Ask the Editors: When was the First ATV Race?

The actual origin of competitive ATV racing is really unknown on account of the fact that what we typically consider an all-terrain-vehicle has changed throughout the years.

What we consider the modern ATV is generally agreed upon as Japanese in origin and the fact is they originally existed as farm implements in Japan and actually can be traced back to the late 1930s there believe it or not.

Here in the US domestic ATVs began appearing in the 1960s in the form of amphibious, suspension-less multi-wheelers that typically steered like a bulldozer.

The two worlds merged in 1970 when Honda became the first official distributor of three-wheeler in the US with the US90 model.

So the short answer is thanks to an absence of record keeping in the ATV’s early years, it’s impossible to know (though very likely) whether like-minded operators got together to find out which machine was fastest.

We do with certainty that unsanctioned racing took place in the US throughout much of the 70s and early 80s as the popularity of the vehicles soared.

It was 1985 that the American All-Terrain Vehicle Association came into being to promote ATV competition as a legitimate form of motor sport racing. The AATVA established sanctioned tournaments, regulations and lobbied various groups for support.

On a final note it should be mentioned that the AATVA is not exactly the same as the modern day sanctioning body the ATVA (All-Terrain Vehicle Association); which essentially regrouped and reorganized back in 2001 when, after almost disappearing entirely throughout most of the 1990s, ATV racing was rejuvenated by the manufacturers’ new wave of performance quads coming to the US.

Got questions for us? Ask them here!