Courtesy of LodiNews.com

Caleigh with Teammate Elena Myers

Most kids race around on tricycles or big wheels. For as long as she can remember, Lodi’s Caleigh Ryan had her sights set on a different mode of transportation — motorcycles. And she didn’t want to just ride them, she wanted to race them.

Racing motorcycles is in the 14-year-old’s DNA, coming from a family that has been involved in racing for 40 years including her father Dave Ryan — a former pro Grand National Championship rider.

Riding motorcycles is the way of life for Caleigh, Dave and Caleigh’s mother Cherie, as they spend nearly every weekend year round on their bikes or at races. It’s also the source of a horrible tragedy.

Caleigh’s brother and Cherie’s son, Toby Jorgensen, a Linden rider who started up his career at the Lodi Cycle Bowl, died in a motorcycle crash in Dallas in 1999 when he was 17 years old. Caleigh was only 3 years old when he passed away. While she was deprived of the chance to grow up with him, on Saturday Caleigh was still able to make a tribute to her older brother.

Caleigh, who has now been racing for three years, won the 250cc C main event at the Toby Jorgensen Memorial Short Track event at the Lodi Cycle Bowl. It was just the latest victory for the up-and-coming flat track and Supermoto star, but it held much more significance.

“It was really exciting because it was one of my best races this year and it came at my brother’s tournament,” said Caleigh, an incoming freshman at Tokay High School. “My mom came up to me and was smiling and crying and it was amazing.”

The Lodi Motorcycle Club holds the memorial event for Jorgensen every year, with proceeds funding a scholarship for a local high school rider and the club’s injured rider fund.

On Saturday Dave and Cherie watched their daughter cruise around the quarter-mile track where speeds can hit close to 60 mph. Cherie admitted it was an emotional moment when her daughter won.

“She wanted to win in her brother’s memory and when she won I was so happy,” she said. “I took off running toward the pits.”

Caleigh is doing so well racing, with Saturday’s win being her third of the year, she is only a few points away from jumping up from Class C to B. Dave thinks it will only take a handful of races for her to win enough points to do so.

“She has stepped it up quite a bit this year,” Dave said. “I never thought she was going this far, but now she is going nuts.”

For Caleigh, she is finally doing what she has wanted to her whole life. She said she loves the feeling of being on the bike.

“I love the speed. I just have so much fun riding all the time,” she said. “It is really exciting. You have to concentrate so much.”

Caleigh waited patiently for years to ride, pleading with her parents to let her get a bike. Once they gave in, when she was 10 years old, Caleigh has been off and riding.

“I actually wanted to start riding when I was 2, but parents didn’t want me to have a bike and ride,” Caleigh said. “But then my mom finally let me.”

When she finally got her first bike, a 150, Caleigh was a natural. With her dad’s instruction, she evolved as a rider and got into racing.

Caleigh said her parents have been right by her side as she’s learned to ride and race.

“My parents are really supportive,” Caleigh said. “If a family member dies in a car accident, you don’t stop driving a car. So they let me race.”

Cherie said she wasn’t leery about allowing her daughter to race and isn’t stressfully worried when she is on the track.

“When she is out there, she is really smooth. I am pretty comfortable with her out there because she makes it look so easy,” Cherie said. “She is really careful and she has good skills.”

In June, Caleigh picked up her first sponsor — StocktonMoto.com, which is supplying her with machinery and technical support and made her a part of Team Elena Myers StocktonMoto.com Racing. Myers, a 16-year-old out of Discovery Bay, kicked up some dirt on the motorcycle scene in May at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma when she became the first woman to win an AMA Pro Racing professional motorcycle road race.

Myers has taken Caleigh under her wing and is fostering her motorcycle racing career.

“She reminds me a lot of myself with the way she rides,” Myers said. “It’s cool because she’s like a mirror image of me. I see lots of potential in her for sure.”

The two ride together nearly every Monday in Stockton and try to get on their bikes a few times a week when their schedules allow. Off the track, they hang out on weekends and have become close friends. Myers is thrilled in having a fellow female rider coming up the ranks.

“There are actually very few female riders. I don’t know of any young ones and it is really cool that we live so close together,” Myers said.

Caleigh also does some of her training with Lodi’s Leo “Pucho” Bagnis, a former Superbike and Motocross racer, who competed in the U.S. as well as Italy and now works with young racers.

Since racing demands a great deal of strength and stamina, Caleigh also started working out recently. She is now improving her strength and cardio two days a week in order to become a stronger rider and hopefully pick up more sponsors.

On Saturday, Caleigh will be back in action at the Lodi Cycle Bowl looking to keep climbing up in the District 36 Dirt Track Series. On Sunday, she will be riding in her first mini road race at the Stockton Fairgrounds. Caleigh hopes she can find the same success in road racing that she has discovered on the flat track and follow in Myers’ footsteps.

“My goal right now is shooting toward road racing,” she said. “I want to go pro in road racing and flat track if I can.”

[News & Picture Source]