Bringing powersports to DC: Q&A with Christy LaCurelle

Christy LaCurelle, president and CEO of the Motorcycle Industry Council, sat down with Powersports Business and chatted about her new role with MIC and the roots of her career in the powersports industry. Next, we discussed MIC’s Powersports Capitol Hill Fly-In program, which helps organize meetings with Congress members to address critical issues impacting MIC members’ businesses and the overall industry. And finally, LaCurelle touches on MIC’s role in getting lawmakers to reintroduce legislation to fully fund the Recreational Trails Program.

PSB: You’ve been on board now as president and CEO of MIC for a little over six months now, how are things going?

Christy LaCurelle: Overall, what I’ve been most impressed with is what a great team was already there at the association. I have the best team to work with. Our members have been great. There’s been a lot of different opportunities to connect with them, and they’ve been great and helpful, and everybody loves this industry, and they want to see it succeed. That’s so clear by the passionate statements that I get from everybody asking, ‘how can we help.’ Everybody just wants to see powersports stay successful.

PSB: What’s your background in the powersports industry, you were at KTM originally, right? What was your involvement there?

LaCurelle: I worked in marketing, motorsports marketing specifically – so a lot to do with racing, which then trickles over into the sales departments and R&D efforts. It was great to be there because you kind of get to touch base with a bunch of different departments. But my first job in powersport was at a cycle salvage yard. The owner of a new parts store owned a salvage yard too, so I split my time between [the two]. He wanted me to do the salvage yard stuff so that I would learn about the different parts and bikes. It was a big learning experience for sure. I was just a young kid that loved motorcycles. I didn’t know a whole lot about selling parts.

PSB: So, tell us about the fly-in you just did. Who did you meet with? Was it a good turnout from the industry side?

LaCurelle: For just over 10 years now, MIC has been doing a fly-in every year where we invite our member companies to come out to Washington, D.C. with us and we organize meetings with different members of Congress — on the House side and the Senate side — and talk about important issues that are impacting our industry.

This particular year, we had 28 member companies join us, which was about 40 people that came out. We scheduled 95 meetings with members of the House and the Senate all in one day. It was a lot that crossed over 27 states. And this year we saw a bunch of head nods, a bunch of agreement with our issues. There wasn’t anybody that we talked to that was against any of the points that we had that are impacting our industry, and that’s a good place to be in. We had a lot of positive feedback and, of course, the No. 1 issue was tariffs.

PSB: Right, tariffs have been a hot topic here lately. I know you were in D.C. just at the height of the tariff discussion, so what was the reaction of the people that were there?

LaCurelle: Well, we joked that it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. When we scheduled this a few months ago, we didn’t know that the tariff announcement would happen the week prior to us being [in D.C.], but it ended up being perfect timing because we were one of the first groups to come through and be able to talk to them about the most recent [tariff] announcements. They were very open to hearing about our industry and understood that trickle-down effect that happens to every layer of our industry and then, ultimately, to the consumer.

A lot of the members we have, they’re not at all opposed to having more manufacturing here in the U.S. But I mean right now it is very fast and chaotic and without a lot of explanation. What we’re asking for is can there be a pause — and luckily there is right now — so that everyone can properly prepare for how this might impact the industry. Because right now, the way it’s going is very detrimental to our industry and we must stand up and fight for this, and the best way is really [through] these grassroots efforts.

PSB: You’re also promoting the industry by getting more people out riding by protecting and maintaining land access, can you touch on some of those things?

LaCurelle: We just sent out a press release about RTP, which is the recreational trails program. This is probably the single best program that has ever come for the OHV community. There is this gas tax that you pay — about 18 cents — on every gallon of gas that goes into this Federal Highway Fund, and it really goes back to the paved roads and things we drive cars on. But, in 1991 there was a group of people that said ‘hey, everybody that’s filling up their off-road motorcycles, ATVs and side-by-sides, they’re putting in tax too. Couldn’t that go to trail maintenance?’ And so, [legislators] agreed that it should. Since then, there’s been a portion of money that goes every year into this RTP fund, and it’s split 30% for motorized trails, 30% for non-motorized trails, and 40% for mixed-use.

It’s been a great program, but it’s currently funded at $84 million a year. A study showed that we pay $281 million into the fund from the off-road products we’re using and filling up with gas. We just had a group of senators, about seven of them, currently co-sponsoring a bill that is asking to increase the amount of money up to what we’re actually putting in.