After decades of dedicated service, Tom Halverson is retiring from his pivotal role at Yamaha, marking the end of an era in the world of roadracing. Known for his unwavering calm, integrity, and meticulous attention to detail, Tom has been a steady influence behind the scenes, shaping not only Yamaha's success but also the careers of countless riders and team members. His impact extends far beyond the track, earning him the respect and admiration of colleagues and friends alike. As he embarks on this next chapter of life, we take a moment to reflect on the legacy he leaves behind and the countless memories he created along the way.

Halvie has put up with me for 35 years and I am grateful to be his friend. -- DFA

Tom Halverson? I've been lucky enough to deal with Tom on multiple levels, first when I rode for Yamaha then later as a team member from a rival team and then even later I got to deal with Tom as a MotoAmerica rider rep then as the MotoAmerica race director. The great thing about Tom is that over the years he was always professional and most importantly gracious.

Tom has been at the racing game long before I came along and long after I was gone ... he deserves to retire and ride his MTB off into the sunset. Congratulations, Tom, on your retirement.

I’m a lucky guy to say Tom Halverson is my friend.

-- Thomas Stevens 1991 Superbike champion



Tom and I started as teenage friends growing up in the SF Valley together and both had a passion and love for motorcycles. Tom will always have a place close in my heart as we both got our start together at the highest level of motorcycle racing with the help of the late legend Al Baker and Hirotoshi Honda/ Son of Mr Honda himself. AL and Hiro hand built that Mugen Honda team and had the confidence in myself and Tom Halverson to be the ones to make the US debut in 1980 and make it something super special and that will always be a huge part of history in motorcycle racing.


-- Johnny O’Mara
SX/MX Champion


I am wishing Tom Halverson the very best in retirement and many new adventures in this next season of life! Tom was the team manager for Yamaha during my three years with them, and we won an AMA championship together in 1995. Though my time with Yamaha came in the middle of my career, those years were formative for me—Team Yamaha was like a family and Tom had everything to do with that. He was a mainstay, completely dependable as a team manager, kindhearted to the core, trustworthy, and meticulous.

Riders have moments of high stress, and Tom’s calm nature and steady assurance were solid gold for me. Riders can also be needy and self-focused - like the world revolves around us. Not easy to deal with, but Tom’s humility and patience kept him sane and the team in position to win. To say I appreciated him is a massive understatement.

In a sport where people come and go, Tom’s unwavering career-long commitment to Yamaha’s success is practically unheard of. While he had a profound impact on me, I know his influence on Team Yamaha and the sport itself extends far beyond our time together. Like all his friends at Yamaha Motor Corporation, I’m grateful for the privilege of working with him.



And of course, Halvie is at the center of some great memories—like the year he went full vegetarian, only to be forced into a massive gut-busting steak dinner at the top of the Stratosphere in Vegas after a championship win. Or the dealer show in Dallas, when a few of us instigated the crowd to chant his name, leaving him no choice but to take the stage. The lead guitarist handed him a guitar, and a very reluctant (and rusty) Tom attempted to knock out some blues riffs to "Boot Scootin’ Boogie" for a crowd of a couple thousand.

Tom is the poster child of a good sport. His dedication, leadership, and kindness left a lasting impact on me. Congratulations, Halvie—you’ve more than earned this next chapter

-- Tom Kipp
Multi-time national Supersport champion
Factory Yamaha Superbike Rider

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Tom Halverson is RETIRING??? No way … it doesn’t seem possible … tell me it isn’t true!

Memories, memories, memories … mmmm …

I think even Tom would admit that he doesn’t come across as the most boisterous, back-slapping, or hand-shaking guy in the Roadracing paddock, so it’s no big surprise that I can’t remember exactly when I met Tom. What I do remember though, is getting to know Tom and building a solid relationship with him over the course of many years together in the paddock—me as the Dunlop Tire Guy and Tom as the voice of reason and calm at Yamaha. When the chips were occasionally down for us at Dunlop, when we were having a bad day and really looking to our partners for help and the straight story on their end, Tom was the guy to see at Yamaha. No ego, no stress—lay the cards on the table, tell the truth, ask for help and Tom would always, and I mean always, dig in and do his best to help us look for a solution.

