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SPORTS
Drake McElroy
leap of faith
WORDS: JAZZ KUSCHKE
PHOTOGRAPHY: PREDRAG VUČKOVIĆ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
HOME SPORTS LEAP OF FAITH
MEET DRAKE MCELROY, THE FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS MAVERICK WHO’LL BE FIRST IN LINE TO JUMP INTO THE UNKNOWN WHEN THE RED BULL X-FIGHTERS WORLD TOUR LANDS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Banking hard out of the berm to carry speed into the short run-up before the launch ramp, the rider hits the jump with practised calm, the high-pitched baaarp of the two-stroke engine silent for a long few moments as he flies into a smooth nac nac – whipping the bike sideways and swinging his leading leg back around behind the bike.
Drake McElroy
A little look-back adds some style. It’s a trick from another era of freestyle motocross: not hard to do if you’re an accomplished rider, but still difficult to make look good. This version is a classic, thrown not by a Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour contender wearing full-body riding kit, but by a rider in black pin-striped trousers and a sleeveless denim jacket. This is Drake McElroy, part test pilot, part every rider’s best mate, and a whole lot of FMX hero.
When McElroy leads the testing session on the multi-tiered course constructed in the Dionyssos marble quarry in Athens, Greece, it’s the first chance the X-Fighters stars – the world’s best FMX riders who compete on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour – get to ride the track. Ahead of Thursday’s qualifying and Friday’s main event, it’s a free practice session that’s crucial to the riders’ safety and the quality of the show many thousands will watch live or via webcast. Without it, the riders would be going blind into first official practice.
“Drake is an exceptional freerider in natural terrain, so I think that’s why he has such an important role in the track-tuning process,” says South African FMX veteran Nick de Wit, who rode in the first Red Bull X-Fighters event in SA last year. “He can think up crazy new lines, but I think his ability to go out and hit jumps that have never been hit before, and time them perfectly, sets him apart.”