Ron Wood Enterprises began importing and distributing 500cc Rotax four stroke engines in the early '80s in cooperation with Bombardier's Can-Am motorcycle division to dirt track racers throughout north America. As the demand for engines grew, racing frames were needed and the Wood-Rotax "Factory" was born, with frames built in house to exacting specifications, and complete motorcycles available in kit form. Testing was done on local California tracks throughout 1983, and in 1984 Wood-Rotax 500cc motorcycles dominated the Junior National dirt track class, beating larger displacement twins to take first and second in the series.

Since 1984, Wood-Rotax motorcycles and engines have won 23 National Championships in North America, plus every Peoria TT National since 1988.

Wood-Rotax ventured into roadracing in 1987 with a 500cc air-cooled single.This evolved into a dominant 676cc liquid cooled GP Single with state of the art components, setting and holding track records around the country.

With the introduction of BMW's big selling F650 Funduro came the need for better performance from the capable single cylinder machine. The Rotax connection brought on a rash of calls for performance parts, and soon K&N filters, exhaust systems and more were in production. After the installation of the first kit (in a Bimota Supermono) the owner called to tell us that the bike ran cooler, got better mileage and "pulled in fourth and fifth like it used to in second".

Rumors were flying in early 1999 that Bombardier, Rotax's parent company, in Quebec, was building a new quad. This utilized the engine out of BMW's best selling F650 Funduro, and was larger and faster than anything else on the market. Our experience with the 654 engine, plus a long relationship with Bombardier and Rotax, gave us an edge when it came time to increase already impressive performance of the new DS650.