Personal History
I am 24 years old from Sullivan County, New York and have been riding dirt bikes since I was three years old. I started racing competitively when I turned thirteen on 85cc bikes. I raced for five years in upstate New York. After I graduated high school, I went off to college and stopped riding all together. After I spent two years in college I decided I wanted to jump start my life and my career so I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and shipped off to bootcamp in October of 2009. I always had a passion for the ocean, operating boats, traveling, and helping people so I thought this would be a good fit for me.
My first unit out of bootcamp was in Cape Cod Massachusetts. I lived on an Army/Air Force base called Camp Edwards and one day during the summer I was on the base when I saw a truck with a few dirt bikes in it at the base commissary. I asked them where they were going to ride and the man told me about a motocross track right on the base, literally in my back yard. The rest is history, I retrieved my trusty 05' CRF250 from New York and fell back in love with my now one true passion. I rode almost every day.
After a year in Cape Cod I transferred to a Search and Rescue station on the central coast of California. I moved up to a CRF450 and began riding competitively in the novice and college boy classes. I have been riding and racing everywhere in California from Marysville, to Zaca Station, to Glen Helen, and everywhere in between. I recently purchased a 2013 KTM 450SXF and moved up to the intermediate level classes.
Many people in the military that transfer to new places fall in "a rut" and have trouble making friends outside of their military community. Motocross has been an unbelievable escape for me, it has helped me to make numerous friends and experience things many of my comrades unfortunately miss out on. I have gotten numerous shipmates in the coast guard involved in riding. I feel that I work serving my country almost solely to support my passion for riding dirt bikes. When I separate from the Coast Guard, I know that something in the motocross industry is what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Riding Goals
My main goal for this year is to qualify for Loretta Lynn's in the junior +25 class. It has been a dream of mine to race Loretta Lynn's and I am extremely confident that I will qualify this year. I believe that if I qualify and compete at Lorettas, I will most likely be the only military member on active status to do so.
I also plan on competing at local races in the intermediate 450 and intermediate +25 class. I plan on continuing to improve and eventually move up to expert/pro class in 2015.
Competitive Highlights
My first race when I was 13 on an 85cc in the junior mini class, I was lapped by Justin Barcia who was racing a KTM65. Besides this, my competitive highlights would be finishing the Transworld Muscle Milk race series 2nd place overall in the 450 novice class and 2nd place in the Open Non-Pro class. Also, I qualified out of the Northwest Area Loretta Lynn's qualifier in 3rd place.