The Hampshires and Fitzpatricks love to race motorcycles at the Dade City Motocross track.
By STEVE LEE
Published August 3, 2003
HUDSON - Motocross racing is a family affair for the Hampshires and Fitzpatricks.
Brothers and sisters, cousins and friends, they meet regularly at Laurie Fitzpatrick's mobile home to assuage their collective need for speed. They race motorcycles on a half-mile dirt track of jumps, sand pits and tight turns on the 9-acre property.
"Motorcycles and racing, it's in the blood," Fitzpatrick said. "Pretty much, everybody has supported everybody."
"It started out as a family thing to do. Then all I wanted to do was ride my motorcycle all day," said Tyson Hadsell, Fitzpatrick's 21-year-old nephew and the most accomplished rider of the bunch.
Fitzpatrick's mother and father, Paul and Nancy Sellars, got her and her brother, Ricky Hampshire, into motocross in the 1980s.
Hampshire received a 50cc motorcycle from his stepfather at 13 and "ended up crashing it on the side of the road, so (his parents) started taking me to the track."
After multiple titles at the Dade City Motocross track, Hampshire, 33, now primarily serves as a mechanic for the young racers.
"Ricky would ride four classes a year and win them all," Fitzpatrick said. "He was phenomenal."
Fitzpatrick, 30, had her own glory days. She often raced and won in men's divisions at Dade City then won national races. In 1989, Fitzpatrick won the women's race in the Loretta Lynn Nationals at Hurricane Mills, Tenn.
"Everybody knows them," Dade City promoter Randy Yoho said of the two generations of motocross racers. "They've been coming out here for probably 20 years."
Brandon Policastri, 7, who learned to ride a 50cc motorcycle before mastering a bicycle, has been riding with the Hampshires and Fitzpatricks for four years and said he is proud of his development.
"I got really good out there," he said. "I'm catching up to R.J. (Hampshire, Ricky's 7-year-old son)."
One of the flashiest young riders is Kalen Fitzpatrick, 11, who aspires to become a pro like cousins Marisa Hampshire (Team Green Kawasaki) and Hadsell (Team BSY Yamaha). He wasn't fazed when he broke his collarbone while racing in July. "(Kalen) reminds me a lot of me when I was little," Hadsell said. "If he can't ride, he cries. He rides until his bike breaks, and as soon as it's fixed, he rides again."
Hadsell is ranked 78th by AMA Motocross. In 2002, his fifth year as a pro, he earned a career-high $52,000 and is known on the pro circuit as "Pit Bull."
"Whenever I get a bad start, I usually come through the pack pretty good," he said. "Either I win or I crash trying."
Wipeouts, often resulting in burns, broken bones or ligament damage, are a part of the sport riders grudgingly accept.
"You can't be scared," Ricky Hampshire said, adding that watching his kids occasionally crash "scares me because I know it's dangerous and I know it hurts."
Marisa Hampshire, 16, has a 6-by-2 inch burn on her right arm as a painful reminder.
"I started to scream for help, and the flagman (temporarily) stopped the race," she said of the crash at the Dade City track when she was 10. "But I finished. My dad said if you can get up, you finish."
"In racing, you can't quit," said Nancy Sellars, adding the sport "is something that's good for the whole family."
That unity, Laurie Fitzpatrick said, helped her deal with the loss of her husband. Brad Fitzpatrick, Laurie's high school sweetheart at Hudson, died in a car crash on a back road in Hudson in 2000. Laurie hasn't raced since, saying she has little time, what with raising Kalen, River, 6, Felicia, 12, and Darrian, 7.
Racing motorcycles also has forced several multi-sport family members to make tough decisions.
Hadsell, a standout running back for Hudson's youth football team at 12, quit when his father, Stan, told him he was a better at football than motorcycle racing. "When he told me that, I said I better quit football to get better," Hadsell said.
Marisa Hampshire, who in December raced in Tokyo and finished seventh in her 80cc class, no longer plays basketball or volleyball.
Her sister, Sara, 13, is not as dedicated to racing. She will be a freshman at Hudson and plans to play basketball and softball there. "I just (ride motorcycles) for fun," Sara said. "It's just because I have to go (to the races) no matter what."
Sara does not plan to pursue racing but still has racked up her share of wins - in Dade City, Georgia and Tennessee.
"She's always trying to be the best," said her mother, Robyn Hampshire.
Added Sara, "I hate losing. If I'm doing something, I'm going out to win. I'll go to basketball or softball before racing. Racing involves missing a lot of school, and if I miss a lot of school, I won't be able to play sports."
Marisa has traveled the most among the young Hampshires and estimated she misses 30-40 school days a year. Teachers give her homework assignments for long road trips, and she is a B student.
"I don't like it," Robyn said of her daughter missing so much school. "But (racing) could be Marisa's career."
Unlike Hadsell, who dropped out of Hudson as a sophomore and was homeschooled due to so much travel, Marsia plans to stay in school - and race as often as she can.
