Seven Year Old BMX And Motocross Champion, Dane Morales
What had you accomplished by age seven? Most kids this age, myself included, were just getting through the second grade, learning simple math and playing Tee Ball with the other neighborhood kids. Dane Morales, of Aliso Viejo, California, isn’t like most kids. You see, at seven years old Dane already has himself two national championships in two different sports, BMX and motocross.
Dane is the only racer of any age to currently hold national championships with the premier U.S. sanctioning bodies in BMX (USA-BMX) and motocross (AMA). He’s also a 2012 International Cycling Union (UCI) World BMX Champion and holds 13 national BMX titles. In short, the kid’s a stud.
His motorized two-wheeler is a 50cc Cobra minicycle which he campaigns against other kids as young as four years old. Think that’s young? Morales started swimming and doing gymnastics at 10 months, rode a bicycle at two and a half years, and hopped on a minibike by age three.
“I want to be the first kid to get national BMX, motocross and Supercross championships. Oh yeah, and also the first BMX Olympic Gold Medalist,” said the ambitious young’n. Morales’ career is already starting to mimic supercross legend Jeremy McGrath, who scored 72 stadium wins — before Morales was even born — and also started out on BMX bikes.
“I don’t really know much about Jeremy,” Dane said. “But he’s cool. I know that Christian Craig was also a BMX champion and is now a motocross pro. That’s really cool.”
Morales will begin campaigning to defend his USA-BMX national title on May 31 at the Music City Nationals in Nashville, Tennessee,look to win another UCI world championshipand continue racing minibikes.
Troy's been riding motorcycles and writing about them since 2006, getting his start at Rider Magazine. From there, he moved to Sport Rider Magazine before finally landing at Motorcycle.com in 2011. A lifelong gearhead who didn't fully immerse himself in motorcycles until his teenage years, Troy's interests have always been in technology, performance, and going fast. Naturally, racing was the perfect avenue to combine all three. Troy has been racing nearly as long as he's been riding and has competed at the AMA national level. He's also won multiple club races throughout the country, culminating in a Utah Sport Bike Association championship in 2011. He has been invited as a guest instructor for the Yamaha Champions Riding School, and when he's not out riding, he's either wrenching on bikes or watching MotoGP.
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