County councilman pitches idea for a motocross facility in Volusia County

PIERSON - Hannah Hodges, the second-fastest national amateur motocross rider in the United States, said she started riding dirt bikes at age 6 in fields, on the side of the roads, and on friends' properties because there was no public facility in Volusia County to train for the sport.

That may be about to change.

Volusia councilman Don Dempsey has pitched a proposal to have a public motocross facility built.

"It's been proposed and we put it on the meeting agenda about two or three months ago when each councilman talked about what they think would be their priority if they had a wish list," Dempsey said. "My priority was a motocross facility, because we have been needing it. We are 30 years past due for one."

Hunden Partners, a consulting firm from Chicago, toured locations in the county to determine where to place a motocross training facility, as well as a BMX track and ballparks, Dempsey said.

The proposal will go before the council for a vote in the coming weeks, Dempsey said.

Nowhere to go

Hodges and several parents of motocross riders interviewed about the proposed public facility said it's time for one to be constructed in Volusia County.

"That would be great," she said. "I drive down the road all the time and I see kids that are riding up and down on the sides of the roads."

In late 2019, the 25-year-old DeLand native moved to Pierson relocating to 15 acres of open terrain to train.

"I always grew up in neighborhoods, and with what I do, dirt bikes and neighborhoods don't really mix," Hodges recalled in a recent interview at her Pierson garage. "I started out just kind of riding in a field."

And having a place to train has paid off for the now-Pierson resident. In August, she came in second in the Loretta Lynn National Amateur Motocross Championship in Tennessee, one of the biggest dirt bike riding events in the world.

The event, held annually in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, is the final stop for amateurs before they join the professional ranks.

Contestants must qualify through a series of events organized specifically for competing in one of the Amateur National Championship's 37 racing classes. Only the best 42 riders in each class get an invitation to compete.

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Hodges now trains motocross enthusiasts. She sees dirt bike riders in the county with the dream of competing in national events, still without a place to train.

Driving for hours

For local parents of young motocross racers, a public track would be a blessing. Many take time off from work, pick up their children from school, and drive up to two hours to find public places to train.

Ben Beute, of Port Orange, has had to make plans to be able to get his 10-year-old son Tanner to training locations.

"Oh, it would save tons of money, travel, and it would give him a local place to call his facility," Beute said.

Finding a place to train is not easy, and so far his son has had to train mostly at friends' tracks that limit access, and most are spread out in rural areas or out of town, Beute said.

"So, we normally drive to Pierson, Deltona, DeLand, and then we'll go to random tracks like Orlando MX, Pax Trax in Bunnell," Beute said. "Every training day we drive at least 2 hours to find a place."

Jonathan Mortberg, of Pierson, whose son, Logan Mortberg, 16, won fourth place in his category in the Loretta Lynn National Amateur Motocross Championship in Tennessee this year, knows how difficult it is to find a place to train.

"We do have to go far from here, not a lot of public places to ride around here," Mortberg said.

For his son to learn and practice riding for motocross competitions, Mortberg has had to drive from Pierson to Orlando and Jacksonville. He has also had to drive to tracks in Ocala but those fields only open occasionally, he said.

"We have traveled as far south as Tampa, an hour-and-a-half drive (one-way) for us," Mortberg said. "If we had something local we could get much more seat time."

A facility would also make training and riding much safer for riders like his son, he said.

Better safety

"You see so many kids riding out in the woods, on the street on dirt bikes that aren't street legal, but if they had a place where they could go and enjoy their dirt bikes, where they weren't in any risk of getting in any type of trouble, that would be beneficial for everybody," Mortberg said.

Dempsey was born in Florida but grew up riding dirt bikes in southwestern Pennsylvania. A longtime Volusia County resident, he has seen the motocross sport grow. His older son rode dirt bikes and now, his 10-year-old boy, Grayson, is also competing in riding events all around the country.

Open fields along Kepler Road and Martin Luther King Beltway that were once available for dirt bike riding are now housing or businesses. And some open lands are off limits and riders can be arrested if they trespass, Dempsey said.

