Industry Insights | Ft. Randy Hawkins 7

In this week's Industry Insights off-road legend Randy Hawkins tells us about how he went from four wheels to two, how his career path let to owning AmPro Yamaha, and more.

For the full interview, check out the Vital MX podcast right here. If you're interested in the condensed written version, scroll down just a bit further.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: It's great to talk to an off-road legend today. How are you, Randy?

Randy Hawkins: Doing good. The race year is over, but in the blink of an eye, we'll be back at it for 2024. It's exciting and getting things going. We like to say we have some time off, but as a true racer, there's no such thing. We're doing great, and the team is looking good.

Vital MX: You grew up in South Carolina. How did you get into motorcycles? Was it something your family already did?

Randy: It was kind of by accident. My dad was always into cars. He was into dirt track stuff, and he sponsored some cars through his business. He even got to the point of having a NASCAR team. It wasn't a full-schedule team but a limited-schedule team. Back in the day, you could have guys like David Pearson, and NASCAR would actually pay you to have these guys come to the race. Where our race shop is today used to be a NASCAR shop before they became giant conglomerate shops. So, I was always around four-wheels, and I was into go-karting. I was doing well and went to a national around our area in Darlington the same week we had a NASCAR event. I was told I probably wouldn't make the field, but I qualified fourth and was third in the first race. People were asking, "Where did this guy come from?" It would be like someone showing up for an outdoor national motocross and almost getting on the podium. I started in the second race, and the kid behind me flipped his kart. He got up and ran to the fence where a mechanic and my dad were standing, and he was bleeding. He was fine, but they red-flagged the race, and my dad said, "You go out there and do your best, but we're going to talk about your go-kart career." So, I went out and got fourth or fifth in a race I wasn't expected to make the field. I thought, "Wow! This is pretty promising." Then, when we got home, all my go-kart stuff got sold. My dad said, "Until you're old enough to have roll bars around you, four wheels are over." Luckily, one of the mechanics rode motorcycles, and he said, "Why don't you start riding motorcycles with us?" I was about 14 and said, "Sure." I wanted to do something and started riding off-road with these guys locally. I started getting faster and went to a race that year. I was thinking, "I'm pretty good at this now." I raced the 125 C, which was the lowest class you could be in, and I finished dead last. The woman beat me, and it tore me up. I made a decision right then that I was going to figure it out. From that point on, I was an off-road racer. It was an accident, but the good Lord had a direction. My mechanic, Dale Stegall, became my lifelong best friend and mechanic for my entire career. I went from a four-wheel guy to a motorcycle rider. 

Vital MX: How did your dad feel about motorcycles? There's no roll cage there, either.

Randy: It didn't bother him. He had ridden motorcycles a bit. Maybe they didn't think of it the same as being on a track with all the others. It might have been different if I had raced moto. I was able to move through the ranks quickly, and they knew I was doing good. I'm not sure why he was more relaxed. A funny story: later on, we were at Daytona, and I won the Alligator Enduro, Miguel Duhamel won the 200, and I think Ezra Lusk had won Atlanta or Daytona. They sent us to Charlotte to jump into cars and drive around the track for MotoWorld. Now, a lot of guys don't know what MotoWorld is, but back in the day, that was a big thing. Kyle Petty was the celebrity instructor, and everybody went out to do their lap times. They would give you a fast and average lap time, and my average lap time was faster than their fastest. They asked how I could do that, not realizing I had grown up around NASCAR and had been around many of those tracks with David Pearson in a rental car. He'd take me around the track, so I felt I had some experience. 

Vital MX: When you decided to go pro, how much support did you have? I believe that was in '84. 

