CHAMPION CHASE: At 10, Sutton dirt bike racer excelling on a national level

SUTTON — Chase Andersen caught a championship.

The 10-year-old dirt bike racer who has honed his skills for seven years in Sutton won the 65cc Supercross Division at Mini-Olympics in Gainesville, Florida, on Nov. 24, beating 84 other riders. With the big win, Chase has now been selected to be one of four riders nationwide on the Yamaha Development team and is sponsored by Altus Motorsports and EBR Performance. Through hard work and preparation, Chase won the 65cc mod class on a stock bike. Chase took six of 12 holeshots during the racing weekend and also finished third in Motocross.

“It’s a big deal. They’re trying to develop me into a pro racer and they do a lot of help for me that my dad doesn’t have to do,” Chase said.

Chase’s dad, Andy, said that one of the reasons he earned the sponsorships is because sponsors are aware he won a modified class racing a stocked bike.

“I never dialed it in too much. I always made it a base line setting,” Andy Andersen said.

The new gear, bike, and training will help Chase in future competitions. He plans to race at his next national event in Texas in February. As part of the Yamaha Development team, Chase will no longer be hundreds of yards away from the action, and will have the help of professionals in preparing for races and learn from them sitting in the pit during other races.

“He gets to feel like he’s one of the crew,” Andy said.

Chase spent two months this fall training like a professional, living in Oklahoma City and training eight hours a day with Robbie Smith MX Racing. Chase would wake up, run two miles, ride for two hours of section work, do two 20-minute moto’s, eat dinner, work on his bike and conduct a full workout regimen. Andy said that he had an open ticket just in case Chase got overwhelmed, but he stayed tough throughout the two months training on his own.

Chase took a break from training for three weeks, where Andy says some of the training and expertise he picked up really soaked in.

“When he went down there, he was really hungry to win and train,” Andy said.

Following the win, Chase celebrated with his family.

“You park your bike in a stand on a podium and they give you an apple cider and you get to spray it all over the people around you and all over your bike and I drank all of mine,” Chase said.

Andy walked in on Chase after the race in their trailer, smiling and staring at his medals.

“It was probably the proudest moment of my life,” Andy said. “I know how much work he’s put in.”

Andy says that Chase was able to win the Supercross by adapting to unfamiliar conditions. Not on their home track, with unfamiliar dirt racing modified bikes, Chase studied the film and learned to be faster throughout the weekend of racing. Chase took the holeshot in the championship race and led from start to finish.

Chase has since returned and has adapted again, this time on a snowmachine. Chase and his family headed out on their snowmachines to get a Christmas tree last weekend.

Though Chase has grown out of his age group and will now be a young racer in a stacked division, Andy said that they still have high expectations, especially with the help from sponsors.

“We’re going to train harder,” Chase said. “We needed a little break after all the major races and from traveling. Our backs get kind of carrying all that stuff through the airport.”

“He’s on fire right now,” Andy said. “The last few events, he pulled it all together and didn’t go down once.”

Chase recently placed 11th in the country at the Loretta Lynn national motocross event. Out of 42,000 competitors from all around the world, Chase had a .003 chance of qualifying. He’s done so each of the last three years. Chase began racing competitively at just 3 years old, and has been rising up the ranks ever since.

“Not really many people realized an Alaskan could do well on the national level,” Andy said.

Three years after qualifying for his first Loretta Lynn national championship, five Alaskan riders qualified this year. Five riders is the most that have ever qualified from Alaska.

“He kind of opened a window,” Andy said.

Andy built the ‘secret ninja training facility’ into a family friendly track for the community. Community involvement helps reshape the track from event to event when riders want access to different terrains. Andy praised the Alpine Inn and Fish Creek Sales for their continued support of their racing efforts. Andy recalls phone calls with Jim Psenak of the Alpine Inn when the track was in dire need of earth moving equipment and Psenak helped to make it happen. The evolution of the track even involved changes in Mat-Su Borough code, which had classified any place you start a motorcycle more than five times as a commercial track. Over five years, Andersen and the racing community fought to establish a small and large-scale racetrack designation, preventing them from the tens of thousands of dollars in fees they would’ve incurred. Andy says that 80 percent of the users of the track are youths, and that balancing training Chase to be a national champion and running a track for the community has become a struggle.

“How do I not focus on my kid, but still focus on the community? It’s been a challenge to intertwine all of that. Luckily there’s a lot of support when you look at how many positive things we’re doing for the community,” Andy said. “We started the whole track as training facility. We didn’t want to have to drive to Anchorage to train. It’s really been a driving force for the sport in (Alaska). People get into the sport with a family fun environment realizing you don’t have to be fastest to race.”

The track in Sutton has exploded in popularity, and provided a family fun environment. They will likely host a snowmachine racing event this winter along with warm clothing drives and food drives. Andy brought up Robbie Smith and Trey Roberts from Outside to help train the local motocross riders. They hope to fulfill one of the Lions Club’s biggest goals, adding a bicycle pump track in Sutton.

“We don’t make any money off of it, so people that come kind of have a sense of wanting to give back because it’s free for them to do it,” Andy said.

Chase enjoys riding with his friends and family who use the track. He does not take a break when he’s off the dirt bike, fishing and staying active in the outdoors. However, as Chase rises up the standings and competes for national supremacy on a 65cc dirt bike, he requires training on terrain that isn’t suitable for the rest of the young riders in Sutton. Andy specifically digs ruts in the track so that Chase can ride on similar conditions at home that he races on in the Lower 48.

“I get to ride with my family a lot because my cousins live right next door to me. They sometimes ride and train with me. I love it a lot,” Chase said.

Chase is accustomed to keeping up with his older counterparts. He was beating 6-year-olds when they were twice his age, and has grown up riding with his five older cousins who continually push him to do better. At just 6 years old, Chase was pumping out 220 sit-ups in full riding gear at the direction of his cousins.

“That’s how dedicated he was at that young of an age. His family members and cousins all positively encouraging him,” Andy said.

Speed is the name of the game, but Chase’s distinct lack of any sign of fear takes he and his bike to new heights.

“I am really good at jumping and my longest jump I’ve ever jumped is 120 foot on a 65cc,” Chase said. “I really want to, when I grow up I want to do arenacross, supercross stuff like that.”

Chase’s control on the bike as he bobs and weaves through other riders helps him maintain position, but his speed over jumps helps him gain it.

“He’s one of the best jumpers in the country. There’s not a track we go to where somebody jumps off a jump that he doesn’t,” Andy said.

With all the training, fitness, and bike maintenance Chase puts himself through to try and be the fastest motocross rider his age in the country, Andy makes sure that he has fun with it.

“It’s important for me to not have so much pressure on Chase but to live in the moment. The fact that he’s this good is a bonus,” Andy said. “There’s a .002 chance of him ever going pro. Even though he’s really good and has potential, we have to be in this for the fun.”

Chase’s breakthrough has allowed for opportunities for other riders who want to rise to the level of competition that Chase is at. Chase’s 5-year-old brother Cruz just picked up his first contract and competed at the Mini-Olympics with Chase in Florida.

While Chase’s talent stands out, to regain sponsorships, companies look at how large his social media following is. Supporters who would like to help the Andersen boys keep on riding can follow him on Instagram @chaseandersen13 or on Facebook.