Last week, Cj Powell took the reader further into the sport of racing in the new Elevated Mx feature, “Thoughts”. This week, the big heads at Elevated Mx allowed me to whip something up about how I feel about our sport. While everything CJ said last week was true, I can’t help from feeling the entire motocross scene is all so friendly and family like. Sadly, it’s a shunned subject, but Colorado motocross has its shame and there are a lot people at fault for the shame, including myself. When I first began to race and enter the close-knit scene myself, 5 years ago, it was the most intimidating thing I had ever experienced in my life. There are numerous official rules one must know, not to mention several unspoken rules that one must not break. Everything from how to wear your goggles, to how to tuck your jersey is something that could get you mocked.
This intimidation was amplified by the slight rejection I felt from many riders. This sense of rejection comes from people staring at you as if you’re in the wrong place, fellow racers snickering behind your back because you may not have the nicest bike or the newest gear and sometimes, just blatant bullying. No matter what form this rejection takes it should not be tolerated among any sport, especially ours. So remember when you’re out on the track and an inexperienced rider is in front of you to not rev your bike, because that does nothing but make you look like an ass. Listen, don’t look at this article and think that I hate our sport. Our sport is something unique and should be cherished, that’s why I wanted to reach out and maybe make someone realize, hey that racer may be a little goony, or they may not know what they’re talking about, but they are a person with the same passion as you. So don’t poke fun but instead, help them; just like I’m sure someone helped you at some point and our sport can continue to grow bigger and spread to the masses. Then, instead of casting people out, we can welcome them with open arms and continue to grow motocross into what we know it can be.