Your DAD, You & Motocross.

I was SO jealous of the kids whose Dad's were into racing. My Dad still hates motorcycles and changing oil on our push mower was a major technological challenge for him. However, he did plunk down $500 one day in 1979 for a brand new XR80.
And later an RM80. I was lucky as hell, although I have a feeling he regretted buying those bikes.
He'll be 80 this year. I would't trade him for an angry "mini Dad" in a million years.

My Dad got me started on Taco 22. After a few other bikes he bought me a brand new '70 Husky 250. Soon after, I started racing and he was my Main Man at every race. When I think of riding & racing during the Golden Age I can't help but think of him and his love and support.

I took a 25 year break from riding/racing and since I came back to the fold (what was I thinking!) have been having the time of my life racing 50+ Vet. I ride with my son & daughter at Ocotillo Wells and it's been great to be able to share this great sport with them.

Thanks for the reminder of Jody's Box about his Father. I'm going to get my Dad to come out with me to REM, watch me race and introduce him to Jody.

Sunhouse: Most likely he won't. Unless you ask him. Trust me, even if he says no, you asked, and the joy of having him come will far outweigh the disappointment if he says no. As of right now, he may not think you want him along. Take a shot. You have nothing to lose.

TO ALL THE DADS THAT ARE WATCHING FROM ABOVE

My son went to Europe to race the GP's 2 months ago..... He has been struggling... the language barrier has been tough as has just being away from home for the first time in his young life.... lot's of mechanical issues and throw in the naysayers too, all combined it''s not been easy but he has kept his head down. Today he finished the second moto in MX2 10th...... although still not where he thinks he should be I view it as a major accomplisment and a great Father's day present for me.

My Dad came from Ireland in'59 where he rode a street bike with my mom, and started riding and racing desert in the early 70's. He had a Bultaco and gave my brother a Bridgestone 100. That bridgestone became my first bike. It was too big so pops bought me a '78 RM 80, after buying my older brother a RM125 ( oldest brother bought his own RM125). He only took me a couple times to Indian dunes on weekdays. He watched me ride the mini track as he read the newspaper. It meant so much to come down the striaghtaway to see him looking at me ride. He bought me a '83 YZ 80 after my brother bought himself a YZ250. Maybe because i had posters of it on my wall. He never saw me race but supported me while i did briefly .
This Thread is great! Pops is gone('07), i miss him, and he would love that my son is out back burning up the track on his little 50 as i write this. I'm having a great Fathers day, Hope all you Fathers do as well. Happy Fathers day Pop, I love you.

Well my father and my relationship was horriable to be honest. If there was a time we interacted it was him screaming at me wide open all day everyday. It is just his nature. So for him to show any type off compassion or caring for something or someone was unheard off. But when it came to race day at the race track I can remember a few times that he got scared shitless of me racing. He would always say to me at the last min be carefull just be safe and come back to the truck when your done. I never got the "you better win or not come back" speech that was more my moms style. I remember a time at a night Fair race hardly any lighting big gnarly rutted out jumps and the main event came, and just before the 30sec board went up for the main event, he came up from behind me and grabed my arm and said are you sure about this I don't think this is a good idea freaking out. Thats about the only way I really knew he cared about me. His own weird way of showing it.

My father (now 76 years young) know's how much I cherish my old memories of my days in 1970's motocross. Like me, he was also a life long member of the AMA, but unlike myself, he was smart enough to save all his AMA membership pin's over the 25 years required to be a Charter Life Member. He put together his pins and framed them and gave them to me for Christmas one year. Pretty cool huh? He always made sure my brother and I had some of the best equipment on the track....We were spoiled shitless and never realized it....Been trying to pay him back in some way or some form ever since....We were blest with the best!

Great picture! It makes my eyes water when I look at though.

lmao!! I think my fondest memory of racing with my dad was when we drove across country to Ponca City. It was my dad, mom, brother and myself all squished together in the front of the old single cab chevy pickup with our bikes in the back and towing a pop up camper trailer. Being a truck driver, the old man just got off a huge road trip, jumped in the pickup and drove us straight thru from all the way Az to Ponca City to race with the big boys. Oh and no AC, lol, what a ride!! Happy Dad's Day all. I'm lucky to be able to have pops over for a bbq tonight.

My real Dad was a wife beating, alcoholic, child abusing, piece of shit. He never did much for us but give us a hard time. He did love motorcycles ,though, and bought me my first bike in '68, which I still have, a first year Honda Mini-Trail.

My older brother started racing in '70. Dad bought a couple of Kawasaki 100 Greenstreaks for him. At 11 years old, my brother was responsible for having the bikes clean, prepped, and race ready. The fucking old man would sometimes balk at taking him to race for as much as the spokes in the wheels not being polished. He made life pure agony for us.

Dad used bikes as bait in the divorce, and my brother could not resist all the hollow promises the drunk made to him, and went for the bikes with Dad. Being five years younger , I went with Mom. That decision made by my brother has basically turned him into the same type of person my Dad was. A miserable soul.

