Pioneering Superbike mechanic and former racer Mike Velasco died January 5 in a hospital in Washington state at the age of 74.

Velasco was a key player in the formative years of AMA Superbike with Yoshimura  R&D and later with American Honda and worked with riders such as Wes Cooley (R.I.P.), David Emde, Gary Fisher (R.I.P.), Steve McLaughlin, Fred Merkel, Ron Pierce, Roberto Pietri, Larry Pegram, Bubba Shobert, Freddie Spencer, and Steve Wise, among others.

Here are a few tributes to Velasco:

Mike Baldwin: “Mike had that ‘Go get ‘em let’s win this thing’ attitude and style of prepping his race bikes. He loved winning as much as the riders did. RIP Mike.”

John Glover: “So sad, hell of a good guy, racer and mechanic, always smiling and happy. RIP, my friend.”

Terry Hampton: “Sad. Mike was always nice and helpful to me. He and Merlyn Plumlee would leave used Fred gifts (parts) for me in rags in my pit, like elves!”

Steve Lang: “So sorry to hear he’s gone. We are all so lucky to have known someone like Mike and shared so many great memories. What a great guy and what a great run. Thanks, Mike.”

If you have a memory of Mike Velasco that you would like to share, please send it to [email protected].

Update:

Brad “The Bullet” Baker: “The world has unfortunately lost a great man, a legend, my dear friend, Mike Velasco. Mike has been one of my biggest supporters ever since I was only 12 years old when he started building my brother and I’s race engines. I’ll always remember showing up to @brothers_powersports for the first time to meet him and have him show us around. He made us feel right at home, like we were apart of the family from the very beginning. He was always so positive and happy, it was like nothing ever phased him, no matter how many difficult projects he had in front of him. He had a way of always putting a smile on my face, especially when he would let out his infectious laugh when talking about some of the crazy things he would do to make horsepower back in the early days of Superbikes. I owe so much to him, he contributed to so much to my success. Every engine he ever built for me was fast, I hardly ever had a mechanical and he never ever charged me a dime. I’ll admit, back then I feel like I took him for granted. I wish i could go back and do more for him to let him know just how much i appreciated him. But I mainly need to thank him for just being a great friend. After my accident he would always check in on me to see how I was doing and he never stopped helping me even though I wasn’t racing anymore and he was retired. I’m really glad that he was able to be apart of building the supermini that I just recently finished. We had a lot of fun talking back and forth during that project. I’ll always cherish the memories we had together. Mike will deeply missed by the many people he helped and touched over the years and he will definitely never be forgotten. My heart and thoughts go out to his awesome family during this very difficult time. Race in Peace Mike, see you on the other side my friend.”