MotoCross Mom

"Mom and Dad, I Want to Race!"

by Marva Montierth

At some point after kids start riding dirt bikes, you can expect they will eventually approach you and announce that they'd like to try racing. I remember the day when my youngest son first asked what my thoughts were on the subject? A lot of thoughts flit through your head at a moment like that, including worries about safety, cost, and whether or not you can fit this into your already busy schedule.

From the first minute my sons got on their dirt bikes, safety was always our primary concern. We outfitted them from the start with the proper gear and tried to teach them that common sense on a bike meant they could continue to ride, while lack of good judgement would probably lead to injury or suspension of their riding privileges. I knew they could get hurt racing, but safety wasn't as much of a worry as it might have been because I had already passed that first big hurdle.

I didn't give cost a lot of thought in the beginning. I knew they needed to trade their trail bikes in on motocross bikes. I figured that once that was done we would be over the major financial hurdle. I look back on that assumption today and shake my head and laugh about how naïve I was.

We did buy different bikes. They were used bikes and that cut the cost considerably. However, the new parts my husband deemed necessary seemed to be endless. Some, such as new tires, made perfect sense to me. Other parts though, many of which I didn't even recognize, left me wondering if he had developed a shopping fetish. I just accepted his word for it though and wrote the checks. After looking at the gear the boys had at the time, I decided we should probably make an investment there too. The helmets they'd used for desert riding were two-years-old, so we got new, lightweight Snell 95 approved models. We purchased new apparel and bought new boots...they were ready.

We checked the local tracks and found that most of the parents preferred the track that was farthest from our home. They had practice days on Saturday, so we loaded up and headed out. Parents who aren't on bikes get in free to practice, and it was only $10 per bike for the kids. Twenty dollars for a weekend's entertainment didn't seem to be too bad. Two months later, we decided they were ready for their first race. This time there was a gate fee for all four of us and entry fees for the races. That made it an eighty-dollar-day. Do this every weekend and you'll eventually quit complaining about the future cost of a college education!

From the first moment the kids said they wanted to start racing, I knew it would take a commitment of time. What I didn't realize then was that it can easily evolve into a lifestyle. Nothing prepared me for that, in spite of the fact that I had been a soccer mom and one of my children had played on a traveling tournament team.

It doesn't seem to matter whether the boys are doing day racing, or night racing, it still takes up a whole day. I'm not even sure which I prefer. If we're day racing, it means we have to be up by 4:00 AM in order to leave at 5:30 AM and arrive at the track by 6:00 AM. Day racing gets us home around 5:00 PM. If we're night racing, we don't leave until 2:30 in the afternoon, but it also means we usually pull back in around 1:00 AM the next morning. After a few months of thi, you develop a deep appreciation for three-day weekends and mornings when you can sleep-in.

If after reading this you have a negative impression of racing, that wasn't my intention. Motocross racing can consume your life and the contents of your pocketbook. It doesn't necessarily have to though. Over the years our racing has evolved from something we did every weekend to something we do when we feel like it. There are times when the boys race every weekend for two to four months straight. Then they might not race again for two or three months. We are currently in our longest hiatus ever. Our oldest son raced his last race in August, and the youngest last raced in October. We've spent the months since then doing a lot of desert riding and just attending practices. It's been relaxing and rejuvenating, but I can feel another race season approaching.

Safety has never stopped being an issue, but I worry less about them while they're on the track than I used to. Early in their racing careers, we invested in some major training with a former AMA motocross champion. It was pricey, but one of the best investments we ever made. The boys learned skills that have made them safer on the track, as well as more competitive. It's an investment we plan to make again in the near future, since learning never stops, and the more you know, the safer you are.

We don't push our sons to be winners. We push them to use their heads, refine their skills, and live to race another day. Neither boy has ever been seriously hurt, which is due in major part to the fact that we've instilled the philosophy that winning is not everything.

The money we spend on racing has not declined. We spend less on race fees than we used to, but we have made major investments in equipment and maintenance. The flat-bed trailer and Toyota pickup that first hauled the bikes to the track have now been replaced by an enclosed trailer pulled by a Ford Explorer. We haven't bought new bikes for the boys, but we've made major investments in improving the stock suspension, replacing sprockets, tires and chains regularly, and replacing damaged handlebars, graphics, and clutch/brake levers. We don't wait until parts are worn out to replace them. Our kids don't have the newest bikes on the tracks, but they have some of the best maintained bikes. My oldest son is proud of the fact that, although he can compete with the best of his friends, his bike is the only one out of that group that has never seized an engine.

Racing can be a money pit. We try not to make that pit deeper than it has to be. We have acquaintances and neighbors that look at what we spend on racing and ask why. They shake their heads in dismay. Is the money we spend on racing well spent? We think so. We spend quality time as a family and the boys are learning skills that will stand them in good stead down the road. They've learned that the fun things in life can cost a lot of money and racing is a privilege to be earned. They've made friendships that will last beyond elementary school and met people who would have otherwise remained strangers. There are safer sports, there are saner sports, and there are certainly cheaper sports…. but there's not a sport that we enjoy more than this one.