With the start of the Mt. Tabor Race Series starting this month, we decided to highlight Kevin “KT” Thompson as our June Promoter of the month. Keep scrolling to give it a read.

Photos by Broken and Coastal.

Name? Kevin “KT” Thompson, a couple of my friends nicknamed me “Moneytrain”.

Where are you located? Lake Oswego.

What race(s) do you put on? Currently just the Mt. Tabor Circuit Race. I have promoted the Falls City Firecracker MTB race, The Gresham Crit, The Tigard Crit, and Vinter Cross (at Lake Oswego JH). I’ve helped at the LO Crit and lots of Zone 5 races.

What made you start promoting bike races? I started racing mountain bikes back when the Mudslinger was in Macdonald Forrest, Jim Fischer was the promoter. The first race was a muddy mess and I was over my head. I didn’t bring any food, I ran out of water, my grip shift needed new cables, but I didn’t know any better at the time, and about halfway through the race, I couldn’t twist them hard enough to get them to move. I raced the Cyldsdale class which was about 15 miles long. The longest ride I had ever done was about 10 miles. At the end of the race, I was wrecked and hooked. The next couple of years there were 15+ mountain bike races on the calendar and my wife, Julie (girlfriend at the time), and I went to all of them. She loved Big K. I loved seeing my friends every weekend.  Racing filled a gap in my life. I grew up playing football, baseball, and basketball. I loved the comradery of those sports and helping the people around you be better. In my last couple of years of college, I was living in Monmouth so I was close to the trails at Dallas, Falls City, and Corvalis. The Falls City trails in those days were much more cross country-oriented.  I helped build a couple of the routes that are still being used today.  With all of the racing that I was doing, I got to be friends with Randy Dreiling (Shotgun Creek and Oakridge races), Mike Ripley (Mudslinger), Eric Tonkin (Reehers), and Petr Kakes (Ski Bowl). After seeing what they did and some of the challenges that they had to deal with, like locals turning signs to point the other way, and racers getting lost because they couldn’t see the 2 pink ribbons hanging down, I thought I could do it as well. The Falls City Firecracker was the first race I promoted. I talked with Bill Larson at Cyclepath and he rounded up some prizes for me. I talked with Nate Hobson who promoted The Elkhorn Stage race in Baker City that year and took all of the water bottles that no one claimed at his race and brought them to the race full of water to hand off at the feed zone. Petr loaned me one of those pads that wrap around the ski lift poles so I could wrap a tree that was at an awkward spot at the bottom of a really steep descent. No one got hurt there that day, but about 20 yards farther down the trail it turned left onto the road climb and my buddy Steve Basden lost his front tire and broke his collarbone! Work brought me into the Portland area. If I wanted to ride my mountain bike I had to drive an hour in any direction, so I bought a Cannondale road bike from River City Bicycles. I raced PIR on Tuesdays for a couple of years, I was a breakaway guy. My biggest competitor was Jason Pfifer. He was a much better sprinter than I was, so the challenge each week was to get away from him because if we came to the line together I was getting 2nd place. One of the best weeks of my life I went to Skibowl on Friday to ride the cross country course and the DH course. I raced cross country on Saturday, DH on Sunday, PIR on Monday and Tuesday, Tabor on Wednesday, drove to Baker City on Thursday, and Raced Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Elkhorn race. During that time I was on the Lakeside team and we put on the Tabor series. Jonathan Puskas was in charge. One of the Mitchem brothers took it over for a couple of years after that and then Clark Ritchie who I helped for about 10 years and then when he moved to Bend I got promoted to the promoter. Back to the question, why do I promote races? It’s fun. I love seeing friends. It’s like we get to have a party at every race and laugh and tease each other and tell stories. Races help us connect with each other. I am excited that with the world we are living in today that we get to do that again.

What would you like the OBRA membership to know about your races? We are adding a junior field at Tabor this year. There won’t be a fixed gear race this year, but Brian Witty and I have been toying around with a crazy best all-around category where every week it is a different type of fun race, like one week it is a chariot race where you have to have a trailer with 10 pounds in it, the next week we race the course backward, the next week you have to add weight until you are over 200+ pounds, the next week is a relay race, the next week is a handicap race, for every year over 18 you get a 15-second head start. What do you all think?

What is your favorite thing about promoting bike races? Watching the smiles. Seeing friends get to hang out. Spending time with my friends.

What advice would you give to any team or individual that is considering putting on a race? Go for it! Ask lots of questions. Make it fun.

What is the greatest challenge you face in promoting your race? This year it was getting the permit. Many of the City of Portland offices are working remotely and they are a couple of them that have been very slow to respond. Besides that, it is usually the other users of the park. Every year we have had a conversation with the skateboarders who want to come down the hill while we are going up it and there are always a couple of joggers with music in their ears who want to run down the middle of the road.