Danny Campora’s NJ Motocross Memory
March of 2000. My first motocross race ever, and it was at Raceway Park, NJ. Not being able to sleep the night before, rolling up to the entrance gate in my truck with the bike in tow, I had butterflies in my stomach the size of crows. I signed up for 125 novice and collegeboy on my trusty 1999 YZ125. I watched the pros like Barry Carsten, Joel Dengler, and Brian Carrol with his American Flag jersey flying through the air as they hucked the original “Psycho Double”. I remember saying to myself, damn those dudes are siKK! I remember Scott Lukaitis on a CR250 #9(yellow plastic?)
I lined up for my first moto ever, the gate dropped, and I pinned it into the first corner, and SMASH, I crashed into a 5 guy pile up, and broke my thumb, and tore ligaments in my right hand. I tried to race, but it hurt too bad. I just watched the rest of the day, hurting, but proud that I finally got myself out there and raced at Raceway Park. It was a dream of mine since my father raced at the drag strip across the way, and I always rode my little Z50 over as close as I could get, to watch the moto.
I’m looking forward to 2009 being a great year of racing at Raceway Park. I took the past 2 seasons off and did not race, except one time at Atco. I plan on building many more NJ Motocross Memories.
