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Tyler Yates was born around racing.
His dad Darren is a two-time Winged Sprint Car champion on the Island, but instead of four wheels, Tyler went with two.
“We’ve always had dirt bikes so I just thought it would be cool to try it one time and I guess it just always stuck, I never stopped doing it,” says Yates.
“He tried go-karts, he did really well and had lots of fun, but the moto just seemed to be more his thing,” adds Tyler’s dad Darren.
After racing across Canada as an amateur, the Duncan-born rider decided to pack his bags and head to Southern California to pursue a pro career.
Yates is currently training and living at the Grindstone Compound, a facility dedicated to developing top motocross talent.
“It’s about riding, gym work and nutrition,” says Tyler.
“Usually we go for a morning run and then we load up the bikes and drive to, there’s about four or five different tracks that we ride usually,” adds Yates.
“They do some pretty intense training, they teach them diet, exercise and I’d say that’s probably half of what they’re teaching them down there is about how to live healthier and moto is probably the other half,” says Darren.
With travel restrictions keeping the two apart, this year has been different from any other for the father and son team.
“It’s a big change not having him around here, he’s always been around on his bike, on his pit bike running around on the lawn whenever he’s not working on his bikes,” says Darren.
“I’ve been phoning him about every day just to tell him how the day went or whatever, but he wanted to come down here but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be able to make it down because of the borders and everything,” says Tyler.
As for his end goal, Yates has his sights set on running the full Canadian Pro Motocross season this summer, and maybe one day riding in the Monster Energy Supercross series.
“That would be really cool, definitely a dream come true,” smiles Tyler.
Cole Sorenson
