Personal History
Greetings! My name is Caden Johnston and I live in Jupiter, Florida where I'm a first grade student at Lighthouse Elementary School. My primary interests include sports, fitness, video games, skateboarding, BMX, riding four wheelers and dirt bikes and, of course, racing!
Riding Goals
I have been riding dirt bikes since around December 2012 and racing since the summer of 2013. My first few races were in the Bithlo MX Summer Night Series in Bithlo, Florida. They have a great track and run the pee wee classes first before the track gets all rutted out from the big bikes which makes it a great place to start. It also is a very good track for beginners and has really awesome jumps!
In September 2013, I started racing in the Florida Trail Riders Hare Scrambles series. We travel all over Florida to compete in hare scramble races and I have really improved my woods/trail riding skills. At first riding in the Florida sand made me nervous but the more I do it the more confident I feel. This also helps me with riding MX on the sand tracks here in South Florida!
I train regularly with Dean Dyess (DYE55 Racer Development) at Thundercross MX in Okeechobee, Florida and recently completed a 2-day MX training camp with him that was a lot of fun. Dean really helps me to improve my riding skills for both MX and hare scrambles.
My primary goal right now is to be the 2013-14 Florida Trail Riders Hare Scrambles series Pee Wee C Division Champion. I am currently leading the series in overall points and I'm slightly ahead of my competitors in points that will count toward the championship. I'm also looking forward to racing more MX series races this season and then competing in the FTR MX series this fall. Additionally, I will be racing my 2013 KTM 50 SX in the FTR Hare Scramble series again in the 2014-15 as a B class rider since I was recently promoted from Pee Wee C.
Competitive Highlights
My most memorable competitive highlight is from a hare scramble race in which I competed in Brooksville, Florida in January. I started in the top half of the field but fell during the first lap of the race and was passed by every single rider which put me dead last by the end of the lap. However, I rode hard, remembered where I could make my passes and aggressively worked my way back to the top of the pack to finish 2nd after 10 laps! This was very encouraging for me and marked a changing point in my racing which has resulted in top 3 finishes at every race since then.