Dad passed in '83. His haunting legacy lives on in my brother. Have not associated with my brother for quite some time. Fuck you ,Dad. Fuck you, Ken.


Now my Step Dad. Awesome dude. Took me as his own, many bikes and races have come and gone thanks to Danny. I love you, Dan!

Very cool thread, gang.

Me and the old man had matching casts on our legs in summer of 91' from racing crashes. It made interesting conversation everywhere the family went. He's 63 and I'm 31 and we still ride about once a week together.

My dad rode a Honda when I started racing and I wanted a bike like his, because of course he was the coolest guy in the world. :-) .......so he had my PW50 painted red. We still laugh at those pictures.

I have friends that I grew up with that I don't think ever got know their dad like I know mine simply from racing motorcycles. Traveling around the midwest with my mom and dad racing as kid is still some of my strongest memories and probably always will be.

Motocross teaches so much more than just how to ride a dirt bike.

My thoughts exactly Guy....thanks Rup, good idea.

when i was young my dad got me riding at about 7 years old. we rode trails up in washington and rode with a few other families that had kids my age as well as the dads. alot of good camping trips and times we had together and this was really the only time we saw eye to eye and had a good time and forgot about everything else. only thing was my old man couldnt stand moto x. he loved to ewatch it but there was no way he was going to let me try it. so when i was 19 i went out and did it and have been hooked ever since. my old man went a few times to watch me but he really couldnt handle watching it and made him very nervous.

now i have my own son , he started riding at 5 , and was racing at 6 and im having the best time ever with him. and the friends we race and ride with and i owe it all to my dad who got me into this. As i watch my son progress i see why sometimes why dad wanted to close his eyes now but its all ok. watching my son brings back alot of memories of me and dad back then and one of the few things that we had a connection

I have a lot of great memories of my father but very few of them are Moto related. Dad absolutely hated motocycles and his opinion never waivered. However, he dug graves by hand back in the 1970s and I would help him out.( 16 wheel barrels of dirt needs to be removed to leave enough dirt at the grave sight to cover up the vault ) Anyway, that gave me 3-4 hours per grave to beg my father to allow me to buy a dirtbike. I worked on him relentlessly for one full summer every time we dug a grave until he couldn't take it anymore and finally gave me permission. My father's hatred of bikes gave us lots of laughs thoughout the years. Even with this major difference of opinion he always was my best friend.

I have been going to the races with my dad since I was 4 years old when my brother started, and then at 6 I got to start my self, we kept going until I was 13, then I got the itch to start racing again when I was 30, and my parents come to most of the races with us, they even bought a motorhome to come hang out at the track with me and my older brother who came back when I did also. Now our kids are racing and it is just like when I was a kid......just more of us. He still tells me EVERYTHING I did wrong on each lap, and what to do to fix it.........it is really cool to have him and my mom there.
We had a father/son/daughter race this weekend at the track I work at and tried to get him to race it with me.......but at 64 years old he declined, I did race it with my daughter on her 85 and had a blast, and I hope my kids love the sport like I do when they are older.

My dad hates motocross. Never took me to one race or supported anything I did with riding. When I was racing he had plenty of money but would not spare a dime. In 97 I won my qualifier for Lorettas and he wouldn't let me go even though I had a ride. I gave up on the dream of racing that day. To this day he has nothing positive to say about my passion.

I have sooo many great stories with my dad and moto....I was his navigator on trips...I read the map, found the fastest routes, figured gas mileage, we sang every song that came on the radio and made up some incredible stories....(we had lots of miles to fill) I tried staying up with him on every trip while he drove...I enjoyed every minute of those trips....I tell you what I have a large music range from all those years of travel :-)

It is a very cool thread, and alot of great storys.
My Dad was born in the later 30s, and grew up in the 40s, well he was a fairly industrius kid, he had a paper route and also sold ice cream in the summer, my Grandma and his real Dad, were divorced, and he grew up with a step dad, that he barely got along with, well he scrimped and saved his money until he had anough to buy a scooter, his step dad wouldnt allow him to buy it. So he gave up the idea, and joined the US Air force, later on at 18.

quite a few years later or so, i was 8 or 9? he got me and my brother a lawnmower engine mini bike. and we rode that thing up and down our road, and wore it out, then 4-5 years later i think i was 11 or 12,,, he got us a Kawasaki trail 90, across the street from our house was a drainage canal, 1-2 feet deep or so, at the end of the street there was train tracks, well you crossed a trestle, and there was woods, well 2 other kids in the nieghborhood had bikes, one kid had a xr75 honda the other had a yz 80, and we made us a small mx track, (more like scrambles no jumps) just turns and sand it was all sand.( I grew up in Pinellas Park, Fla)any ways i wore that sucker out, i even tried to race it 2 times, i had the demin padded jeans racing pants lol, but i got smoked by other kids bad, then when i turned 15 my dad buys me a 1975 cr 125 elsinore, and i rode it 2-3 months and kept trying to get my dad, to let me race it, finally he gave in, so we went and raced at Sunshine Speedway MX in St Pete, Fla, and of course i got smoked, but me and Dad , had alot of fun and we were hooked on racing, so after that we went and raced 2-3 times a month, and my dad enjoyed it as much as me, he had his friends and i had mine at the races. but we loved going and doing it together, and we raced on a shoe string budget, but i have so many memorys from back in them days, and to this day me and my dad are extremly close.

