Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW e comes from a famil y of su ccess fu l off-road racers, bu t Mike Lafferty Jr. is the first of the Laffertys, and . th e first from New Jer sey, to win an AMA Nati onal Enduro Championship. Not long after clinching th e title, we spoke with Mike ab out his triumphant year on the trail. lliJ You ju st won a Nat ional End uro Championsh ip. Wh at do es th at m ean to you? 11 means a lot. It wa s a big bonus for all th e w ork I' ve been d oing . Th ere w as finall y something at the end of the road . 1I' s so me thing I alw ays w anted to d o to be the first one in th e famil y and the first on e from Jer sey. 11 m eans a lot to me, to come all the way fro m w he re I started . Te ll us ab out yo ur family. What is the fam ily philosophy here? Well , when I first started ou t - when I firs t decided to ride the Nationals - I left AMA NationalEnduro Champion Mike Lafferty Jr. rod e for KTM; and in '95 I joined the KTM team. KTM open ed th e d oor for me . Th ey said : "Well, w e'll give yo u a bike, an oppo rtuni ty to go to the Nationals. We'll ha ve a tru ck ther e for you and help you out." 11 w as just an o pe n door; I came up at just th e perfect tim e. Th e fa m ily said , " H ey, if yo u wa n t to do that. giv e it a try." And here we are. So y o u're the y o u nges t b r o t he r of th re e? Yep. I'm 21, Richard is 22, and Jack is 30. An d J a ck has been ri ding foreve r, hasn't he? He' s be en an ECEA cha mpion eigh t times, and yo ur father's been raci ng fo r ho w lo ng? . I can 't figure that out. I kept hearin g 25 years, but I've been hearing that for five years now. How about w hen yo u we re gro wing going, I'll see you later." And that wa s it. Wh enever we didn' t feel like racing or had a bad attitude or something, he never tried to correct us . He'd say, "Can [ help you anyhow?" And if the answer was no, he'd say, "Okay," and walk away. A lot of people think, "O h, th ey rid e all th e time," but we ride because we want to, not because an ybody is making us . No, Dad never pushed us . If Jack or Rich or I had a problem, it was no big deal - we'd ge t th rough and we'd s till go to races because that's what we wanted to d o. I look back now, and I have to say I have a lot of fun at the Nationals, and I know a lo t of people , and they're all fu n, but there's no thing like riding local. I miss thos e races so much, because yo u get to ride around wi th your buddies. You know the people in front of you, know By Paul ClipperfTra ii Rider magazine Photos by Jay Ch ittenden and Mark Ka riya like, lets get started right out of the ga te. That' s what Al (Ra ndt, Lafferty 's mechanic) said . H e sa id, "Let's get 'em right out of the ga te." And I wa s kind of slow off the start, but then I got faster, and I w ound up beating Ty in the last section . I still got seco nd (overall in the event), but I beat Randy by three min utes, and when I saw that I beat Ty in that last sect ion - tw o checks, ba ck to back - he w en t 4-8 or so mething, and I went 4-7, and th at right there gave me the last confid ence I needed ; I thought, "Th at's it, man , yo u ' re there!" And this carried yo u into G eo rgia, the sec ond event. What happened there? I never let off. I ra ced from 8:37 (a .m.) until the time I was done. I just pinned my bike, and that thin g ran awesome all day - I never let up. I hit the first section - it was over 10 miles long - and I beat everyone by two minu tes . From there on out, I knew th is is it. I could do this all day. I jus t kept it goi ng tha t day; I had Mike Lafferty dom inated this year's AMA National Enduro circuit. , . ~. , t:o:: ~. ~ 30 eve r y th ing beh ind . I jus t said, " I'rn gonna go racing !" Th ey were all su ppo rti ve, but hey, they knew th at not a lot of people succeed at th is - it' s ve ry hard to d o . Da d w a sn' t beh ind it 100 perc ent; I was worki ng, I quit my job, a nd sa id , " I' rn going to go d o this ." I was go ing to ded icat e all my tim e to it, a n d th a t' s w ha t I d id . It w a s a b ig chance, but it was a big opportunity for me, soI just took it. That wa s three yea rs ago, a nd since th en, I' ve climbed th e lad der and succeeded in my goals. So wha t did you do before that? Rode local en d uros. In 1993 and ' 94, [ rod e Kawa sak is a n d w on th e ECE A (East Coast End uro Association) Cha mpionship . Before th at, in '9 1 and '92, I fini shed second overa Il to my brother Jack. '94 was th e last yea r Jeff Ru ssell up? Was there pressure on you to ride endures? To race and do well? A lot of people believe that the Lafferty bo ys are bred as racers, and that's all they are. Dad never , ever pu shed it o n us . H e look ed a t it as time to ge t away fro m work, tim e to ge t away from yo u r life throu ghout the week. He pu t in way too m any hours in th e s ho p (as a n a u to mech an ic), and when he got out to the races, he liked to race, but more than an y- th in g he liked th e p eople . Like m e, I enjoyed the peo ple so much mo re tha n any thing else I could do. There was never any pressure. When I was growing up, if I go t hurt, or got burned out, or d id n't feel like rid ing, it wa s oka y - Dad was go ing any ho w; he'd say, "That's all right, I'm the people in back of yo u, you eve n know the peop le markin g yo u r ca rd! 11's just fun to rid e local races . I love.'e m! . Well, let's go b a ck to the National Series and take a look at some of the events, and see w hat yo u thought about them. What kind of feeling d id you have at Coalinga, California, at th e first National? When I we n t out to Californi a, I already had in my mind the fact that I had won th e ISDE Qualifier in Tennessee . Th at h e lped m y co nfi de nce . Ra nd y (Hawkins) w as there, (Scott) Plessin ger, Chris Sm ith, so when I we n t o u t to Coa li nga, I a lrea dy had m om entum go ing in my mind . And even thou gh Ty Davis w as th ere - he always kicks butt there - an d Randy was there, but it was, Randy by tw o, then I poi nted him again . . and I wou nd u p beating him by three or fou r m in utes. So tha t was it. Th e next w eekend w as Texas, so I drove straig ht th ere with a fu ll, big head . I went to Texas w ith a ll tha t mo men tu m a n d kicked th ei r bu tts aga in . I thought, "Hey, man, if I ca n beat Randy in Ceor gia , I can beat Ty in Texas," and I did. H e burned a check - at least I th ink he burned a chec k - an d I just kept going , rod e as hard as I co u ld a ll day a n d en ded up beating him by a minute. That just ad ded to th e m omen tu m . After a couple weeks off, we had to go to Wash ing to n. My friends Lind say Pirie and Mil t drove the truck , a nd I think th at helped me out, becau se I didn't have to drive th e truck to Washington State. I flew out th ere, th ey picked me up, we

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