Compact Loaders Help Keep Dirt Bike Pro in Top Racing Form
They're not built for racing, but Bobcat® loaders have played a big role in helping motorcycle racing champion Heath Voss hone his riding skills. He uses his T300 to construct and fine-tune supercross and motocross tracks on his ranch in the Texas Hill country near San Antonio, where he trains year-round.The 27-year-old Voss, who wears the blue and white colors of Factory Yamaha® Racing Team, turned pro a decade ago. At first, he struggled just to make the 40-rider cut for the night program at local dirt races in his native Minnesota. Since then he's earned the "2004 World Supercross Champion" title in the 250 cc class and today ranks among the top in the business.
To prepare for the 30 races he competes in each year, Voss, who's also a licensed pilot, trains six days a week. That includes as much as 30 hours a week riding his motorcycle on his practice tracks, plus running, bicycling and weight lifting.
"I like operating machines, whether it's a motorcycle, a Bobcat loader, or an airplane," he says. "I enjoy the challenge of riding motorcycles as well as building tracks to ride them on."
His track construction and maintenance equipment includes two Bobcat compact track loaders-a T190 and a T300-and a variety of attachments. Voss's 90-acre ranch features five half-mile-long supercross tracks (the 35-jump courses built for indoor racing) and a pair of two-mile motocross tracks which follow the natural terrain. Each has a different layout. Currently, his supercross tracks include replicas of each of the tracks used for the past three annual supercross championship races.
"I replace one track each year with a new one to keep my practice more interesting and exciting," Voss says. "I used to build the practice tracks to be more difficult to ride than what I raced on, thinking this would make the actual races easier. Now I build them to practice safely so I can compete throughout the whole racing season."
He begins track construction by using a large front-end loader to place the dirt. Then Voss climbs into the cab of his Bobcat compact track loader to build the straights, shape the turns, and create the jumps. The T190 allows him to work efficiently where larger machines can't, while the T300 gives him the power for high-production work. His father, a long-time Bobcat owner, also uses the T190 in his homebuilding business, Dave Voss Construction.
"Both of my Bobcat compact track loaders are awesome machines and offer great traction," Voss says. "The T190 is easy to transport and is great for working in smaller areas. The T300 is the ultimate machine. It's like a small dozer. After filling the bucket with dirt, I can keep pushing and the dirt just rolls over the top of the bucket. It's pretty amazing what you can do with these loaders. I've tried competitive machines and they don't compare to the T300."
After initial construction of the race tracks using a smooth edge bucket, Voss typically operates the loaders an hour or two a day to repair any ruts, bumps and other damage left by his practice sessions. A Bobcat landscape rake saves time and labor smoothing out turns and picking up rocks, and a Bobcat mower is handy for keeping grass trimmed to expose large rocks and other possible racing hazards. The Bobcat dozer blade, which adjusts six ways, makes it easy to construct off-camber turns and to build up banks on curves.
"I could hire someone to do all this track work, but I'd rather invest in my Bobcat equipment and do it myself," Voss says. "I really enjoy operating the machines. It makes my motorcycle riding a lot more fun."