By Parker McKenzie
10-year-old Josh Christmass has been motorbiking since he was old enough to walk. Over the weekend, he competed during the Fox Supercross Championship in Newcastle in front of 20,000 people.
Hailing from Selby, Josh has been competing in competitions all across Victoria when he applied for one of 20 spots in the YZ65 Cup at the Supercross Championship.
He said the competition was going well before he fell off his bike and had “a stack.”
“I had a huge wheelie and I hit something on a turn and fell over the bars,” he said.
“The practice was going great, in the first round I think he came 16th out of 20 kids,” his mother Renee said.
“The second round he was doing so well, he was up there but he had his crash and ended up coming 18th for the day.”
The YZ65 Cup is run by Yamaha Motor Australia in collaboration with Motorcycling Australia and is designed for nine to 12-year-olds.
Renee said Josh’s dad, who has also competed in Motorcross in the past, applied for him to have a place in the tournament.
“200 kids applied and of the 20 kids who competed, apparently 10 were repeat competitors, she said.
“I was petrified; there were a lot of very ill-looking mums.”
Josh said what he enjoys most about riding is meeting new people and making new friends.
“There aren’t any tracks in Selby, so we have to drive quite a bit,” he said.
“We go to Tralagon, Korumburra and Wonthaggi a lot.”
Josh is competing in another two-day competition in Wonthaggi over the weekend and said it is his dream to be a professional rider.
He said he prefers motocross to supercross but will be doing more of both in the future.
“Supercross is like you come out a corner and it’s just jump, jump, jump, jump, corner,” he said.
“In motocross, it’s like a straight and then we’ll go over a jump, and then there’ll be another straight.”
