Honda Unwraps A Rising Star – Mike Childress

Wrightwood, California (April 5, 2006)

In 1994, he was a young snot-nose kid working with Checkers Kingpin, Reverend Roy, his step-dad, in the Checker’s pits of various SCORE, BITD and local desert races. Apparently, the kid really paid close attention to the details in each pit and absorbed more than most kids do everyday in school.

This 10 year old kid didn’t miss very many desert races as a youngster, but he was able to get out of school early as he formulated his young professional off road career early in his life.

When he wasn’t working for the Checkers Pit Club, he was riding his dirt bike in his backyard, the Mojave desert. Growing up on the edge of the Mojave Desert, where the tortuous desert meets the San Bernardino Mountains, is a small mountain resort town home to California’s Los Angeles ski bums that populate the town of Wrightwood.

Having the Mojave Desert as your own personal playground isn’t such a bad thing if one of your lifelong goals is to race professionally in the desert. And hanging out at LA’s local ski resort skiing between desert races isn’t such a bad thing when you’re a teenager.

In 1999, only five years later, this growing teenager pinned back the throttle of his dirt bike racing side-by-side some of the nation’s top desert racers and other than Reverend Roy and this kid’s mom, who would have ever guessed he would win the 2005 SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000 in the same year.

Fast forward to June 4, 2005. Located on the Pacific Coast of the northern Baja Peninsula is the bustling seaside town of Ensenada, Baja California.

Downtown Ensenada is the re-known start and finish location of one of the biggest off road races in the world, the SCORE Baja 500. Among the hordes of potential motorcycle champions sat this same young man, now 23 years old, who partnered with a veteran Baja winner named, Mouse McCoy.

Poised together as a privateer team and facing the daunting challenge of racing against the factory supported big dogs, these two professional motorcycle racers were not going to let anything distract them from the task at hand. And that task was to head into the wilds of the Baja Peninsula to overcome the ultimate obstacles along the way.

Focused. Determined. Challenged. These are a few of the words that describe what these two motorcycle warriors were all about. But facing the factory supported teams was going to require the perfect performance in the toughest sections of the Baja Peninsula.

Mike Childress, the graduated snot-nose kid from Wrightwood, California was poised to make history with a racer who doubles as a professional stuntman, actor and all around nice guy, Mouse McCoy.
He recently was revealed as the star of Dana Brown’s featured film about the SCORE Baja 1000, Dust To Glory, and has spent the majority of his life racing motorcycles in the deserts of North America. Mouse is the kind of guy you should expect to see in the most unexpected places and he’s almost always smiling.

In the early morning cold of downtown Ensenada, the privateer Honda XR650R motorcycle blasted off the start line for one of the most incredible rides in recent history. Mike and Mouse, two of the fiercest moto-warriors currently racing, put together a spectacular and flawless performance crossing the finish line in 8:40:25 seconds capturing their first ever Baja 500 Overall Motorcycle victory.

In fact, they beat the reigning Baja Champions, Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld, by a full 9 minutes and 20 seconds. The crowds at the finish were stunned as Mike and Mouse were announced as the overall motorcycle winners. They averaged 48.31 miles per hour during a days work onboard the Honda XR650R.

Perhaps, this was the beginning of a new era for Honda’s top Red Rider team comprising of Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell, as they had lost the previous race, the SCORE San Felipe 250, in February, due to a mechanical issue with their motorcycle only a few miles from the finish line. The Honda 1X loss to the privateer team of Mike and Mouse at the SCORE Baja 500 was yet another blow to the factory sponsored powerhouse team.

The 2005 Baja 1000 was destined to be an incredible war on the race course between the various factions of professionally factory supported teams and the privateers.
However, that all came crashing down when the man with the name of a rodent, Mouse McCoy, was seriously injured while filming an ATV commercial in Whistler, British Columbia.

Three months later, the rumors of the American Young Gun – Mikey Childress, joining Hengeveld and Campbell for a run at the Baja 1000 victory, were announced to be true and well, the rest is history.

Joining his life long hero, Johnny Campbell, and his longtime friend, Steve Hengeveld, on the Honda 1X team for last year’ Baja 1000 race was yet another dream come true for Honda’s rising star.

It was mid-November and the day before the race when Childress told DirtNewz, “Having this opportunity can only be topped if we put it all together and bring home the victory.”

About 24 hours later, Mike Childress, stood at the finish line as Mr. 1X, Steve Hengeveld, rode the Honda XR650R across the finish line at the Deportivo Antonio Palacios baseball stadium in the heart of Ensenada, Baja California capturing victory for the Honda 1X team.

This was certainly a dream come true for Honda’s rising star, Mike Childress, who in 2005 went from looking for a ride early in the year to capturing victory in the two biggest off road races of the year at the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000.

Childress commented, “Wow, how cool is that?”

14 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds averaging 49.42 mph is what it took for the dynamic trio of Honda’s Baja racing legends, Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld, and their young rising star, Mike Childress, to capture victory and put the exclamation point on an incredible season of off road racing.

DirtNewz had the opportunity to interview Mike Childress right before Christmas along with Steve Hengeveld at the Henge Racing headquarters in Oak Hills, California. This is the second of a three-part exclusive with Honda Red Riders. Stay tuned for the final interview which includes Steve and Mike together detailing their performance at the 2005 Baja 1000.