Six-year-old on track for motocross greatness

SUTTON — What does it take to be a competitive motocross racer at just 6 years old?

Actually, to hear pint-sized racing phenom Chase Andersen’s father Andy Andersen tell it, what it takes is the same thing it takes for everyone else.

“He wants to be there, and he puts in the time,” Andy Andersen said.

Chase finished third in an American Motocross Association Southwest Area Qualifier in Arizona in February and is headed soon to an AMA Northwest Area Qualifier. Andy Andersen said that they picked the southwest qualifier to see what Chase could do, and they think he’s got a good shot at the northwest contest.

“We knew that was the toughest regional in the nation, they ride all year round,” he said of the Arizona race.

Chase’s finish qualifies him to compete in a regional competition, which is the step before nationals.

“One thing that was kind of intimidating is that you got people down there that are rich as hell. They step out with two bikes and a personal trainer,” Andy Andersen said. “We got our bike, a backpack and a gas can, and it’s like ‘alright, let’s do this!’”

He said they got some funny looks at first, but after Chase showed what he could do, everyone wanted to talk to them.

And while the secret of his success is time on the track — the Andersens live on property with a motocross track in Sutton, and Chase rides constantly with his cousins, some of whom also live on the property — there are some things you have to do differently when you start racing, as Chase did, at 3.

First of all, the average kid that age might not have the neck strength to keep a helmeted head upright. Andy Andersen said he let Chase run around the house with a helmet on to build that up.

Chase could ride around on a strider bike — a bicycle without pedals — before he could walk.

Andy Andersen said he also got Chase on a motorcycle early, giving the boy an intuitive grasp of how the machine works. He’s doing it now with Chase’s younger brother as well. Andy Andersen said he’ll take the tyke — who is just a year and a half old — out on the bikes, put his hands on the throttle to show him how they work, exaggerate his braking so the kid gets that, too.

And the boy loves it. The second Andy Andersen sets him down to play, he dashes over to the bikes and asks to ride.

“I’ll tell you right now that when you’re around the environment that I am and that I’ve created you can’t keep them off of the dirt bikes,” he said. “How do you not put a helmet on his head and go turn a circle with him?”

Andersen said that environment he’s created is why he feels safe putting Chase in races.

“For a parent to get a 3-year-old and stick him on a bike and walk away is dangerous,” Andersen said. “I wouldn’t encourage people to try to get their kids to ride that young unless it was in a scene that we have.”

Andy Andersen said he and his cousins grew up living a similar motorsports lifestyle.

“They’re all straight-A students, and they all walk really tall,” he said.

To work yourself up to a jump you’re scared to take and then feel the joy from doing it builds confidence and character. So does the hard work of maintaining a track, chopping and hauling trees.

He said he taught Chase to ride just as fast as his skill set will allow, and not any faster. He tells his boy to put in track time to build that skill set higher and then just hope it’s high enough to compete with.

A lot of his coaching is pulling Chase back.

“He's such a fireball. The kid is just such an amazing rider,” Andersen said. “I have to say, ‘don’t jump this, don’t jump this! You’re going to hurt yourself. Don’t jump this.’”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.