Jim Kapitan
Tell us a little about yourself.
I own Pro Pilot Corporation which owns and operates Pro Pilot Suspension and Pro Pilot Racing. I am forty-three years old, a college graduate with a background in engineering, business, architecture, and a lifetime AMA member and racer for the past thirty-plus years and have raced professional motocross for about fifteen years all over the United States, parts of Canada and some of Europe.
You were a top-ranked local and national rider for many years. How many years did you hold a national #?
Eleven consecutive AMA National numbers- many in the top fifty.
You were more of a national rider. Did you ever try Supercross?
Yes, I actually made the main in the supercross class at Daytona a couple of times, Toronto Canada Supercross I finished top ten back in the day and raced it several times, I also raced some invitational supercross in Denmark, Sweden, and a few others all over.
What was your best national number?
41
What do you think about the current state of the nationals?
Four strokes make for sort of “All vanilla racing” versus the personality of forty or more flavors of 2 stroke racers like “Baskin Robins Ice Cream!”
You competed on the national tour back in the days of the 500 class. How do today’s 450 four strokes compare to the 500cc 2-strokes of the past?
The four strokes are overall a better bike and much easier, but they are both way too bulky for real racing.
Did you have a favorite national track?
A racers rough track Millville, Minnesota was always tough and you knew it would be worth the trip.
In addition to motocross, you did quite well racing hare scrambles and a couple of enduros. What type of racing do you enjoy now?
I enjoy a variety of racing right now, I’ll do AGP, GNCC, and local Moto when the spirit moves me.
Do you still compete on a regular basis?
A couple of times a month maybe and whatever is the most fun thing to do but no schedule and good weather. I won the first two AGP Hare Scrambles this year racing the XC1 pro class and went to some opening day motocross around the Northeast.
You started a successful suspension and performance business many years ago in your garage. What made you decide to do that?
Out of sheer necessity. I actually didn’t even have that start in a garage, I started with the T-shirt on my back and all my own pennies! I would pass a two-digit pro at a rough track like Southwick right down the middle, and they would hand me their stuff right at the track and say “just bring it back for next week!”. As a two-digit pro rider traveling to every state in the country for fifteen years, I had some good sponsors and equipment for the time but there was only so much any company would do for even the top guys with national numbers 26-100 back then so after indulging in doing the right stuff to the right things my own results and customer following and their results improved.
How long ago did you start Pro Pilot Racing?
It’s been about twenty years now, about ten or so years in this building I built while racing and have expanded and finished space over the years to about seven thousand square feet with a showroom on about three acres commercial which is our race shop about two miles from Six Flags Great Adventure. I’m in the process of another twelve thousand square foot building on the front part of the same location but I don’t need to rush it.
Tell us about Pro Pilot Racing.
We Ship suspension and performance parts around the entire United States every day of the week from www.propilotsuspension.com .We have a tremendous internet business with a price structure well over twenty percent lower than the industry standard with super-fast turnaround and convenience. We are one of the largest Ohlins Sales, Service and Tech Centers in the country. We do suspension for over eighty franchise dealership shops like BMW, Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, KTM dealers around the country plus regular customers.
Do you feel that your riding success was instrumental in your business success?
A little, but the strangest thing now is that after beginning with motocross suspension and racing I never thought that every day I would also be building Ohlins BMW street bike, Roadrace, ATV, and Snowmobile suspension. They each have turned out to be large percentages of our overall business. There are also so many special projects for racers, teams, and just individuals I never thought I’d be doing that are amazing.
Do you have a favorite racing moment from your long career?
I have really great memories of so many things it’s really hard to pick probably my first top ten overall at a national and traveling all over, three-time Vet Race Champion and winning all three track championship points series in the same year 250 expert,25+ expert,30+ expert.
Any closing words?
Probably the best advice is to try to do something you really like in life if you can because chances are it will take so much of your time you won’t mind doing it which is why I get up every day before six and never needed an alarm clock.
