Pictures are normally valued at one thousand words. This one is an extra value photo--worth ten million words. image by friend of Souptastic

As a former 250 and Superbike world champion, John Kocinski's credentials as a rider are as stout and storied as they come. A Yamaha support rider in his teens, Kocinski, like most of the American riders of his era, started his career in dirt track. Freddie Spencer tells amusing stories about a pre-teen JK posing on Spencer's dirt track bikes.

Kocinski later ran number 19 in both AMA and Grand Prix as a homage to Spencer.

He also likes his bikes very clean, as evidenced by the Rotax dirt tracker the former Yamaha MotoGP test rider entered last weekend at the Pomona short track.