Five Minutes with ... Kim Pearce
MARCH 25, 2008

Don Valley North Toyota's Kim Pearce (right) shares his story with RXC's Dan Stenning at the Toronto Motorcycle Supershow.

photo: Allison Kennedy

By Danny Brault

From the title sponsor of the AMA Motocross Championships and AMA Arenacross Series to a primary supporter of the Blackfoot Yamaha team, Toyota can be found everywhere in motocross. In fact, just look through the pits to see Toyota’s increasing presence at the track. The Japanese automobile company isn’t a new name to the dirt bike world; they’ve been involved from series sponsors to rider sponsors for over 20 years. But now that they have a competitive full-size truck, the Tundra, and the aggressive mid-size Tacoma, they are catering directly to the motocross audience. Ontario is about to get a shot of Toyota’s magic this summer with the addition of the Don Valley North Toyota Yamaha MX Team. They’re also helping out KD Beats this weekend in Toronto. We caught up with the man behind the DVNTYMX Team, Kim Pearce, to see where things are at and why they’ve decided to get back into MX.


RXC: How did Don Valley Toyota first get involved with motocross?
Kim Pearce: I started working at Don Valley in `83, and shortly after that I kind of came out of retirement and we capitalized on the fact that Toyota was a very visible name in the U.S. at the time. Here in Canada, we get to ride on the coattails of that media giant. Toyota Canada didn’t have the budget for that segment of the marketplace, but we at the dealership noticed that if you took them to the track, people would start buying them.

So you do notice a direct connection between racers and Toyota trucks?
Oh, no doubt! As a salesman back then, I would sell roughly 100 or so new cars a year, and after three years we were attributing 40 to 50 vehicles to this prospecting program.

What’s your background with racing, Kim?
I started racing in 1975. I rode CMA in the junior class for two years, two years in senior and in the expert class for three. I rode Yamahas, Husqvarna, Suzuki and Hondas. Then I went road racing. In 1985, I raced a 1000 Honda Interceptor. Then I competed in AMA RACE races in Daytona, in the 600 superbike class on an NS400 Honda in 1986-`87. And I raced up here at Mosport and Shannonville as well.

Wow! You certainly do have quite the racing background!
I sure do [laughs]. In the early days I once shared a house Bob Levy and Billy McLean.

Do you remember a motocross track called Bill Hills? It’s north of Peterborough near Bancroft.
Yes I do, near Wilberforce.

That’s right. Our general manager, Brett Dailey, remembers a fellow who raced there from Toyota, and thinks you may have offered him a sponsorship deal with Toyota back `83. Is he full of it?
[Laughs] Yeah, that was me.

 

KD Beats is representing DVNTYMX at the Toronto supercross this weekend.

photo: James Lissimore

I’ve also read that you were part of Damon Bradshaw’s win at the 1988 Toronto supercross at the CNE.
Yeah, a friend of mine, Glen Ward, introduced me to Damon. That was in `87. We went down to Daytona to watch him ride in the support class. He was only 15. That was the year the AMA changed the minimum age to 16. He was all signed up and I think the AMA was going to look the other way, but some kid’s parent ratted him out on the line before practice. However, you could still race supercross in Canada, with a parent’s signature, and one thing led to another and we’re putting the final pieces together. It was at Unadilla that the deal came together. I can remember it like it was yesterday. At that point, no one ever really heard of him up here. He was second only to Jeff Ward in amateur wins. We did a pre-event media release and a post event article was written in the Toronto Star—and of course the show was on CTV’s Wide World of Sports. I remember Lawrence Hacking wrote an article in Cycle Canada, saying that ‘Young Bradshaw had left a grin on his sponsors faces from ear to ear,’ and that’s what it was.

I’m sure. Fans were probably scratching their heads wondering who this kid was.
Truth be known, when he crossed the finish line, I don’t think the announcers knew he won the race. He was tossing his shoulder pads and goggles into the stands, and Ross Pederson crossed the finish line thinking he’d won! We’ve been pretty good friends ever since.

Do you still keep in touch?
Absolutely. I just talked to him by email a few days ago.

Heck, you should get him up to Toronto. I’m sure he can still ride.
I’m sure he can, but this upcoming weekend, Damon will be representing the United States Air Force in the Afterburner monster truck at the World Finals in Las Vegas.

Now, 20 years later, you’re helping out another young rider, Kyle Beaton.
We found out that he was looking for some support—and I found out that Damon would not be available [laughs]. So when the opportunity came along, we figured it was a good way to help out a good guy. He’s put a lot of effort into his season qualifying for two supercross main events. He did well in England too, but didn’t have the means back here, so we set him up with a motorcycle, some support and we’re going to put his butt under a Tundra for the weekend. He’s a likable kid, popular and quick too. We’re just thrilled to be involved with him and the race. Who knows? We could be talking about Kyle’s performance 20 years from now, like we do with Bradshaw’s.


So why has Don Valley made the decision to get back into moto?
Well, at the time this program was evolving, a guy named Bruce Both approached me. Some of your readers will recognize his name; he was the owner of Snow North, a Yamaha dealership in Orilla. Bruce came to me with the idea of tricking out Toyota trucks. We started doing big suspension kits, and tires and putting rollbars and fog lights and people started buying them pretty quick. This past summer, I got a phone call from Bruce, asking me to come check out the motocross races. Next thing you know, I’m touring down to the LDR events in my 2007 Toyota Tacoma, and we formulated a plan to get involved at the grassroots level. Rather than going to the pros, which we have supported in the past, we thought let’s support an amateur race team. We’ll demonstrate with a little effort, a little teamwork, that we can put on a good show, help the sport and drive sales, because that’s obviously what every company wants at the end of the day. We were careful to select grounded racers and families. They’re all amateurs; we don’t expect to see them on a podium at an AMA national anytime soon, but who knows?

It’s great to see people stepping in to support the grassroots level because, ultimately, they are our future.
And like Davey Coombs said in an article in Racer X, Toyota is the best friend of motocross and motorcycling in North America. They’ve been there from the early days, and Toyota has identified that as the sport has evolved and the market has grown. Now we have a corporate effort, that’s supported by Toyota Canada and Yamaha Canada and Blackfoot has taken that show on the road and they do a wonderful job of it. Even in the U.S., there is amateur support in the form of a development and qualification program for Toyota USA. We’re trying to do that here, but to do it at a grassroots level and at, well to give it a champagne taste on a ginger ale budget you can say.

Who is on the team?
We have Trevor Emery in the intermediate class, Kirsten MacDonald, Steve Donadel, Geoff Monk, and Jamie Both in junior, and RJ Marnoch in 65s and 85s. We also have Mechanix Wear, Factory Connection suspension, and Lime 9 on board, and we’re working on some deals for other stuff.

We can’t wait to see the team this summer at the provincials, Kim. Good luck this weekend in Toronto with Beets!
Thanks, Danny!