Over the years, Marty Allison has raced a variety of vehicles. Among those many rides include stints in flat-track motorcycles, dirt street stocks, dirt and pavement late models, pavement trucks, and dirt 600 sprints. However, Allison seems to gravitate back to anything with a motorcycle engine, recently picking up a mod lite during the off-season.
“People ask me, ‘How long have you been riding motorcycles,’” said Allison, 59, of Paris, Tennessee. “[I answer,] ‘Much longer than I’ve been breathing.’ My mom was riding on the back [of a motorcycle] when she was pregnant with me.”
Allison owns a collection of antique motorcycles. He also started Pit Bull Lifts for motorcycles. That business grew to include building electric-motor-driven lifts for oval-track cars and side-by-sides. Now, the operation houses RaceTek, which builds street stock chassis.
On the racing front, from the 2000s to 2010s, Allison competed with flat-track motorcycles. When the travel got too much, he traded his motorcycle for a 600 sprint to race closer to home.
“Everybody says it’s like a dog chasing his tail,” Allison said of his obsession with oval-track racing.
Some view 600 sprints as mainly a steppingstone for kids moving up the ranks of oval-track racing. However, older drivers, such as Allison, find the class as a perfect home for them.
“There are a lot of guys in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, running mini sprints, and they love it,” said Allison. “There are guys older than I am and they’re fast. It’s something where a guy can do it himself — he doesn’t have to have any help. They’re easier to work on and the cost is less money than a street stock or late model.”
As far as the kids, Marty Allison doesn’t mind racing them. Many of the younger drivers race just as well, if not better, than the adults, according to Allison.
“When everybody puts their helmet on, I don’t pay attention to if it’s a kid of a 60-year-old,” Allison said. “Some of the [kids] are better [than the adults]. A lot better.”
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
