A Brief History of FLAT TRAK FOTOS

Kathy and Dave shot pictures “locally” for several years before officially establishing Flat Trak Fotos in 1982. Their early years were spent covering the Illinois, Iowa and Missouri areas, along with a few long distance trips (like Daytona and Sturgis). We now cover all the AMA Grand Nationals and as many other dirt track races as possible.

Flat Trak Fotos has always been a family venture. For years we pulled our little “cart”, loaded with our picture books, around the pits selling pictures to the riders and their families. Early on, we were helped by our son Lance, but high school activities and then college pulled him away. He now lives in Maine with his wife Diane and three children, Ethan, Ella & Addison.

In 1986 Kathy started working for the AMA (sign up & scoring). Kathy's job changed in 1992 when she started running the computer that generates entry lists and line-ups, with sponsor information, for the announcers along with results and press releases for all the teams and press immediately after each race. When the AMA's web site was formed, Kathy uploaded each race results to the web site as the races were run. For two years she mainly worked the Nationals East of the Rockies, but in 1994 she started to do all of the Grand Nationals and has not missed a race since, now working for AMA Pro Racing. This leaves the photography, photo-journalism and web site up to Dave, but Kathy still runs the office.

When our daughter Danielle was old enough, she also started to help, but after a few years she followed Kathy over to the AMA. Danielle and her daughter Mackenzie have now moved to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Danielle has worked many jobs for AMA Pro Racing from registration, hand scoring to Computer Timing & Scoring and now works Tech and is the Pit Steward at all of the AMA Pro Racing Grand National events. As of 2016 Danielle has moved on from racing.  Along with a new job, they are moving to their new house south of Kansas City, Missouri.

In the early years we shot black and white, but started to experiment with color in 1983. We continued to shoot black & white (for Cycle News) until the mid 90’s, when Cycle News was able to switch over to color negatives and then to an all color format. The biggest change for us came in 2002 as Dave started the switch to digital photography. Dave shot negative and digital the first year before going all digital in 2003.

In 2004 our web site flattrakfotos.com replaced the trusty old cart and books, the riders, families and fans are still the heart of our business. The web site was designed and has always been maintained by Dave.

The digital change led to work on the AMA’s web site, 1800flatrack.com (now known as amaproracing.com). Dave has provided action pictures and a recap of every AMA Pro Racing Grand National since 2002. Over the years Dave has been published in Cycle News, Cycle, Cycle World, American Motorcyclist, Road Racer X, Motorcyclist, Flat Track Illustrated and others.

Since 1994 we have attended all of the AMA Pro Racing Grand Nationals, most of the “600 Nationals”, many of the “Hot Shoe Nationals” and a large number of Amateur races including many of the “AMA Amateur Nationals”. Entering 2020 we have worked 449 consecutive Grand Nationals and a total of 528 GNC races since 1982. We have covered over 1000 dirt track races.

In 2016 we were so honored when the Harley-Davidson Museum asked us to provide the pictures for their "Race Day" exhibit. The project was a year in the making and we couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. They wanted it to be a realistic portrayal of the sport of Flat Track Racing, which includes multiple brands. We hope the racing exhibits will help create some new interest and rekindle some old interest as well. We want to thank everyone at the Harley-Davidson Museum for putting so much work and thought into our exhibit. The exhibit opened mid February and will run till September of 2016. Harley-Davidson Museum.


Kathy and Dave decided to leave AMA Pro Racing at the end of 2016, but our love of the sport still burns. Hopefully 2018 will find us still at the race track, with slightly different duties. Kathy will be returning to taking pictures for Flat Trak Fotos and hopefully a less stressful day. Dave will still be working for Cycle News and providing images to others in the industry and both will be working hard to keep the Flat Trak Fotos Web Site current.

A last minute change in plans found American Flat Track asking Kathy to return for the 2018 season. She decided to return and is now working under the "Tech / Media Tent". A job she really enjoyed and will be returning to in 2020.

She still maintains her postion as CEO of Flat Trak Fotos howerver.