It is fun to see kids at the Ranch grow up racing and then see them as they become the pros that you wait in line to get an autograph from a few years later. Seeing what kind of kids they are when they are hanging out in the creek, running around the pits, and then getting ready to go out on the track can tell you a lot about what kind of person they are and what type of pro they will become. The last kid that I saw down there a few years back, was Adam Cianciarulo when he happened to ride his pit bike up and park next to our golf cart to watch a few motos for a few of his friends and cheer them on. He was in Supermini classes at the time at about age 14 and he talked with my son Parker who was about 8 at that time and just BS'd with us about the track, his buddies who were racing, and anything else that came up. He was an amateur star already by then, but he was just being a normal kid in this case and you could tell that he was a good kid with a good head on his shoulders. And he has carried that through to his pro racing now, and is a guy that I like seeing do well because of that interaction years ago.
Funny thing, is that I was also there when Travis Pastrana was still in amateurs in the late 90's and he was jumping off the cliffs into the creek, of course we joined him, but he was crazy, funny, laughing, and just out to have a good time. Cliff jumping, rope swings, bounce house jousting, and other things were right up Travis' alley. Not surprised at all by his Nitro Circus stuff after seeing him as a kid at the ranch either!