In a dynamic sport like Roadracing, one peopled with hundreds of “Type A” personalities … riders, mechanics, media types, wives, girlfriends and hangers-on; conflicting goals, and a “me first” attitude are (distressingly) common. Tom Halverson’s goal was to win races and championships for Yamaha, but he saw it as imperative that he do his job with integrity. At the next race, or at the beginning of the next season, Tom wanted to be able to look everyone in the eye, both inside and outside of Yamaha and ask for their co-operation once more. I don’t think the guy knows any other way to do his job except with integrity and calm.

I’m pretty sure that Tom came reluctantly to Roadracing after a successful start to his Yamaha career in Motocross, where it’s rumored at least, that Tom may not always have exhibited the same calm demeanor that he showed in the Road Race paddock. I don’t think I’m imagining that late-night discussion at some race or other, where the topic of conversation somehow turned to the virtues of oxy-acetylene bombs. I had a passing familiarity myself with the bomb-in-a-paper-bag concept, but Tom, after almost joyfully confessing that his nickname at the time was “Tom Bomb”, regaled the assembled group with stories of green plastic garbage bags and large cardboard boxes flying through the air on a regular basis. Most un-Tom like, but hugely hilarious!

Anyway, Tom … I want to say “Thanks”. Thanks for all the help, over all those years. I’ve said many times in the past, that while I was lucky enough to develop many, many close personal relationships when I was actively involved in racing, only a very few of these truly became friendships. I look on Tom as one of the few friends I’ll keep from racing. So Tom … you need to know that I, and many, many others from the Road Racing paddock, wish you many happy years in retirement - lots of years of riding your bikes, playing your guitar and hanging out with the folks you care about.

Cheers!
Jim Allen, former Dunlop Tire Engineer

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I was lucky enough to get to work with Tom for 5 full season along with working with him in some fill in rides. Tom was always great and was always willing to share his knowledge. I love racing and loved hearing his stories when I could get him to share some. When I got to come back and fill in on the SBK in 2023, Tom was a huge part in that but made it so easy on me.

When I stepped away for road racing full time for a few years I always enjoyed going to watch a couple races a years and there were a few people I always wanted to talk to. Tom was always at the top of the list, it didn’t matter if I hadn’t seen him for a year, he was always super friendly and just loved to catch up.

-- JD Beach
Former National Supersport champion




"My whole family loved Halvie, including Anthony, who had a great relationship with him. Halvie is one of the kindest and most caring people I have ever known. I wish him an amazing retirement and time with his family "

Sue Gobert, Anthony Gobert's mother


I have always enjoyed working with Tom over the years dating back to when I was just a young kid trying to keep our TZ250’s running. Over the years I have worked with him in many different capacities as my career path has evolved and Tom had always been one of the most professional people I have ever worked with. He is someone you could always count on to get things done and get them done correctly. I wish him the best in his retirement; he has certainly earned it.

-- Tommy Hayden
National Supersport champion
Estenson Racing Team Manager


Working with Bud Aksland at the dyno shop we used to get these really special rubber diamond grinding wheel for grinding Nikasli in the ports on the YZR500 cylinders. They came from Japan. I would get a new box of 500, tip them in a container mounted on the wall, throw the box they came in away.... yep, ya see where this is going? Crap, the last one, oh shit, what are they called in Japan? I sent an e-mail to Tom, if you have five minutes free sometime, can you e-mail someone in Yamaha race dept in Japan and show them this picture of these rubber grinding wheels.

I was down at Sandy Rainey's shop weeks later and Tom called me. Come by his office at Yamaha, got something for you. So a couple days later went over to see Tom. Wow, not only had he found out what the name of the grinding rubbers was, he had a big box of them in his hands, told me it was a gift from Yamaha for years of working with Team Roberts and Bud building pipes for Yamaha Racing.

Also with my PJ1 250 team here in the USA, when we first started with Kurtis Roberts on 250 in 96, Without support from Tom and Yamaha USA things would have been really hard. I remember once we had some problems at Laguna with one bike and Tom walked over handed me a complete new TZ250 ignition unit. Like $2000.00 worth, and all he said was, hope this helps for you.

