebody that you could just go up and talk to in the pits without knowing who he is. You walk away from Joe not thinking about his championships, his talent, and his wins you just think "He’s a great guy." He may not have the most talent on the track on a given day but he keeps pushing himself to the edge. That edge for every race is what brings him championships. People forget race winners, but they can always remember champions. Joe Kopp will always be remembered because he is now a legend.
Bench Racer:What got you started in motorcycles in the first place?
Joe Kopp: My dad and my uncle were both racers and I have been around motorcycles and racing since I was born. I started off riding when I was four years old riding an Indian 50cc bike. My dad was a real good hill climber and flat track racer while my uncle was good at motocross and flat track in the late 60’s and early 70’s. They were both all around racers in cross country and scrambles also. I have two cousins that I was raised with and we all had dirt bikes. Every day after school we would ride our bikes in the mountains behind us until we ran out of gas. The thing that got me into motorcycling was trail riding and cross-country. I wasn’t much of a racer to begin with I was just into serious trail riding. My first race was on an Artic Kitty Cat snowmobile when I was five years old. The following summer is when I first raced a motorcycle.
BR: What role did your family have in supporting your early riding?
JK: The whole family supported all of us racing. My dad and uncle were always racing, but they never pushed us to race. If we were at the track and wanted to race we did and if we didn’t want to race we just rode around. My older sister Becky raced quads in flat tracking. I just got my sister and my wife to race against each other in the Powder Puff class at an indoor short track race in Spokane. My sister Becky beat my wife Deedee by quite a distance. Deedee is content in beating Becky on horseback.
BR: Were you successful when you first started?
JK: Not really. I was always in the top three, but I was never the dominant rider. Up to a few years ago I would go over to an indoor short track in Seattle and I wasn’t the one who would usually win. I was never overwhelming, just consistent. I was always right there. It was a long time of being consistent and never letting go. I was definitely a late bloomer. I’ll take the dominant rider title now!
BR: What was your first race that made you stand out from the rest of the crowd?
JK: I would say it would be the 1994 AMA Castle Rock TT National. I led the race for a long time until Chris Carr passed me with six laps to the finish. Carr’s mechanic tells me now that all they can remember about me back then was this longhaired kid from Washington who goes really fast on a TT track. I got quickly tagged with the old "He’s a NW TT specialist." They would say "That’s all we do in the northwest is TT racing." Just in this past year I proved to them that I could go around a circle also. When I go to the Peoria, Illinois TT race I’m called the NW TT specialist though. I started riding the big 750’s soon after that 1994 race.
BR: What was your biggest disappointment?
JK: Up to this point I would say it was in 1995 when I lost the 600cc National Championship to Chris Carr. Castle Rock was the last race of the year and all I had to do was to finish third or better to secure the championship. The night before I had won the regional race and was feeling pretty good. Stanley and I were battling back and forth in second and third places with the rest of the pack a long ways back. Then we got tangled up with each other going into turn one. I drifted up high accidentally and bumped Stanley pretty hard. We both saved it. When we got back on the track we ran into a group of riders and Stanley went down. I was now in fifth place with six or seven laps to the finish. I was able to move up one place to fourth and that tied me in points with Carr. Carr got the championship because he had won more races. I would say that was pretty disappointing.
BR: What was your biggest regret?
JK: Not getting into serious racing at an earlier age. Even though I started racing at age five the kids today start racing for national amateur championships at age twelve, four years before they can get their Pro license. I never went to a professional race until I was nineteen years old. I don’t regret it that much because I learned how to ride a dirt bike in all types of terrain in those years. I jumped into flat track racing at a later age than a lot of riders I compete against like the Hayden brothers. I was racing against the Hayden’s when they were 14 and I was 25 years old. That definitely gives you an advantage. I’m 31 now and I race against guys who are 25 or younger and they refer to me as one of the new kids even though I’m only a few years younger than Chris Carr.
BR: Compare Jay Springsteen’s and Chris Carr’s different personalities?
