Motocross is a fast-paced, gritty racing sport that hurls its competitors around dirt tracks with hard turns and large hills that launch riders into the air.
That kind of speed and air should be left to the professionals, right?
Enter Hunter Morris.
Hunter Morris is an eight-year-old who started riding at age seven, back in October.
He has competed in a competition once a week since the season started, winning over 30 trophies and qualifying himself for the Ponca City Grand National Championships in Oklahoma.
“He had to place so high in one of the two qualifying competitions,” Hunter Morris’ father, Wade Morris, said. “Marion and Inman were the two qualifiers. He qualified in Inman for the 50cc and the 65cc.”
He got his start when he was three years old when his parents bought him a small four-wheeler to ride around the yard.
“When he was three, we bought him a little 50(cc) four-wheeler that he started riding on,” Wade Morris said. “When he turned four, we bought him a little Honda 50 with training wheels.
“His first race ever, he went to the Barton County Fair and raced that little Honda 50 around that circle track and that got him hooked.”
Hunter Morris took second at the fair.
“All my friends started doing it, so I thought that I would start doing it to,” Hunter Morris said. “I get to see all of my friends and just have fun.”
After six years, Hunter Morris has stepped up his game. He now owns seven bikes ranging from the small 50cc bikes to the 85cc bikes which he rides around on a small practice off-road track on his family’s property.
Over the last year, Hunter Morris has made friends on the competition circuit, including Jeremy Kowalsky of Ellinwood, who has taken Hunter Morris under his wing and has helped him improve his racing skills.
“He’s met a lot of good friends through racing,” Wade Morris said. “There’s the Kowalskys. They’ve helped him with about anything. If he needs anything, he can call Kris Kowalsky and then he’s got a boy named Jeremy who races real fast.”
His parents have been very supportive as well. Along with the upkeep of seven bikes and the building of the practice track, Wade and Diane Morris have bought a trailer to sleep in and transport Hunter Morris’ bikes to competition which Wade refers to as their, “home away from home.”
Wade Morris said that it was all worth it.
“It’s great going around to all these places,” Wade Morris said. “We have a ball. We don’t travel too much so this is kind of our vacation. It is great family time.
“I guess that’s just what we do. Some people go on vacations and we do this.”
The only thing Hunter Morris doesn’t have yet, is a first place trophy -- not that it matters too much to him.
When asked which race was his favorite, his reply was the Oklahoma race which he had been to a couple of weeks ago.
When asked what place he got, he couldn’t remember.
“I think I got fourth or fifth (in the 50cc),” Hunter Morris said.
So what is motocross all about for Hunter Morris?
“Hitting air,” Hunter Morris said with a grin on his face.