Tribune photo by Dan McGee - Layne Kolbet stands with his trusty Honda motorcycle in the shop he has at his home. The veteran motocross racer is hoping for better times in the sport that he's loved most of his life.
"My grandfather, Vic Lambert rode both my dad Richard Kolbet and his brother rode, both families rode, my dad's side and my mom's side," said.
A Reno native Kolbet graduated from Reno High School in 1986 as did his father years earlier. And his mother is a Wooster High School alumni.
Racing wasn't the only sport Kolbet competed in during his growing up years.
"I played football and a lot of baseball. I played senior Babe Ruth, had a chance to go to college playing baseball and was too wrapped riding my dirt bike," he said. "I started racing in 1980, when I was 13-years-old."
He also raced BMX from age 12 to 16, which led to a friendship with pro snow boarder Shawn Paler that lasts to this day. With this experience, he knew exactly what to expect in this first motocross.
"I remember I rode a YZ-125 and I had to beat a girl as back then they only had Novice, Junior and Pro," he said. "Oh, we scrapped and I don't remember who she was but I remember doing it. It was a lot of fun and from then on, I was hooked."
"I didn't go to college but took Beer Drinking 101," he said. "I worked for my grandparents at a commercial laundry they owned. I was always in love with motocross so I wanted to work at a motorcycle shop and Rich Thorwaldson gave me a chance one day."
He first hired on at BVH as a book keeper, something he did for his grandparents. But that soon changed.
"The first day I was there we were putting things away and I ended up working the parts counter for years," he said. "Then I was the service writer, service manager, sold bikes, worked on bikes, I've done everything at one point in time I that 20-years."
Finally Kolbet wound up as the Assistant General/Parts Manager.
"I preferred to be called the janitor as I took care of everything," he said with a laugh.
Reflecting on his racing record he is proud of being the Expert champion a couple of times for the Over The Hill Gang and in the Over the Hill Gang series, where he traveled to five nationals, Kolbet placed second in the 30+ Expert class. His personal highlight was Mammoth in 2001 when he placed seventh in the 30+ Expert class while his father was seventh or eighth in the 50+ class, on Father's Day weekend.
"That was so cool. And my dad is 66-years-old and still rides all the time," he said.
Like most racers, Kolbet appreciates all the help various people and products have given him over the past years.
At the top of his list are the Thorwaldson family, BVH, Pro Circuit and Ron Hinson from Hinson Clutch Components. Other sponsors are Richie West, of West Racing, Factory Connection, Works Connection, Answer Racing and Oakley Goggles.
After two decades at BVH, Kolbet made a major career change this summer.
"I work for Tucker Rocky Distributing the second largest distributor of motorcycle parts in the world," he said. "I work from home and my car and I go to every motorcycle shop in Northern Nevada, which is cool because there are a lot of neat people in this town that work in shops. I do Grass Valley, my only California stop, where I have three dealerships, Thin Air in Truckee is one of my accounts and I basically do from Highway 50 and up."
Like any industry, tough times are bringing changes.
"The motorcycle business is suffering. This summer the actual service work went up drastically for things to get old bikes back on the road," he said. "Parts were selling but the biggest drawback was that the major unit selling was down."
He added that while scooter sales were up those owners usually don't add accessories, like wind screens and saddlebags, or keep up with service like those that own street bikes so. This is due to the fact that a scooter is pretty bulletproof, is mainly ridden in town and usually an owner only need to replace tires.
"The biggest issue is that people want to buy new motorcycles, motocross bikes, quads and the like but no body is lending any money," he said. "It's hard to get financed and with the price of motorcycles these days, people just don't go in and write a check for them as they are as expensive as cars are in some aspects."
He added that a shop stays in business through the sale of accessories, like jackets and other things as well as selling new bikes.
Asked about the sport of motocross, Kolbet said, "I'm always optimistic. There's no other way to be."
Still he doesn't like what he's seeing in a sport he's competed in for most of his life.
He explained that years ago area racing was part of AMA District 36, then the GFI series, CMC and finally MX West, a unified series he feels set the stage for the strongest period of motocross racing this area has seen.
"MX West was consistent, the crowds were big, they had the Nevada State Championship and it drew a lot of people," he said. "It was group effort, MX West brought in a group package and there was an eight-race series. And you knew that no body else was competing with those eight races."
Eventually MX West was replaced by SMRA (Sierra Motocross Racing Association), which started off strong. Then Silver Peak MX came into existence but it resulted in a division among the riders that Kolbet feels didn't benefit all the riders
"And now with Silver Peak kind of being on the wayside, GFI coming on board and SMRA only having three tracks it's divided up so much that the rider base doesn't work together as a group like it used to before," he said. "So everybody is trying to get weekends and there are only so many weekends in a year and it gets to the point that no body is getting any benefit."
He also noted that those riders, who are serious about racing are now having to travel over the hill to either Northern or Southern California track.
He said the tracks at Marysville, Hang Town and others used to come over here and take notes on how to attract riders. Now he feels this is the area no one wants to take note of.
"Before the competition was here and people wanted to be here, you could go to a race and it didn't matter which class you raced, there were people to race against. " he said. "I like to race against people but I don't want to spend the day at a track and be racing against one other person or being the only one in my class. That's killing the sport right there.
"There's no unity and the problem is I think that some people are so wrapped up in something that happened to them selves or somebody else, or some other agenda they don't stop and look at what's happening to the sport and everybody around them."
As an example he used what's happening between local motocross and those that race on the desert.
"The rider turnouts are low but MRANN is growing and motocross is shrinking, that tells you something in itself," he said. "I know a lot of my friends that have ridden MRANN races, they're well organized, fun, they get lots of riding in a short period of time and they are done for the day. Like motocross used to be."
Kolbet is also aggravated at those riders that seem to think promoters don't deserve to make money on the races they stage.
"I've never understood that, if a guy puts his neck on the line and does everything he can to put on a race, why not let him make a couple of dollars. The riders make money going to their jobs but because a promoters job is putting on a race how come he can't make money," he said. " But yet they bitch and moan if that promoter isn't there to put on a race."
Looking at the overall situation, Kolbet is hoping that someone or the riders themselves would take a look at the big picture and put their personal feelings aside.
"If you get right down to it, the riders are the ones that are suffering," he said. "I sit around and try to think of an answer and I don't know what the answer is but something has got to change. I mean some of these groups have started off with big tracks and now they've dwindled down to just a few, that's got to say something."
Kolbet acknowledges that these tough economic times are going to hurt both the industry and racing. Even thought motorcycle competition is the least expensive form of motor sports, it's funded by expendable income and when that's not available racing gets is one of the first things to be cut from a person's budget.
Still he's hopeful that a solution to the current situation in area motocross racing can be found.
"I just hope that everybody would just sit back and think what's better for the sport rather than for themselves," he said. "That's the biggest issue as it seems everybody has some personal issue but if they sat back and said, 'what's best for the majority, not the minority,' maybe they could come up with a better answer."
This veteran racer hopes his sport will solve its problems and live up to its potential but he knows it will take some work.
OTHER RACING NEWS
• The hoped for Hangover Motocross Race, that was to be staged in Fernley by the Old Timer's chapter on New Year's Day has apparently been canceled.
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