JK: Jay is an all around nice guy who is always a crowd favorite at any racetrack we go to. Jay still drives as hard as he can after 25 years of professional racing. He is such a super guy that after signing autographs for all these years he still takes so much time to sign each and every autograph. He still puts a star above the "i" in his name and never gets sloppy even if there are a thousand people in line waiting. Chris is also good with the fans and is a good public speaker for our sport. Chris is real serious on the track and is kind of hard to be friends with on race day. He thinks that he shouldn’t be talking with you if you are one of his competitors that day. That’s one of the reasons I go over and talk to him during race day because I know it bugs him. During the race day he comes across very cold because he is so intense on winning that it comes back to haunt him when at some tracks he gets booed by the fans.
BR: What attributes make a championship racer?
JK: Just to never give up! If I’m going slow in a qualifier early in the day I find a way to make me mad or some way to fire me up by the final event. I just won’t give up even if I am in the back of the pack that day.
BR: Throughout your racing career who was your greatest national rival?
JK: Chris Carr. Carr is a good TT racer and I am too. Whether it was a TT or a circle track I’ve always tried to beat him because he is a great racer at every racetrack. He is the man to beat. I’m a good friend with all the national competitors. I try to visit at each race most of the other racers in their pits. I think that it psyche’s them out a little bit that I come over to talk to them when later on we’ll be dicing it out on the track. Sometimes I catch myself talking too much when I should be concentrating on setting the bike up for the racetrack. To me it’s just another day in life and I enjoy people and racing.
BR: Who was your greatest NW racing rival?
JK: Danny Stanley would be the man. We have always been rivals up to this very minute. Any time we’re together on the track it’s blood and guts. We have been having this feud ever since we started together in Pro-Am in 1991. We’re good friends until we get on the track and sometimes it gets pretty violent out there.
BR: Who was the best racer you saw or raced against?
JK: I always looked up to Bubba Shobert. I thought that he was one of the best all around riders ever. Bubba accomplished so much in his last years of racing on flat tracks and roadracing before he got hurt. Scott Parker and Ricky Graham were great champions but I think that Bubba had just a little more than they did. Bubba had a lot of natural talent and drive that put him out in front of everyone.
BR: What do you think made you different from all the other racers and made you a champion?
JK: Hard work, training and focus. I really focus on race day, when I’m not talking to someone, on bike setup and track conditions. I worked out this past summer by myself and I think that helped me to focus even more and keep pushing myself. I train by bicycling and running in the heat and humidity of Missouri during the summer race season. I didn’t have a plan for winning three championships this year, but I had a dream. I was able to get a second place at the first race in Daytona and that gave me the confidence from there till the end of the season to go for it. Consistency was going to give me a shot at the Grand National Championship. I had won the 600cc and Super Tracker Championships the year before and felt that I could win those both again with some luck. I didn’t think that I had a shot at the Grand National Championship until half way through the season and then I won in Sedalia and that put me back in the point’s race. I’ve never been a dominant racer and haven’t won a bunch of big races so I knew the path to the championship was to be consistent and on the podium as much as possible. I have only won three AMA national races so it wasn’t important for me to win the race, as it was to be on the podium and picking up points.
BR: If you were to start motorcycle racing today, what type of racing would you do?
JK: GNCC (Grand National Cross Country) and Hare Scrambles. I did quite a few National Hare & Hound races in the early 90’s before I went flat tracking seriously. I wanted to race both but I found out that flat tracking pays you money and cross-country racing costs you money.
BR: What was or is your favorite track?
JK: The Peoria TT race track because it’s an all around rider’s track. The rider is more important than the bike at that track and a good dirt bike rider always does well there. I like the jump, the shape of the track and the whole atmosphere surrounding the event. Everybody in that town knows what’s going on that Sunday. You can go to the local gas station and they will say, "You must be going to the TT race." It’s a big town and everybody gets real excited about it.
BR: Do you still play ride today?
JK: I live in Mica, Washington on the edge of a mountain range and I love dodging through trees at speed. Sometimes I unfortunately hit the trees too often.
BR: What advice would you give to a young racer today on becoming the best?
JK: My motto is to never give up. I was never a dominant rider and didn’t win a bunch of races growing up and here I am today the Grand National Champion. I’ve seen a bunch of local racers who used to beat me, and they just gave up their dream. I’m sure their scratching their heads now and saying "I used to beat that guy." To have the determination and drive to make it to your goal no matter what the obstacles might be.
BR: Best party?
