That kid's dream ...

A couple of friends of mine have young kids in love with motorcycles. Internet and TV have been fueling their desire to emulate their MotoGp champions but how can you start a kid in this sport if you live in NYC? In our region we do not have those championships so common in Europe where you can buy a brand name 125cc and with a kit an a few thousand $ you can enroll your son to a series of races in different circuits where all the participants (mostly very young teenagers) compete on the same bikes. A lot of champions have started in this way, or with mini-bikes in go-cart circuits. As far as I know around NYC with do not have anyone of these avenues available to start our kids in our sport. In alternative there is motocross with schools and races held in different race tracks in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Several American stars have started their careers with motocross to pass later on to road race directly in CCS, WERA, FUSA or similar championships on 4 stroke bikes. Yes, we do have races where to compete with 2 stroke bikes but they are not considered by the mainstream the natural path to road racing success for lack of sponsor and public interest. Too bad because I strongly believe that 125 and 250 classes are great foundation for riding and maybe the reason why Europeans have so many riders to the top level in Superbike and MotoGp.
If I am remembering correctly Valentino Rossi started pretty much at the same time go-cart, motocross and mini-bikes. Graziano, his father, convinced him that in motocross there are too many injuries down the road so it was a choice between go-carts and road racing motorbikes with the last one at the end chosen because of financial and other practical reasons.

In the video we see a young Valentino keeping that throttle of the mini-bike opened to the stop while cutting those twisty turns. Notice the famous Ninja Turtle attached to his helmet: nowadays it is still with him but on ... his belly.
Video source