Its allot tougher to race now than when I was a pup.
The cost alone of a bike today let alone a tow vehicle and race fees, I dont see how you do it.
My biggest passion was ice hockey, in the summer when hockey camps were over I went dirt bike riding.
In 1974 my Dad and I started out with clip on bumper racks to get my XR75 around to riding areas. Then in 1976 we progressed to a 3 rail trailer and an Rm 100A, went to all the hare scrambles we could find.
I liked hare scrambles compared to motocross simply because of the riding time. Nothing wrong with MX back then, they had 1 mini class, 100, 175, 250, 500, lightweight and heavyweight pro, that was it no a, b c etc, if you could not hack it in those classes go home.
Then MX got complicated around 1978 with the double jump, a, b, c, d ,e f, bla bla bla classes that your second moto most always was cut in half. Screw MX I went back to racing hare scrambles.
Plus people were starting to get hurt.
Luckily I was injury free from 1974 to 1981 when u guessed it I was racing MX and in a stupid turn with a jump I dislocated my shoulder.
In 1980 then bike costs and racing were no big deal as I had a ok job and could start buying my bikes. Before that Dad was my sponsor. I had a van, worked at Mark Smith (Yamaha of Cleveland in the golf car division) so parts and extras were no big deal.
I remember buying my 1980 390 Hoosk for around $1475. Then in 1981 I got 2 YZ125H's @ 895 each ( theres that dealer deal) racing was fun and relatively cheap.
I didnt race much in the mid to late 80's till around 1993. just got bored I guess.
in 1994 my racing days were care free, my Dad and I went all over the country racing for we discovered vintage motocross. A bigger truck and trailer were needed to haul my 2 main race bikes and a back up for reach along with wheels and spares.
Really the cost of vintage MX was cheap because I used to make my rounds at the junk yards and clean them out of what I needed.
Now the cost comes in.. travel and fuel prices. I remember going to a race in Steamboat Springs Colorado and it cost us (in 1994) over $880 round trip, then two weeks later we went to Hollister Hills in Cali and the fuel bill was off the chart.
We got to race on allot of fine old tracks, MX 338 in Southwick, Road Atlanta, Peoria, Hollister, Unadilla, Muddy Creek, Red Bud, Honda Hills to name a few.
In 1996 I built a hot 1974 Honda CR125 for my long time racing bud Rick Phillips, we went to bike week in Florida and the vintage national where he got the hole shot on the rear wheel all the way to the first turn. NICE !
1998 when working at SuperTrapp we borrowed the new YZF400 from Breyley for pipe testing, I liked that bike so much I called them and said im keeping it how much?
Went to a MX at Smith Road and u guessed it....locked bars with someone before the one downhill jump and broke my left arm. Lets see I have prolly 15,000,000,000 laps at Smith and to get wacked there sucked.
On a side note I Iron manned 1 of the 2 two man 4 hours George had there on my 1977 RM100b and finished 4th in my class.
So my off road racing took a break while I healed and pondered dirt biking thinking of the movie Little Fauss and Big Halsy where Robert Redford said to one riders Mom after one rider gets carted away: "Cycles is a mean toy lady"
I traded the Y zed for an XR400 and went back to hare scrambles, had fun and was injury free.
In 2000 my Dad died and racing just wasnt the same for me.
I quit off road racing, those tracks were just full of painful memories. So I got into drag racing, yep on a bike.
Then in 2004 my best friend whom I raced with since 1977 Rick Phillips died in a road bike accident. We rode both on and off road, he died just weeks after we got back from Myrtle Beach Bike Week.
So now motorcycles were just bad news all around for me. So I stopped drag racing too.
So you see racing to me wasn't about time, money or injuries it was about the passion I had for racing, being with my Dad and friends, working on and restoring bikes and having a job in the industry that allowed me to do so.
I guess if I stuck with hockey I would have gone to college and possibly played in the pros, I do know I would have saved a ton of money, not got to meet the greatest people I did and certainly wouldn't have got a job in the motorcycle industry.
Do what your heart tells you.