Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success. I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz. Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports moving forward. And today I'm chatting with Larry Mills, the president of DP Brakes North America. So Larry, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. So wanted to get a little bit of back history about DP brakes and it even predates DP brakes a little bit because your dad came to the United States from England when he was working with Dunlop tires. And so tell us how that eventually led into establishing DP brakes. Okay. So my dad was chief engineer at Dunlop UK, Fort Dunlop. And in 1977, they needed representation more involvement in the US as far as Dunlop Tire, get it established as a tire company. And back in 1977, Dunlop really weren't, you know, a big player back in the day. So they hired him to come to the US and bring his family. including myself, my sister, and my mom. And we moved over to the US and he then, you know, grew the Dunlop name. He hired people over here and then also brought some other people over from the UK and established a great company, obviously, from there. So he has a lot of background and me growing up in the whole motorcycle division was awesome because You know, back in the day, used, we used to go to all the match races and the motorcycle races back in the UK when Agostini, Barry Sheen, all these top names, Kenny Roberts and all that. And, you know, we'd go to those races and it was a great, um, you know, time of my life. Unfortunately, I was too young to appreciate it back then, but I look back now and it was, it was awesome. But yeah. So we came over, um, and from 77 to 1990, he did a lot of stuff for Dunlop tire and they became a huge name and and continued to be and own most of the market share for for the tire industry but in 1990 my dad wanted to step out and do some other stuff and he continued working for the tire industry and Become a product specialist and became an expert in tire design and represent entire companies for product liability and that stuff. But also uh Phil Ayliff who owned Dunlop pad, which was Dunlop pad DP brakes back then, because it was a division of Dunlop uh aviation. So Dunlop pad needed a name in the US and Phil Ayliff who who owned Dunlop pad back then knew my dad. And he then approached my dad and said, listen, we want to try and get into the US get more market share. So he asked my dad if he wanted to start importing and being the master distributor for Dunlop pad. So he started that and it was a small deal. started in our basement here and then, you know, grew from there. And then I joined him in 91 and, um, you know, It's history from there, but yeah, that's where we started as a company. then obviously we grew from there. We, you know, had small distributors back in 1990 and then Jeff Fox approached us in 1994. We were, uh, and said, would you like to start, um, you know, doing business through us? And, you know, my dad knew Jeff Fox and Fred Fox and, we became a, a name for them and Jeff helped us out with advertising and promoting the product. But in 95, that's when we became exclusive with Parts Limited Drag Specialties and grew from there. But yeah, it's history from there. But uh I've been working with the company since 1991. So it's my 34th year with Dunlop had DP brakes and it's a great company. Our factory in the UK are a family company. We're a family company. It's a small company compared to the other big brands, but uh we have a great name in the industry and there's a lot uh to do with that, obviously. So you didn't really have much of an option but to go into the motorcycle industry. It sounds like from your childhood, that was like everything you knew. And then it was kind of like the perfect transition into working in the industry. So that's really cool. Well, it was, and I didn't own a bike when I was younger and growing up in England, you know, I many riding areas and that stuff, so I didn't really have the opportunity. And my dad was always away like I am now, but it was good though. I played sports and that stuff, soccer and rugby, obviously growing up and even cricket, which is an English sport. But you know, I just, uh I love being around the industry and it was, was fun as a kid growing up, but yeah, I had no choice really. Let's talk a little bit about the brake technology. So what actually goes into producing a brake pad? Can you walk us through that process? Maybe starting with the design all the way through the factory process. Well, yeah. So we have a lot of history involved in the Dunlop pad. So it was started out in Dunlop Aviation aircraft industry, and they needed a brake pad that was going to stop these planes in the wet. then we were, Dunlop Aviation came out with a brake pad that was made out of a sintered metal or the process was sintered metal and it's a combination of different metals and we use a... vacuum furnace and all this other stuff. There's a lot involved. And you can go to our