A "Team Mirage" set of toys? Not quite...

I was poking around in the storage space under my old studio today (looking for stocking stuffers, if you must know), and came across these two curiosities. I remember finding both of these sets in the mid-1990's at a local Toys 'R' Us (the Mirage dudes and I used to go to toy stores a lot back in those days), and being amused by the fact that this toy company had taken a photo of our Team Mirage-sponsored AMA Superbike roadracer, Dale Quarterley, and used it prominently on the packaging of these sets of "racing" toys. I'm not sure where they got the photo, although I know for certain that we didn't supply it to them. Here's a photo of the large set...



... and one of the small set...



... and a close-up of the photo of Dale (at speed on his Kawasaki race bike) which they used on both packages.



We never had any contact with the company which did this, and I have often wondered how they chose Dale, out of all the possible motorcycle racers around at the time, to decorate their packaging. Although it isn't terribly easy to see in this photo, Dale's bike DOES have the Team Mirage logo on its bodywork, as well as the abstract TMNT face design, and during those days of Team Mirage we made no secret of the TMNT connection. I wonder if the people behind this packaging saw that and thought they might get some mileage for their toys out of that connection.

I suspect not, mostly because it's not THAT obvious. I would guess that they just thought the image of Dale on his bike was cool and colorful (right on both counts) and would help to catch a kid's eye in the toy aisles. I have no idea how well these sets sold, or if the photo of Dale was used on any other packaging. -- PL

Blast from the Past #185: "Team Mirage" roadracing Turtle

This is another one of the amazingly cool drawings Jim Lawson did back when "Team Mirage" was in full swing, sponsoring several motorcycle racers.



Our roadracing guy in the AMA superbike class, Dale Quarterley, had the number 32 on his bike. -- PL

A "Team Mirage" souvenir

This is an artifact from the days when I sponsored a motorcycle racing team that we called "Team Mirage". All the racers rode TMNT-themed bikes, and Dale Quarterley was our road racer, competing in the AMA superbike class.



Dale gave me this side panel from the fairing of his Team Mirage Kawasaki race bike. It bears the scars from a crash he had in 1992 at the Mid-Ohio race course. I attended that race, having ridden out to Ohio with some motorcycling friends, including Gary Richardson (who also ran Team Mirage for me, and did a great job of it), Ed Smith and Jim Lawson. I can't remember if it was oil or water on the track that made Dale hit the deck, but he did, and the bike slid across the pavement for quite a ways. You can see the gouges where the pavement abraded the pant and plastic of the fairing panel.

Dale actually won the race on a Team Mirage bike the following year... a pretty amazing thing for a privateer competing against factory teams. Unfortunately, I was not in attendance, but Gary was, and got to take part in the victory celebrations. -- PL