Motocross Kids – Frankie and Carter
My name is Frankie Mandorlo. I’m 15 years old, and my dream is to become a professional motocross rider; that way, I can do what I love every day. I first started Motocross when I was 13, on a YZ 85. That’s when I got my first bike. I have always wanted to do motocross since I was little; however, I never could because my parents thought it was too dangerous. After some time, I finally convinced them to bring me for the first time. My mom began to learn and find out more about motocross from some of my friends who also race. After going Two more times, my mom ended up really liking motocross, just like me.
From then on, I started to spend time practicing and training more on a TC 85 and meeting people who shared the love of motocross at the track.
Over the past year, I’ve worked extensively with nothing but motocross in my mind. I’ve learned how to do my own bike work, as well as everything else that comes with motocross. One of the biggest things you have to learn is that, in motocross, we all take the risk every time we go out to race. I knew the risks we take, jumping 40 feet in the air and going high speeds on a tight track next to each other. But that’s the fun of the sport, bringing me an adrenaline rush every time I race. This is my second year competing, making a little money from some races. I’ve been placing around the top 10 in C classes on a Yz 125 and still working every day to make something of myself in the motocross world
I’m Carter Mooney. Growing up, I always loved riding bicycles and dreamed of riding a dirt bike. I begged my parents to let me ride. Then one day, after trying to convince them since I was little, they finally taught me how to ride a dirt bike. I fell in love ever since. My dad would work on my bikes, and I would watch him.
Then, when I was a little older, I really wanted to race motocross, and we went. My parents loved watching me even though I wasn’t that fast, and over the past two years, I have been training and hoping to be one of the fast kids at the track. I train all the time, and I am learning how to do work on my dirt bike because you have to take care of your dirt bike to be safe while riding
Our Friendship
We started being friends about one year ago, and we started to go to the track. When we both moved up to big bikes, 125s, we started to progress together much faster than by ourselves, and if you look for one of us, we will be right next to each other. If one of us hits a jump, the other will follow, learning new things and helping us to get faster.
Off the track, we are normal kids who mess around and have fun. We have a one-year age gap and live 30 minutes from each other, but we are like brothers who are twins off and on the track.
Our parents supported us with our dreams for our entire time while riding dirt bikes. They knew the risk with it and watched us every time we went out there. They were so excited with us when we came off the track. Once we started to go for jumps, they got nervous but knew that we were doing what we loved and spent a lot of money to get us what we needed to be safe. They also got us what we wanted to look cool and hopefully make our dreams come true one day. They work to spend money on us and watch us have the best childhood they can give us, willing to do anything for us and spend hours at a dirt bike track. They support us, keep our dreams alive, and enable them to come true. We love and appreciate them for everything they do for us, helping us. And one day, we want to do something for them in return for them helping us achieve our goals
Intuition and Photography – You have to listen to the signs. Pamela Goodyer dreamed she was photographing Motocross racers racing around a track. With her daily cup of morning tea, she decided to see if any tracks in the area were devoted to Motocross riding. She found just fifteen minutes away; there was a Motocross practice at Raceway Park in New Jersey.
With excitement, Pamela photographed the motocross bikes soaring through the sky. Suddenly, two figures run up to her and politely ask if she would take their picture, offering payment in return. Without a second thought, Pamela happily accepts and graciously documents the moment’s thrill with her camera. She has no intention of charging them, as she gifts them the photos free of charge – it’s just how she is wired. She often gives to spread joy just because she can.
I always tell photograhers, why not make someone’s day and offer to photograph them while performing their sport and expect nothing in return but a few smiles? Give your gift of photography to others. It’s not always about the money. —Pamela Goodyer
Sports are often shot in Shutter Priority mode. When photographing Sports/Action, Shutter Priority mode should be used to capture crisp images. This is because it determines how quickly the shutter opens and closes – the faster it does so, the higher quality the result will be. Depending on the lighting available, a high speed should be selected. This will help to freeze the action and capture a sharp image with minimal motion blur. A shutter speed of 1/1250 is a very fast speed and will produce crisp action photography images. This is easily obtained outdoors in full sun.
To obtain optimal results in lower lighting conditions, such as those found in sports halls, a wide aperture lens with a maximum aperture setting of F2.8 or lower will be employed by your camera when in shutter priority. Also, an increased ISO will be necessary for proper exposure, which can come at the cost of digital noise. However, without increasing the ISO, producing good images indoors with a decent shutter speed and no flash is impossible.
Outdoors in full sun, your ISO will be 100, and your shutter speed should be around 1000 or 1250, depending on how fast your subjects move. The higher the shutter speed, the less motion blur, but the less light comes into the camera.
When shooting outdoors with gray overcast skies, you may have to up your ISO to let more light in to get this high shutter speed.
It might be a bit confusing if you are new to this, so here are some general rules:
ESTIMATES DEPEND ON LIGHTING
Outdoor bright sunshine: Shutter priority mode, ISO 100, shutter speed 1/1250 second. The camera picks the aperture for the proper exposure in shutter priority.
Overcast dull skies: Shutter priority mode, ISO 400, shutter speed 1000.
Indoor sports low light situations: ISO 800-1600, shutter speed 800. The camera will pick 2.8 as the aperture to let the most light in.
REMEMBER: The higher the ISO, the more digital noise, so using the lowest F-stop number and a slightly lower shutter speed will let more light in, so you don’t have to increase the ISO as much. You must decide what is more important, crisp images void of motion blur or digital noise, and adjust accordingly. Sometimes a slight blur is okay, and can be artistic, such as a pitcher throwing a ball where their body is crispt and clean and their arm and ball have a slight blurr. It’s your choice. Outdoor night games under the lights are almost always low light.
If you are new to sports photography, PRACTICE IS KEY. Start outdoors with decent lighting, then go indoors, practice adjusting your setting, and review the metadata in your results to see what worked and what did not. We like to use Lightroom; it shows you your shutter speed, ISO and aperture to the right side of the picture with all the other information.
Raceway Park
In 1965, Vincent and Louis Napoliello founded Raceway Park on the 308-acre site at 230 Pension Road off Englishtown Road In Old Bridge, New Jersey. The motorsports complex has since expanded to more than 500 acres, offering two dragstrips, three motocross tracks, a go-kart track, an autocross course and an airport next door.
In 2022, the two drag strips on the property were closed. Raceway Park doesn’t have drag racing events of any type. Raceway Park currently hosts Formula Drift events, Motocross, and swap meets, among other events.
They also have Road Course School and open track events. Raceway Park has a schedule of events for drivers with any skill level or race vehicle in the Raceway Park’s Road Course.
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