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Los Angeles, CA, USA
Many of us have spent time at Hannegan Speedway. 14 year old Owen Morton, in his very first motocross race, was involved in an accident and lost his life.
Please pray for his family and friends.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-support-owens-family?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZ…
Oh my. Prayers and strength sent to the family during this time. Rest in peace, Owen.
Geezuz, I'm so sorry to hear of this...my heart is broken. What is a family sport can and has turned a cruel hand of cards.
I'm so sorry for the family and their friends. May the kid ride high in heaven...so young to be gone. May the heavenly father have better plans for him.
Heartbroken and Condolences to all.
Fuckin dirt bikes...
RIP Racer
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Agreed man, fickle bitch this sport we love.
RIP young man.
Condolences to freinds and family.
Dam I hate hearing this. A Vet rider at GH and now a young kid..... Is anyone collecting data on these types of accidents so we can possibly prevent this or make things better in the future? (track design, safety equipment, ...) Do race promoters and track owners have a basic safety guide of do's and don'ts when building a track or having a race/open practice?
God bless this young man and has his loved ones
Why are we having so much tragedy within our sport lately? My god…
Terrible news, heartfelt condolences.
Wow. Had my first race at Hannegan back in 92. Used to race all the Thursday night MX and hare scrambles races back then.
RIP to the young rider and hoping for peace for his family.
RIP young man.
This sport is a love hate relationship. And reading stuff like this is at the top of the things I hate about this sport. So sad for the family.
TM
Oh my god. RIP.
Godspeed young man and sincere condolences to the family. This sport fucking sucks sometimes…
Godspeed to the young man, and prayers for his family and friends.
It's going to take a combined effort of promotors, racers, and racing organizations nationwide to factually evaluate these crashes and see if there are any steps that can be taken to minimize their future occurrence.
Unfortunately we in this sport seem too afraid to truthfully discuss and evaluate these crashes, and just dismiss them too easily as "this sport we love is just dangerous".
Of course, the lack of discussion is often due to respect of the deceased and their families, and that is understandable.
I never met Robert Reisinger, and was saddened to hear of his crash and passing. However, I think that since he was an engineer, he would want the circumstances of his crash investigated and learned from, in the hope it would prevent another in the future.
Unbelievable sad news lately.....
Family and friends must be devastated. Thoughts and prayers are with them.
Well put. Personally I find myself not clicking on too many threads like this because I don’t want to think about the fact this is a possibility for my son or I. Let’s be honest, this sport being dangerous is part of what makes it fun. However breaks, sprains, bumps and bruises are one thing. Losing your life doing it is a different ballgame. There’s always a contributing factor to these things, be it track conditions, track safety crew, protective equipment, bike failure, or just plain old rider error. Personally we were at a track we’ve been to multiple times over the weekend that we’ll not be returning to. Hard pack, rocky, high speed, shit. Told my 15 year old before gate drop do not override this track. People getting hurt all day. However once the gate drops things tend to change ha. He is a very skilled rider and stayed on the bike but had a moment that could’ve gone really bad. I made the decision to leave before second motos. We don’t need the contingency money that bad. He even made the comment that someone is gonna get killed here. Packed up. There’s other days.
Pit Row
Pleasure Valley I assume?
RIP racer. Truly terrible. My sincerest condolences to his family.
I cannot imagine what type of accident in a first race could have this consequence. What has changed? I never heard of these things in all my years racing. Maybe it was and the lack of internet spreading info, I don’t know. I do hope these accidents can be understood and then changes, if possible and they make sense, be made.
Do we know what happened to him? As PRM31 said above. What type of accident did he have?
terrible news RIP
LOL bingo
This is our local track, we've spent a lot of time racing and riding there over the years. I've been contemplating posting about this out of respect for the family. Hopefully I don't inadvertently cause anymore hardship to the family but I think it's important for the parents of racers and new riders in general to have some understanding of the incident.
The accident happened on a small step-up double, the young racer crashed and was down on the back side of the jump which is blind to approaching riders. There was a flagger at that section of the track and the yellow flag was displayed, I'm not quite sure of the exact timing of the yellow flag coming out after the rider went down. Some riders continued to jump the obstacle and landed on or ran into the downed rider, multiple riders went down as a result.
We've all seen this type of blind landing accidents happen before. It's not possible to prevent all crashes in our sport, just remind your younger and newer racers to keep their heads up, look forward, be aware of their surroundings and obey the yellow flags. Track walk is always a good idea for identifying not just racing lines but also potential hazards, be safe out there.
Condolences to the family, RIP young man.
I remember the feeling I had at my son’s first race. I simply can’t imagine the emotional plunge that these parents just went through. Just an absolutely horrendous thing to have to go through.
I also feel for the other riders who it sounds like struck the young man. At that age, processing things like the yellow flag is a lot different than for those of us who’ve seen more of the potential negative outcomes, and I’m sure that they tried to act properly based upon their limited experiences in the world. The riders who hit the downed rider will likely be struggling with this for quite a while. I hope they are able to get real help to work through it, and not simply have to bottle it up.
At Washougal this past weekend there were multiple instances of riders continuing to race/jump/pass on waving yellow and even red cross flags. My son came off complaining about being passed in the whoops by several riders jumping as he was rolling thru the waving yellows past a downed rider (being attended to by medics) and bike. The turnout was very large, with big gates, and there were a number of bad crashes and riders down.
Young riders must be trained to recognize and respond when they see flags, but it's not happening, and/or the adrenaline is taking over and clouding judgement. And of course, we've all seen the wide disparity in flagger skills. So many variables in each accident. I understand this accident was a mixed C and D gate (common) whether 1 or 2 drops I am unsure, and it really doesn't matter. Sometimes these are unavoidable outcomes of an inherently dangerous sport. It is my greatest fear when my son goes to the gate, yet we go every weekend regardless. Condolences to this young man's family.
Just my opinion, but I don’t think different classes should ever be on the same gate drop. In addition to safety issues, it causes issues for both classes, not knowing whether the guy ahead of or behind you is in your class. Waves are ok if absolutely necessary, but I don’t even like that TBH. Unfortunately with so many classes, it’s pretty much required in order to finish the program in a reasonable time.
With regard to younger riders, I’m noticing a distinct increase in asshole behavior…but that’s a discussion for somewhere other than this thread.
I raced Hannegan many years ago during the Pac west races, never did well there.
My question is, are spectators allowed to walk around the track while racing is going on? Just to stand next to the track, wave on fellow racers, check out lines ect....like we used to be able to do back in the day?
I say this because often times, "back in the day"(80's,90s), when a crash happened in a blind spot us racers would help the flagger by signaling to the oncoming racers of what was up, a guy laying in the track, where to go, etc.
If spectators are not allowed on the track, then the flagger is ALL BY HIMSELF to direct racers around a downed rider.
I took ten years off and came back. First thing I noticed was lack of track etiquette.
Prayed for and donated
RIP
It's not just lately.
Post a reply to: Young rider down. RIP