ANYTHING ELSE UNUSUAL ABOUT LANCE’S
BIKE? The kick-starter is on the left side, as are the rear
brakes. Lance couldn’t start the bike, as four-strokes were
very fickle back in 1997, so I started it for him every time.
Additionally, the rear brake rotor is on the opposite side
of the bike from the brake pedal, which required cross-over linkage. The hubs are machined by Talon out of a
block of billet magnesium. In order to help Lance shift,
I welded two spline sections of the shift lever together
so that I could use a straight shift lever and still clear
the cases. The butterscotch-colored plastic was the first
orange that KTM used. It wasn’t nearly as attractive as
the current orange.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE HISTORIC 1997
SUPERCROSS SEASON? We never raced the bike in
an AMA race again. In 1998, Lance raced all of the four-stroke races and won most of them, but because Mike
Young had gotten hurt early in the season, we moved
Lance to Husaberg for the four-stroke events, although
he raced a KTM 250SX two-stroke in the 1998 Supercross
series.
WHERE ARE THE THREE BIKES TODAY? I had
built three identical bikes for the 1997 season. Once
KTM had used up its one-time four-stroke exemption, we
couldn’t race the bikes in the AMA Supercross or National
series anymore. In a gracious gesture, Rod Bush gave
one of the bikes to Lance Smail, one to me and the third
went back to Austria to be used as a test bike. Sadly, Rod
Bush passed away a few years ago, and Lance’s bike was
destroyed in a house fire. The bike that went back to the
factory was parted out. The one I have is the last one. I
have been offered $25,000 for it by a collector, but it is
currently on loan to Tom White’s Early Years of Motocross
Museum. ❏
Officially a KTM
620SX, the big
engine kept its long
stroke crank, but
used a KTM 400 piston to bring the displacement down to an
AMA-legal 538cc. The
bike has a
three-speed transmission with neutral
between second and
third.
Today, Lance Smail owns a motocross
track in the Pacific Northwest and Tom
Moen (above) still works at KTM.