I was at Laguna in '23. Tom saw me , made time to stop and chat and catch up. He said, see you been making lots of pipes lately.. anyway it was a pleasure to catch up. So, Tom our good friend, Thank you for all your years of help an support . There are many many racers that for sure owe you many steak dinners for what you have done for them. I hope you enjoy your retirement , with all them flying miles you probably have take a trip somewhere and relax. Best wishes my friend.

-- Brian Turfrey
Turfrey Racing
Team Roberts
Team Rainey


In my days of Motocross, I was right behind Damon Bradshaw with Yamaha….as he was on a 125 & I was on an 80. Tom was my mechanic at the Nationals (Ponca / Loretta’s, etc).

When I got into roadracing, we knew zero shits of what we were doing, just win races and see what happens. We show up to Road Atlanta GNF (I think 1990, I had my road race license for a couple months and I was on an endurance team with a Yamaha 400). I’m on the hill in turn 5 I think…just watching…..I look to my right and there’s Tom Halverson with his clip board.

I couldn’t believe he was here…hadn't seen him in a couple years, but I never would’ve expected to see him since he was on the Motocross Yamaha side last I knew. Anyways, knowing Tom and getting in with the Yamaha crowd again, and me winning basically every race I entered got the ball rolling again.

Now I’m on the Vance & Hines team with Halvie ‘93 & ‘94. We became very close friends. Long story short, if we left our home towns, we were together. All the races of course, then we did ski vacations in Colorado every year, etc etc. And Tom was one of my groomsmen in my wedding 1999. We’ve done a shit ton of stuff together and had tons of laughs along the journey.

One story: On the motocross side, years before, Tom was young….Everyone used to show up at the Yamaha workshop Monday morning tearing down bikes from Saturdays Supercross or Sundays outdoor. As it turns out, Johhny O’Mara used to make acetylene bombs in black plastic trash bags. Tom shows up to the workshop one Monday morning and here’s Johnny O sitting in a chair with a newspaper held up in front of his face (Tom thought this is weird…everyone usually says hello etc etc)

Tom puts his finger on top of the paper Johnny O was holding and pulls it down……Johnny O has no eyebrows ?!??!

Apparently, after a race, he grabbed a trash bag from under a mattress that had a bit of static…..as he’s filling it up, he holds it at arms out and pats the bag “This should be good”.

KA- BOOM! His eyebrows were gone!

We pissed our pants laughing, trying to catch our breathe to laugh some more……I’ll never forget that story and how hard we laughed!

Side-note: Aly said she wants to add….don’t let Tom fool you. His body is not a temple no matter how many times he says it is. She has seen him eat many filet-o-fish from McDonald’s in Jackson Hole! Happy retirement and enjoy!

-- Colin Edwards II
WSBK world champion

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I met Tom in 1990 as a new mechanic for V&H. Together we solved many technical problems and worked very hard to put the best bikes on the track. I’ve always considered Tom and his boss Larry Griffiths to be the two nicest people I’ve met in racing. When I met Tom he had come from a factory MX team so I learned a lot about suspension from him.

I’ve only seen Tom ride a bike once and it was a Zuma race up the big hill at laguna.With his obvious MX background he won.

Thanks for the memories and I wish you all the best in retirement Tom-san.


-Jim Leonard
Vance and Hines Superbike crewchief


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“Thanks for all of your work and friendship over the years, we enjoyed a lot of big wins and good times together….great memories. Enjoy your retirement, you deserve it!”


Eddie Lawson
4 time world champion and 2-time Daytona 200 winner

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For me, I can’t really overstate how important Tom Halverson’s influence was with my relationship with Yamaha USA. When I was running my two teams, Tom was very influential in me getting support from Yamaha to run the TZ250s. He also was always there for advice and information on improving the team and of course the bike and the suspension, which was his specialty. Later on when I join the superbike team he actually helped me to negotiate my contract and gave me some advice on how to work with their factory team during my time on the super bike and the R6 super sport bike.

One lesson he helped me learn was to really let the team set up the superbike and for me to just give raw feedback.

Tom also had a great eye for rider talent and has helped some of the best riders in the world achieve great results, and I really feel like I owe him a debt gratitude for helping me finish fourth in the Superbike championship the first year and then in the second year, finishing on the podium for the Daytona 200 was a real highlight.

I hope Tom has a great retirement and enjoys this next chapter of his life.

-- Rich Oliver
Multi-time AMA 250 champion