Shane McElrath & The Continued Build Of His Career

OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS, Shane McElrath has established himself as one of the best riders in the 250 class. Like most things of high prestige, getting to this point has not been simple or swift, and the North Carolina native has chased the challenge with the full support of the Troy Lee Designs/GoPro/Red Bull/KTM race team. During the early weeks of 250 West Coast portion of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross Series, McElrath stunned the competition with a win at the opening round and then reaffirmed his spot at the top with a second win, one week later. For some, this success was seen as sudden and unexpected, but for those who know “Moody,” an all-out alter ego that’s a play on McElrath’s middle name, it was just another step in the project.

 

- Michael Antonovich

THE FOUNDATION

The McElrath family has deep ties to motocross. At some point in time the entire family—from the parents to the daughters to the sons—all swung a leg over a bike for a moto, and two of the boys, Shane and Kyle, proved to be exceptionally talented at the amateur level. Racing was more a way for the family to spend time together and not necessarily a venture for fame or fortune. “My parents never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to do,” McElrath recalls. “The only time they ever got upset with me wasn’t because I did badly, it was because I wouldn’t do a little jump that everyone else was jumping. They would bribe me with money and video games! ‘Every double you jump will get you a video game!’ I don’t know why I was so terrified of it.”

McElrath’s skills resulted in an eight-year run at the National championships held at Loretta Lynn’s ranch in Tennessee, which was supported by a residency at the Club MX facility in South Carolina. “I won the area for Loretta Lynn’s at Muddy Creek in 2011 and was at the regional qualifier where Mark Osborne told me I could start to stay at Club during the summer before Loretta’s. It worked out and was a total God thing,” McElrath says. The family’s finances didn’t support the cost of a full-time stay at the South Carolina training facility, so thanks to a unique deal, McElrath was able to trade hard work for laps on the track. “We didn’t really have any money to pay, and our deal was that I would only pay for food and electricity used by our RV, but I had to work for an hour or two a day around the place on whatever needed to be done.”