Through his travels and familiarity with the amateur motorcycle sport and the venues where they are held, and after conversations with an official from the American Motorcyclist Association, Dempsey said he has an idea of what motocross facility he would like to see constructed in Volusia County.

The consulting group will have 60 days to identify a site for the motocross facility. And once a site has been found, the training facility proposal will go before the county council for a vote, Dempsey said.

"We want to do a feasibility study, and in the contract, it says that we're looking for a top-notch facility," Dempsey said. "We're not looking for just a field to go out and ride."

The facility Dempsey envisions is one that will have a training track, a lighting system, a building with restrooms, and a compound with 500 recreational vehicle hookups, so families coming to events can camp out, the councilman said.

A top-notch facility

"We're not just talking about a field with some turns and some dirt piles," an enthusiastic Dempsey said. "We want a facility that has restaurants, you know, like a nice restaurant, a place that you can cook food, sit down in air-conditioning."

Dempsey said he also sees the potential of incorporating a classroom for a homeschooling program for motocross students who have to spend time away from school during training and competitions.

Andrea Leib and her husband Don of South Daytona, run On Track, a virtual school that helps motocross riders and competitors nationally with their education when they have to take time from school and focus on the sport.

The Leibs, formerly of California, started their school after seeing how their son and daughter missed lots of classes when they had to travel around the country so their son could compete in motocross.

As their son became successful, signing contracts with Kawasaki, they had to travel more and that meant missing school, Don Leib said.

Home schooling

"We had to really travel to many states, to lots of races, and we were driving back in the motor home to California one day, and I said to Andrea 'You are going to have to homeschool this kid of ours,'" Don Leib recalled in a recent interview.

Andrea Leib, who has a master's degree in education, was initially opposed to homeschooling but as the motocross sport demanded more of her son's time away from school, she had to find a solution, she said.

"I realized brick and mortar schools aren't going to be the answer for us because you could only miss so many school days," Andrea Leib said.

And at competitions, she learned that the parents of many other riders skipping school for motocross faced issues with their schools. So, she started working with some children at the tracks, and On Track became a full-fledged school in 2005.

"I didn’t realize that motocross racing was going to take us outside of our backyard," Andrea Leib said. "As we traveled to competitions I realized these kids were trying to do school when they had to focus on the race in the nationals. These kids were missing 40 to 50 days."

Since its founding, the virtual school On Track has graduated more than 1,000 students. The school currently has 500 students and 50 employees, Andrea Leib said.

And with people camping at a motocross facility while their children train, ride, and compete with their education taken care of, there is also an economic impact as well, as events will not only bring competitors but fans who will use services in Volusia County, Don Leib said.

"I see a facility like this in Volusia County where you have a dense population and lots of services relatively close, it's going to be a home run," Leib said. "When they build the track, you have to think about the infrastructure needed to do professional and amateur races, you could have 15,000 fans to come to these events."

More than ripe for a facility

Dempsey said that he is aware that it would take taxpayers' money to build a motocross facility and he thinks the project could be funded with ECHO grants - funds to projects to be used for "environmental, cultural, historical and outdoor recreational purposes."

Dempsey, who has been thinking of a motocross facility for 20 years, said that amateur motocross has "exploded" and Florida has become a destination for the sport. The facility will provide many opportunities to motocross enthusiasts but above all, it would be a safe venue for training, the councilman said.

“This sport has boomed and there's nowhere for a parent to take their kid after work. And, we're now a destination station. A lot of families coming from New York, you know, up north, wanting a place to ride they have nowhere to go,” Dempsey said. "So I think Volusia is more than ripe for a facility that will allow this (motocross).”

Dempsey said he doesn't believe the motocross facility would cost more than the $2.5 million that county officials pumped into a pickleball facility built in Holly Hill recently.

"I mean I put it this way, it's not going to cost more than they put into pickleball," Dempsey said. "And I can assure you it will probably be less than that or in that same neighborhood."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Amateur motocross facility proposed for Volusia County