Leading the Chase

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With a name like Chase, he was born to race.

Nine-year-old Chase Sexton of LaMoille has grown up on motorcycles. At the age of 2 1/2, Sexton started riding his first bike. The day after he turned 4, he started to race competitively.

As he progressed as a rider, Chase kept getting better. Last year, he brought home three national titles at races in Branson, Mo., and Florida.

Chase’s father, Keir, says his son was in love with motorcycles from an early age. He recalls waking up one night after he had brought home an 85cc bike for his wife, Kelly, to try out.

“He was about 1 1/2, and we woke up, and he wasn’t in his bed,” Keir said.

The Sextons soon found their young son in the garage with the new bike. “We went out and he was trying to kick start the 85, so it’s always been kind of in his blood,” Keir chuckles.

“I remember as a kid watching him, and he would try to kickstart a bike in his dreams and stuff. He was sleeping the other day, and I saw him with his wrists like this, like he was racing.”

Chase spent the past weekend at Sunset Ridge Motocross in rural Walnut competing in the amateur nationals qualifier races hosted at the track. He already qualified for the National finals in one of his classes, the 70cc 7-9 age group, and was hoping to qualify in the 7-11 age bracket over the weekend.

When asked where his favorite place to race is, Chase, who has competed all over the U.S., picks Sunset Ridge.

“It’s a wide open, but there’s still a lot of jumps,” he explains.

Keir says having a nationally recognized track like Sunset Ridge so close to home is a great opportunity.

“It’s great. Tthis is somewhere we’ve been coming since I started racing. We’ve been here since Day 1.”

“We’re very fortunate. A lot of people are coming up to us and saying, ‘Man, this is one of our favorite tracks,’ I say yeah, I live like 12 miles from here, and they say how lucky we are.”

When he’s not traveling the country racing (which Keir says can be a challenge with the four kids in his family), Chase practices at his own home track Keir had put in on his property in rural LaMoille. Chase says his track is a bit smaller than Sunset Ridge, but it still gives him plenty of opportunities to practice, which he does three times a week.

Chase said one day he hopes to race professionally, and that his favorite pro is Ryan Villopoto, who is “really fast.” He says to make it as a pro it will take “a lot of hard work.”

“You’ve got to practice a lot,” Chase said. “You can’t just go out there and ride for 10 minutes; you have to go for an hour, two hours at least.”

So just what it is that draws Chase to racing motorcylces?

“It doesn’t really get boring,” Chase said, before adding the all important qualifier ... “I like going fast.”

Chris Yucus is a sports writer for the Bureau County Republican. He can be reached at cyucus@bcrnews.com.