As Todd Krieg flies 70 feet through the air on the homemade motocross track in his backyard in Amherst Twp., the 250cc engine on his bike lets out a roar.

“Thank God we’ve got good neighbors,” his father, Todd J. Krieg, said. “How’d you like to listen to that all the time?”

Putting up with the steady drone of the high-pitched engine is probably one of the easiest items to check off on the long list of sacrifices that have been made for the Firelands High senior during his motocross career. His parents have put in incredible amounts of time and money, and Krieg himself has given his body and soul for the sport.

The payoff has been a local rider competing among the nation’s elite amateurs for the past 11 years and Krieg’s qualifying for next week’s 29th annual AMA Amateur National Motocross Championships – the largest amateur race in the world – at country music legend Loretta Lynn’s ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn.

“Down there you’re racing against the people you read about in the magazines,” said Traci Krieg, Todd’s mother. “You’re facing the best of the best.”

It won’t be the first trip to the premier event for Krieg – he also qualified to the event three straight years from 2003-05, when he was just 10, 11 and 12 years old.

“My first time there I didn’t know what to expect, I just knew it was the biggest race I was going to be in,” Krieg said. “It was like waking up on Christmas morning. You pull in and you see the factory rigs the pro teams are using and the track is all freshly prepped.

“The second and third times down we knew what to expect, we knew how to prepare for it.”

The return to the world’s top race is the culmination of a roller coaster career that began at the age of 5, when his parents gave him his first dirt bike as a birthday present. A year later, he raced competitively for the first time at the Lorain County Fair in Wellington and took fourth place.

Krieg caught motocross fever and the passion to compete as often as possible took hold.

The costs have been plenty for his parents. Over the years they’ve sunk their money into multiple bikes, tons of equipment – including helmets, suits, gloves and boots – trailers, motor homes and they even moved to a house that had the acreage in back to build a half-mile track with plenty of twists, turns and hills to jump.

“We believe in supporting our kids in whatever they choose to do,” his father said. “We’ve hired trainers in the past, but half of what he’s learned has come natural. It seems like he’s always been good at it.”

But natural ability can only take an athlete so far. Once Krieg and his parents saw that he was dominating the local circuit, they packed up his gear and began to travel to find better competition.

“When you’re winning (all the local) races, you have to travel,” his father said. “It’d get to the point where we’d go two, three hours to race a kid who we heard was fast. If you stay at the local level, you’re not going to get any faster.”

While the expenses were racking up for his parents, Krieg was investing hours of his time to training and was yielding perhaps the most painful sacrifices of anyone.

“In May 2007, I had a crash in Pennsylvania where the bone came out of my arm and they had to put a plate and eight screws in there,” he said. “I’ve broken my left arm three times, my right arm twice, I’ve broken my wrist, had four concussions and I’ve lacerated my kidney.

“But the cool thing is I’ve got to ride in a helicopter and two ambulances.”

The 2007 crash was so bad that Krieg’s parents made him quit the sport and sold everything they had associated with motocross. A year later, they saw the hurt in their son’s eyes and knew they had to let him return to the sport he so desperately loved.

“All he talked about was racing,” his father said. “We had to go out and buy everything all over again – a trailer, motor home, bikes and equipment.”

The return to the top has been slow and steady, and Krieg is excited about being one of the 42 fastest amateurs in the nation – the qualifying criteria to compete in the event at Loretta Lynn’s.

Krieg qualified in two events – the 250cc stock and schoolboy – and hopes to improve on his career-best seventh-place finish at a national event, which he did at the Mini-Olympics in Gainesville, Fla., eight years ago. His best finish at Loretta Lynn’s is 18th.

“I’m really pumped up, more excited than ever,” he said. “This year I’ve put in the work and I know I have a legitimate shot at finishing in the top 10, maybe the top five. I know I have one of the best bikes out there.”

The AMA nationals take place Monday-Saturday. Krieg will get one practice session and have three races in each class. Each race will go for 20 minutes plus two laps – usually about 12 total laps per race. Each driver gets to pull one of 42 wooden spoons to select their starting gate.

Krieg also qualified in two classes his first year at the event – 65cc and 85cc – and drew the No. 42 gate both times. He hopes to not only have more luck this year, but plans on finishing strong no matter what gate he pulls.

“He’s really focused this year, he’s on a mission,” his father said. “I think he feels he has something to prove.”

Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

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