Little one down.

I’ve been at the track where the dad followed the kid around making sure he was safe. It made it 10x worse for everyone on the track. Kid never left the ground just rolling every jump. This at a track that has very strict rules about no adults on the kiddie track ever! Even if the adult is on a mini. 

It's crazy the state with the most regulations and massive government oversight somehow has the most backwards ass moto facilities.  

Hearing this has broken my heart. I pray for the family and friends and most of all, I pray that this little dude is riding in heavenly paradise. 

This incident was totally avoidable. Suing the track won't help much. Tracks need to be governed by someone like the AMA (just an example) who set rules for track owners to abide by. 

If the track owner is doing a shitty job (Glen Helen) and someone gets hurt then sue the AMA or governing body.

Just my 2c

Absolutely terrible. In 2008 I witnessed this first hand. I thought putting big/little bikes on same track was a thing of the past...apparently not. Godspeed  

Same in tiny, tiny Finland (at the more popular busy tracks). 

I lay the blame on the parents. I don't have kids yet, but when i hopefully become a father in a couple of years and if they want to ride i will never ever put them on a track with big bikes. Never.

This is the bottom line.  The track owners should pay attention, however when they do not, ultimately, it's on the parents. 

 If I show up and they are running big bikes with the kids, no way my child gets the bike out of the truck.  I'd let the track owner/management know immediately that this is unacceptable and that I will take the practice session somewhere else.  

And as an adult rider, I'd not get on the track with kids on the track. 

It's a bad idea people!

I know how intimidating it is to be on the practice track with riders that are faster, or more familiar with the track, or just out there acting stupid,  and I'm a grown ass man, been doing this since early 70's.  

I can't imagine this 7-year-old out there among the big bikes, poor guy - this story makes me sick.  

If my kid was on a bike and I saw big bikes out there...that little fella would get pulled from the track like ASAP. It should never happen and the track should have CC regs in place to divide the bikes up 100%. But...WTF...what parent would allow their kid out there knowing full well the risk to the little guy. Makes zero fkng sense.

anyone know why one of my two posts was deleted?

If tracks weren't being shut down left and right maybe situations like this wouldn't occur as often, or hopefully at all.  There are very few track owners reaping profits from track revenue, and subsequentially this is what happens.  Plenty of blame to go around, but the only results coming from this tragedy is probably even more tracks being shut down.       

I didn’t ride for 5 years after almost landing on a little kid. Shit messed me up good. I barely ride on the track because of that incident. 

Most of the Texas tracks separate practices - 50s, 65/85, big bike C/D, and big bike A/B. Not all but most.

Wow...really bummed for this child and his family. Track owners world wide should have all these classes separate. There is ZERO reason they can't split classes in 2026. Too many deaths happening like this. All preventable.

There is no way in hell I would have ever let my son on the track with big bikes at that age. The speed and ability aren’t even close. If the practices weren’t split we would’ve packed up and went elsewhere or home. I’m sorry for the parents loss, the guy that hit him, and everyone else involved but this one was truly avoidable by all of them. And with their negligence and stupidity we will all now collectively suffer for it. We can’t keep having this and expect tracks to still be there. Wise up! 

Not in SoCal…upstate NY track….we too have the “trainer’s” with the mini”s following them around the track doing section work…..during an open practice day. That usually takes place later in the day at my local track, Thats when I decide my day is just about over. In my opinion only a poorly managed track would allow minis and big bikes at the same time…how hard is it to separate them for individual sessions? 

Thats strange. I got banned like 2 months ago for a few weeks for a post, but that one is still there. Good thing is, the user I replied to got a perma ban for his one lol (which is also still there)

I always hate seeing someone saying to sue the track… Not sure that will help anything or anyone. 
I can understand what causes you to say it, but let’s be honest here, the parents are responsible for keeping their children safe. There was a choice to let their son out on the track with big bikes…. 
I raised two kids and my son raced dirtbikes from 4 years old, up until he was 17 and racing the pro class. There were plenty of times when I had to ride behind him on the track in order for him to get some riding in. Even that was dangerous and looking back on it, I shouldn’t have let him out there with big bikes on the track. As he got older and was on 60’s and then 80’s, he was advanced and did most of the jumps, so I felt a little better about his skill level and holding his line. But I feel fortunate that he never had any issues with bigger bikes. 
   When the tables were turned and he was the pro rider out on the track and other parents would put their kids out on the track on their 50/65/85, I would cringe. My son was very careful with them out there, but he did have one very close call with a 50 rider that was stuck in the muddy rut on the downside of a jump and barely missed the kid when he landed. This was at Glen Helen and they have a bad reputation of having no flaggers and no split practices. Not sure why Bud has not changed his ways after so many deaths and life changing crashes over the years. 
When Brett Downey was killed, some tracks went a different route and put in a real effort to help change the way tracks were run, I have a lot of respect for them and it bums me out that Bud was too stubborn to adapt the way he runs Glen Helen. 
Suing the tracks is NOT what the sport needs, it has driven up the insurance costs and shut down a ton of tracks because of it. Better parenting and using common sense is the answer. 
 

