Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/949962
P130 CN III CROSS-RUTTED BY JEAN TURNER I t seems there are a lot of unwritten rules for pro racers. Like your career will expire at a certain age, or that it's over once you have kids, or if you haven't won a championship within your first three years, you probably never will. Statistics might trend in some of those directions, and the "odds" being stacked against you can certainly weigh heavy on the minds of rac- ers, likely becoming self-fulfilling prophecies in what is a hugely mental game. But one by one, it seems these "rules" are being shattered, and more riders are defining their own rules in what is already starting to look like the year of the comeback. Perhaps it all started last year with the guy who quickly dispatched of all three unwrit- ten rules I just mentioned. Zach Osborne was nearing "retirement age" (around 27 by supercross standards) and had raced at a professional level for 11 years without winning a championship. He took several stabs at it in the U.S. and then hopped across the pond to try his hand at the FIM Motocross World Championship, but still hadn't accomplished his goal. He made his return to AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross where he got himself a factory ride, but was not on anyone's radar as a championship hope- ful. He was a veteran in the field, a family man who had gone more than a decade without a win in supercross. By all indications, he was "washed up." Lo and behold, in 2017 Os- borne nabbed his career-first AMA Supercross win and went on to win the 250SX East Cham- pionship. Then he took the outdoors by storm and claimed his first 250MX Pro Motocross Championship. In one season, he became a two-time champion and a legend in what was one of the most memorable races in super- cross history (Las Vegas finale). His story breaks all the norms. And I can't speak for others, but if I were a 20-something pro racer preoccupied by my ticking biological clock, I would be incred- ibly inspired by that. It's all still out there for the winning, and if rules are meant to be broken, then statistics are meant to be excepted—not accepted. So far in 2018, I see a lot of other racers making comebacks and defying the odds—a trend perhaps inspired by Osborne. Kendall Norman is back! The six-time Baja 1000 Champion slipped below the border several years ago and made himself very scarce to the motorcycle industry, leaving many to scratch their heads and wonder where "Mr. Baja" had disappeared to. Norman reemerged in the United States this year with a Honda ride, and is now taking on the AMA National Hare & Hound Championship. After a third-place finish at the opener, Kendall topped the second round, notching his first desert victory in years. He is now firmly in the lead for the 2018 AMA National Hare & Hound Championship. If he can hang on to take the title, what a come- back that will be. GO AHEAD, CALL IT A COMEBACK Family man Zach Osborne proved that success can come late in your career.