Marty Hart on the Yamaha YXZ, the Future of UTV Racing and More
- Updated: April 12, 2016
photo by Davey Coombs
photos by Race One Online
Marty Hart is as legend as you can possible get in our sport. The Honda-backed rider won the AATV 3 Wheel Pro National Championship in ’84, ’85, ’86 then proved he was just as good of a rider on quads by winning the ’89 Mickey Thompson Stadium Championship on a Duncan Racing prepped TRX250R.
After having one of the most successful professional careers in the ATV racing business, Marty Hart retired the riding boots, moved from El Cajon, CA to his hometown of Columbia, Louisiana, started Hart Glass, which is still in business today, and began another incredibly successful career in ultra-competitive trophy trucks.
Of course it didn’t take “Hart-Attack” long before he figured out how to dice with the front-runners of the truck scene. The naturally talented racer turned heads and ended up winning the Pro Lite Rookie of the Year award after he won a few races his very first year, which was back in the 2007 at the World Series of Off Road Racing. The following year Hart took home honors as the Pro Lite champion of the Championship Off Road Racing Series, which was the forerunner of what is now the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series.
From then on, his trophy truck success has mirrored his ATV success. And now that the UTV racing explosion has started, I’m proud to say our old Honda-backed ATV legend of trikes and quads seems to have found another place within our ATV/UTV industry. I’ve been testing UTV suspension set ups with Marty for a few years now. Lately we’ve been hard at work improving the Yamaha YXZ1000R suspension and have been making some excellent headway in the last few months. I can honestly say, you just can’t get better input than having Marty Hart tell you what’s going on after charging through the bumps and jumps as hard as he can. With Marty’s help, I’m confident that our YXZ is dialed extraordinarily well. It’s hard to believe we just keep on making the YXZ better and better, and the coolest part is how excited both of us get after realizing the improvements.
Marty and son, Kyle.
Marty’s son Kyle has definitely followed in his father’s footsteps, but more as a driver and less as a rider. Like his dad, he also got a taste of victory early on in his own Pro Lite trophy truck. At only 16, Kyle won a Pro Lite main event. But more recently, the Hart duo has been racing UTVs at the LACCS series, which is a local Louisiana cross country series that sure seems more National-level than local.
In an effort to expand their horizons if you will, I have slowly been talking Marty and Kyle into bringing their new Yamaha YXZ out to compete at an upcoming UTV Rally Raid event, which is a four-hour endurance racing series that encompasses two hours of night time racer. It’s the coolest series in the business if you ask me, and I think Marty and Kyle will soon agree. If you’re like us, you’re digging the idea of the father-son Hart duo teaming up to race a Yamaha UTV, so we’ll keep you posted as to when and where they make their debut.
Check out the video interview I did with Marty above, and keep an eye on UTV Scene for up coming Yamaha YXZ set up suggestions, Marty and Kyle Hart updates, UTV Rally Raid race reports and much more.
