If you did a double take when you first saw this photo, you weren’t alone. The unique motorcycle you see here is Eric Falt’s Honda/Rotax hybrid – a racebike featuring the chassis from a Honda VF500 powered by a 600cc Wood Rotax single. Falt, along with legendary builder Laroy Montgomery, put together the Honda-Rotax and Falt rode it to the WERA Formula Clubman Expert title in 1992, where he beat a couple of up-and-coming youngsters named Tommy and Nicky Hayden, who raced Honda RS125 GP bikes in the championship final. “The Hayden boys used to come down to race in Texas,” Falt said with a grin. “One time after I won a race we were all eating at Applebee’s and Tommy and Nicky came up and were telling me how they were catching me and almost got me at the end. I looked at a photo from the finish and I didn’t see them anywhere in the shot.”  Falt raced his Honda/Rotax for the rest of the 1990s. Today the championship-winning machine is on display at Scoots ‘n Scoops, a combo motorcycle museum and ice cream parlor in Ben Wheeler, Texas.

Eric Falt racing his national championship winning Honda VF500/Wood Rotax hybrid at the WERA Grand National Final at Road Atlanta in November of 1993. Falt won the Formula Clubman Expert title the year before over Tommy and Nicky Hayden. He led early in trying to defend the title in ’93, but he was caught up in lapped traffic late in the race and was unable to retain his No.1 plate. Today Falt’s Honda/Rotax is on display at Scoots 'n Scoops, a combo motorcycle museum and ice cream parlor in Ben Wheeler, Texas. (Larry Lawrence photo)