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Riverview's Myers Is Riding High

Tribune photo by Jason Behnken

Dalton Myers trains on a motocross track built on his family's land in Riverview. Myers, 12, has been on a bike since he was 3 years old.

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By JOHN CEBALLOS

jceballos@tampatrib.com

Published: February 11, 2009

RIVERVIEW - At age 12, Dalton Myers is already a two-time national champion in motocross.

But his riding career got off to a bumpy start.

"I was 3 years old, and the first day I hopped on a bike, I kept falling off," Dalton said. "The bad part was that the bike still had the training wheels on it."

He had a much easier time after the training wheels were removed, and he hasn't looked back since.

Dalton has won amateur awards across the state and beyond. In 2003, he won his first national title in the 4-to-6 age level at the Air Nautiques Amateur National Motocross Championships in Tennessee. He followed that up with another national title in 2005 in the 7-to-8 age level at the Oak Hill Grand National Cross Country event in Texas.

Still, his trophies have come at a price.

"I've broken at least 10 bones, including my left wrist - that's probably the most painful one," Dalton said.

To help stay healthy and in shape, Dalton, a fifth-grader at Tropical Acres Christian Academy in Riverview, works with fitness instructor Kelly Shires, who has designed a boot camp-style motocross fitness routine for him and fellow rider Zack Freeberg, 16.

The routine includes swimming, running, flipping tractor tires, pulling a sled with a tractor tire tied to it and lifting logs. Shires has worked with a variety of athletes, from motocross riders to Ultimate Fighting Championship martial arts competitors.

"If you go to the gym, a lot of times what you get is a lot of forward and back movement and a lot of repetition," Shires said. "With my routine, he's exercising outside, and he's developing his balance and nerve reaction."

So far, Dalton and Freeberg are the only two riders Shires is training, but he's looking to expand his business - Full Throttle Fitness - to include more clients of all ages within the next few weeks.

He and Dalton have been training together for a little less than a year, but Shires already is impressed with Dalton's commitment and his skills as a rider.

"Most kids his age don't have trainers, and they don't do a routine like this one," Shires said. "He's just a hard worker and a natural on the bike."

Shires and Dalton train on 17 acres - including a motorcycle track - owned by Dalton's older brother, Chris Hancock. Hancock, Dalton and their siblings, Mike and Whitney Wortham, also live on the property, along with Dalton's father, Kevin Myers.

Hancock owns Gator Core, an automotive recycling company.

"I used to be a mechanic for another kid that used to race, and I got Dalton his first bike," Hancock said. "He's just kept with it all this time."

Dalton recently went from training on a motorcycle with an 80-cubic-centimeter engine to a more powerful bike with a 125-cubic-centimeter engine.

"It's almost unheard of for anybody his age to ride a bike that powerful," Hancock said. "That's the bike you usually see 15-year-olds riding."

Dalton has shown the ability to ride a motorcycle with a 450cc engine.

He'll next show off what he can do on the national stage in March at the 2009 Thor Lake Whitney Spring Nationals in Texas.

Beyond that, he hopes to race for as long as he possibly can.

"From the first time I threw my leg over a bike, I've loved this, and I want to keep working hard so I can keep doing it," Dalton said.

For information on Full Throttle Fitness, call (813) 376-3203 or go to www.fullthrottlefitness .com.

Reporter John Ceballos can be reached at (813) 865-1555.

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