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My racing has taken a back seat for school. I wasnt going to become pro and make a career so I decided to go to school. I still ride and race occasionally and will continue to do so as long as I can.
I grew up in the seventies and raced a handful of times on a beater bike I bought with a part time job. None of my friends or their parents had any money so it didn't bother me much, but after going to a handful of races it didn't take me long to figure out that you needed more cash than I had to race.
I went on to school, got my undergrad in finance/math and then put a law degree on top. Now I can spoil my kids and catch resentment from people who have a lot more than I ever did as a kid.
As far as needing a degree to prosper, my two best clients were my best friends growing up. Neither had any college or money as kids, and both could now buy me with pocket change. Good for them, they earned it.
I never met a succesful person who spent his or her time bitching about what someone else has.
Is the local scene dead/dying because everyone is chasing after the "Professional Amateur" scene, or is it the other way around?
EIther way, it's kinda sad. There is safety and strength in numbers, and it seems like motocross is trending the wrong way in that regard.
I raced until the day I graduated high school. I played ice hockey in the winter when we lived in WV and when we moved to GA, I played football in the fall. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to play college football and I quit racing because I knew racing wasn't going to be my way of life. To me, it's important that kids, even top level am racers, be exposed to other sports and activities because most of them are not going to be the next JS7 or RC. If ore high schools would add clubs to support racing of different types, you may see this happen. I'd live to see a "Motorsports Club" at the high school level where kids could learn to ride, drive, work on cars/bikes, and also learn the business side of things. It might even direct more kids to tech schools for welding and fab or engine mechanics or college Engineering programs who otherwise might have chosen a different path.
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I know a few families from racing here that have been to Lorettas multiple times and expend a lot of time and money doing the entire process but it's a family event to them.
Yes of course the rider wants to do well but they aren't placing the focus of their lives on the results.
And as others have said you have to realize the goal of college isn't that important to some folks for what they want to do in life.
I know for me it was only racing on the local scene with my son but being as I am single it got real expensive.
Worked 2 jobs and didn't always do my credit rating a favor but I got to spend thousands of hours with my son as he grew up.
I would do it all over again to have the relationship we do.....priceless.....and at no point did we think it was going to make him a pro someday.
I've had a couple laughs with friends about this, but at my last pro race (one of my last races ever before hanging it up) I battled all day with Justin Brayton. I would say Justin is one of the biggest anomalies in the sport in regards to improvement later in your career and getting actual factory rides. That day at Steel City in 2003, he got one of his first points and I hung it up for good. I wouldn't trade that decision for the inverse situation though. Pro moto is a tough way to make a buck, even if you make it to the top.
Overall 23
Justin Brayton
Fort Dodge, IA
Moto 1: 20
Moto 2: 21
Overall 24
Chris D Hunter
Stockton, NJ
Moto 1: 21
Moto 2: 22
Getting a STEM degree is worth it (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and even that can be debated but pushing college for everyone isn't the answer. See Occupy Wall Street..they are over-educated marixst losers with no jobs, no skills and crushing debt.
You don't need a degree to be sucessful in life, you need to be smart and learn skills. I know plenty of computer programmers who have never spent a day in a classroom and are beyond talented. I also know really, really smart people who have engineering degrees and are doing just fine too. What the communists and liberal elites of America want you to believe is that college is some kind of fairy land where people go and automatically get smart and their social situation rises, but its really the opposite. Want to know something funny? Smart people aren't made..they're born. If you took the smart kids with engineering and science degrees and told them they couldn't go to college, they would still be successful because smart. motivated people get ahead, no matter what.
Don't study communism at college and you'll do alright..otherwise its a fucking joke and these kids would learn more from racing than spending 4 years reading socialist nonsense.
just in case you haven't noticed, the price of college increases every year and jobs are paying less and less every year. it doesnt help that we just had a tax increase too..
id argue for a person of average intelligence, going the trade school route is a better career decision considering you get paid to learn, instead of drowning in debt.
The bottom line that I was basically trying to get across is some of these families dump all this money into racing - money that they don't have - to chase a dream that 99% of the time won't pan out. And many times it seems there is no focus on actually setting these young guys up for a career and future after racing.
Its just pure fact that college just happens to be something that has a much, MUCH, higher success rate than MX, no matter how some of you try to spin it...so I used it as my example
http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-from-phd-to-food-stamps-2013…
it's a really, big misconception that a college degree is worth it for everyone, when it only benefits the highly intelligent who are capable of completing quantitative degrees like engineering and whatnot. Companies today don't have time to train people, let alone dummies with degrees in certified communism.
It is everyones decision to do what they want. If you choose one direction, it may not be the best for others. Your post has good and bad ideas and thoughts FOR YOU,
What I have taken from this post is WE are gonna do what WE think is good for us and I support You doing what is right for YOU.
I have friends that would mortgage their house 10 times for thier kid to "qualify" for Lorettas, thats their choice, not mine, but who am I to even question their hopes and dreams. My hope and dream is to provide my kid with "everything" he needs to succeed, within reason, options I never had, what he does with it is his choice.
