SUPER-KEEN ON SUPERCROSS

JAMES Parsons was a motorbike-loving revhead as a kid . . . until the risk of injury to his football career proved too great.

The 21-year-old, who visited champion Craig Dack at his Geelong workshop yesterday, is a keen ambassador for Round 3 of the Australian Supercross Championships, which come to Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium on October 13.

“It will be pretty sweet,” Parsons said. “It’s an amazing sport, so it’s always going to be eventful, and at a stadium we train at and play at every second week, to see it get transformed into a supercross track will be pretty cool.”

The Eastern Ranges product used to take advantage of a family farm in Kilmore as a kid, with motorbike riding and camping a weekend ritual.

“I used to ride a fair bit when I was young, I was right into it,” he said. “I wasn’t a champ or anything. We had a farm in Kilmore, so we had 400 acres.

“We used to go up there every weekend, camp and ride bikes until I was about 15, but then it was a bit hard to ride motorbikes and worry about getting injured playing footy and basketball.

“I got a little PeeWee 50 for my fourth Christmas and pretty much from there I kept going up and up in bikes until I was 15.

“My old man was into it forever. I have a little brother and he’s right into it, and my sister was even into it until she was 16 as well.”

Parsons said the opportunity to see the best supercross riders in Australia turn GMHBA Stadium into a dirt racetrack would be something special.

“I used to watch the Crusty Demons a bit, and one of my good mates is actually a gun back home, so I used to watch him every couple weekends,” he said. “It excites me, this stuff.”