website and there's a cool video on how our brake pads are produced. if you go to www.dp-brakes.com, you can go to our technology and see a video of how our pads are produced. But going back to the history, we were the first ones to come out with sintered metal. And we introduced it to the motorcycle industry back in the late 70s. So we've been doing this and as I said, was Dunlop Aviation. Then we got Phil Ayliff who owned Dunlop pad DP uh bottom out and he started his whole company called Dunlop pad. And then he hired Frank Edwards who was our technical director and then Phil's son Trevor joined uh after that. But there was a lot of there's a lot of history involved in our product. But then it became a great process because with the sintered metal brake pad, you can stop. and they perform it in all conditions, not only a wet, dry, uh cold, hot, they work in every condition. And our process is different than all the others because uh the furnace that we use and we've had that technology that we use. And we also apply a ceramic backing to the back plate too, which also helps the performance because it keeps that heat within the pad and the rotor so you don't get any brake fade too. And another key feature to our materials, And, you know, there's about six to eight different materials depending on which brake pad it is. But the key to our success is you don't get any noise because of the graphites that we use in there. So you don't get that brake squeal. You don't get any brake dust, which is huge, especially in, you know, a sport bike market, the touring, the cruiser market with the white walls and that stuff. So you don't get any of that abuse and all that dust. Plus they last probably two to three times longer than any other brake pad in the industry. So that's huge for our off-road ATV, UTV business. And now that people are realizing that, you you get what you pay for with DP and you you've got the other brands that, you know, might not get all that success, but with ours, you definitely get the performance and you also get the durability. So um yeah, there's so many other things I can talk about, but you know, for the money. You get what you pay for and you know other people they look at price but you know they can wear out in a weekend or whatever where we're so strong now in the ATV UTV market because ours lasts so much longer and we're OEM too. We're OEM on in the Harley market performance machine. Hawg Halters, HHI, Arlen Ness calipers, all those calipers come with DP and then we also sell to Segway Direct. We also sell to CFMoto, KTM USA, uh Sherco USA, Beta USA, because they use us as an aftermarket upgrade. uh And then we also supply Can-Am, BRP Direct too, for their aftermarket upgrade, plus on a few of the OEM models too. So we pretty much consider us the high end as far as the performance and the quality of the brake pads that are offered out there nowadays. Do you feel like break technology has remained relatively the same over the last several decades or are there some really big changes or innovations that stand out to you? So, yes, sintered is still the technology that people are using. Obviously in the world superbike, they use a higher performance brake pad, those are, you know, people can't afford that quality. And it's like going to the NASCAR or the formula one or whatever. Yeah, you can put, you can put those pads on your, on your machine or whatever, but. You can't afford it to begin with. But yeah, we've we've remained the same. But what's coming into the market now is the, you know, the green, as you say, you got to be uh environmentally correct. And, you know, it's like anything nowadays, you've got to be careful what materials you use, what metals. You want to be safe for the environment. So we're going through that process, and especially in Europe, we have done a lot of testing and that stuff and now that's coming into the US so we're being you know tested on different things and that stuff so that that's coming into the whole production part of it now. So DP offers a variety of different break pads. What are the differences between them and how do you simply explain that to the end user? Like, how do you break it down for them? What they should be choosing? Yeah, so all of our pads, we have a DP uh standard pad, which is pretty much your OEM replacement pad. So this is pretty much offered for off-road ATVs, sport bike, Harley. So you can get our standard material, which is your entry-level brake pad, and that's a sintered pad. All our pads are sintered. So I mean, you don't have to be organic or anything like that, the ceramic, all our pads are all sintered. But our entry-level standard uh pad is what you're getting as OEM replacement. So you're starting out as good as OEM, if not better. I mean, we don't have, we don't, our process is that we don't want to downgrade your brakes. We want to upgrade. So our standard material is our standard for off-road ATV, motocross, we have our Pro MX material, which is a higher friction compound and HH plus. So this will