Trails

A SILVER LINING

     Sometimes it’s hard to write about your beginnings, after a few years of being around a specific kind of group you expand and keep adding and it becomes a part of your world, so to pick it apart is not the easiest. I sat down to Write about motocross thinking Hell! This will be easy I’ll just knock this one out quick!!!, (being an every weekend thing for us) but instead, I stared at the laptop for two days before any words started to come to me.
Although my boys grew up moving fast, from power wheels, to pedal bikes, to the little 50’s, and up through their current racing machines, it wasn’t until the spring of 2020 that shit got real for us!!
Covid shut the world down! All the sports we were involved with, including schools and groups, it seemed like everyone closed for health concerns. That left me with two very restless teenagers!! No one at the time could have imagined a silver lining coming from a worldwide pandemic, but here it is!!! Motocross!!

     Both my boys rode for fun pre covid, but it was my youngest son (Lucas) who brought the idea of competitive riding to us!! Lucas had recently acquired a dirt bike, (nicer than any back yard beast he’s ever had) from one of his longtime friends Ethan Worrell, who grew up on the track! Now not to pick sides but after a long conversation with Ethan’s mom I was 100% all in!! It was Lucas’s dad, Danny, that took some convincing. Here’s the tricky part, his dad was not (at that time) ready to give the go ahead! To compete in an AMA sanctioned event, you need the permission of BOTH parents! If you are underage and you don’t have both signatures you simply don’t race until you can sign for yourself!
Lucas and Ethan had a plan, a dream that never diminished!! From the time they first became friends they wanted to race Dirt bikes together and compete against each other!! (But what kid doesn’t have the dream of being extreme!) It took a lot of persistence, and one well thought out 2-page essay, and presentation written by a 12-year-old, presented to his daddy to get the ok to go to “just one” practice day ANNNND that was about it!! From that point on (seeing the boys light up) it was full tilt ahead!! After that first practice, my oldest son Devin, being on hold from his sports, and Ethan’s brother Brady, who already had some seat time in, all joined in and in a Blink of an eye, we had a race team!
A somewhat unique race team too, even though all of the parents are divorced, all 4 parents work together every weekend to get both sets of brothers to the track and keep the kids on the track! We help each other out with transportation, gear and of course feeding the herd of hungry teenagers! I personally can’t think of a finer example of co-parenting, or a better way to be there for, and with our children while they work through these teenage years. They depend on us as much as we depend on them, to show up and to be there. In the age where most parents are getting pushed away this gives us a shared space where we are all needed to make it work!! On a personal level I’d much rather my boys be outside exercising in the fresh air, learning as a team how to use, maintain, and care for their machines than in front of a screen any day!!

     Motocross is an extremely competitive sport! This type of off-road motorcycle racing is held on an enclosed track or circuit full of high jumps, steep slopes, and sharp turns. This competitive off-road racing is performed in large groups at all levels, from littles to adults on a dirt bike set up to ride through some of the roughest terrain possible! From the sand and mud, whoops and hills, to the jumps that send you flying 40+ feet in the air. The athletes who compete have an adrenaline-fueled drive that is unique to the dirt bike world! It’s more than a passion! It is a way of life!
It takes a combination of seat time, extreme dedication, family, friends, and team support to race motocross! But why is it so special to the non-riders? What makes it a family activity? Well, a race weekend doesn’t only mean getting your fix of competition, but it also means family time! Since there is quite a distance between tracks, we show up early, set up camp, stay the weekend, sleep in the dirt, work on the bikes between motos. It takes all of us to get to the tracks, we grill/cook over the fire every night and cheer on our riders while they’re out on the track giving it their all! This is not only a time for the athletes to put their quick thinking and skills to the test (both on and off the bike) but also a time for strengthening bonds of family, friends, and teammates that will last a lifetime! Motocross is not only my family’s silver lining, but it has opened a world up to my boys that will now be part of who they are forever!
Please check out our calendar of events in Thunder roads Magazine of Michigan and the AMA website at www.ama-d14.org for the district events and come support the off-road world!!

Story and photos by
Erin Fay/Madcap Imaging