Ron Hamp

Most of you have probably never heard of Ron Hamp but his name is one that has been whispered quietly among the flat track racing community for years. His engines have been among the fastest ever produced for that venue. The reason you have likely never heard of Ron is one of selfishness among the racers who commission him to build the motors that propel them to greatness, after all, who wants to give up a secret like that?

I met Ron years ago (in the 70’s) when I started play riding with some of his buddies on different homemade MX tracks in the Riverdale and Elwell area. The reason I say play riding is because that’s what I was, a play rider. I wasn’t allowed to race, but these guys were real racers! Guy’s like Richard Stone, Mike Keeler, Ron Hamp, Jim Lapaugh, they were the guys at the track every weekend. Ron was the one who was learning to make the machines faster, mostly through experimentation.

In the early eighties, we started our Powersports dealership (Chesney’s Sports) next door to my fathers convenience store in Elm Hall, Michigan. It was a great time to be in the Powersports business. Motocross was alive and well, the local track was Morelands Motocross in Stanton, Michigan, just a few miles away from our small community. Morelands held District 14 events and qualifiers for the Loretta Lynn Amateur Nationals. It was at this very track that the likes of Jeff Stanton, Mike Larocco, Eddie Warren, Brian Swink and Nick Wey (just to name a few) earned their wings before turning pro and moving in to the big rigs we see rolling into the pits now.

Ron Hamp was quietly perfecting his craft throughout the 80, 90’s and into the new millennium. Ron was tuning the motors for kids like Henry Wiles, Ryan Weatherby and the O’boyle’s so they could run with the factory support riders that would invade our local track during those all important qualifiers. Although the motocross scene was going strong the real opportunity for Ron was with the flat track and TT crowd. That’s where the money was.

In the early nineties I met a fierce competitor by the name of Scott Boss. Scott had already heard of Ron Hamp and in fact, had him build the fastest 3-wheeler that Silver Lake sand dunes, in Northern Michigan, had ever seen. I think he used the piston out of a Jet Ski motor and ran the thing on alcohol. I got to ride it once and it was spooky fast…

Scott bought an Arctic Cat Wildcat 650 from me the first year it came out and immediately took it apart and sent the engine to Ron for a port job. If it burned gas, Ron could make it faster! We started working together to build a snowmobile drag race team. Chesney’s Sports would give Boss Racing a deal on the parts and Ron would build the engines. We finally won the top spot in the Pro-Stock 700 class in the mid nineties and it was Ron’s engine work that got us there.

I for one am glad that Ron is finally getting the attention that he so deserves. He has always been good to me and I know that he has (un-selfishly) helped hundreds of young racers and non-racers with the kind of performance work that was, usually, only available to factory teams.

Please make sure you click on Ron’s name at the top of this page and read the Racer X article. Ron Hamp? Ya, I know him, he’s a good dude…

MM