Photo by Jeff Cox.
DFW Honda
Mark Lamb
Accusing Mark Lamb of just being along
a for the ride isn’t fair. He’s obviously
invested great amounts of time and
effort into his retail establishment, DFW Honda. The
question is, did he choose a profession In the powersports
industry, or did it choose him?
The details of his career can be interpreted to support
both predestination and free will
Lamb’s two-wheeled history began when his physical
dimensions were a glove-fit for his first bike, a 1968 Z50KO
(see “The Memorable Mini,” page 31).
The Family’s
Influence
Two years prior to
Lamb’s racing inauguration, his parents and older
brother purchased a
dealership in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area. His parents
acted as silent partners while his brother, Al, assumed the role of dealer
principal. Lamb worked for his brother while attending school, and credits
Al as the person responsible for teaching him the most about owning a
dealership.
Even this epiphany, however, didn’t convince him that motorcycling was where he belonged.
Lamb says he noticed cars with dealer tags were parked in the driveways of nice houses in nice neighborhoods and figured the perks must be pretty good. But how much fun is selling cars?”
Electing to eschew the automobile option, Lamb resumed employment at his brother’s dealership, now as a salesperson, and soon thereafter as the F&l manager.
Racing Into Retail
It was as F&l manager for Dallas Honda that Lamb would meet and befriend Dr. Charles Wallace.
"We started talking about the Baja 1000 and how we both had always wanted to do it,” Lamb recalls, “He had the money but didn’t have the time, arid I had the expertise but didn’t have the money so we partnered up to do a couple l000s together,”
Their team competed in four Baja 1000s: 1990, ‘92. ‘93 and ‘95, placing 19th overall in ‘92, and 5th in Class 22 in ‘93 riding against the factory teams of Honda and Kawasaki.
“It was a strong amateur effort,” says Lamb. The whole team was made up of highly experienced off-road racers from Texas, and of course having the financial resources allowed us to put together a good program.”
Lamb and Wallace willingly sat out the ‘04 Baja 1000 so they could focus on another challenge the challenge of buying and operating a motorcycle dealership. Coincidentally, it was a Honda dealership.
It was a very small, hole-in-the-wall Honda store, but I’d come from a Honda background, grew upon Hondas and was very pro Honda,” says Lamb.
“He had bought a few bikes from me, and I had a good feeling about the guy, that he was a smart businessman and that I should call him in on this deal. Three days later we were contracting to buy out the old owner,” says Lamb. The triumvirate lasted until Lamb bought out the doctor in 1998.
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