TEN MINUTES WITH… casey o’gorman
Or rather John, Casey’s father. He’s one seriously fast six year old who’s cleaning up in minimoto ahead of older kids – both home and abroad!
Casey started on a bike at less than one.
It was a battery bike around the house. We got him on a balance bike and he was able to balance himself by the time he was two. But his first proper motorbike was when he was three years and three months – a little Honda QR50 that I modified to make it a lot lower. He just took off on it, no stabilisers or anything.
We’ve been lucky, just when he reaches the end of something, something else pops up.
That was when the Scott Redding Academy started. Scott was the first one who had a word with me about him. He thought there was something a bit different about his riding, and so far Scott’s been proved right.
He’s up against people that are far older than him and with much more experience.
But he seems to meet the challenge. He was moved into the fast group at the Academy straight away, that was in Spring 2012. The thing is it’s indoors in a hanger and he pretty much outgrew it before long.
We took him to the outdoor tracks in 2012.
We did a practice at an outdoor track near Brighton called Angmering. Casey was about four and a half at the time. He got a couple of seconds in his first two meetings and then we went to Ireland on holiday. It happened that it was when the national series was going on there near my home town, so we packed the bike and entered that and he got his first race win there. It was magic, and he worked for it too. He trailed the leader for the whole race, rehearsed the move he was going to make and then dived up the inside to take it over the line.
We moved to a national level in a winter championship – the Monster Pro.
At the last round he shone through as he was up against British champions who were 11 or 12. Because it was wet he won two of the three races and took first overall. He was five and a half and we had to get special dispensation for him to run because in the British championship you have to be six before you can compete.
At his British debut last October he was up against 12 and 13 years olds in the 4.2 class.
A couple of them have gone on to ride in Europe in the Milwaukee cup. Casey beat them in every race on his debut.
I’ve had so many people telling me that he has a special talent.
But you can’t really tell until you go up against the Spanish. So we were lucky as there is a series out there called the BJM cup where the kids are all on a control bike. The best of Europe is there, and Casey was old enough to do the last two rounds last year. Everyone else is in a race team, but we were running out of a suitcase. But he ended finishing mid pack in the first one, then the last round he finished 9th and 8th. He was nominated as the most promising rider by the RMFE and we had to go back to Barcelona and pick that up from Tito Rabat and we got to meet Marc Marquez.
He’s so in tune with his bike, he ’ll te ll you the back’s slipping or the gearin g’s wrong...
The next stage is a water cooled bike.
He’s had a shot on that and having not seen the bike he finished 7th on that. Most kids are afraid of the extra power, but I was impressed by the way he eased his way into riding it. The BZM factory was impressed with him out in Spain, and are backing him this year in the UK.
It’s outrageous how much it all costs.
I don’t want to add it all up to be honest. The reason I went out to Spain was to see if he really had something. I didn’t want to be in cloud cuckoo land thinking he was something when he’s not and spending all the family’s money. But he shone out there against the best.
He’s been clocked at 62mph.
That’s pretty frightening for a six year old if you stop and think about it, and I can’t get my head round what he does – and I’ve raced.
He does this all naturally.
People think at five or six he won’t give you any feedback, but he’s a machine. He’ll come in and tell you that the back’s slipping or the gearing’s wrong, he’s so in tune with his bike – it’s a bit freaky. So at his British debut, in qualifying he was 12th. Everyone was on slicks ahead of us and he was on treaded, so I put him on slicks but he came in and didn’t like it. He wanted to go back on the treaded tyres, and his Mum as saying to him, ‘Your dad knows what he’s talking about,’ but at six he never talks back but he stood back, took a breath and said, ‘But I know what I’m talking about too and I want those tyres back.’ I put them on, and the last session he went out two seconds a lap faster. I trust him now.
We practice a lot.
But he also understands the physics of a bike. He’s been read Twist of the Wrist by Keith Code. He’s interested in anything that might help him go faster. I just hope I can find a way to keep it all going for him.