KTM is an Austrian firm which specializes in off-road racing motorcycles.  It has earned a reputation for quality and speed by winning major races in North America, Africa and Europe in recent years.  Supercross competition involves professional motorcycle racers competing on indoor dirt courses in stadiums around the country, with bikes and riders negotiating hairpin turns and clearing double and triple jumps, flying high into the air at very high speeds. 

 

The KTM Jr. event will take place during the intermission between the two professional races on the program, with Hudson and fourteen other riders all racing on identical 50 c.c. KTM machines that have been prepared and tuned by factory race mechanics.

 

The Romfo family team will fly to California Thursday, and will include Hudson’s Dad Jamie, Mom Lisa, sister and fellow-racer Piper, and other sister and definite non-racer Presley, who has her sights set on being a dancer.  Hudson will in fact inherit one of Piper’s Kawasaki bikes for next year as she moves to a larger engine class, so it will be one year of partial “hand-me-down” racing in that class before he gets the new KTM model he has set his sights on, according to his Dad.

 

Hudson began racing a limited schedule in 2012, and went for an expanded schedule in 2013, taking part in more than 30 races during the year with considerable success (Go to www.hookit.com for more details).  Still, the KTM invitation came as something of a surprise, he said.

 

The KTM competition has very specific height and weight limits, though he says he did not connect the dots when he was called into the school nurse’s office for a height and weight check, and his family did not let on that anything was up until it was announced that he had been chosen for the race.

 

Part of the promotion includes a complete KTM racing outfit, plus a new helmet approved to 2013 racing standards, and a mass of sponsor decals to attach to his bike and gear.  Due to the stress involved in the sport, riders also wear a neck brace, chest protector, elbow and knee guards, helmet and goggles and high hard-surface boots.

 

Due to the wild gyrations they undergo in each race, supercross riders are considered the elite athletes in their sport.  When asked if he lifts weights or works out when training, Hudson said: “No, but we’re going to start eating healthy.”  He and his sister train mainly by riding their bikes, he said.

 

He races for the pure fun of it now, he said, and has plans to keep riding until he reaches the 450 c.c. class, the top rank of his sport.  He has done some snowmobile riding, and would consider snowcross racing in the future as well. 

 

The KTM Jr. racers at Anaheim will get the full star treatment, Jamie Romfo said, and will have a chance to sign autographs for race fans and meet some of the supercross stars, hopefully including KTM ace Ryan Dungey, a particular favorite of Hudson’s.

 

There will be 10 KTM Jr. events around the nation this year, all held in conjunction with supercross races.  Only 150 junior riders from around the country were chosen to take part, with different riders taking part each week.