Kory
Ellis first became fascinated with quads about
20 years ago when a friend took him to an ATV
race near his hometown of Longview, WA. Ever
since that fateful day, Kory has dedicated much
of his life to the sport he loves.
Kory’s involvement has not been limited
to just racing. Kory worked with aftermarket
manufacturer Leager in the late 90’s
and was a key figure in the development of
the first high performance four-stroke ATV
motor. In 2004, Kory became the first Yamaha
factory backed racer in almost twenty years.
After a couple years, Kory made the switch
to a Suzuki LTR450, but that wasn’t
the only change in store for Ellis. In 2007,
Kory joined Yoshimura as the ATV Brand Manager
and also became a member of the Suzuki/Yoshimura
team and went on to win the 2007 ITP Quadcross
Championship.
Now for the upcoming 2008 season, Kory has
even more changes underway. ATVRiders.com
got a chance to chat with Kory at the final
round of the ITP Quadcross at Glen Helen about
what his plans are for next season.
ATVriders.com: Kory, you had a great
season and just wrapped up your 2nd ITP Quadcross
championship, can you give us a little overview
of how your season went?
It went really good. Suzuki/Yoshimura really
stood behind me this year, as well as all
my other sponsors. I came out at the beginning
of the season in really good shape, and rode
real hard. I won quite a few races at the
beginning, but I didn’t do so hot at
the end of the season, I had a broken foot,
so I was trying to get back in shape but that
didn’t happen to well, but I still won,
so I’m real happy.
Kory
Ellis has been racing since the late
80's, and he has secured many Podium
finishes through out his career among
them were a few TT Podiums as well
In
2003, Kory Ellis was the first rider
to debut the Yamaha YFZ450 at High Point,
and he raced for Yamaha till this year
when he switched to Suzuki
You went from riding a Yamaha YFZ450
nationally for several years to a Suzuki LT-R450
and primarily raced on the west coast, how
was that transition for you?
Basically, I didn’t have a ride at the
end of the 2006 year. When I was in New Zealand
last year, I got a chance to ride Doug’s
(Gust) Suzuki and I got a feel for the Suzuki
and I really liked it. I’ve actually
ridden a Suzuki for a lot more years than
any other brand; I used to ride them back
in the day. It wasn’t that big of a
change because the Suzuki is really comfortable…So
basically, I had no ride and I had to go get
a bike and I got a Suzuki. I was going to
go race all the WPSA races, but couldn’t
get all my sponsorships in place, so I had
to go find a job. I ended up over at Yoshimura
as the Brand Manager, which worked out really
good. I work with the race team and I still
get to go to races and do what I love. I get
to race here locally and have fun. This year
was a really good year.
Kory
Ellis swapped his riding gear for camera
gear for the majority of the WPSA Powersport
ATV Tour races
How
is your new job going and what are your responsibilities
at Yoshimura?
It started off with me kind of being in charge
of everything ATV and side-by-side related.
I was going to events making sure that the
team was happy and ended up helping out the
team quite a bit. I did a lot of stuff working
internally with the team. I’ll be the
team manager next year. It’s a really
good transition for me. I won’t be racing
much next year at all if any. I may come out
and do a couple Quadcrosses and a couple of
local events when I’m at home if I want
to, but I think I’m going to ride the
vet class. (Laughs)
How
exciting is it for you to be the team manager
for one of the biggest race teams out there?
It’s really exciting! I like working
with the team, I like working with the riders
and mechanics. It’s fun; I’m out
there cheering the guys on the track. It’s
definitely not like I’m going to be
missing the racing. I’m still going
to be there, I’m just not going to be
on the bike. It will be kind of nice to go
home at the end of the day and not be all
beat up and sore for the next week. I still
get to go out and see everybody and do what
I love other than actually being on the bike.
The whole atmosphere of racing is what I really
love.