Randy: My first off-road race was in 1982, and then I got to go to the ISDE in '84. That was my first ISDE, and I kind of started up the ladder. Things started turning for me in '87. I signed my first contract with Husky in '87. Things had gone well for me in '86 as a rookie. I was like a college student eating Ramen noodles and barely making it, but I had a contract. I wasn't making any money, but I wasn't costing my parents money, and I wasn't having to cut grass to get gas money. I was surviving. Then I got hurt in '87 when I was 19, and Husky said, "We don't think it's going to work out." They basically fired me at the end of '87. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. This was the direction I wanted to go. So, at the beginning of '88, we had a local race here called Sumpter. It's a national enduro now, but my dad had a Honda CR250. I decided I was going to ride in this race. I wasn't planning on even riding the nationals. I thought I'd go back to college or something, but I went to this local race on a CR250 and won by like five minutes on a bike that was unbelievable compared to the Huskys. It would stop, turn, and had a fast motor, like "Wow!" Nothing against Husky, but it was like when you drink the Kool-Aid of something else, and you don't know any difference. It was like, "My gosh, what have I been doing?" So, I put a plan together to take his Honda as my practice bike and then buy a new one to race some nationals and see how it goes. I had met Charles Halcomb when I was at the ISDE, and out of the blue, he called me. He was in the racing department at American Suzuki and said, "We want to do something in '89. We know you don't have anything in '87, but if you will be part of our program in '89. Would you be interested?" I said, "Shoot, yeah." I'd never even ridden a Suzuki. It was a leap of faith. They sent me two bikes about three weeks before the first national enduro in Coalinga, California. They gave me a championship bonus and some parts and said, "Go for it." I went out and rode the thing in California and got in the top five. The first time I raced the thing was at a national, and I won the National Enduro Championship that year. Once again, it's how faith changes things. I went from being on the Husky, then not knowing what I would do, to riding the Honda to Suzuki. Then Charles allowed me to win the national championship on a bike I'd never ridden or thought about. It wasn't the cookie-cutter story.

Vital MX: It was almost an 'overnight success' story.

Randy: Yeah. I was on the radar a bit with Husky because I'd gone to the ISDE and had some good results. I had won some A classes and was a guy they wanted to keep in their fold for a couple of years. Once I got hurt, they let me go, probably assuming I'd just go away. 

Vital MX: Before going pro, who were your heroes?

Randy: Until I was 14, I was into driving go-karts, so I didn't follow any motorcycle racing. I wasn't around it. A funny story was when I was at Suzuki, I would go to dealer shows. I was just a country boy, and here comes Bob Hannah. He's a really good guy, but if he doesn't like you, you'll know. I didn't know all of his accomplishments, and we'd go to these dealer shows, and he'd say, "Hawk, sit here beside me." So, I got to know him not as a hero but as a friend. I also met Roger DeCoster at Suzuki, and I had no idea who he was until after. Over the years, we would talk. Then I wore MSR gear and rode with Malcolm Smith, and it was the same thing. It seemed I was living in a bubble because I was blessed to meet these legends, but they weren't my heroes. I just rode my dirt bike.

Vital MX: You had 73 AMA National wins, seven AMA National titles, and numerous others. What stands out most when you look back at your career?

Randy: I try to tell some of the young kids, "Enjoy the moment and friendships you build along the way because sometimes you get caught up and don't. You're only a racer for a short time. The lifelong friendships last a lifetime." The moments of getting to see and do things and being a part of doing what I love to do are what stick out. I went to different parts of the world to ride dirt bikes, meet people, win championships, and be inducted into the Hall of Fame. It's hard to say one that sticks out. Enjoy life as a racer in general because it goes by too quickly.

Vital MX: Do one or two events stick out to you as a favorite?

Randy: The ISDE was always good to me, but the one that sticks out is a local series called Little Brown Jug that was born in the mountains I grew up riding in. I rode that event as a C rider and eventually became an overall winner. To date, I have the most overall wins of anyone in the history of that club. From my understanding, that club is one of the top three oldest in the country as an AMA-sanctioned event. They have a revolving trophy, and I've retired it twice. No one else has done that. The flip side is that as land use has become more difficult, it had to be moved. We have a family farm in Union, and I let the Greenville Enduro riders start on that property now. So, it's cool that it's an event that was near and dear to my heart as a racer, and I can still be involved with it. That's a key favorite event of mine. I also went to Japan for the Hurricane Enduro nine years in a row and won it. I created a true friendship with a group of Japanese riders, and to this day, I still help Masami Hoshino, the event organizer. As a matter of fact, the top off-road honor in Japan is the Randy Hawkins Award. It's like getting the Dick Butkus Award in football. Every year, Masami gives me a list of kids who may deserve that award, and we discuss it. That experience of riding in Japan is high on the list. Then, as far as national racing areas, not counting Greenville, the Louisiana group has always been a favorite. The Cajun Classic down there and those people; you talk about cooking, eating, and having a good time, there is no place better. 

