Motocross An Amazing Race

Our 16 year old son that rides Motocross.  For those of you who do not know I will try to explain from my eyes.  Motocross is an exciting and often painful sport not to mention physically demanding, one that continues to grow and grow.  It is where dirt bike riders from near and far, the young and not so young come to ride. They compete on many levels for bragging rights, the thrill of the ride and who knows maybe pick up a trophy along the way.  But I think more the thrill of the ride.  They line up with sometimes up to forty racers at the gate to compete on a long man made obstacle course designed with jumps, whoops and other obstacles.

Very enduring.

My son raced in his second race of the year at the annual Utah State Motocross Championship race.  To watch him from when he was just my little guy on the powder puff track who would tip over and everyone would race to pick him up,  to how he has grown in to this young man, doing it all on his own today is one of the reasons I titled this the amazing race.  It has been simply amazing to watch.

The race was a 3-motto format done over 2 days. This is new to me I wasn’t sure what to expect.   But talk about long difficult Moto’s on a new updated track oh my goodness!  The endurance to stay on that track and compete strong lap after lap is unreal.

He had raced in the beginner level in his first race and did so well that this time he was moving up to the junior’s class.  He went to the open practice that Friday.  He felt pretty good about it.  He was so nervous, this will be his last race for this year and he wanted to do well.  He went up early morning Saturday.  My youngest had a football game going on in that same time frame and we were about 19 miles away from the track.  Always with the impeccable timing, and so my youngest played a rough game of football, and played well winning the game, bonus!  Then it was our amazing race to make it to the race before it was his turn.

You have to love it, trying to be in two places at the same time.

My son did the morning practice.  It isn’t to work on his speed so much, it helps him to take a good look at the track and feel it out.   He tries racing at a good speed to give himself an idea and feel for the track.

After they all practiced he took a look at how the starts were run, he looks to see how the gate drops, and where he wanted to start at on the line.  You have to pay close attention to the race order and watch to see what you will have to expect when your race is up.

That and if you don’t pay attention, well you will miss your race!

Miraculously I was able to make it to the race and with no time to spare.  He was on the line.  I have always had my video camera with me.  I had gotten pretty dang good at shooting film, but I like to scout out the track to see where it leads and I didn’t get to do that.   They have added to the track, combining it with the track.  So you have to film pretty far.  So many factors in filming a race! 
It is time.

He gave himself enough time so that he wasn’t rushing before his race.  They do a random draw to decide who gets to pick first of where to start from the gate.  Then they begin what will be a long and enduring day of racing for all who are involved.  He chose his spot on the line next to the box, he was at the gate they started their large and very powerful bikes revving their engines all at once.  He was sitting there on his 450 Yamaha at the line with anticipation  of the gate dropping, three, two, one the gate dropped and all at once he along with everyone else at the gate raced for the whole shot.  The whole shot is a corner the riders battle to get around first.  There really is so much that goes into racing.   It is very calculated.

Once he made it through the whole shot he was off to race his heart out for the next fifteen minutes of the Motto.  He raced through ruts, and crater sized holes, rocks the size of your fist flying at him all of this while holding the throttle down at full speed.

After his first lap I could tell he was feeling it, he had went down when he was taking a corner in one of the deep ruts made from previous riders. That would cost him some time.  His arms always hurt and swell from the arm pumping, he always tells me how he loses hand control it makes it a struggle to hold onto the bike.  The course is almost a mile long and you do about five laps at full speed.  By the end of the race he was physically beat!

Oh did I mention he was going to undergo this whole process again the next day!

It makes you wonder who goes out of their way to do this right?  The amounts of money constantly put into the bike, the gear, and the racing.  The chance of serious injury or any injury at all for that matter, there is a lot at stake and a lot to chance.   It goes back to the thrill of the ride I tell you.  The chances of winning the whole race are really slim.  So it is that hope of getting what your came there for that brings them back again and again.  To really understand you would have to physically do it, get on a bike and physically ride before you could get the big picture as to why they do this.