Maybe the Dad didn't know any better, maybe he was new to motocross. Maybe he had no idea 450's were about to blast out on the track while his son was out there. Of course, the dad holds some responsibility but ultimately, it's the track owners and managers who are responsible for who is allowed on the track and when.

This is indeed sad for the sport.Most tracks I ride the training days are set by rider ability.ie A,B,C,D classes so this is how a small bike is in the same class as big bikes.

It is frustrating as a small bike isn’t as loud and the rider is more likely to do some crazy stunt to pass etc.

The problem with tracks is that everyone wants as much seat time for the money they put into their sport.so the track listens to the riders about having too many classes/groups and they need to combine them so everyone gets more seat time.

As the training day progresses more and more will combine back to back classes/groups to get more seat time.

While you have valid points, this situation isn’t any of that… he was an accomplished 7 year old BOY. A racer and also raced mini street bikes. He was from Columbia. 

https://youtu.be/-nsZ3Vkc59U?is=BzJuZFbnrro-nfmL

Either way, unless there was direct neglect or carelessness involving anyone dying or being seriously injured at a motocross track, suing the track is not the answer. That’s my opinion, but I feel like it’s a common opinion. 

The Dad holds "Some" responsibility ?  But "ultimately" it's someone else's responsibility to keep kids safe, in this case the tracks.  Ok well then sue the track I guess, might as well sue the bike manufacturer for making a kids size motorcycle too, who else can we blame, sue them too.  I'm out on this one. RIP   

You had 25+ years to let the track owners fix it. So I strongly disagree with suing isn't the option. 

Seems to be the ONLY option to get AMA and insurance companies to have it as mandatory.

Show me where i said anything about suing the track.... ill wait.....

Are you so narrow minded that you seem to think being responsible means getting sued??

Maybe being responsible means that you implement some new safety protocols??

Also, I didn't say it's someone else's responsibility. I said its the tracks owners responsibility as to who is allowed on the track and when.

Do you have a problem with reading comprehension?

Well that’s unfortunate that you feel that way. Most of the tracks that have shut down are because of lawsuits and/or insurance companies cancelling them or raising the cost so high, it leaves no profit for the people running/ owning them. 
There are a few lawsuits that make sense, but most are unnecessary and ruin it for everyone else. When you sign the waiver at the gate, you are given the rules. If you don’t agree with them, don’t go to that track and support them. Pretty easy to comprehend. 
Negligence is another story and I’m not addressing that. 

this exactly. track owners are not rolling in $ from practice days or even race series. If the turnout is light, they combine classes in all sorts of ways for full gates. When I was VMX racing we had separate practices for most ability levels and similar bike classes and everyone was supposed to ONLY use their assigned practice session. We also had idiot club members who ignored that important rule repeatedly and riding all 3 or so practices like rules didn't apply to them. Lots of close calls and race promotors would not monitor and enforce the 1 practice only rule. In my practices at Cahuilla years ago our VMX club had rented the main track for the race, but we had non-members just jumping on the track and doing their own thing. I pulled off several times after almost getting landed on from behind by 450 riders clearing huge blind drop aways at full speed while we're in practice doing our initial sighting laps getting used to the track. Clueless/entitled Idiots are everywhere and without rules enforcement it's just accidents waiting to happen.

on a similar topic, remember when 3 wheels ATVs were banned for being too dangerous? Manufacturers got sued for making and selling inherently dangerous products and governments responded with age limits and pressured industry to change. Thus the 4 wheel quad replaced the 3 wheelers as a settlement term from lawsuits.

I clipped a post and suspended a user in this topic. If your post was quoted off his original or someone responding to that, it gets clipped as well.