Kittanning's Davis brothers hope home-track advantage pays off

Ryder Davis will be looking for redemption when he gets on his motorcycle at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum.

A lap into last year’s event, the 11-year-old racer was taken out in an accident and broke his arm.

But coming off a podium finish at his last race at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Seattle, Ryder is excited to tackle his home track again and at the same time help his 9-year old brother, Jacob, get up to speed.

The Davis brothers, who are Kittanning natives, will be competing in the MotoAmerica Mini Cup Series on Saturday at Pitt Race.

“I’m hoping for a win or a podium,” Ryder said. “We ride there every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday if we aren’t doing anything else, and it’s a really fun track.”

They will compete against riders from all over the United States and some international competitors from Canada and Mexico.

Ryder is in the Ohvale 190cc class, and Jacob runs the Ohvale 110cc class. An Ohvale is a super mini-bike. They are manufactured in Italy and for many years only ran in Europe, but they were introduced in North America several years ago.

Casey Davis, Ryder and Jacob’s dad, discovered Mini GP and thought it was a good way for his sons to learn race craft, so they entered two races last year in anticipation of doing all four this year.

Pittsburgh is the third of four rounds.

Casey’s father was a motorcycle racer, and Casey was once the young kid hoping to race. Then Casey got his opportunity and raced professionally up until a few years ago.

Now it’s come full circle where he is the dad watching his sons race.

“It’s been the most incredible experience of my life, honestly,” Casey said. “We’re very fortunate to share this together. There are times where there’s nervousness, and I now know what my parents were probably feeling when I was out there riding.

“I really didn’t have a series like this when I was growing up, so I had to learn on a big bike from the start. This is a great series for them to learn.”

Ryder and Jacob started with BMX bikes and got their first taste of motorcycle racing on a dirt bike in the woods of Kittanning.

They had much different reactions the first time on a dirt bike.

Ryder loved it. Jacob did not.

Jacob crashed, and Casey wasn’t sure if Jacob would ever get back on one.

“He liked riding bicycles, but the dirt bike really scared him because of the crash,” Casey said. “It took him probably two years after that before he really started to like riding a dirt bike.”

The Davis brothers have raced at Road America in Wisconsin and The Ridge this summer. Ryder crashed his first lap at Road America, and an injured wrist sidelined him for the day. At The Ridge, Ryder placed second in Moto 1 and fourth in Moto 2 to score his first podium finish.

Ryder and Jacob document their racing on their Instagram pages: Ryder5Davis and Jacob55Davis.

Jacob is in his first season riding an Ohvale, and Ryder has been helping him.

“He’s pretty good at riding,” Ryder said. “I like riding with him. We’re trying to get him faster, so he can get up on the podium like I did. I’ve been helping him with his lines and carrying more corner speed.”

The Davis brothers practice weekly at Pitt Race, so they are hoping that having home track knowledge will benefit them against the national competition.

Casey is eager to see them rip around the track and test themselves against the best young riders in the country.

“This is basically what we’ve worked the last three years for,” Casey said. “It’s a lot of investment for us to do this, so we are hoping to perform really well at our home track. The first goal is always to have fun. Anything above that is a benefit. This is what we’ve been training for all year long. Rider and Jacob are very excited because they know the track like the back of their hand. That should give us an advantage when it comes to a race situation.”