SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
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INTO THE FORGE 16-Year-Old Kelana Humphrey Places Sixth In The San Felipe 250 Pro Moto Ironman Class By Mike Vieira Photos by Dustin Humphrey Finishing any SCORE race in the SCORE Pro Moto Ironman class is a major achievement in itself, but doing it as a teen-ager is impressive. Kelana Humphrey did exactly that at the SCORE San Felipe 250 in April, but after looking into his experience in moto racing, it’s not so surprising that this was one of the goals he set out to accomplish. At the young age of 16, Humphrey has racked up a long list of motorcycle racing achievements. The native of Bali, Indonesia has been riding dirt bikes since he was seven or eight years old, and prior to that he was surfing and skating. So all of his young life has revolved around action sports. When he was 10, he and his dad, famed surfing photographer Dustin Humphrey, moved to their home state of California. Since then he has expanded his riding career in motocross racing, as well as a variety of other dirt bike contests. In the process, Humphrey has also managed to land some big-name sponsorships with companies like Red Bull and Troy Lee Designs. Traveling around the country and the world for his riding career, Humphrey is still a high-school student, and has to attend school online. Helping him schedule races and all of the logistics is his dad, who is a big part of the racing effort. “He’s a huge part of my program,” says Humphrey. I wouldn’t be here without him. He's the manager, organizer ---he’s everything.” While Humphrey’s interest in action sports and moto riding started, racing in Baja was one of his first dreams. “When I was five-years-old, I watched the movie ‘Dust to Glory’, and I just wanted to race Baja so badly,” he said. “To be able to do this now is unbelievable. It was a life-long dream, and I’m glad I accomplished it at such an early age.” The SCORE San Felipe 250 was Humphrey’s first SCORE race. Although he did have a previous enduro race in Baja under his belt, he also managed to do some pre-running in Baja last year. At this race, however, Humphrey was going up against veteran SCORE racers, many of whom have been racing Ironman since before he was born. Yet, Humphrey wasn’t intimidated. “I’m not really racing the racers so much as I’m racing Baja,” he said. His achievements at a young age also caught the attention of some of these veteran riders, and he had become friends with. Experienced championship riders like Kendall Norman, Justin Morgan, Ivan Ramirez, and Derek Ausserbauer certainly helped to give Humphrey an idea of the challenges he was about to face in his first SCORE Pro Moto Ironman race. Knowing a bit of what to expect of the terrain he’d be racing was helpful, but it all didn’t set in until he was actually in the race. Humphrey knew he’d have to complete the entire course at one time, on his own. “When you’re pre-running, you only do like a hundred miles a day, so come race day, I was like, ‘Dang, am I really going to go the whole 262 miles?’ It was a journey, for sure, but I loved every moment of it.” The first half of the race went by quicker and easier than expected on his GasGas 450ex. But for Humphrey, it was the second half that was much tougher, mentally. “I rode alongside 709X Chris Gil. He’s definitely like my Baja mentor,” said Humphrey. “I don’t think I could have done it without him and his crew. We pre-ran together, and pretty much raced together, and he took a nice little digger at around mile 200. I definitely saw that it can happen so fast. He went over the bars, but he got up and was all good. One little rock can decide your whole race after 200 miles.” The only issue Kelana had with his bike was that his battery died at Check One. He felt that the cause was a wiring harness unable to handle running the Stella and lights together. The Baja Pits crew jump-started him within a minute or two, but for fear of not being able to restart it on the course, he knew he couldn’t afford to stall the bike for the rest of the race. He also had a couple of minor incidents on the course in which the bike went over, but with no damage to himself or the bike. When he finally made it to the finish line, he says, “My fingers hurt, but I was definitely super pumped. To be honest, I was just craving fish tacos. So after I did the podium interviews, I went straight to the restaurant, got five fish tacos, and munched on all of them. I was just so happy, so relieved that I finished. That was the biggest goal. Placing didn’t matter. Getting sixth place is awesome, but finishing was definitely the goal, and getting that SCORE Ironman necklace was great, for sure. There’s nothing else like it, and you can’t get that feeling unless you do it.” When asked about what he learned in this race that will help in future SCORE races, Humphrey says, “Maybe gain a few pounds, grow a few inches taller, and maybe get a little bigger wiring harness for the bike. Aside from that, it was cool. Definitely rough. Ironmanning is tough. Maybe next time I should pick a partner or two to do it with me. Nothing crazy happened, and I just went out there with the mentality of taking another Sunday stroll. I’m definitely going to do it again, 100 percent sure. Maybe not the Ironman, but maybe in the Pro Unlimited class. The guys at SCORE are great. It’s a great organization.” Obviously, Kelana Humphrey has a bright future ahead with his racing endeavors, and not only moto racers need to keep an eye on him. “Bikes are awesome, but if I got a chance to drive one of those Trophy Trucks, I would definitely do that. So if there are any SCORE Trophy Truck teams that need an extra partner for the SCORE Baja 1000, hit me up!”SJ