mounted camera. My six-year-old daughter was watching. I was a bit faster than Dan and after awhile I was able to pass him. When my daughter saw that, she said, “Dad! You’re the BEST!” Only a six-year-old could ignore the scores of other riders passing me before and after I passed Dan. Towards the end of the summer,
we decided to take a lesson so we’d have some actual skills to work on. The biggest revelation during our lesson was that Motocross is not a passive sport. You can’t just sit on the seat like we were doing. You need to stand most of the time. The only time you’re supposed to sit is when you’re going around corners. We also learned about body positioning and braking. That gave us a whole new perspective on the sport. No wonder we were so slow. We hit the track a few more times
before the end of the season, and started feeling more confident about our riding. We still got passed by the punks, but at least we started feeling better about our technique. During one of our last sessions
of the season, I was giving it my all around the track, and I sensed another bike behind me. I was well accustomed to being passed, but I decided that I was not going to let this guy get by. For more than half a lap, I went
full out, on the verge of losing total control, but pushing, pushing – trying to stay ahead of him. I was sweating. My hands, arms and legs were sore. I was in full race mode. I was focused. The rider stayed close behind me,
but he didn’t pass. Finally the track exit appeared and he exited. “Take THAT!” I thought as I
stayed on for one more lap. Dan, who had been watching my
battle from the sidelines, told me it was the guy parked next to us that I had been racing. The guy seemed like a much better rider than I was, so I asked him if he had just been laughing too hard at me to pass. The guy said, without a hint of
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sarcasm, that actually he was finished riding for the day and he was just cruising around the track looking for better lines. Here I was, riding at 110 per cent,
and he was taking a leisurely little ride around. But! I beat him! I rushed home to
tell my daughter the news. We had great fun, but at the end
of the season, Dan and I decided we should move to something a
little more suited to our “mature” lifestyles. We decided to sell our MS bikes and invest in dual sport bikes instead. Now we use them as trail bikes. It’s much more relaxed. We’re both glad we tried
motocross and sometimes we miss it. Even though we’ve moved on,
I’ll always be able to tell my future grand-kids about the time I beat that young punk on the MX track. Oh, yeah.
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