give you a better stop and power, better feel. But just because you're getting the performance, you're not really losing a lot of durability. So you're maintaining the stopping power of the upgrade and performance, but you're not going to wear out in like a weekend or anything like that. we have that for off-road ATV. For sport bike, we have our standard. We have our sport material, HH Plus, which is more for your higher end performance street bikes and your. track day rider. And then we have our road race compound, our titanium based material, which is, you're comparing like your materials to like your high end brembos or whatever that are, you know, in the $150, $200 range. with our pads, you're getting an awesome material, but also your price wise, you're between 80 and a hundred dollars, which is a lot less than the other competition. So you're getting a really high quality brake pad for a really good price. most of our CSBK riders in Canada, uh we pretty much own that market as far as our pads. We've done great success up there through John Bickel, Vass, uh Pro Cycle, and other companies because they've been selling those, promoting our products. We've had great success, but it's taken a lot of time and a lot of money to do that, but that's what you have to do, obviously. But we are pretty much considered the number one brake pad in Canada as far as the road racing concern. And then down in the States, we're doing a lot of contingency programs now through various series. And we have a lot of race vendors now that are promoting our product and that stuff and selling them at the track. But we're now involved in the bagger racing league. Rob Buydos is head of that. And we have been since day one, I think it's our fifth or sixth year with that. And we're the exclusive brake company for that series. And we're growing that market for sure. And what it is, it's uh promoting the aftermarket companies and it's through Drag Specialties, our exclusive distributor. They're their prime sponsor. And we're promoting that and Fred Fox and Rob. Buydos came up with this idea and now I'm really behind it because I'm passionate about it. want it to succeed and want it to, you know, do very well. But a lot of these racers are now using our road race compound for this series. And, you know, there's a lot of different manufacturers out there, but we feel that we've got the edge over the others because it gives you better stopping, better feel. You don't get the brake fade and that stuff. So we're involved in a lot of things, as you know, and this is just uh a part of it. So you attend a lot of events and I see you active on social media. You're here, you're there, you're everywhere. Why is it important for you to be there in person? So I have a great relationship with all our racers, our series and that stuff. it's nice to put a name to a face, obviously. And we do a ton of sponsorships, especially on the off-road and ATV level. I mean, you know, we control the GNCC market, the Enduro market and that stuff with our brake pads because we've been there forever. Obviously not forever, but we've been there for, since I've been working the whole uh series here and it's been since the mid-90s, I've been going to the track. been involved in the races. sponsor a ton of series and it's not giving away product. It's just helping these racers out, the families, you know, and the grassroots area, especially the off-road ATV, UTV area. These moms and dads, they're spending a lot of money going to these races and, you know, with a little help from us or whatever, it helps them and they're so appreciative. It's such a cool family. The whole off-road community is so cool because They do really appreciate your efforts. And for me being at the track and that stuff, and it's not only off road ATV, it's the road race tracks or the bagger racing tracks and that stuff. Uh, they appreciate me being there because if they have any questions or just. handshake and say thank you. There's so many people that come up to me and say thank you and even on know social media so many people say thank you and you know I share their thank yous and if someone sends me a trophy or a plaque or whatever I'll take a picture and I'll thank them because you know it makes them look good and they appreciate that so that's that's where I come from you know. I think being there in person is so important, like you said, because people can ask you questions. They get to build that relationship. You're not just a company or an item, like you're a relationship that they have. And I feel like people are more likely to buy products when they have a relationship with a person at the company instead of just a brand or like a label on something. And so I definitely see a lot of companies having more success when they are there in person on a regular basis. Totally. you know, our customer support is excellent. I mean, there's me, we have a very small company. It's me and my brother-in-law, Tim Meer. And we answer the phones, we answer emails, uh know, texts