Story and photos by Karel Kramer
Am-Pro Yamaha owner/manager Randy Hawkins is best known to dirt rider readers as a former six-time national enduro champion. Some may even know that he was a factory rider for Husqvarna, Suzuki and Yamaha. Over the years he has concentrated on the enduro series, Reliability Trials series and the GNCC series. Currently, at 41, Hawkins has finally learned to race/ride dirt bikes for fun, and he has shifted his competition jones to other arenas.
Hawkins was extremely successful as a racer, but he really didn't need to be. He is part of family and personal businesses that gives him a secure financial future whether he succeeds as a racer or not. Despite the fact that he could live a flashier lifestyle if he chose, he prefers to live a more low-key existence. For example his neighborhood is filled with Gone-With-the-Wind-style mansions. But Hawkins didn’t roll that way.
He started, as any wise gearhead does, by building a garage on his property first: a two-story building with three two-car garages in front. It was a steel industrial tpe building over 100 feet long and about 75-feet wide. After he reflected on it, he decided he didn't need a fancy home, so he had half of the metal building built out as a home.
If the front half of the building is a house, you ask, what is in the other half. It is decorated like a lodge, and it has a diner-style kitchen and seating, a half-court basketball court, a trampoline, and since the wife and children came along, a myriad of kids toys. Real kids toys, not the big kid toys that used to be in here.
Inside the house has been transformed. Hawkins always kept the place nice, but since he married Kathy and twin girls Addie and C.J. and son Mitch arrived, the house has been transformed. The work-out room moved to the shop area, and there are family photos everywhere.
Kathy Hawkins hails from PA, but has embraced South Carolina. The kids love having plenty of room to play, and having a pond in front of the house.
After the checking out the Hawkins' home, it was time to go watch Randy. He has a local Nascar half-mile track, and he runs Late Model -- the most advanced class at the track. I knew Randy when he was an excitable young racer. He had the same look I remember when he came off the track after qualifying third fastest.
So, now you know a little more about Randy Hawkins and his family.