I do agree with what you're saying overall though..alot of families think there is going to be some big payoff when in reality its not going to pan out for 90% of them and even the ones who do 'make it' ..in my opinion are pretty underpaid. I fucking LOVE LOVE LOEVE motocross and road racing but the salaries most of these guys are making today is pretty pathetic. Its a shame IMO because i think mx & road racers are world class athletes...
I hate the situation that results in the young person hating MX or the industry and they end up never touching a bike again. In my opinion much better to keep the fire burning , follow what might be considered a more traditional path and "re-chase the dream" time after time throughout life.
I love this sport and the industry that surrounds it but it can be cruel. If you (or your kids) are not performing at the very top level nationally by age 13/14 it becomes very unlikely that they have the gift. That does not mean you should stop racing.......but get real about your prospects for making a good living as a racer and plan for an alternative course in life.
It is great to be 50 years old and have 40+ years around bikes to look back on. Sometimes you almost feel wise...........never made it as a racer.........did some cool stuff in the industry and have scars and memories to show for it. The piece of this that means the most is the enthusiasm I still feel for moto.
Harsh, cruel, unforgiving........yep........cancer?.......please find a better comparison. You have choices in life (and racing) cancer seems to steal many of those choices.
The larger point in the first post was focusing on AM racing with sole goal of succeeding in MX as a career is extremely speculative. It's a poor bet, a very poor bet. 99.9999% of people would be better served by enjoying the sport for the intangible benefits and character development at a level they can manage than enslaving themselves physically and financially to a sport/industry that has lost sight of this very paradigm.
I was never saying AM racing itself is a bad thing. It's the "dream," or should I say, "fantasy," that so many families have of making millions in pro racing. They blow 100s of thousands of dollars, with very low odds of getting a return on the investment.
There are awesome lessons to be learned from racing moto, ON ANY LEVEL. Not just a National AM level. I know for a fact Moto shaped me into who I am, and I was never a top guy, or a kid that even had much support from my parents, really. At a young age I had to learn how to make/save money, make a schedule, and network just so I could ride, much less make it to races. All those lessons and more in turn helped me while I was furthering my education, for sure.
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BTW... I'm glad this has been a fairly civilized debate. I knew it was likely going to be a touchy subject when I posted it and I know how things like that can go on here sometimes.
Pit Row
Its pretty simple really.........
J/k
Parents introducing them to dirt bikes.
In my second year of racing I was winning races like crazy on minis and everyone tried to convince my father to drag my ass all the way acrossed the country for the National. He said to one crazed parent, "What if we drove all that way and the chain came off?" Sure enough that fathers kid had that very thing happen to him
I recall my father also saying "Racing is futile"
I'd have to say after pisseing away tons of money on it over the years, he was right. I just wish he was still alive so I could tell him that I should have listened to him, and I would have probably ended up owning a ton of farmland today that is worth way more then anyone ever dreamed possible just 30 years ago.
Kids and parents get the notion in their heads from magazines
If a parent signs his kid up for little league but can't put food on the table, that would generally be considered a wrong decision . If Bill Gates used his money to buy his kid a couple of F1 race cars, hauler, trainer, etc, it is his business. Those who complain should engage in a sport they can afford.
The educational aspect is a completely seperate issue. If the parent doesn't care if the kid gets an education while involved in a sport, why would they care if the kid wasn't involved in a sport?
The sport is sport. Sport should not be defined by an individuals ability to out spend another individual that's not sport, that's business.
I applaud financial success in fact I celebrate it. However I think it disgusting when used as a weapon to preclude competition and gain advantage in sport. I prefer sports that measure and test individuals or teams not credit limits.
At the same time, it is impossible to deny the expense at any level of racing. I wouldn't let my kid ride in the back yard without safety equipment and a safe bike. You are already into the thousands and haven't figured out how to get to the races. That is beyond the budget of most. A typical local race weekend costs a couple of hundred bucks for mom, dad, and the kid to get in and race, travel, keep the bike in order, etc.
I was born a cheap son of a bitch and don't like pissing money away either, but this sport costs cash. As long as its your money, its yours to spend. Enjoy your time with your kid and keep it in perspective.
It's laughable that some people consider college a waste of money, but throwing tens of thousands of dollars chasing moto glory is an acceptable investment.
If I were to do all the right things with my kids, they would be concert pianists, study at private prep schools, not be mouthy, and have good table manners. Oh well. When they were younger, i remember all the parents at school telling me their kid is gifted. Now that they are teenagers we have different opinions and expectations.
My kids race and do their schoolwork, mostly because I ride their asses and they don't race if they don't do their school. Racing and schoolwork are not mutually exclusive.
Pick one kid you consider an uneducated motocrosser, and now imagine that same kid if he didn't race. Probably still uneducated just no bike.
The best job I had after racing was with Carter Collision, outside of the industry, but I got the job because of my friendships I made in it.
Now, I do stunts in feature films, TV and commercials. It wasn't an easy industry to get into and took some time before I bit the bullet and went all in.
Thankfully, my motorcycle background got my foot in the door. As a motorcycle specialist, I was able to get hired on some big shows and then be around to learn some of the other stuff like fights, falls, fire burns, etc etc...
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1571691/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
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