Barely a teenager when he started, Adrian Wilson has ridden dirt bikes off and on for more than a decade.
At 25, Wilson hopes to turn his hobby into a professional career.
One of the first steps toward the pro circuit comes Sunday at the National Arenacross Series. The 1st Mariner Arena hosts the indoor event, which spans three days and includes professional and amateur races. On Sunday, Wilson will compete in the latter.
Wilson's parents bought his first bike, a yellow Suzuki RM-80, when he was about 13. They built a track with a few small jumps behind his house in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore. Wilson rode there for three years before losing interest in it, he said. Forking over cash for upkeep was one reason the hobby wore on him, he said.
"One thing with racing - there's a lot of money involved," Wilson said. "If you don't have the money to keep the equipment on the bike, you're just pretty much wasting your time."
After graduating high school in 1999, Wilson spent a year studying at Marietta College in Ohio before withdrawing and moving back to Maryland.
When he returned, so did his itch for riding. In 2001, he borrowed a bike, practiced for a week and registered for several races at Budds Creek National Amateur Day in St. Mary's County. In the amateur 125 C class, he won the Supercross and placed third and fifth in two Motocross races. The "125" is cubic centimeters, or engine size, and the "C" is a skill level.
Wilson scraped some money together and got an old bike. He entered the 2003 competitions at Budds Creek, but the bike's top end blew out during practice runs and sidelined him. He went back to Chestertown and fixed the clunker back up enough to ride around, but it still couldn't cut it, he said.
"She just couldn't keep up," Wilson said. "It was too old. I was like, `If I'm going to race, if I'm going to take it seriously and race, I've got to get a bike that's really good - that's race-ready.'"
In 2003, Wilson enrolled in Morgan State University to study business administration. Last year, he took out loans and bought a Suzuki RM-125. He also redid the track by his house, adding bigger jumps - his favorite aspect of riding.
"I think it's the best part when you've got air," Wilson said. "Right when you get to the highest point that you can probably get off a jump - that's the best."
