Meet Austin Pennington #125, from Vancouver, Canada

Hi my name is Austin Pennington (#125) and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I am 10 years old and I love to ride. Santa gave me a Honda 50 when I was 5 years old. I was a little bit afraid of riding it at first until my dad taught me what to do and how to ride it. My dad and I would go out onto logging roads to get some saddle time for me. My confidence started building and I wanted to ride more and more. I finally got my first chance to race competitively at an indoor arenacross. I was nervous and scared and didn’t know what to expect. My dad motivated me by holding up a $50 bill and said if I finished the race I would get it. So, of course being a true Canadian Kid I couldn’t let him down. I finished my first race near the back of the pack, however I finished. As time went along I rode in several more indoor arenacrosses and started to place higher up. Winning my first of many 1st place trophies in December 2003.

In the summer of 2005 I began my career in motorcross with my KX65 and won 2nd and 3rd place trophies throughout the year. I finished 2nd overall in the British Columbia Canadian Motorcross Association (B.C.C.M.A.) Golden Harvest Series in 2005 and 3rd overall for 2006. Since the summer of 2006 I have been riding a KX85 and finished 6th overall in the B.C.C.M.A. Golden Harvest Series. I raced several times at Hannegan Speedway and MXGP Thurston County in Washington State and placed in the top 6 riders. I look forward to the 2007 racing series in British Columbia and Washington State and hope to bring home some more trophies to add to my collection.

I prefer racing the outdoor motorcross series because of the different conditions of the track, the bigger air time, the longer track and the challenge. One of my funniest moments was riding in the pouring rain and muddy conditions and being unable to see with my goggles on so I threw my goggles away. One of my embarrassing moments came when I was leading the race and fell at the second to last corner of the last lap, got my bike up and going and finished the race in 3rd place.

My things in life I am most proud of are being able to ride a dirt bike, falling and getting up again and finishing the race. If I am not out riding or racing I play competitive soccer on a local team. I get my desire and interest in motorcross from my dad and my competitiveness and athletic abilities from my mom.

My sponsors are RitcheyRacer, Richmond Racing, Gaerne, CTI2, Scott and of course my Dad and Mom.

My goals this year are to get more practice times so that I can finish in the top 3 spots of each race. Be more aggressive at the start and end of each race. Work towards getting a factory ride and racing at Loretta Lynn’s Track.

I really enjoy MX so much that my dad has taken me to see supercross in Vancouver, Seattle and Las Vegas. My idol is the one and only Ricky Carmichael who I really enjoyed meeting several times and of course watching him race live.