Old School

By David Porter

Lately, it seems like John Natalie is just about everywhere in the ATV industry; magazine ads, interviews, machine tests and literally everywhere on the Internet. One would tend to believe that with all the media exposure and winning two professional ATV racing championships in one year, the “Ironman” should be sitting pretty for the next few years. But let me tell you, John’s story is nothing like some might think. There certainly isn’t any get rich quick schemes going on here.

I’m on a first name basis with about 95% of the pro field, they’re my bro’s, and I know their stories pretty well. I can safely say no story reads quite like John’s. The first time I met him was at an indoor race at a farm show in an arena in Harrisburg PA. I think it was ’95 or ’96. Guys were getting hurt that weekend, the track was pretty dangerous. One got hurt really bad. It was John, about four years prior to the “Ironman” status he now lives up to. Actually, he died that day. Yes, you read that correctly, I said he died. John crashed hard and became the meat in a quad and concrete wall sandwich. In the ambulance his heart stopped and they had to shock him back to life.

Things sure have come full circle since that weekend. This year it seemed like John was on a completely different level than his racing peers. He pulled countless hole shots and quickly separating himself from the field right from the get-go at many of the events he raced in. It has been a long time since anyone in our premier class has shown they can do that kind of thing on a regular basis. I know Doug Gust did a lot of winning last year, and I’m certainly not taking anything away from his incredible ’04 season or his entire career for that matter. Doug’s style has always been to cut your legs out from under you just when you feel safe, like right at the end of a race. He’s kind of like the Grim Reaper, while John’s choice of attack is a little different in my opinion.

Anyway, John’s strong, smooth and doing things lap after lap that other guys can’t do consistently. He’s right where he wants to be in this industry and his future looks very good right now. But as I said, John’s story is not typical. For most of his pro career he’s been on the outside looking in. He’s had to work harder than most riders have in order to accomplish his goals.

Back in 2000 he was pitting out of my trailer. Many times he came to the race in his pick-up with the race quad in the back. Mike Hiecher and I did all the mechanic work at the track and John had one sponsor that tried to supply him with a pro class worthy machine. That didn’t always work out the way things should have. Back then John never really had every tool in the box like most of the guys he was up against. On my end of it my company was just starting out and I didn’t have everything we needed either. But I’ll tell you what, that guy could ride his butt off and we did pretty well for what we had to work with.

We had some good TT and MX finishes back then. We could have finished 5th or 6th at the end of the year. Sadly one of John’s friends got killed and he had a fallout with his main sponsor, so he didn’t show for the last two rounds of the series. His heart and his mind were just not in it. He finished 10th that year. Considering what we had to work with it seemed like a pretty impressive accomplishment nonetheless. John’s “I’ll ride anything” attitude is the foundation of his character, and his current success. Way back in ’91-’92 he won the Open Pro Am Championship. In 2000 we won the 250 Pro Am Championship together. And during that year he earned his appropriate nick name “Ironman”.

I’m sure many people don’t know how he got that nifty name. The year I was wrenching for him he did something that no one has ever done before, as far as I know. He rode four classes in one night of TT racing. Knowing him if there was a fifth, he probably would have signed up for it as well. It was at the ’00 Challenger TT in PA. That night he rode 4 Stroke Pro Am (won it), 250 Pro Am (won it), Open Pro Am (top 5) and the 250 Pro Class (top 5). That was one of the busiest night of racing I’ve ever been involved with. From then on, John Pellan fittingly dubbed him “Ironman”.

After that year John signed to race on the Nac’s Racing Team which was the first year they had their big semi. I moved on and sponsored a few other riders. Less than half way through that year with Nac’s they parted ways and John was right back with us, only this time it was mid-season and my sponsorship money and parts were all tapped out. Bottom line was I didn’t have much to help him with.

So here’s John showing up at the nationals with the only thing he had – a clapped-out, stock geometry 250R with stock length front shocks. Since the motor wasn’t fast or reliable, I ended up giving him one of my TC cylinders and bottom ends. The rest of the quad wasn’t even fit for a C class racer. Unbelievably, he still managed to do well on that POS. I can remember he bent three axles and two shocks at Red Bud that year. He was hard on equipment, especially worn out equipment. The next year he bought a CR500 chassis, got hooked up with Hetrick Racing and later with Legacy ATV. He did well, but the incredible John Natalie coming-of-age story had yet to really happen. When he and Dave Gibson from East Coast ATV got together things really took off for John. And this is where his current Team Honda factory ride developed.

Throughout the ups and downs, two things never changed with John. He was always fast and his mom and dad were always their backing him. His dad would always say the same thing at almost every race back then, “If John had the same bike and equipment as the guys he’s racing against he could beat them.” I never gave that statement much thought until now. Seems like John Sr. was right all along.

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