Your first race?

ben5020 wrote:

1986 kx80 letter A was my first and only race on a dirtbike up until 3 years ago when I had a mini midlife and decided to get back into it. First race I ate shit on whoops at pagoda mc in Birdsboro pa. Since then I have successfully torn my acl, separated my shoulder and dislocated my elbow. I love it!

All my photos are gone but my first race was at escape country where marty smith raced a few times. I entered the first day beginner class with a 1974 CR125 with a highly modified engine. If I beat anyone, it was just a few guys. My friend raced my bike in the novice class the same day and holeshot it and won by a few straights.

Hard to top Brandon, no doubt!

slipdog wrote:

Found this picture today of me on the line for my first race in April 1983 at Sandhill Ranch. I'm Racer X on the KX 60 and I got 9th out of 12. I got lapped both motos by Mike Pascarella but I wasn't scared of the mud. I did beat the other kid on the YZ 60 with the #V, it was his first race too.

Anyone have any pictures of their first race?

I don't have any first race pictures but I have a Pascarella story. I stopped riding/racing the first time in 75 or so, my last bike was a 74 MX100. I still had 50s that I screwed around on but from then until the mid 80s I was BMX and skateboards. Mike and Robbie raced BMX before motorcycles and lived a mile or two from me. One day after they had been racing MX for a while I stopped at their house, Mike was on Team Green at that point. Ron/Dad asked me if I wanted to try one of the 80s. At this point the last 80 I was on was probably a stock 74 YZ80. I got on it expecting it to be gutless, dumped the clutch and went straight over flat on my back with the bike on top of me. It took me a while to convince him that I knew how to ride but he eventually let me redeem myself. And that is my Ryan Villopoto MXGP of Italy moment, thank you for listening.

RandyS wrote:

I don't have any first race pictures but I have a Pascarella story. I stopped riding/racing the first time in 75 or so, my last bike was a 74 MX100. I still had 50s that I screwed around on but from then until the mid 80s I was BMX and skateboards. Mike and Robbie raced BMX before motorcycles and lived a mile or two from me. One day after they had been racing MX for a while I stopped at their house, Mike was on Team Green at that point. Ron/Dad asked me if I wanted to try one of the 80s. At this point the last 80 I was on was probably a stock 74 YZ80. I got on it expecting it to be gutless, dumped the clutch and went straight over flat on my back with the bike on top of me. It took me a while to convince him that I knew how to ride but he eventually let me redeem myself. And that is my Ryan Villopoto MXGP of Italy moment, thank you for listening.

Ron was one of my first sponsors when they bought the Woodland Cycle Center and between the Pascarellas and the Wootens they had my dad so triggered on moto that 4 months after this photo we were driving cross country to race the nationals at Ponca City.

Back at SIR (Now Pacific Raceway) in 94 on my 91 RM125. This was the second moto, I didn't get the best of starts being that I ran into the guy to the right of me. Somehow he managed to keep his bike on two wheels LOL.

I don't think cameras had been invented when I did my first race.

Pyramid Valley in Lost Creek WV.

Pikebro, where was your profile pic taken?

Brandon's first race...that's such a classic! Ha ha!

The first MX race I attended as a fan was at Sandhill Ranch in the late 80s.
My first race was at the Cow Palace (Arenacross) in South San Francisco in January of 1993. I was 18 riding 125 beginner on an 88 RM. Pics buried in storage someplace.

Wildeye511 wrote:

Back at SIR (Now Pacific Raceway) in 94 on my 91 RM125. This was the second moto, I didn't get the best of starts being that I ran into the guy to the right of me. Somehow he managed to keep his bike on two wheels LOL.

Hey I raced there! I think it was 89 or 90. I’d have to look at the trophy.

Since this thread seems to be taking off like a Chinese ICBM it must be true that most posters here don’t even ride let alone race. Here’s a shot of My first time at the infamous Saddleback park in 1984.

Man, I wish I had pics from my first race. I'm sure they are tucked away somewhere, but who knows.

My first race was 94 on a PW50 and the original Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. I probably got last since I was either 3 or had just turned 4. I always remember Bryce Terzian won the 50 class every Saturday night there. Amazing he never made it big after being in Mini Warriors and being a really good amateur racer.

First race was '95 on a ktm jr 50. In the middle of the race I pulled up to a jump my Dad was standing on and said I was done. Said I had to finish the race. Race to the checkers. Begrudgingly I did. Loved riding ever since.