Vital MX: You stepped away from professional racing in '04. What brought that decision on?

Randy: I happened to be in California, and I was listening to something, and I heard Joe Montana say he wanted to retire on his terms and not someone saying he should retire. At that time, I hadn't thought about retirement, but I found it interesting. Fast-forward to '04, and things were going well for me. I had won championships, and this young punk named Michael Lafferty came on the scene. Michael is a good friend of mine, and I like to aggravate him. He's a legend with his championships, but I raced him hard. He was younger than me, and I could outsmart him, but he was younger, stronger, and better than me. You mentioned I was a seven-time champion, but I have more second-place finishes than anybody in the National Enduro Championship than anybody. I have six, and those were behind Mike. If he hadn't been on the scene, the seven could be 12 or 13. Who knows (Laughs). He was getting better, and I was getting older. My mind was telling me you can do this, but in racing, you have to be able to react. As you get older, your timing changes. I had a window where I almost beat him in '03, and then in '04, he had an injury that catapulted me to the lead. On top of that, I had twin daughters born in '04, and to be honest, I used them as an excuse. I saw that Mike was improving and I was getting older, and it was that time for me. Racing was 17 years of my life, and I didn't know anything else. I knew I needed to start thinking about what else there was to do. As I said, my girls were born, and to race at that level, you must be able to focus on the task at hand. You have to be selfish with your time, and I wanted to be there for my family. It was difficult to do, but once I came to terms with it, it was a huge weight off my shoulders, and I do not regret it. I knew Mike would probably have a step on me the next year. Could I have been there with him with some racing luck and hard work? I could have probably run another championship with him and had it neck-and-neck, but how much better was it for me to have twin girls born in November and go out as the National Champion?

Vital MX: That's the way to go out. Was that the year you started AmPro Yamaha? How did that come about?

Randy: That was a little before that. I was at Suzuki from '88 to '96, and management had changed. They no longer felt I was a valuable asset to the program. It shocked the industry because I had won the National Enduro Championship, and they released me. I had helped them build that program from nothing. Then, I had a good offer from KTM in '97, but it's ironic how things happen. Mike Guerra at Yamaha contacted me and said they were interested as well. Numbers-wise, hands down, KTM was the better program. The way I looked at it, I had been fighting KTM most of my career to beat them. If I go ride for them, it's going to ride for the enemy. I felt Yamaha was a new program, and they said they had some new things coming, and they felt I could be the guy to help. That was the era of the new four-strokes. So, I took the direction of Mike Guerra and, with the Yamaha program, created AmPro in '98. Barry Hawk was my first rider, along with myself, and after that, it was Jason Raines. We didn't know where it would go, but the idea was to grow with Yamaha. I was the only satellite program. We were factory-supported, and they liked the idea of hiring Am-Pro, and we took care of their program. If you think about it, where is Yamaha's program in moto and road racing? It makes it easier for them to deal with one head instead of trying to put a bunch together. Now, we're contracted through '24 and going on 26 years. Going back through my career, I would never have left Husky if they hadn't released me. Then the door opened with Suzuki, who I wouldn't have left if they hadn't released me. Look where their racing program is now. It doesn't exist. So, the Good Lord's directions, timing, and blessings put me in a position at Yamaha I never would have been in at Husky or Suzuki. I tell these riders sometimes things happen that put you in a better place. 

Vital MX: Your team, AmPro Yamaha, has been very successful. You won the XC2 championship with Liam Draper and the WXC championship with Rachael Archer this year. I feel your team has been one of the dominant teams for years.

Randy: We've had our ups and downs. KTM has done a great job. Kawasaki was big in the late 80s and early 90s and kind of went away. Now, they are coming back strong. We're probably the oldest team on pit row as far as a constructed team. We've had some dominant years, and others we've had to rebuild. A lot of it is based on budgets and other things. We've won at the highest level, being National Enduro champion and GNCC champion with Paul Whibley. Some people don't know, but Walker Fowler was under my flag at one time. So, we've won a national quad championship and a UTV championship with Cody Miller. We have brought them the national championship in every arena Yamaha has asked us to step into. Have we done it every year? No, but the faith Yamaha has in me is to give me a task, and I might not accomplish it the first year, but eventually, I can get there. I think we've brought more riders to their first national championship than any other team on pro-row.