OMRA

About me: I am a native Minnesotan who has lived in the Pacific Northwest since I was 8. I consider McMinnville my home town although I now happily reside in Washougal, Wa. I met my wife Wende at an OMRA desert race in 1989, although we really started hanging out together after I met her again at Trask in 1990. We were married in 1993 and now have 2 daughters- Kayla and Ashley. Both girls enjoy riding and are entertaining the thought of racing although neither has competed yet. I am self employed as a painting contractor. Wende and I also own a Christmas tree farm. We are also both actively involved in the NORA motorcycle club

Favorite riding areas: Tough to make this call. I have ridden in many different areas and enjoyed most of them for different reasons. I would say of the areas I currently get to ride, Morrow County OHV ranks up there, as does Starvation Ridge. I am also fortunate to live on a large piece of property where I have a track and trail system developed. My all time favorite is probably Colorado, where I rode the Colorado 500 a few times.

First bike: 1972 Suzuki TS90. My dad swears I rode 2000 miles in first gear around the 5 acres we lived on. I had 2 more Suzuki's after that one, then got a new 1981 KX125, starting a long string of green bikes that continues to this day.

Riding experience: I rode my first race in 1979 at the Mike Stewart Enduro (OMRA event!) I let the guy behind me catch me in each section and then just followed him. He ended up winning the C class and I got 2nd! Trophied my first race! At 15 I started racing MX in the 4-H club in Mac, then onto the bigger tracks like Mulkey Park in McMinnville, as well as Mt. View and Washougal. In 1983 I won the Woodland Winter Series in the 125 Jr. class. I also won the local qualifier for Loretta Lynn's, went to the regional qualifier in Huron, CA where I qualified for the nationals, but decided not to go because I truly got smoked pretty bad in CA and thought it would be a big waste of money to travel to TN to get smoked even worse.

I then started riding some off-road stuff locally and found that I really enjoyed it more than MX. I started riding the expert class when I was 17. I steadily improved until I won my first overall at age 21. By the time I was 22, my speed was much better and I won quite a few OMRA events overall. I also raced the Baja 1000 that year and placed 2nd in the 250 Pro class and placed 7th overall. From '89 through '97 I raced a bunch of national events from Hare and Hounds to National Qualifiers with pretty good results most of the time. I also rode the OMRA races whenever I could in both the ISDE series and the XC series. In 1997 I teamed with Rick Aldridge to race the Silver State series in Nevada, where we finished 2nd in the 250 Pro class. After that, I took several years off of racing to concentrate on my family and related goals. I started back up in '06, when I won the 30 Expert class in the XC's and GP's.

Knee issues have slowed me down since then, but I'm on the comeback trail!

I'd also like to say: I feel that motorcycle riding and racing has thoroughly enriched my life beyond measure. My getting involved with NORA and the OMRA is my attempt to give back to my sport and perhaps help others experience this great activity to the same level of joy that I have.