or whatever. And you know, we're proud to say that, you know, our customer service is excellent. And if someone asks a question or emails us or texts us, this is my phone is right here. So. I'll be at night, nine o'clock at night and my phone will go and I'll answer the message or whatever. But being involved in, and you know, answering those questions and talking to the moms, the dads, the writers and that stuff, it's important for me. And not only that, it's great for R&D and if there's an issue or whatever, I can send that back to the factory and if we need to improve on something or, you know, they have an issue with this. We can improve on that. So I'm always online You know, I'm on a ton of forums, especially the UTV forums and that stuff so many people are asking for a better product and you know, They need a something that's gonna last longer. Something that doesn't make noise and that stuff and I'll respond to that and people also chime in a lot of people that you know either our dealers or customers that have used our product They'll chime in too and say, hey, you got to get DP. That's the only way to go. So we'll refer them to, you know, mostly the parts unlimited dealers that we help out or whatever. And I'll just say to go to any parts unlimited or drag specialties dealer. And even if the dealer does not stock our product, it'll be in the parts unlimited or drag specialties catalog. So they can look up a number and a special order that product too. Do you feel like majority of your customers are racers or do you have lot of recreational riders that also buy your products? ton of recreational. mean, racing is just a small amount of our success, but it's obviously the people that, you know, are recreational, they go, you know, the weekend riders are going away with family and that stuff. I mean, that's important to me, obviously, because they're spending money and things aren't cheap nowadays and everything with going on right now, the pricing is all over the place because of, you know, the tariffs and all that stuff. It's hurting everyone. So it It helps the consumer because with ours, they're not buying pads regularly or others. They're not buying them so often. They use ours and they're able to last so much longer and that stuff. So they're saving them a ton of money down the road because they're not changing out brake pads all the time. So yeah, that's important to us. As far as some of the professional level racers, how often are most of them changing their brake pads? Is it every race, every other race? it months? So it depends on the type of riding. um Road racing, for instance, you might go through three sets a year. Every other race, depending on what it is, every third race, depending on the condition, whether it's wet, it's dry, it's hot. So no, they're not changing them out every race. For off-road ATV, these last probably three or four races, and our rotors too, so we make rotors for moose racing. The combination of our rotors and our pads will give the customer more life. But yeah, ours, as I said, do last longer. So with other brands, yes, they might be changing them out every race, but with ours, not at all. So a lot of riders talk about the feel of brake pads. What kind of goes into creating that performance difference? Like, is it just rider preference? Is it performance? Like, how does the feel play into a brake pad? So feel, you know, uh type of feel you're getting out of it is the lever control with your fingers, the initial bite or, you know, the friction level of the brake pad feel as far as uh brake fade and that stuff. So if you get really good feel out of a brake pad, means that you get, you know exactly what you're getting out of your brake pad where you're not having to grab a handful or. suddenly the brake pads, you start putting your fingers on the lever and all of a sudden you're not getting anything and all of a sudden you do get something where the feel is knowing exactly what you're going to get out of that lever. And as I said before, with our ceramic backing that we have on our back plates, that helps with the feel because you're not going to get any brake fade because that heat's not going to transfer to your fluid. So that has a lot to do with your feel and it's knowing what you're going to get out of out of the lever. Looking back at all the series that you've supported over the years, you touched on some of them, some Canadian road race series, Bagger Racing League. What are some of the partnerships, the races, the rider stories that still stick with you? So what sticks with me is how long I support some of these riders. Like I started like uh Walker Fowler, for instance, Adam McGill, um Brycen Neal, those guys I've been helping since they were riding mini bikes. And that is so important for me. I've been helping out so many series like, uh you know, uh MXC, Mid-South, all these series that I've, there was one the other day said we've been in, we've been supporting them for 25 years and that was the Iowa series. so it's important for