The “Godfather”, and one of the founders, of the freestyle motocross movement, Mike Metzger, made his debut as a roadracer at Southern California’s Willow Springs Raceway yesterday. After turning laps close to 1:30 in practice (extremely fast considering his limited roadracing experience), Metzger lined up in the last row of the Heavyweight Novice Division aboard his tuned Yamaha R1.
Calling on his skills with a clutch, undoubtedly learned in motocross, Metzger rocketed to the lead by the exit of Turn 1, and proceeded to disappear from his fellow novice racers – that is, until he crashed heavily in Turn 6 and his bike caught on fire.
Metzger was unhurt, and his R1 suffered primarily cosmetic damage. We plan to watch the exploits of this unique character as he makes his transition from FMX to roadracing.
