The Watts' Story... So Far

A pile of parts, bikes that start, a motorcycle tale straight from the heart.

Eric & Colleen Watts' story... so far

I began my race career very early, beginning with circle track quarter midget racing at around age eight. I moved over into road race circuit kart racing and did that well into my teens. My involvement in motorcycle racing didn't come until my late 20s. I also began motorcycle riding when I was very young, trail riding and such since I was eight as well, and then of course riding on the street when I acquired my driver's license. I began track day riding around 2012 and took the race school in 2014.

My Father, Stirling Watts, raced motorcycles in the late 1970s and into the mid-80s, first with his 1972 Ducati 350 Mk3 street bike purchased new from the Ducati dealership in Columbus, OH. It was converted into a race bike around 1985 (this is the same motorcycle I now race!). He also raced a Suzuki GS1000 and 750 at one point. Dad competed with

AHRMA, WERA, AAMRR and with the FGPRA in Florida. It was at this time that we think my dad and (my wife) Colleen's dad may have competed together at one point, but didn't know each other back then. Fast forward to 2013, and I began the restoration of my dad's Ducati 350 race bike. The bike had fallen into pieces over the years and was a pile of parts. I contracted the help of a local friend in Orlando at the time and he assisted me in getting the bike back into track-ready form initially. The engine was sent to Syd's Cycles in St. Petersburg, FL, for a complete rebuild in 2019. Many changes have happened since then to make it a proper and competitive 350GP-class bike.

My dad's Ducati in pieces, ready to be brought back to life and back on the track.

It all started from a pile of parts

By 2015, Colleen and I met—on motorcycles of course! Not via racing, but street riding with a local group ride. Colleen's motorcycling days had just begun before we met. Her roots started with horses, and she wasn’t involved with motorcycles until her late 20s. As Colleen and I got to know each other more we discovered the racing roots that each of our families had. I got Colleen interested in track day riding and we did many track days over the next few years. I had just completed the initial restoration of the Ducati 350 when I met Colleen and she encouraged me to enter it in an AHRMA race, which I had been procrastinating about. Daytona 2015 was the bike's initial event, and I managed to finish first on Sunday that weekend in Formula 250. In 2016, Colleen and I took the trip of a lifetime to England and the Isle of Man where we toured on motorcycles and spectated at the Classic TT week on the IOM. I proposed to Colleen at Peel Castle on the IOM and we were officially married in 2018. Colleen continued to accompany me to AHRMA races over the next year or so but grew anxious to join the action herself! She began restoration of her dad's (Jim Urmson) former race bike, a BMW R90 which had been sitting in disrepair for years in a corner of the garage. He raced with FGPRA in the ‘70s and early ‘80s and retired from racing when she was born. For the next year or so she completely disassembled the engine and bike and completed a full restoration to the bike's former glory. In this same timeframe, she took her race school as well. The R90, unfortunately, isn't completely legal for any competitive AHRMA classes in its current form, so it was decided that Colleen wanted to begin racing on a smaller displacement bike. At the Roebling Road round in 2018, Colleen discovered a KTM RC390 for sale. Neither of us knew anything about these bikes at the time and you could have never told me we would become ‘the KTM 390 people!’ Colleen purchased the bike and began racing later that year at CMP. Shortly after this, and after riding her 390 myself,

Colleen's dad above on the BMW R90 and Colleen below after restoring it.

I became obsessed with the bike and immediately contacted the team and owner of the bike she bought to see what else was available for sale. I bought my KTM RC390 later that same year. Since then, we have become known as the go-to KTM people in the paddock. We thoroughly enjoy seeing new racers and appreciate the opportunity to answer all their questions, from “What do I need to lockwire on this bike and what are the things to check after buying a used 390 track bike?” to “Can you prep my bike for me and check it over before I take it to an event?” We have swapped out engines several times, have done all the performance modifications, and have run into and fixed all of the common issues with the 390 engine. We now even own a complete backup bike that we bring to most race weekends! Colleen and I have been involved with AHRMA since 2015. Since then, we have made many great friends and racing contacts. We have slowly become regulars at all the southeast road race events every year and have built some great rivalries with fellow racers. At every event in 2019 for example, Eric Lukehart and I consistently had wheel-to-wheel racing, always finishing 1-2 on the KTMs in SOS3. It became known as the "Battle of the Erics!"

KTM Orange Cup trophies 2019, Colleen, Eric and Eric Lukehart

The toasted toaster, ready for Colleen to breath life back into it.

Track life is a good life, especially when you podium ;)

We have become great friends with the Morrows, Mark, his wife Eileen, and their daughter who recently visited us at our home while they were in Florida. We had Mark (instructor at the AHRMA Academy of Road Racing) come up and give us some coaching at a private track day at Atlanta Motorsports Park where we are members.

We believe the future of AHRMA lies in younger riders being introduced to historic racing. AHRMA provides a great place where that youth meets the wisdom of the seasoned racers. The skills necessary to wrench on a vintage machine are something that needs to be continued and passed on, and AHRMA is the platform that makes it happen. Colleen and I complete in the FMRRA series in Florida where the KTM 390s are an equally popular machine in their Moto3 class. Most recently, we purchased yet another 390 as a backup bike!

Future plans are to run more AHRMA races as we will soon be based out of north Georgia/North Carolina area by the spring this year.