Name/Title
Hawk, BarryEntry/Object ID
466Description
Although it took some time for Barry Hawk to find his calling on the track, he went on to leave an incredible mark on the off-road racing scene.
An eight-time AMA Grand National Cross Country National Champion, Hawk cemented himself as one of the greatest off-road competitors the sport has ever seen. With a versatile skillset, Hawk’s racing accomplishments have led him to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
“When I was a kid, just riding my bike or whatever was running, I just wanted to ride and have fun,” Hawk said. “And then all these years later, here we are talking about it. I never thought in a million years, it had never crossed my mind, so it was definitely an honor.”
A native of Pennsylvania, Hawk was introduced to riding at a young age and quickly fell in love with the sport.
“I remember my dad always had dirt bikes,” Hawk said. “And when I would hear that dirt bike startup, I would immediately drop what I was doing and run down there.”
A few years after hopping aboard two wheels, Hawk delved into the world of ATVs, an area that he would eventually dominate in the professional racing scene for years.
“There was a neighbor, a couple houses down from us, and he had like a whole fleet of them, he had like five or six ATVs. And I would just go down there and hang out. He'd be like, 'Hey, you want to ride?' And I'm like, 'Well, yeah,’” Hawk said. “We took one of the four wheelers, the quads, to another county fair race and the boy that was supposed to race it got stage fright at the last second. So the guy turns to me and is like, 'Do you want to race it?' and I'm like, 'Heck yeah, I want to race it.' I went out there and I just destroyed everybody on the quad.”
After beginning his racing pursuits at local county fairs, Hawk moved up to the professional ranks in 1990. In just his second season, Hawk won his first GNCC race, adding the first accomplishment to an illustrious off-road racing career. Two years later in 1993, Hawk claimed his first GNCC ATV championship.
Hawk rode that early success to six additional GNCC ATV titles, completing a stretch of seven consecutive championships from 1993-99, while also competing in GNCC’s bike division throughout the 1990s — where he was also a title contender.
On two wheels, Hawk won 19 GNCC events and emerged as the 2003 GNCC Bike Champion. Hawk remains the only rider to win GNCC Championships on both an ATV and motorcycle.
“I started doing the bike side of it simply for cross training or to help me on ATV, because Bob Sloane and Steve Holbert, those guys were already doing that on the bike,” Hawk said about when he decided to race both ATVs and bikes. “They were No. 1 and No. 2 and I'm the No. 3 guy thinking, ‘Well they're doing it, I got to do it too.’”
In addition to his success in the AMA GNCC, Hawk also won AMA National Enduro and Reliability Enduro events while securing a spot on the 2003 U.S. ISDE Team as part of the GNCC club team. Hawk also scored points while riding professional motocross, adding to an already well-rounded resume.
“Thinking back on it, I just rode so much of whatever,” Hawk said. “I just had a lot of experience riding bikes, three wheelers, quads, whatever.”
Hawk retired from racing in 2010, but his drive for competition remained. After spending the first five years of his retirement setting up GNCC courses, Hawk became the team manager of the Coastal GasGas Factory Racing team. Hawk has aided team riders to AMA Sprint Enduro championships, AMA GNCC XC2 championships, and AMA GNCC eMTB championships.
As a team manager, Hawk has emphasized the value of fostering a positive environment in order to create successful opportunities for his racers on the track.
“We kind of keep it more of like a family atmosphere. I've been in a racing long enough, it's stressful enough on everybody in the race and then the families, so we try to keep it under our tent like a family atmosphere,” Hawk said. “If you're having fun, your results are going to be better.”Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Hawk, Barry