me because they recognize that and they push our product. They announce our names at all the series. They put posts out there and say, I'm thanking us. And, but for the riders, you know, it's, so important for me to have a relationship. with these riders and it's the kids that started growing up from like 50s, 60s, and now they're racing 450s. It's like, I can't believe it, but you know, that's important for me. And it's very seldom that a racer will go to another brand, but, and if they do, uh, they might come back later realizing that they, the, the, the material or the product wasn't as good. So, you know, I'll give them a second chance, but, uh you know, generally they don't. leave us and, know, cause I'm loyal to them. They're loyal to me. they push our product, but you know, the, big racer, the top pros and that stuff, they, they push our product all the time and it makes a big deal for me. And as a, our family, you know, helps us and grow the, go the line because you know, these, these racers are staying very loyal to us and they have been. I help racers with their sponsorship resumes and decks and that sort of thing. And one thing that I always try to get across to them is it's not about you. It's about what you can do for that company. And obviously you love to support the racers, but what are some really tangible ways that if a racer was coming to you and wanting support, like what would you be looking for out of them? I know you mentioned a couple posts, but like maybe what qualities and what tasks, like what are you looking for? Yeah, so, you know, obviously social media is a big part of it now. Announcing us on the podium, putting our banners up, our van decals on their trailers. I mean, you see them coming into the track, so you see our logo everywhere. I remind riders sometimes if they have a new sticker kit and our logo is not where I want it to be. I want it front to center. But, you know, sometimes they forget a logo. And I'll point that out. I'm on, as I said, I'm on social media all the time and I notice things like that. the newer ones that I don't know much about them. So what I'll do is if they send in a resume or whatever, I'll go online. and I'll look at that person and it takes a lot to do all that because we get hundreds of requests every time. But I'll go online and I'll see or they'll send me their resume or they'll send me their link to their online social media and I'll look and see what they do. I mean, if you see there's no, they don't do any posts, that's not good for us. know, I mean, they've got to show appreciation and they have to do their job. We don't want to just send them product and give them a discount or whatever. They have to do their part as far as promoting our product. Yeah, and their past history, like you said, of speaks for itself. If they say they're going to make a bunch of posts, but they haven't been posting, it's pretty unlikely that they're going to. They probably just put that on their resume because it sounds good. It does and it happens. And I'll say, uh I'll question that. And they said, oh, you know, they'll come up with an excuse. But sometimes I don't really turn down anyone, whether it's, you know, if they go to a different levels of sponsorship, but generally that'll decide what type of sponsorship I will give them. You know, if they're not serious about it, then. you know it doesn't do us any good we want them to have a good product but if it's not going to do us any good then you know uh... it's got to be a win-win situation obviously Yeah, I'm always very honest with racers when they come to me wanting services, surrounding sponsorship, um, kind of to go to market that like, does take work. And if you're just kind of a weekend warrior type person and you just want to get free stuff, this probably isn't the right path for you because you do have to do the work in order to get that product. Now, if you're a very serious, high level racer, then maybe it makes sense for you. but sometimes it's just better to go work a job and pay for stuff than it is to try to go the sponsorship route because there is a lot on the back end that needs to be done. there is and you mentioned weekend warrior and yeah some guys they come up with a fake resume or girls whatever and they come up with something like that and all they're doing is riding with their friends on the weekend well then you then I'll say well these are available through your parts unlimited dealer I'm not going to help them out because they're not going to do anything. And it's not fair for their local dealer to take away sales or whatever, me giving them a discount. So I then say, well, you can purchase our product through your Parts Unlimited Stocking Dealer. It's easy. Yep, I think there's definitely a lot of things to be learned and like education to be pushed out to racers about what sponsorship looks like I feel like this industry can do a little better job at it in the future just again educating the racers on like what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. I