VOLUME ISSUE JUNE , P123
Tammy Jo was the middle of
three sisters born to the Kirk fam-
ily on May 6, 1962. Her father,
Tommy Joe Kirk, was a welder
by day, a racer by night and a
Bultaco dealer for fun. Operating
the dealership right out of the
family home in Dalton, Georgia,
Tammy and her sisters grew up
around motorcycles. "As soon
as I could walk," she says "I was
on a motorcycle and I would ride
from daylight to dark."
Racing was an important part
of the business for Tommy; in
addition to being a competitor
himself, he sponsored Grand
National dirt track racer Roger
Crump for several years. When
Tammy was ready to go racing,
the entire family got behind the
effort.
"We spent almost all of our
money to go racing," she recalls.
"We didn't even buy new furniture
for the house—had the same
things for 20 years! When my
older sister got a
job, she put her
money into our race
effort, even though
neither she nor my
younger sister even
rode a motorcycle!"
It didn't take long
for Tammy to see
that girls who play
boys' games would
have to fight just to get on
the track. "We went to a race in
Alabama," she remembers, "and
the promoter said, 'sorry, we
don't have a Powder Puff class'
for her. My dad said, 'well, she's
here to race against the boys'
and of course, he responded
'well, she can't do that' and that
was almost the end of it.
"But my dad wouldn't let it go.
He said, 'are you afraid of her?
That she's going to go out and
beat all of these boys?' So, the
guy relented and I got to race.
"And I did beat all of the boys,
too," she adds!
It became the game that
Tommy and Tammy would have
to learn to play, almost every
time they would visit a new track.
"Dad would have to shame the
promoter into letting me race."
And, just as she discovered
that night at Holiday Downs, boys
would ride harder and some
-
times even out of control, as they
tried to beat the fast girl from
Dalton.
"We knew the dad of that kid,"
Kirk says. "He was always put
-
ting pressure on his son to not
get beaten by me. It was always
a challenge for us."
Tammy's career advanced to
the AMA Grand National cir
-
cuit; as a novice and junior, she
battled riders like Billy Herndon
on her way to obtaining her
Expert license in Class C racing.
She connected with Lawrence
"Smitty" Smith of Smitty's Harley-
Davidson in Moundsville, West
Virginia, who put her on what
was going to become her favorite
motorcycle—the XR750.
"I loved going fast" she says
today "and I loved that motor
-
cycle. I only weighed 115 pounds
back then, so it was kind of a
challenge on the half-miles, but I
really felt at home on the miles.
job, she put her
younger sister even
for Tammy to see
that girls who play
(Right) Tammy and
her father, Tommy,
were quite the team.
Tommy made sure
Tammy had what she
needed to beat the
boys. (Left) In 1983,
Kirk became
the first female to
qualify for an AMA
dirt track final.
