Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

PROFILE Trials rider Jess Kempkes By Kent Taylor Currently third in the nation, Jess Kempkes is seeking his first trials number-one plate. ~ he relationship between a boy. and his bicycle is something that . doesn' t really ha ve to be explained. The freedom granted by the power of mobility is followed soon by the fantasy that you are ,Scott Parker, Geoff Aaron or Jeremy McGrath, sans motors. So when a 13-year-old Jess Kempkes discovered that his own trials bicycle had been lifted, swiped, pilfered from his dad's trailer, gone forever, there was only one thing that could have eased his pain, only one other steed that could provide the young man with that same feeling that the world and all of its rocks, hills and steep walls belonged to him. His replacement? A sleek, new 180pound Gas Gas 250, compliments' of Gas Gas USA. Yeah. That will work. The big heist took place back in 1991, when Nebraska's Jess Kempkes was attending a trhils' riding school in Kansas City. That was when he first caught the eye of Gas Gas' Andrew Codina, who served as a scou t for the small Spanish company. Codina was making regular trips from Spain to the United States, conducting trials riding schools, and while teaching, he was also on the lookou t for the next Dougie Lampkin. Finding favor in Codina's Spanish eyes means you are something special, somebody who possesses an ability to ride a motorcycle in a fashion tnat most others can only think about doing. "I was riding an old Beta and wearing some really raggedy old clothes when I went to Andrew's school in Kansas City," recalls Jess, sitting in the living room of his family's home in Lin~ coin, Nebraska. So ratty was the motorcycle that even the bicycle thieves passed it over. "I had never had a new motorcycle," he remembers, "and now I was getting not only a bike, but also new gear and some money_ It was great. There weren't too many strings attached. 1 just had to ride the bike." Ride the bike he did, scoring the win a t each of the five rounds of the 1992 NATC High School series. As a result, . . his sponsorship package became even 1.~;;7. sweeter, and Kempkes proved well worth the investment with a fourtha longtime NATC insider boldly sta tes, place finish'in the 1993 Champ class, the "Everyone is looking at Jess as the great premier class of the sport. It was the American hope." highest finish ever by q rookie. Jess is now 20 years old, and three Trials in the United States may be years have passed since his graduation breathing in its second - or third - wind, from Lincoln's Northeast High School, depending upon how one evaluates where no one really understood what success. There was a time when each of trials is all about. the Big Four offered a trials model to "I would t~ll them 'trials' and they'd the American riders, who could then. ask, 'Is it like motocross?'" says Jess, dream about being like Marland Whawith a slight groan. "I said 'No, it's ley or Bernie Schreiber, the Bultacoclimbing over obstacles.' And then mounted Yank who was the world's they'd go, 'Whoa... a stunt man!' It finalbest for a short time. But 'times have ly got to where, when I told them I was changed, and today no American rider going off to a national and they would ranks in the top 10 in the world. Trials ask me)f it's motocross, I just said, buffs in the United States were made 'Yeah, that's it. painfully aware of that fact in 1996, Because trials is an amateur sport, when America hosted an actual World the big dollars that have arguably beneTrials Round at California's Stepping fited professional motocross are not part Stone Ranch. Geoff Aaron, America's of the scene. Still, Jess' knack for keepbest, fared no better than 18th, two ing his feet on the. pegs has netted him spots ahead of a young Nebraskan valuable experiences, such as trips to named Jess Kempkes. But while Aaron Northern Ireland and Spain, where he is a talented three-time champion and a studied with the best in the sport for great promoter of his own feet-up skills, nearly a month. During that stay, he nJ rode in the Spanish round of the World Championship Series. "The course there just blew me away - every single section;" Kempkes says. "It was like nothing I've ridden over here. One of them was near the ocean, and you had to drop in off of a 5-foot wall and then jump over another really big wall. But you had to time'it with the ocean, or else.this huge wave would come' in and just blast you. It was crazy." In 1995, Jess stayed feet-up long enough to nab his first-ever overall win at El Centro, California. Though winless in 1996, Kempkes finished third in points last year and kicked off 1998 with a win on the opening day of the U.S. Trials Series in Brooksville, Florida. With his dad, Rod, at his side, Kempkes seems to have the best shot at wresting the title away from Beta-mounted Aaron. "It is a very different sport here than ih Europe," says Rod Kempkes, who has been riding trials for more than 20 years. "Over there, it's like gymnastics at the Olympic level. The kids are in training at an early age. By the time you are Jess' age, you need to be fully sponsored and training full time if you really want to be a world champion." Perhaps to the dismay of those who have labeled him as America's "great hope," Jess says being on top of the world isn't really in his plan. "That's pretty much out of the ques) tion," he says, without much hesitation; "I sloughed off a little last year, not really training, and I'm going to change that this year, but it did hurt me some. 1 think it's basically too late for me." That, however, is little consolation faT his stateside competition. With continued help from Gas Gas, Rising Sun In).ports and, of course, his dad, Rod, it's not too late for Jess Kempkes to bethinking about a national championship. And once he has that, it may take mOTe than just a sticky-fingered thief to steal it away from him, f~

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