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THE HOBBY OF ACCOUNT MANAGER CLARKE MORIAN

MOTORCYCLES. THE PASSION OF THE MORIAN FAMILY

My passion for motorcycles began when I was about 12. It was on Saturday morning, my dad and I were driving through town, and there it was, a 1978 Yamaha YZ 80 dirt bike. We stopped to look at it and that was all it took! Dad would loan me the money until I could scrounge up enough ($200) to pay him back. That motorcycle catapulted me into a lifelong passion for motorcycles and racing.

Fast forward to circa 2005, I wanted to race again, but was interested in trying another discipline (for years I raced Enduros, time event through the woods). At this point, I said to myself I want to go flat track racing, going in a circle can’t be that difficult.

Well, I was wrong, so I dove in headfirst and almost 20 years later, we are still racing in circles.

Conveying a passion For those not familiar with Flat Track motorcycle racing, here is a brief rundown of what type of racing it is and where the events are held. In the US there are four different types of tracks that are raced on, short track ¼ or shorter, ½ mile, Mile, and TT. The

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short tracks are usually a smooth clay track that “groove up” (rubber from tires gets deposited on to the clay and creates a tacky “groove”). The ½ mile tracks can be either a smooth clay track (usually a car track with banking in the corners) or a “pea gravel or cushion track”. In the Mid-West we have a lot of 1/2mile cushion tracks, as these are horse tracks - “pacers and trotters” primarily, and are at almost every fair grounds in the Mid-West.

Classes offered at the races range from 50cc to 800cc motorcycles.

Most of the motorcycles are based on Motorcross bikes offered by MFG’s Like KTM, Yamaha, Honda, and Kawasaki. Just a few modifications are needed to get started, such as chang-

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ing the wheels/tires for Flat Track and lowering the suspension. Then you are off to the races.

So my time actually racing Flat Track really only lasted 4 to 5 years, until my youngest son was old enough to race (5 yrs old), and then I became Chief Pit crew/mechanic. We had an agreement and told him when he learned how to ride a bicycle, he could get a motorcycle. That back-fired on us quickly - he was 4! However, we made him wait until he was 5 to get him a motorcycle. For us as a family, this was just going to be for fun and to introduce our son to a hobby that could be something he would enjoy for years to come. It wasn’t about the racing as much as it was about some-