How did your team get started?
This rare team knows no limits. Michael J. Hurley, founder of Hurley Motorsports, has been searching for many years to find that perfect team combination. "Talent, Knowledge and Attitude are the keys to a successful team", according to Mike.
Mike met a very special group of people, the O?Hara family, through a fellow motorcycle rider Andy Starratt.
Andy Starratt has been a well known local stunt rider for years and the O?Hara family isn?t new to racing. Joe Brillo and Dick O?Hara were quite the snowmobile ice racing team for decades. Their experiences have been almost legendary among family members, friends and fellow competitors in the Auburn area. If you visit the local snowmobile vintage shows you may get a chance to see their 1978 Polaris RXL Race Sled.
On June 5th 2004 in Owego, NY our team was born. Andy was trying out Mike?s stock TL1000R at the new Skyview Drag Strip. A fellow racer with a tricked out TL1000R tapped Andy to race. Andy accepted the challenge even though he had only been riding the bike for 2.5 hours. After 3 tries and 3 failures the competitor could not believe that he had been beat as badly as he had. When he found out it was a completely stock bike that had beaten him, let?s just say he was speechless.
The team participated and took home trophies in various events in 2004 and winter 2005 including the Conquest Challenge, a cross-country style snowmobile race in Conquest, NY; the Ty Braman Annual Drag Races in Marathon, NY and WSA Rock Maple Snocross in Oswego, NY. After team discussions, it was decided to focus on Motocross for 2005. Andy Starratt would enter in the 250 Novice Class and Dan O? Hara in the 125 Novice Class. Their trophy wins within the first 30 days of ever racing speak volumes for their talent and ability to adapt.
What is your team mission/ motivation?
Our mission as a team is to show spectators young and old how cool the racing lifestyle is. You can?t achieve this without having the talent, the knowledge and most of all the right attitude. Every member of this team has been chosen just for that reason!
We are in the entertainment business. Everything we do has an underlying theme ? do we enjoy it and will people enjoy watching us do it. Every member of the team from the riders to myself have a common goal. We love to ride and push the limit! It?s not about having to win. It?s about making sure at the end of the day that we accomplished one important thing - we pinned it at least once that day. Our expertise are not limited to just motocross either. Andy Starratt the team captain is an accomplished sport bike and snocross stunt rider. Dan O?Hara?s skills are also strong in snocross. Currently we have decided to focus on motocross, but our plan is to expand into supermoto, supercross and freestyle motocross and snocross in the future.
My goals as team owner for 2007 include expanding the team in depth and helping the first year members achieve expert status in their third year of racing. We have two new members whose goal is to earn their first year 1st Place Novice Award in the 125 and 250 novice classes and earn their amateur status. We also have another new member who is the sister of our team captain. At age 14, she will be racing in the 85cc class for her first year racing.
We make no claims that we?re the best. We work hard everyday to make ourselves better at what we do ? sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. We try to document any mistakes that we do make and review them so that we don?t do it twice.
I know what we?re doing is working, just from the people we have following us after 6 months. Every race I encounter someone new asking me how we?re doing. That alone tells me we?re headed down the right path.
I have people ask me and my riders: ?So how long have you been doing this?? When we respond, ?Since April.? We get the candid response, ?But how many years?? Every member of the team, including myself loves to answer that question. ?We just started in April!? The look we get is absolutely priceless. I find it even more humorous when the guys at the line that have thousands of dollars of additions to their bike, end up losing to us on a completely stock bike. All the money in the world won?t make a bike win if the rider can?t ride and won?t pin it to win it!
Our goal for our sponsors is to work for them. Without them and their generosity we wouldn?t be able to live this dream. Their success is then our success. Besides the track announcer role calling our sponsor list; we make sure that we promote them every chance we get. We?ve been working on special advertising programs that provide our sponsors tangible results from our exposure all over the state; with our goal next year being the east coast. We invite them to hang out with us for the day and show them how we?re doing.
Now that we?re at the end of the season; we?re also planning a little road trip to every associate sponsor. We?re going to take pictures with them and the trophies that the team earned in 2006. We?ll then produce a special edition newsletter with those photos and advertising, post it on our website and mail out copies to our mailing list. Just to let everyone know who?s contributing to the success of this team.
As a team owner, I am very proud of where we have come in such a short time. If you are interested in helping push the envelope in motocross, supercross, and freestyle, you?ve found the right team and we?re just getting started!
What has been your biggest accomplishment?
This team has many accomplishments which are not just limited to this sport. Check out our other team profiles on Sponsorhouse. Andy and Danny were our first two riders last year and they both earned their amateur promotion from the novice class in their first year of racing. AMA District #3 has a special achievment award for those riders that earn their 6 trophies first in the district. Andy won the 250cc and Danny won the 125cc. In 2006, Kelsey has earned his last trophies and has also been promoted to amateur. Eric who joined the team in May as an amateur, is now racing in the expert classes. Keeping these guys pursuing higher goals is our biggest accomplishment.