Motocross, though it isn’t a CIF endorsed sport, is a big deal to many high school students. Since the CIF doesn’t have a competitive interscholastic system regarding motocross, it is not an official school sport in California. Therefore, Placer doesn’t have a motocross team. However, there is always an interest in it from students and there are still many hillmen who participate in the sport or have done so in the past.

One of the motocross events Auburn is most involved with is Fast Fridays, an event which attracts decently large audiences on friday nights in the summer. The event’s popularity has surged in recent years and many students attend every week during the summer vacation and into the beginning of the school year before Placer’s fall sports season begins and the place to be friday night is the LeFebvre Stadium. Greg Hancock, an 8 time national champion, has been a frequent Fast Fridays participant. The racing series, which was first introduced in Auburn in 1996, closed its season on October 12th with the “USA vs the world” event, the 21st event of the season. They will be back in early May next year.

Placer students, though it isn’t a school sport, are frequent participants in motocross. The events which take place in motocross are highly competitive and when asked about the types of events he competes in, senior Ryan Nevin mentioned that the competitions he is a part of are at the national level.

Nevin, who has competed in motocross for four years starting when he was 14 years old, said he enjoys racing because, “It’s a sport where you only depend on yourself. It isn’t a team sport, its a self sport.” and that he, “Loves the adrenaline rush”

When asked about why he enjoys motocross, senior Nick Reed responded, “I enjoy doing something that not many people can do and I love the feeling of winning and knowing that I have worked harder than everybody else on the track to win.”

When asked what he would explain to people about motocross to people if he had the opportunity, Nevin stated, “People don’t understand how in shape you have to be in order to do motocross. It’s one of the most physically demanding sports there is.”

Reed also said that if placer had a motocross team, “It would give me a sense of school spirit but I think a school organized team would be too expensive and complicated, a club would be kind of cool though”

Reed, who thinks the sport gets too much negative attention with people often trying to shut riding locations down, sresponded “They don’t like the noise and they think that the bikes are bad for the environment, but I think motorcycles are worse, they’re way louder and pollute more.”

Reed’s biggest personal achievement in the sport was, when “The summer after freshman year my family and I drove to Oklahoma to race the 2nd biggest amatuer national. I was running top 5 but had some pretty bad crashes and ended up finishing 22nd overall in finals out of 60 or so riders, and those were just the people who qualified. So even with those couple of crashes I did pretty well.”

Although Motocross may not be an official school sport, has some very official athletes from Placer.