My first race was a disaster but looking back on it, it was pretty amusing and I wish I had pictures. Even though I had no friends or family involved in the sport I somehow managed to get hooked on motocross. When I was 14 I got my dad to take me to our local track, Log Road MX in Michigan. I’d never even ridden a track before just the woods and fields by our house but signed up for the 80cc beginner class confident I’d be ending the day with some sort of factory support ride. I probably dumped it in the turns 3 or 4 times the first moto having never encountered those annoying “rut things” but as my dad told me, at least I didn’t get last. So we load up, I’m still recovering from a shattered ego and a serious dose of reality, and on our way out of the track we hear them call the 80 beginner class to staging for the second moto. Neither of us even knew they ran two motos as I’d never been to an actual race before, but I was too defeated at the time to care so we ended up just leaving. Although it was embarrassing at the time that disasterous rookie debut solidified a 20 year love affair with motocross that I can’t shake.

First race was in 2004 or 05. My brother had been racing for years before and I kept asking my parents to race. Was in the staging area over an hour before my first moto just waiting don’t have any pictures unfortunately but raced almost every weekend after that for the next 10 years.

Nice Iron Jaw on that helmet, OP. I had one of those!

My first race was on February 3rd, 1985 at Barona Oaks Raceway in CA. I think I landed in 11th out of about 24 guys. It was so sloppy in practice that I wanted to quit and go home, but my dad wouldn't let me. I'm glad he didn't, because the motos were far better.

I thought I was getting pretty good practicing my sandpit tracks and first raced an 80 at NESC in New England, I got like 28th and felt reeeeally slow.

Harry Backmon wrote:

Pikebro, where was your profile pic taken?

The old Rocky Ridge in Imperial Pennsylvania.

My first race was a 2Hr Scambles on a 500 Triumph. No pictures of that. My first MX was on a DT1 in the "street class". You just taped up the headlight and raced. Took 5th.

mine was in 1981 on a yz50, I wish like hell mom had some pictures but she don't. some cool old memories in these photos. I sure as hell miss those days

No pictures, but it was 1977 in a harescramble on a YZ100. That thing was a bitch to keep on the pipe out in the open, it was near impossible to ride in the woods. I didn't finish the race. I hit a tree (with no hand guards) and ate sh*t. Rolled back into the pits after a couple of laps and loaded up.

Later that year I did my first motocross at Rolling Ridge in Commerce, Ga. area. Got 4th place out of 10-12 riders. First time I'd ever seen a girl race a dirt bike. She was in my class, and could flat-out ride. If I remember correctly, I think she ended up 5th behind me.

DoctorJD wrote:

No pictures, but it was 1977 in a harescramble on a YZ100. That thing was a bitch to keep on the pipe out in the open, it was near impossible to ride in the woods. I didn't finish the race. I hit a tree (with no hand guards) and ate sh*t. Rolled back into the pits after a couple of laps and loaded up.

Later that year I did my first motocross at Rolling Ridge in Commerce, Ga. area. Got 4th place out of 10-12 riders. First time I'd ever seen a girl race a dirt bike. She was in my class, and could flat-out ride. If I remember correctly, I think she ended up 5th behind me.

I believe Jennie Pruitt finished 7th in my first race, it hurt bro! Took me 4-5 races before I finally beat her straight up.

I think mine was 1974 , I do remember where it was , a place called Witham Friary in the south of England on a 125cc Dalesman Puch. No pictures from there but I do have some pictures of me on that bike.

Don't have a picture around but my first race was in Miami, Manitoba in 1975, on a Suzuki TM 100 that I found under (well, beside) the Christmas tree, December, 1974. Man, it took forever for the snow to melt that winter! I have no idea how I did but I do remember that I did NOT collect any hardware that day! I did land on the box by the end of that first year of racing though! Those were the days when trophies only went down to 3rd....I did seize that bad boy up good that summer when I didn't refill the oil tank. Put a good hole right in that tiny piston!

Deming, NM 1988 - Me on the left

DoctorJD wrote:

No pictures, but it was 1977 in a harescramble on a YZ100. That thing was a bitch to keep on the pipe out in the open, it was near impossible to ride in the woods. I didn't finish the race. I hit a tree (with no hand guards) and ate sh*t. Rolled back into the pits after a couple of laps and loaded up.

Later that year I did my first motocross at Rolling Ridge in Commerce, Ga. area. Got 4th place out of 10-12 riders. First time I'd ever seen a girl race a dirt bike. She was in my class, and could flat-out ride. If I remember correctly, I think she ended up 5th behind me.

slipdog wrote:

I believe Jennie Pruitt finished 7th in my first race, it hurt bro! Took me 4-5 races before I finally beat her straight up.

Yea, if I'm being honest, I had to fight like hell to beat this girl. My friends (I was the youngest of the bunch, they all rode the 125 or 250 class) were giving me hell. They said I couldn't ride home with them if I let a girl beat me. I beat her in the 1st moto without a fight, but they said she was closing on me at the end of the moto. 2nd moto, we fought from the gate drop till the checkers. We went 4-4, 5-5. Funny thing is, I raced around the southeast for the next 12 years and I never saw her at a race again.