Personal History
Caleb Conner is 12 years old and lives in Tahlequah OK. Caleb has been riding since the age of 3 and entered his first motocross race at the age of 8 in October of 2007. Caleb won the year end points chase at our local track during his first series as a beginner on a KTM jr. 50 and took third in his age group.
In April of 2008 Caleb started the Monster Energy Super Series at our local track. He won the over all in his class by taking 1st in 17 out of 18 motos and 2nd in the other on his KTM PRO SR 50. The 2nd place finish was his mechanics fault for not turning his fuel on and his for not checking. (Good lesson, as he checks it every time now) He also started racing a KX65 during this series so he could be ready for next year. He ended up with 2nd place over all on his 65 and that was with a DNF and DNS due to loosing a motor during one of his motos
In 2009 Caleb raced in the Oklahoma State Series on his new KX65 in the 65 (open) and (9-11) class. He was running in 8th overall in the series out of 30+ riders when he broke his ankle at Ponca City and had to have 2 pins put in and that put him out for the year.
Once again in 2010 Caleb raced the Oklahoma State Series in two classes the 65 (9-11) and the 85 (beginner) class. Going into the race at Cooperland Raceway he was 5th on the 65 and 8th on the 85 in the series. During morning practice he was taking the 85’ step-up and was landed on by another rider and was unable to race for a while and that knocked him out of the contention. Also in 2010 Caleb raced once again in our local tracks Monster Energy Super Series and finished 1St overall in the 85 (7-11) and 2nd in the 65 (9-11).
In 2011 Caleb outgrew the 65 and is now on his 85 and 107 supermini and raced the Oklahoma State Series once again and finally finished the whole series. He did very well with a 2nd place over all on his 85 and went from 5th with just 3 races remaining to a 3rd place overall finish on his supermini. This 100/150 class is a very tough class with him being 2-3 yrs younger than all the other riders and up against all the top riders from the supermini class. For the first year on this bike we are very proud of him finishing 3rd overall. Caleb has worked really hard this year to earn these two overall podium finishes.
Caleb has been through a lot over the past year and a half with his mother being very sick and unable to attend any of his races since October of 2009. She had leukemia and was given 3 weeks to live on the 23rd of November 2009. She had never missed a race until she got sick again and I know this must be hard on him. He has made us both proud under these circumstances. My wife told me not long ago that she hopes to live to see the day that Caleb is on the podium at a super-cross race. Maybe this is one thing that helped keep her alive along with the Gods help. Praise The Lord He allowed her to get closer to seeing that day come. We all prayed for her complete healing so she could see that day come and we know that she is looking down on him waiting for that to happen.
On January 19th of 2011 his mother received her healing and went home to be with our heavenly Father. Although she is not physically here with us now we know she is still proud of him and is looking down with a smile on her face in her new cancer free and pain free body. Now that his mother is gone, Caleb even more so has the desire to make that day come true for his mother, himself and all of us to be on the podium at a professional event thanking his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his loyal sponsors.
Riding Goals
Caleb has a heart for racing and wants to pursue a pro racing career. He had been asked by his mother, before she past away, for several years if he would like to play football, basketball or some other sport and he always answers back with a question of his own. “Will it interfere with my racing?” We always told him yes it might and then he answers us “no, not if it will interfere with my racing.”
Now that he is on the 85 and 100 we all believe that he will excel in his career over the next few years and on into the big bikes which he has ridden a 250F a little here and there as well as he owns Blake Wharton’s 05 RM125. He loves to ride this big bike and is currently racing it in our state series and plans on racing in our local series as well.
At the opening round of our state series, we lost the motor in the supermini while running in 4th. This caused a pretty bad crash and Praise The Lord he was ok. Since then we have purchase a whole fleet of RMs that have several national titles on them. Caleb is running in 2nd on the 85 in the state sr class and has pulled the hole shot on every race on this RM. Since we lost the motor on the KX supermini and got a DNF he has some ground to make up and is running 5th in the 100/150 class and 11th in the supermini on the RM. His goal is to put these bikes back up on the podium every race.
We plan on racing the new Ponca City Championship this year in July and running Branson Nationals as well. With these new bikes having the performance needed we know it’s all up to him to put them on the podium. We believe that someday soon that will be the case.
Competitive Highlights
In April of 2008 Caleb was invited to race at the KJSC in Dallas. This was one of the greatest experiences for him although he was run off the track and didn’t finish as well as he wanted. He had a great start (third at the hole shot) and we were very proud of him and he had a blast. At our track we had a new 55 foot double that none of the 65 or 50 riders would take. On the last race of the series Caleb took it on his 65 with ease. We were very proud of him and “he gives the thanks to God for helping him to take this jump”. That is a quote out of his own mouth. After that race we went back to the track for practice and he took that double every time on not only his 65 but also his 50. This year in October he raced the Branson Nationals for his first taste of a national event. We went into the finals in the 85 class and the supermini class sitting in the top 10. Due to real muddy conditions on the 85 moto he went down 4 times and finished overall 23rd and in the super mini class he was fixing to move into 6th place on the 7th lap and went down trying to make the pass, then had trouble getting his bike started and finished 19th. We are still proud of him in the fact that if he hadn’t gone down he would have finished top 10 overall in his first nationals.