Mike Lafferty is an 8-Time National Enduro Champion and the May guest for the Seat Time Podcast. He won most of his enduro titles during the end of the timekeeping era of enduro racing. As racers like Russell Bobbitt started to race their way to the top, the National Enduros began switching to the Restart format. Lafferty and I dive into what a timekeeping enduro is, and why he believes the Restart Format brought about by Alan Randt of Enduro Engineering, saved the National Enduros.
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As well as intimate knowledge of the timekeeping enduro format, four of Lafferty’s enduro titles were on KTM 250 two-strokes and four were on KTM 400 four strokes. He made the switch from two-strokes to four-strokes in the middle of his dominating enduro career, which showcases even more how dominant of a force he was when it came to racing dirt bikes.
Another fun transition that Lafferty was a part of was the evolution of bark busters, or full wrap handguards, into robust open guards, or flags. This topic is certainly niche within the singletrack group of riders and racers, but there are plenty of reasons to still ask the question “should I run full wrap handguards or open guards?”. Hearing him discuss how he would size up a tree and decide he was just going to mow it down was a wicked part of this discussion.
Lastly, Mike Lafferty is now working for Sherco US. Having spent all of his racing career on a KTM, or a KTM owned Husaberg, it’s an interesting evolution for Mike’s motorcycle legacy. If you’ve been following the Seat Time journey for more than a few years, you know I was on a Sherco 300 two-stroke for seven years, and I loved that bike! I’m excited to see where the Sherco brand heads as they’re trying to reestablish themselves, again, in the United States.
All Seat Time Podcast episodes are available in a YouTube Playlist, on Apple Podcasts, or on Spotify.
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