Status Check: Rath Racing

Cassandra

• April 23 2009
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We caught up with Jennifer Rath today to find out what’s going on at the ever-expanding Rath Racing. It seems like every time we see either Jen or Daryl Rath, they have some new product or racing development to talk about…which makes Rath Racing a perfect choice for our first Status Check interview. Here’s what’s going on at their shop!

QUAD: What have you been up to lately?

Jennifer Rath: “Basically organizing and trying to keep the business running and keeping the race teams running. We have three race teams: a cross-country team, a motocross team, and a TT (flattrack) team. We made the decision that Rath Racing has to be at both the GNCC and the Motocross races, and since Daryl is racing cross country on the new Polaris 850 XP, I’m going to the motocross races to support our team and the Polaris Outlaw 450 MXR. It’s fun, but it’s a lot of travel!”

QUAD: How’s the motocross season going for Rath Racing?

JR: “We have the ‘first year struggles’ but we’re happy with how it’s going because we all feel like we’re making progress. We have a rookie team, a rookie bike, a rookie manufacturer in ATV racing, so we have the cards stacked against us that way, but we have all the right people in place to do it well. So, we’re getting there.”

QUAD: And how’s Daryl doing in the GNCCs?

JR: “He’s really enjoying it and he’s doing well, but it’s the same thing: everything we have is brand new, so we can’t fall back on ‘Well, we did this last year and it worked.’ Every single time we go to the race track, we’re trying something new and we end up saying ‘Yeah, that was a good decision’ or ‘Well, that wasn’t a very good decision.’ But all our cross-country guys are sitting in the top five, so for a new year and a new bike that’s all I can ask for.”

QUAD: Is Rath making a lot of the parts for the race quads?

JR: “Yes, we support the full line of Rath aluminum products on all of our bikes for our teams. The cross-country guys are on our stuff, obviously the motocross guys are, and TT too. And we work with great partners. I never like to call them sponsors because that they’re in it just as much as we are, so I like the word ‘partners.’ So there are some great guys behind us and helping, and they have the same challenges we do, so we can call them up and they’re in the same boat as us…they have to develop something new with us for these bikes.”

QUAD: What new stuff do you have cooking at Rath Racing?

JR: “The new stuff we have coming out right now is carbon fiber. We’re trying to lighten up the TT bikes even more than we have in the past. We’re also working on Utility quad racing. It’s never been high-end-performance looking. There’s been some good utility performance products out there, but we’re trying to ’sport’ the quads up a little bit and give them that ‘mean’ edge. So there are a lot of bumpers and nerf bars and trick little stuff that I don’t think anyone has really paid attention to for utility quads. Daryl just came up with a dry break for utility quads, which isn’t something anyone else has had and it just boiled down to he wanted one, so he made it himself.”

QUAD: How did you end up in the business with your husband?

JR: “Well, a neat secret about this whole setup is that I am probably more competitive than Daryl, and I don’t even race! I love it as much as he does. I think if it came down to stepping out of it, it’ll be me that you’ll have to drag out of it tooth and nail. He might be ready to get out before me! My heart is on the track with those guys almost as if I was out there myself. Their successes are my successes, their failures are my failures, and their frustrations are mine. It’s hard to wear my heart on my sleeve that much sometimes, but you can’t do this job and not love it. I do this 24 hours a day, it’s my day job. There are times where it’s 9 at night and Daryl and I are on the couch and we’re talking about, ‘Oh, did you see the new Quad Magazine?’ or ‘Did you hear I talked to so-and-so?’ and it just goes on like that 24/7.”

You can check out all of Rath Racing’s stuff on their web site at www.rathracing.com