MANSFIELD — As the lights went up in the grandstand, the loud murmur of anticipation moved through the crowd in waves.
Behind the scenes local racers were mentally preparing while their pit crews made last-minute checks.
Friday was Motocross night at the Richland County Fair, an event that hasn’t taken place since 2017.
Motocross made its debut at the Richland County Fair between 15 and 20 years ago, according to Chandler Durbin, who has helped organize the comeback.
“Interest in sponsors and help had declined so we stopped having the event,” Durbin said. “But this year has been different.”
Riders came from Richland and surrounding counties to enjoy the thrill of the ride and the purses that go to the winners. Checking with the Durbin he said there were roughly 200 racers.
There were four divisions of racing, little and big quads as well as little bikes and big bikes. Purses ranged from $400 to $1,000 for the pro racers.
A large part of the buzz about the motocross return was the fact that three old pro riders well-known in the motocross sport were the ones working behind the scenes to make this event a success: Logan Pfleiderer, Luke Grauer and Derrick Steele.
“These guys are well loved and it has been great having them on board,” Durbin said. “The riders are in for a treat.”
Logan Pfleiderer, local motocross rider who took his dream and made a living racing professionally in motocross, supercross, outdoor nationals and a couple other dirt bike divisions, is the one who built the track this year.
Pfleiderer said he sought out the Fair and offered to build the tracks.
“I have been building tracks since I was young,” Pfleiderer said, “and when I heard the Fair was bringing motocross back I wanted to help make it a great event for everyone.”
Growing up in Galion and racing at Sunset Ramblers, Pfleiderer said he had ample opportunity to learn how to build tracks. He soon found out not only did he love building tracks and learning how to form better jumps, but he was good at it. He said the process always seemed natural to him, how he could see and feel the layout of how a good track should be according to the terrain he was working with.
“It takes a lot to build correct, safe jumps,” Pfleiderer said. “First of all you want to be safe with no kickers to send the rider through a jump that will flip them over their handlebars.”
Through the years, he said he has built a variety of racing tracks for other events and even at training facilities between here and the Carolinas. The goal is to have a safe track but one that is fun and memorable for the riders. With the return of the motocross event at the Fair, Pfleiderer said he hopes interest stays.
Although he no longer races, Pfleiderer said he hopes to continue working with motocross events locally and building tracks when the opportunity arises.
“I have not raced in 6 or 7 years, due to a bad accident I had,” Pfleiderer said. “I walked away after it and it’s kind of a bummer because that’s what I lived and breathed.”
As a few years passed after his accident, he said he returned to the motocross scene by working with kids at training facilities and building tracks for them.
Pfleiderer said his passion for dirt bike racing began when he found an old dirt bike in a shed.
He brought it home to his dad and told him that racing was what he wanted to do. His dad encouraged him, he took control of it and became really good he said. All said and told, Pfleiderer said he raced for 16-17 years.
“I am just hoping that all the riders have a great experience Friday night,” he said. “ I want it to be the safest, but funnest Fair race for them to remember.”
One rider who competed in the Pro level (big bikes) on Friday night, local resident Hayden Hoover, spent some time with me prior to the race to tell me his thoughts and anticipations about the event. Like Pfleiderer, who happens to be someone Hoover looks up to, Hoover hopes to take his racing career to a professional level.
Hoover also started dirt bike racing when he was very young and earlier this year he made the decision to move up to Pro level. He said he began noticing that his lap times were the same as those riders in the Pro level and he already had been winning the majority of all the races in his class.
Currently he is working towards earning his Pro points, saying he is loving the challenge which is more mental at this point, but his confidence for success comes from what he says is “knowing what I am capable of.”
Although there were no points to earn Friday night, Hoover said he was very excited to hear the motocross event was returning to the fair. Hoover, who just turned 20, said the last time he raced at the fair he was 11 years old. And he won his class.
“I am racing the fair because it’s my hometown. It’s the first year back and well, the race pays well,” he said.
Hoover said he expects to see some familiar faces at the event and the majority of the riders to be racing in the kids or beginners class. He said he didn’t expect as many riders at the Pro level because tracks at the fair are typically smaller and tighter than the average motocross tracks.
“When the tracks are like that there is less room for error which means a lot of people will wreck because they aren’t used to riding tracks like the faris have,” Hoover said. “But I am looking forward to it.”
How does one prepare?
“Basically since it will be my first time on the track, I will take one lap to check it out and then I will start to gain speed and begin jumping the jumps as much as I can,” said Hoover.
Hoover said he was hoping that enough people turned out so the fair will continue to host the motocross event. This also, he said, will help get people more familiar with the sport.
“When I was in school kids would always say motocross wasn’t a sport but that was because they didn’t understand what went into it,” he said. “But if you look up what the most physically demanding sport is, motocross is always in the top 5 listed. Studies show that motocross works almost every muscle in your body.”
Official stats show that during a typical race day, a pro motocrosser wrestles with a 200-plus-pound bike for 30 or more minutes at a time.
Hoover said during his school years he participated in all the regular sports but always returned to dirt bikes. He noted that racing feels natural, he never seems to worry or think about anything other than what is in front of him when he is kicking up the dirt. And he does have some mean jumps!
The other thing Hoover said that has fed his love of racing is that his dad races as well so they have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time traveling together, practicing and sharing the joys and defeats of the sport. In fact, he said, his dad even raced the fair years ago.
“I have to say that all of the long road trips with my dad have become memorable, even the bad trips,” Hoover said. “Traveling with some people can feel very long, but traveling with the right people 16 hours to Florida can feel like only six hours.”
Currently Hoover is considering moving to Georgia to live and train at MTF (Millsaps Training Facility), one of the top facilities in the nation.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom during the early 1900s.
These would become regular off-road events called ‘scrambles.’ The first ever official scramble was held in Camberley, Surrey in 1924.
The sport came to America in the 1960s by way of Edison Dye who, not a racer, but a businessman, saw an opportunity. Edison convinced the Husqvarna factory to let him bring in a couple of bikes with the potential of being the Husqvarna importer for America. Out of his own funding, he imported the bikes, ran the races and paid the riders to come here to promote the sport.
In his own words, Edison made this comment about what he did for the motocross sport:
“I got the idea; why not bring the top riders to America after their season ended. I would pay them all good, but have little prize money – only enough to make it interesting. So I paid their airfare, good appearance money, and a little prize money. The first year, I brought over Torsten Hallman for a nine race series and he won all 23 motos.
“The second year, 1967, I brought six riders and the next year we brought 20 riders including the Husqvarna Racing Team. We were on our way.”