JK: My first mile race was the 1995 Sacramento Mile and I was able to qualify for the main event. After the event with friends, family and sponsors we were walking through the parking lot of our hotel when we spotted this old station wagon with a couple of kegs and two cases of champagne bottles inside. We nabbed the full keg and the champagne and went to a friend’s hotel room and sprayed the champagne in the room until it was dripping off the walls. The next morning as I was checking out there was a lady telling the receptionist that somebody had stolen her kegs and champagne. She said that she didn’t care where the champagne was but I would like to find the kegs since I have a deposit on them. I said "Oh yeah I saw some kegs outside a room down the hall from me." She got her kegs back and was happy and we had a great time.
BR: Most memorable moment as a racer? JK: Winning my first National at the 1997 Peoria TT. The year before I had a chance to win it before I went off the jump and crashed into the creek. So it was great to win my first time and not have to dry out my leathers.
BR: You’re the first rider to win the hat trick by bagging three championships has it gone to your head?
JK: I’m definitely overwhelmed and the Grand National Championship hasn’t set in on me yet. The biggest thing that hit me was every year the AMA sends a letter to you stating your national number and last year it was #43 and this year they sent me a letter saying my number would be #1. I went "WOW!" and my wife Deedee promptly had that letter framed because she knew it was special to me. It’s pretty special to be the first NW Grand National Champion and it’s something that no one can take away from me. There have been a lot of NW riders who have chased it like Sonny Burres and Mickey Fay but I was the first to get it. The main reason I think that no rider until now has won the championship from the NW is the traveling. Most of the races are on the east coast or Midwest where riders from that area only have to drive eight hours to race where for us it takes days. If there was one thing to stop me racing it would be the constant traveling from town to town. I love the racing but the traveling gets real old real fast.
BR: How long is the National circuit?
JK: I leave home at the end of April and the last race is at the end of October. Every other weekend I try to get home for some rest and relaxation. My sponsors have helped me quite a bit in airfares for getting home and hotel expenses on the road. My three major sponsors Corbin Seats, Harley-Davidson of Missouri and Dave Burkes are all super excited about me winning three championships this year. Mike Corbin has had a dirt track team the last 4-5 years and was thrilled to get a National Championship with me this year.
BR: What rider from another era do you wish you had a chance to race against in your top form?
JK: I would like to race against Ted Boody, Ricky Graham, Bubba Shobert, Scott Parker and Jay Springsteen in the mid 80’s. Some of them I have raced against and some I haven’t. I would have really liked to race against those guys when they were all young and at the top of their form.
BR: What do you think was the premier era for flat track racing?
JK: I think it would be from 1983 to 1986 in the Camel Pro Series with riders like Springsteen, Parker, Shobert, Graham. For a rider it would probably be in the late 60’s and early 70’s when you could ride 4-5 times a week and there were a lot of riders at every event.
BR: What was your worst crash?
JK: For flat track racing it was in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Ricky Graham came slamming up underneath me and I went hard into the outside concrete wall. My shoulder got banged up bad and that took me out of racing for a few months. I broke my pelvis racing the Mattawa 100 in 1993. I did finish 2nd overall at Mattawa in 1997 though. I love going real fast in the desert and the wide-open racing it provides. I don’t like the rocks very much though. I currently have a KTM 400 that I train with almost every day. I have a MX track in Washington and a couple in Missouri that I use to train on in addition to weights and bicycle riding. I bring the KTM with me on the national circuit and ride it more than my three flat track bikes combined. It’s in need of a little maintenance right now.
BR: How many bones have you broken racing?
JK: I broke my jaw, my pelvis and my nose and I think that was it. I’ve been real lucky after all these racing miles under me. Strangely enough I broke my jaw and my pelvis not in flat tracking but racing at the Mattawa desert races. The nose I broke when I was five years old so I’m not sure if that counts or not.
BR: When will you stop racing?
JK: I will stop racing in about five years from now. If I’m successful in racing the next five years I will be happy in saving money for what I will be doing in business after racing. I’m a real family guy and I love being at home. I can see the constant traveling pulling me away from racing in the future. I’ve forgotten the last time I had a summer vacation where I can go to the lake and relax with my friends and go water skiing. My son Garrett is 5 years old and my wife Deedee and I plan on having some children real soon. If my kids want to race I’m going to bring them up the way my dad and uncle brought me up by riding dirt bikes in the mountains for a few years and then if they want to race we’ll go racing. I’d love to have a son who wants to go trail riding or racing but I’m not going to push them into anything, I would hate to do that to them. In the next five years I hope to get two more Grand National titles. Hopefully Chris Carr won’t get any more titles and I will have more titles than he will.
