Riders take different paths to pro debuts

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For the past 42 years, High Point Raceway in Mount Morris, Pa., has hosted its national as part of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. For 42 years, fans have flooded themain spectator areas to see riders dealwith the course’s constant elevation changes and jumps. For 42 years, kids have hung on the surrounding fences possibly dreaming ofthe day they might get their shot.

For two of those kids, that dream becamea reality this past weekend.

Brock Papi, 17, from Canonsburg, and Josh Heintz, 29, from Baden, joinedAliquippa’s Ben Nelko as local competitors to join the ranks of the American Motorcyclist Association Pro Racing circuit. Papi and Heintz have spent much of this year training together and finally got an opportunity to compete June 16, in the same450cc division no less.

But while the two have shared much of the same journey for the pastfew months, how each got to this pointis quite different.

Both had older siblings who shared their same passion when they were younger. Papi’s first bike wasthree-wheeler, while his sister — a few years older than him — enjoyed riding a PW50. Before long, he would have one of his own by the age of 4. Heintz had one growing up, too, as his first bike was a hand-me-down PW50 from his older brother when hewas 5.

But Papi, who will graduate from high school this summer from Obridge Academy, an online school based out of West Palm Beach, Fla., wasquick to start racing. By the time he was 5, he was already racing, startinga career that would take him on the amateur national circuit and even took him to Europe with his father on occasion, all in preparation fora pro career.

“It’s been a dream since I was a 4year-old kid to turn pro. I have been to a lot of amateur nationals in my amateur career — I usually do six to eight a year — and I think it’s helped me prepare myself to where I am today,” Papi said. “My father and I, we’ve traveled and traveled. And I’ve been on a lot of amateur teams, how they treat it like a professional format. … I think the biggest thing was just racing all the amateur nationals my whole life to prepare me for this next chapter of my life of turning pro.”

Heintz,however, didn’t quite have the amateur experience; he said he started racing when he was 8, but he would eventually take time away fromthe sport after high school to get his degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State. In fact, he still holds down a full-time job while attempting to advance a pro career in the sport, a balance of time which he said is “currently one of my biggest hurdlesto deal with.”

But eventually, through their different paths, the two found one another through a mutual connection. JT McDonald, who spent some time as a mechanic for Papi and knew Heintz, introduced the two to each other, ultimately resulting in their trainingpartnership, the duo said.

As partnerships such as theirs become more common across the sport — where “even guys at the top, top levelin the 450 class are even starting to partner up,” Heintz said — both Papi and Heintz said they have enjoyed the opportunity of training together. Each helps the other, too; Papi brings his race experience while Heintz has his knowledge in fitness as a certified personal trainer. And more than anything else, it brings an extra element and push to theirrace preparation.

“Just seeing, if someone starts further, who can pull more from the other and catch the other one the quickest,” Papi said of what he enjoys most about training with Heintz. “I think it’s more of a cat-andmouse thing, honestly, when you’re trainingduring the week.”

And after Saturday’s race, Papi and Heintz can officially call themselves pros. Papi wound up finishing 29th overall in the 450 cc division, a result which he said he was happy with considering he hurt his back and had to “tame it down” at times. Heintz found less luck, as he finished just outside qualifying for the final 40 with a sixth-place finish in the race for the last four spots. But nonetheless, Heintz looks positively upon evengetting to this point.

“I’ve been to this race specifically every year for the past probably 15 years and even back to when I was a little kid,” Heintz said prior to the race. “And every year, you’re sitting there hanging on the fence and watchingthe pro guys and just thinking how cool that would be to be a part of that. It’s just a dream from when you’re a little kid. … When you think about it now, to be here even for the race, you feel accomplished to havemade it this far.

“Now, to be able to take that next step into the pros and not look back, there’sno reason to stop now.”