feel like we still got a long way to go in that Yeah, it is. one of my favorite, um, spokesperson in the industry is Adam McGill. And he is great with the amateurs and the younger kids because he, spends time with them. And obviously other riders do, but Adam's like, he's passionate about it. And, we've helped him since day one when he worked in the, in a dealership in, in West Virginia. And, um, you know, he, we've helped him out and he's helped our brand so much. And he does a lot for his sponsors. he, as I said, he helps the youth. He goes to the morning race and that stuff and helps them. And they, he's an idol to a lot of the kids. And you know, you need more people like that. And Adam's a class act. Yeah, I feel like he's not just a racer, but he's like an ambassador. He's a personality. Like that's what brings so much more to the table than just even race results. Like I've always said, there are kind of two different segments of sponsorship. There's the racer who is the top racer and produces the results. And then you could have somebody that's maybe not always winning, still a quality rider, but it's just a much better ambassador for a company. totally, totally. And Johnny Gallagher is the same. know, mean, Johnny doesn't race anymore, but he's there for the kids. He's there for all his teammates and, you know, the kids look up to them and that's what you need, which is cool. Yeah, absolutely. So what is next for you and DP brakes? What's kind of the future? Maybe what are some big plans in 2026? 2026, uh pretty much same as usual. But what we're trying to do is focus more on the bagger stuff. We're trying to expand that as much as we can. We're getting more involved in that and we want to grow that market. It's getting more popular. As far as me, as far as sponsorship, we're staying the same. We have had a lot of increases in pricing and that stuff because of all the tariffs. And it's not just tariffs, it's material costs, it's shipping costs and that stuff. So we're trying to get our pricing sorted out. We're gonna swallow some of that price and we can't hand that off to the customer because it's not fair on them. But that's the big thing we're working on right now is the pricing structure. But, you know, as far as sponsorship, gonna, we're not backing off there. We're being more aggressive, actually. mean, you know, times like this, want, you don't want to disappear. You don't want to back off too much because then people think, they're to get now the industry or whatever. But with us, we're, staying focused. We're staying, uh you know, more involved. And, as I said, uh the road racing side of it is stronger for us. We're getting more. popular in that market. So we're putting a little more money into that market. A lot more vendors are using our product. so the demand is there and our name's getting very strong because of the quality, because of the price. So that's where we're pretty much putting our focus on these days. And I assume that you'll be traveling just as much next year. Maybe you get a weekend or two at home, it sounds like. Yeah, you know, mean, you my wife understands Amy's awesome. I'm actually traveling more than I did when my kids growing up. I mean, I tried to spend as much time with my kids growing up and being at sporting events and that stuff, but it was tough. But, you know, that's important. You got to be home for your family, for, you know, school stuff or sporting events. I was I was very involved, I'm not going anywhere, but I enjoy what I do and I love what I do. so I'm not backing off yet, but, you know, it's, getting harder. Traveling is getting harder and more difficult these days, but, I'm staying focused and, you know, that's, that's about it. tell people where they can connect with you personally and with DP brakes online. So you can connect through me. My email is dpbrakestm at aol.com. I'm still aol.com. Can you believe that? I'm old school, believe me. uh Online, uh www.dp-brakes.com. And we have a great website. You can do product search. There's all our uh racing stuff on there. So, you know. Definitely look at that. It's got some, a lot of history, lot of technology, how the pads are, how they were produced. We have that video, as I mentioned before, um on social media, uh myself, Larry Mills. And then you got uh DP Brakes Racing uh on Facebook. And you've got Larry Mills nine, and you got DP Brakes Racing on Instagram. And, you know, I, as I said, I respond to any questions 24 seven. So I mean, you know, I can be watching a football game at night at 10 o'clock and I'll respond to your, your email or text, whatever. So. It's my business. So I have to do that. know, so, uh, I love, I I'm passionate, uh, and I love the sport. I love the industry. Um, so that's, that's me. Well, thank you so much. And thanks to everybody for tuning into Momentum. This has been a production of High Gear Success. If you want to connect or recommend a guest, head to MomentumMotorsportsPodcast.com. Until next time, keep the momentum rolling.