After Mitch’s injury, he bought a rundown Husqvarna shop with the help of this parents, Norma and Jim. It wasn’t easy to go from spinal injury rehab to the top of the motocross world. He said that he loved the challenge of making “slow bikes fast” and that “slow bikes needed more help.” I told him that people didn’t buy slow bikes - and that he should concentrate on making good bikes better, not bad bikes good. I suggested that perhaps he should make products for the more popular bikes. I convinced him to stop printing T-shirts that had “Pro Circuit Products” turned into the acronym PCP. I broke it to him gently that he would never get rich making parts for Husky 125s - even if all 24 people who owned one bought a pipe. Today, Bill Keefe (61) is the General Manager of Troy Lee Designs and Mike Monaghan (102) is still racing at Glen Helen.Īs Pro Circuit grew I had many long talks with Mitch about the motorcycle business. “Nope, those are the pipes we have already tested for this coming season,” he said. “Are you cleaning out old inventory,” I asked him. Once in the race shop there were 32 Kawasaki KX125 pipes laid out on the floor. There was nothing he wouldn’t try - failure was just part of the learning process. He was amazingly curious and, most of all, he was willing to push the envelope. Behind the mirth, Mitch was the consummate engine tuner. I liked it so much that I stayed on to join Mitch’s merry pranksters. Troy Lee on the Pro Circuit Husqvarna four-stroke in 1984. Troy Lee went on from his days as a Team Pro Circuit rider to become a painter, clothing magnate and team owner. And, there were so many food fights, that it was hard to find a restaurant in Anaheim that didn’t have Mitch’s photo on the wall. If you left your truck unguarded they would slip jack stands under the rear wheels so that you would just spin the wheels when you tried to leave. You’d see young shop rats duct taped to office chairs in the parking lot. But, he had to promise me that it wouldn’t blow any of my appendages off.Ī few days later I went to his shop in Anaheim…it was in an old drive-through laundromat and had a cast of characters hanging out that thought they were in a Keystone Cops movie. “Fast” and “Husqvarna 125” didn’t belong in the same sentence…and even though this one had the lifespan of a gypsy moth…I told Mitch that if he ever got it back together again, I’d like to test it. I was intrigued by the idea of a fast Husqvarna 125. Mitch believed that If it was worth doing right, it was worth doing wrong….as many times as it took to get it right. He had to have shrapnel, smoke and pyrotechnics. He couldn’t just catch a ring in a port or seize quietly. That is when I first met Mitch…and that day symbolized everything that is Mitch Payton today. I had never heard a bike blow up like that, so I walked across the pits to see what had happened. I thought a bomb had gone off! Instead it was the engine on Mitch Payton’s Husqvarna CR125. I was at Saddleback Park testing a 1979 Yamaha YZ400G when I heard a loud explosion. At the time, I was the only person in the motorcycle industry who knew who Mitch Payton was…it didn’t take long before everyone knew him. I agreed to do an MXA test on the first motocross bike that he had built. He didn’t have two pennies to rub together, but he had the drive to be the best. He was a 17-year-old kid with a Husqvarna shop (that was located in an old Laundromat in Anaheim). When I first met Mitch Payton 40 years ago he was fresh out of rehab from a paralyzing desert racing accident.
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