Who is the winningest rider in America? Jeremy McGrath? Ricky Carmichael? Nope! The answer is 11 year old Mike Alessi. For seven years Mike Alessi has been winning state, regional, NMA, AMA and World Championships
"Mom and dad bought my brother Jeff and I Yamaha PW50s when we were born," says Mike. "By the time I was three I was ready to ride, but my dad still didn't think I was big enough. Every day I would sit on the PW, turn the bars, feel the brakes and snap the throttle."
When an older neighborhood friend, named Sean Storm, asked Mike's dad Tony of he could ride on of the Pee-Wees, Tony agreed and even took Sean out to a local field to ride.
"I was so mad," says Mike. "that even though dad thought I was still too small he went back to the garage and got the other Pee-Wee. Sean and I made a small circle track and jstarted doing laps. That is how my racing career started."

WUNDER KID INGREDIENTS
Tony Alessi, Mike's father, had been an aspiring 125 Intermediate on the SoCal circuit, but quit the pursuit of stardom when there wasn't enough money to make the step up to professional racing. He kept racing local, started announcing at a couple SoCal tracks and became a family man.
At first, the Alessi parents never thought of their children as motorcycle racers, but things started to move in that direction as soon as Mike started to ride a bicycle. Every day Mike would ride at the Simi Valley BMX track and before he turned three he started racing BMX twice a week--he turned Expert by age four.
Once Mike had proven to Tony and mother Kim that he was big enough to handle a PW50, Tony took him to race in the First Timer Pee-Wee class at Perris Raceway in the summer of '93. Three wins later Mike was moved up and has continued to move up to faster divisions with each growth spurt.

THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF VICTORY
From his first race on Mike was winner. His chronology of victories is amazing.
January '94: Within a year of his first race, Mike was winning the 50 Expert class and had begun practicing on a KX60 . "When I started riding a 60 at the end of '94," says Mike, "people said I was too small. Four months later,I won my first 60 race at age five."
November '94: Mike won his first-ever 50cc Championship at the Florida Mini Olympics.
January '95: Mike signed with KTM to ride the new KTM SX50s. A contract WAS also signed with R & D Racing to tune the bikes.
February '95: The Alessi family sat down to develop a racing program that would insure that Mike and his brother Jeff would move up through the ranks (and engine sizes) as rapidly as possible--they called it the DOC Program, which stood for Domination In Class. "We set out to be dominant in a class," says Mike. "And, when that happened we wanted to be ready to move up to the next level."
Summer of '95: Mike won every Pee-Wee Championship available for four-to-six year-old riders.
September '95: Mike moved up to the seven-to-eight year-old 50 division and won the 7-to-8 50 title and the 60 championship in the 0-to-8 division.
November '95: After winning every available National title for his age group, and with one year of eligibility left in the 50 class, Kawasaki offered Mike support to compete in the 60 class in '96.
December '95: At age seven, Mike raced his first 80cc event aboard an RM80 (finishing 9th out of 28). For '96, Mike decided to race in the 50, 60 and 80 classes at every race.
April '96: At the 1996 World Mini Grand Prix, Mike won the 7-to-8 50 Class and had two top five finsihes in the 60.
July '96: At Ponca City, Mike won the 7-to-8 Stock, Modified and Super Pee-Wee classes (and finished second in the 60 class).
April '97: At the 1997 World Mini Grand Prix, Mike won the 7-to-8 Modified Pee-Wee and 0-to-88 Stock and Modififed 60 classes.
July '97: At Ponca City, Mike won the Modififed Pee-Wee class along with the Stock and Modififed 60 classes.
April '99: At the 1999 World Mini Grand Prix, Mike won the 9-to-11 Stock and Modified 60 class, NMA Race Of Champions and the 7-to-11 80 class.
September '99: Mike signed sponsorship deals with KTM and Yamaha at the same time. The deal has him riding a KTM in the 60 class and Yamaha in the 80 class.
December '99: In calendar year of1999, Mike won every available title. At age 11, weighing only 70 pounds and standing four feet, seven inches, Mike wins his first 125 race.

MIKE ALESSI TALKS ABOUT MOTOCROSS
Mike is totally focused on motocross. His room is meticulously clean. There are no trophies in the room. Only a photo of Justin Buckelew, a KTM plaque and Brandon Layton's number 1 plate (Brandon was a good friend of Mike's who was killed in a riding accident).
"It's easy for me to stay focused. After a moto I'm right back out on the track, checking lines and looking for new bump development. After homework and practice I'm studying photos of riders or watching motocross videos. I study other riders so that I can know all the riding strengths and weaknesses of the top pros. My favorite hero is Justin Buckelew. Justin is smooth, smart, fast and a good starter."
At last count, Mike Alessi has won 627 races and 64 Championships--and he's not yet old enough to go to a PG-13 movie by himself.

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