09/04/2026
AFTER 34 YEARS, WE HAVE SOLD YORK MOTORSPORTS!!!
That's a hard sentence to type, so let me back up and tell it right.
In January of 1993, with my parents' help, I bought the local Yamaha dealership. It was only a couple
of years old at the time — a small building in the middle of town behind Zions Bank, next to the
laundromat. It was clean and it served the purpose, though it didn't have much of anything you could
honestly call a service department. I made do.
The previous owner had focused mostly on motorcycles. ATVs and watercraft were just starting to
catch on back then, so I added both right away. That turned out to be one of the better decisions I ever
made.
Those first years it was me, my dad, my mom, and one close friend. I was an enthusiast, but running a
dealership — and learning everything that came with representing Yamaha — was a different animal
entirely. It took a lot of hours. I've been proud to carry that brand every year since: quality product,
real customer service, and a lineup that covered just about everything a person in this part of the state
could want. Street bikes, dirt bikes, scooters, ATVs and later side-by-sides, watercraft, snowmobiles,
even generators.
After a good first year I bought land and built the building we've been in ever since, in 1994.
I can't overstate what my parents did for me. They put their money behind me when I had more
ambition than experience, and then they kept showing up and working in the dealership for years after
they'd already retired. That's not a small thing.
Vernal supported that little shop from the day I took it over, and never stopped. I've had customers
stay with me for decades — and more than a few who didn't just buy from us, but rolled up their
sleeves and helped when circumstances made it hard to get everything done. That's a small-town
thing, and I've never taken it for granted.
In 1995 I added Sea-Doo and Ski-Doo, and this community got behind both of them fast. Around
2000, falling watercraft sales and the constant pressure to keep buying units at wholesale forced my
hand, and I had to let the Bombardier products go. That was a hard call after all the customers I'd built
there, but the financial load was more than a young business and a young owner could carry.
Then, in the early 2000s, I broke my leg.
It took me out of just about every part of the business at once — and at that point I was most of the
business. Friends stepped in on the sales floor and in the service department and kept the doors open.
It was a godsend. And that's when Becky left a job she'd loved for years to come help.
She never left. From that point on this has been the two of us, and York MotorSports doesn't make it
another 25 years without her.
In 2004, with sales climbing faster than we could source units from Yamaha, we added Kawasaki.
That one paid off. About nine years ago we took another chance and brought on CFMOTO — more
variety, good product, good pricing. We've dabbled in RC cars and trucks along the way too, because
it fit the families we were already serving.
Vernal runs on oil and gas, which means booms and busts, and we've adapted through every one of
them. Through all of it we kept a loyal customer base, and we're both thankful and proud of that.
We've tried to give back where we could — event support, donations, giveaways — and to be worth
having in this town.
In 2019 I started dabbling in CNC machining, out of the back shop here at the dealership. I'd always
been fascinated by it and figured it might add a little diversification. I had zero knowledge and zero
experience. I taught myself the CAD software, taught myself to program the machine, and sold the
first products at the beginning of 2020. Then COVID hit. We thought that might be the beginning of
the end of the story. Instead, because of where we live and who we serve, sales spiked. The support of
this community and our employees during that stretch was everything. Viper Machine took off, and
we've since bought a new facility and more equipment to keep growing it.
Lee came on with Viper early, back when it was still a corner of the shop out back, and he's been an
integral part of it every day since — including making the move when the new Viper facility came
online in 2023. He'll be right where he's always been.
Over the last few years my focus has drifted more and more to the Viper Machine side, and Becky has
been the one driving York MotorSports — running the dealership while also building a real estate
career, and succeeding at both. Chris and Codi have carried a lot through all of that juggling, and we're grateful for it.
So after almost 34 years, we've made the hard decision to step aside and sell the dealership. It gives us
some rest we badly need, and lets us put our full attention on what's next.
We are NOT retiring, and we are not going anywhere. We'll still be right here in Vernal. Becky will expand her real estate business and lend more time to Viper Machine. I'm staying in the powersports industry and building Viper Machine into what I know it can be.
The new owners are young, with a strong background in powersports and recreation, and — like us —
they're a family-run business. They're excited to expand into Vernal and grow what's offered here. The
York MotorSports name will be retired and replaced with a new one. We'll let the new owners
introduce themselves in their own words here shortly.
We began the transition back in August, and it's now in its final stage.
Chris will be staying on with the new owners, and we're glad about that. He knows our customers and
he knows our history, and we hope he can be a familiar face and a point of contact for everyone who's
been with us over the years. Codi will be coming over to Viper Machine full time.
Chris — I want to say this plainly. THANK YOU for your commitment over all these years. Becky and I truly regard you as family, and always will !!
And to answer the question everybody's going to ask: nothing is changing with the brands. The new
owners are keeping every product line we've supported all these years, and adding some exciting new
options on top of them.
I'm confident these new owners will be able to upgrade the service and the experience of our brands in
this area going forward, and keep taking care of the customers we've spent 34 years earning.
This is bittersweet. This place has been tied up with our family, our friends, and honestly our own
identities for a long time. But we're excited to see what new energy and focus can do for these brands
and for this community.
Thank you for the support. Thank you for the memories. Thank you, Vernal. We will always be grateful for the wonderful people we have met along the way!!
— Rick & Becky York