My mom and dad were divorced when I was 4. Luckily, my cousin(more like a brother) is one year younger than me and his dad had raced since he was in his teens. I started by just tagging along to the races and trying to help any way I could. Then, when I was 14, my uncle bought an 82 RM125. He told me I could ride it while he had it because he buys and sells used bikes for fun. The catch was that I had to fix it up. My cousin and I stripped the whole bike down to the frame, repainted and cleaned every part as we put it back together. He let me ride it for a year and a half, then sold it and bought another one to redo. That continued until I was 18 and could afford to buy the bike I was riding from him.
My uncle was much more of a father to me than my father, even then my father and I are pretty close today.
I won't ever be able to repay my aunt and uncle for all they did because it is much more than just getting me into bike, they basically raised me and kept me out of trouble. I have 3 older sisters and one older brother. I was the only one who graduated high school AND I also got my bachelors degree in a computer related field.

Wow those are some great stories, i still rememeber to this day when i was real young and me and my dad met Hannah at the trans usa series staying at the same hotel. We were swimming and then hannah let me and my dad look at his works bike in his box van i was in aw! that bike was beautiful and a peice of art. My dad walks up to hannah and starts giving advice to him(at the time one of the world s best riders) how to fix up the bike etc! My dad was a Mr fix it all and truthfully he could, but i doubt he could wrench on Hannahs worls bike LOL, I was wondering what hurricane was thinking and just trying to get my dad to come back swimming to the pool. Hannah was very kool and just smiled My dad was a great man and loved him very much and miss him so, he passed away and every fathers day and mothers day i think of my parents and cry and thank them for being who they were We weren t rich but our family was rich with love, and me and mydad have the same birthday in july so its bittersweet. I miss my parents and will never forget how they loved me. We dont have to be hard asses all the time its okay to cry and show your love because one day it might be to late and you don t want to say I wish i would have sed this or done this LIFE IS SHORT Love your family and friends!

1981 Golden State Series...

Huron, my 1980 CR125 dies. Another racer's dad tells my mom,"That's too bad. The kid's got heart!"

When we get home...

"Your mom says your bike died. One of the other kid's dads says you rode really well? I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I really am. You've done this ALL on your own & I'm proud of you." ...that's my dad. He was pretty damn busy makin' Trident missles do their job...

A week later I was @ the next round on a '81 YZ...

That's my dad.

My dad didn't know SHIT about Moto. He'd gone & asked Rick Ryan's dad, "What motorcycle can I get for my kid that's competitive?"

He found one at Palo Alto Yamaha.

That's my dad...

my dad let me start racing in 1978 at indian dunes mx park. we raced there for seven years . im so lucky to have had such a bitchen childhood!!!!!!!!! he is 80 years old now and trains my 12 year old sons mx now.. im a very lucky man!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cool thred!!!

I feel yeah I used to have to go on my own at 16 find someone to be my rent for the day (luckily it was never a problem)

A lot of great stories here, tender moments...some get me to grinnin' and some I start to get emotional over-how sad.(I can relate).

Thanks "Rup" for getting this one started. This is one thread I read ALL the posts on...

"Daddy, I want a motorcyle"
"Well, thats great son. Do you have a job to pay for it?"
Long story short I got a morning paper route and made payments on an XR-75 every two weeks at the local dealership. The day I paid for exactly half of it, my dad surprised me by paying off the rest of it. I wore the bike out and and eventually broke the frame in half by the time I was 12. I didn't buy another bike until I was 32 and started racing hare scrambles by that time my dad had been diagnosed with the onset of Alzhiemers.
In my first year I was contending for a C class championship. Two races from the end of the season I am tied in points and my competition and I are in a close battle when he runs out of gas in front of me. I stop in the pits and tell his dad, who is standing with mine. After the race I find out its my dad who ran the mile or so down the track with the gas for my competitor. The last race of the season when I won with my competition right on my rear fender. My dad met him first, hugged and consoled him before he congratulated me. I never understood how my father acheived so much satisfaction and joy from my accomplishments until I had a son of my own. I am sorry I didn't have the chance to grow up in this sport with my dad but I am grateful he was at least there at for the begining for me and my son.

Actually I´d view it the opposite way. If I don´t ask him, I won´t have to deal with yet another "no". Why should a son have to ask his dad to come watch him race or even just practice? If anything, I can understand a "no" now, but when you´re a teenager?! All I know is it brought distance between me and my dad throughout my youth. I really envied friends who had a dad with perhaps less money, but with a bigger heart for his sons passion.