You already know who won the race, but there is so much more to it than that. The 250 Words column focuses on another story, from a different angle, because in racing, there's always more to the story than just one man standing on top of the podium.
The results of the Los Angeles Supercross Lites class were not surprising. GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac got his first win of the year, with Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Dean Wilson taking second. But it was the third man on the box that caught our attention. Zach Osborne hails from Virginia, loves Norway, lives in England and races the FIM World Championship circuit. He is a universal motocross man, who, like his older neighbor, Mike Brown, just loves to race motorcycles, any time and any place, and will be very fast for many years to come.
Osborne is the original #338, and he has it back on his bike as he spends the first month of 2012 here in the States racing supercross—which is something he doesn't get to race much of overseas. With the blessing of his boss, Steve Dixon, of the Bike-It/Cosworth Racing Yamaha team, Osborne is hoping to hone his skills and get his body and mind ready for a run at a Grand Prix title—something no American has won since Bob Moore back in the mid-nineties.
Osborne scored his first career podium in L.A.
Photo: Simon Cudby
But while the world title is his primary focus, you have to respect just how hard this athlete is trying in a series he will not complete. Like Ken Roczen last year, he will exit before the AMA West Region tour is completed. Then he hopes to have the same amount of success the German wunderkind did last year in winning the 2011 MX2 World Championship. Of course Kenny is no longer over there, having punched his ticket to America, following in the footsteps of Christophe Pourcel, Tyla Rattray and Marvin Musquin. But that's not to say Osborne won't have some serious competition over there, as Jeffrey Herlings and Tommy Searle await...
Before last night the best day of Zach Osborne's professional career was a Grand Prix win in Turkey, an event largely overlooked here in America. Now his best race has to be the night he got up on the box at the Los Angeles SX, in front of the Southern California MX industry, battling with the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Champion Dean Wilson until the very end.
Not bad for a kid we used to call “Snack-Pack Zach.”
