Drake McElroy has worked for everything he’s got. Although he was riding a motorcycle almost before he could walk, it takes bank to maintain a racing habit. McElroy’s family had the heart to support him, but not the checkbook.
So the teenager juggled two jobs and decided to concentrate on freestyle in his spare time. Soon he had only one job – full-time freestyle motocross pro. He earned a number one world ranking before his professional career even hit the five-year mark, and today “DMC” is admired as one of the most exciting riders in the sport. But he’s still working hard, and while he remains a leader on the freestyle scene, he’s also back into racing.
Moving fast and taking gambles
McElroy grew up around Reno, Nevada, an area that’s synonymous with moving fast and taking gambles. In 1982, tiny Drake received a motorbike with training wheels for his first birthday. He was racing by age 4.
As he grew, McElroy took advantage of every opportunity to race locally, but breaking into national events required an enormous cash investment for equipment, travel, and other expenses. “I grew up in the most supportive family in the world. Unfortunately, we had shallow pockets,” he says.
By July 2000, the 18-year-old had earned enough points to race at the pro level, but even his two jobs couldn’t pay his way. So, being the Reno boy that he was, he took a gamble. He’d been watching freestyle motocross on video, and he decided to defy gravity himself. That August, McElroy rode in an FMX event and could hardly believe it when he “made a little coin for just ridin’ and having fun.”
Only one week later McElroy qualified as first alternate for Vans Triple Crown, and he quickly began signing with sponsors. The young athlete had found his niche.
Healing and progressing
Just when McElroy’s career got the green light, one major crash put the brakes on everything.
Maybe McElroy was too stoked about participating in the Blue Torch Survival Tour. In a session on April 2, 2001, he overshot a 120-foot gap and landed on the face of the next dune. The impact nearly made his “Live fast, Die young” tattoo seem prophetic. The rider fractured a vertebra, required 13 rods to repair his leg, and suffered facial fractures. Yet McElroy’s work ethic got him back on a bike within two months.
“It’s the kind of freak thing you don’t dwell on,” he shrugs. “The worst thing about getting hurt is the time off. The whole time you’re just thinking about riding, but the body has to catch up.”
McElroy’s body caught up fast in 2002. At the Planet X Games, he finished first in Big Air and third in Freestyle, and he snagged a third-place ranking in the Vans Triple Crown Series. He also took fourth in Big Air and third in Freestyle in the WFA Championship, but perhaps the highlight of his season was earning Freestyle bronze at the Summer X Games. He’d been a pro for only two years.
The rider’s results for 2003 were also huge, including the first win of his IFMA career. His season-end WFA ranking was third.
There was no stopping the momentum in 2004, as McElroy finished the IFMA season ranked fourth, was third at the LG Action Sports World Championships, and ultimately ended the WFA season ranked number one in the world.
The rider who once could only dream of becoming a pro now travels year ‘round, competing in IFMA Series and Dew Tour events, doing demos, and participating in freestyle contests and video shoots (such as a recent adventure for Fuel TV) worldwide.
At home in Nevada, McElroy and his wife are the proud parents of one, the rider fuels his artistic side with drawing and painting. Ever the perfectionist when it comes to performance, he also makes trips to visit friends (including Nate Adams and Dustin Miller) who have foam pits where he can polish new freestyle tricks.
And in addition, McElroy is returning to his racing roots, as he makes his mark in the intense competition of AMA Supermoto. Whether he’s dominating a freestyle event or racing at the head of the pack, Drake McElroy says he has the same goal: “Keep out there. Keep healthy. Keep progressing.”
Drake McElroy