BR: What did it feel like to win the PACE Seattle Mile in front of your hometown fans?
JK: It was real awesome especially on the Super Tracker. I went into that race with a lot of confidence after the New York AMA race where I had a 15-point lead over Carr with one race to go. I told myself that I would just work on the Suzuki and not even bring out the Harley and hopefully beat some of them. I didn’t think that I would win it. I even told my wife "Hey, I’ll be real happy if I get into the main event in Seattle this weekend with this thing." I just wanted to prove to everybody that I could beat the Harleys on a mile track. It was kind of a game to me because if I beat them it’s great and if I don’t it’s no big thing. It’s like in football when an offside penalty flag is thrown against the other team and the quarterback just goes back and throws for a touchdown because he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. I wasn’t expected to win so it was a big bonus and just fantastic to win in front of the NW crowd.
BR: You have seen friends who are racers die or become seriously injured in your career. Did this ever want to make you stop?
JK: No. I’m pretty cold when it comes to that. I really feel for the riders and their families if that happens. I’m a racer and we all know what can happen on the racetrack. If it’s a real serious injury I just walk away and try to block it out of my mind. I’m there to do my job and race. I can’t let it get to my head. I see it get to a lot of peoples minds when they see a bad injury and it scares them. I just look right through it. I’ve got to keep racing and remain focused.
BR: Why were you such a late bloomer in racing?
JK: When I was younger my dad was real involved with me racing. In the mid 80’s when I was about 15 my dad and I started getting in to flat track racing really seriously. The winter of 1988 my dad got injured in a snowmobile accident at his job that resulted in a severe head injury and he has been in a wheelchair at a nursing home ever since. I just lost my driving force for racing after that. I started working for bike shops and saving whatever money I could to buy bikes. My uncle took over for my dad after that and helped me out as much as he could with my two cousins also racing. The main reason for being a late bloomer was that my dad got hurt and I lost his support, and I lost my direction. My dad is still alive but he doesn’t know who I am for the last 12 years. I was 15 years old and ready to take on the world and everything stopped.
BR: What will it take to revive flat track racing in the U.S.?
JK: That answer changes all the time. We have to get the young riders in a beginning series that they can buy the bike straight from the showroom floor like the PACE 400cc four stroke singles class. There were many new faces and that was great. I don’t think you should have to put the motor in a flat track frame to be competitive. To get the manufacturers involved the bike has to look like a dirt bike and not a flat tracker. I rode a couple of events this year on my KTM 400 and finished 4th at the Dallas half-mile on a stock frame. They should have made a rule that everybody has to use the stock manufacturers frame to build the class up.
BR: What is the difference between the Super Trackers and the Grand National bikes?
JK: The Super Trackers are the production-based 1,000cc V-Twin engines used for street and put into a special made flat track frame. You have to put those 120 horsepower motors into a flat track frame or your looking for a disaster. It’s a night and day difference between riding my Suzuki 1,000 Super Tracker vs. my Harley-Davidson XR 750. The Super Tracker revs really quickly to develop that horsepower and is violent to ride at times. The Super Tracker goes faster than heck once it gets hooked up. The problem is getting it hooked up on the track. You think that you can control it by the throttle but it hits so hard that you lose your groove. I have 25 more HP on the Super Tracker than I do on my H-D 750 but I still have faster lap times on the H-D. The H-D just pulls slowly through the revs and constantly builds torque and HP and just plain hooks up. The quickest bike is not always the fastest. The Suzuki is super fast down the straights and a real handful in the corners.
BR: Favorite off-season activity?
JK: My wife and I go snowmobiling all the time when the snow hits the ground. I go out during the hunting season for elk and deer to stock up the freezer. As a hobby over the past few years I have been building log furniture to go with my future log house. My wife Deedee brought out my artistic side by introducing me to bending and welding old horseshoes that I sell in local western stores.
BR: In one word what would you say about your racing career?
JK: Steady.
