Benefield: Flat-track motorcycle racer Beau Thompson in a hurry to succeed

There have been at least two serious conversations in Beau Thompson’s family about his future in racing.

The first came in 2008. Beau’s dad, Brock Thompson, was between jobs and his son’s passion for motorbikes was costly.

“The motocross was very expensive. It took a back seat and we took a break,” Brock Thompson said.

But Beau, 22, had always ridden bikes. So when an uncle lent him a flat-track bike after what he guesses was two or three years of not riding, he was in.

“My uncle gave me an opportunity to try it once with his bike and we never gave the bike back,” Beau Thompson said.

Flat track is decidedly less expensive than motocross, Beau Thompson said, and the skills he developed over the years translated well to the flat-track racing. He seemed to have natural heart and nerve for it.

“It’s who can hold it on that extra inch,” he said. “A lot of people let up, but if you can run it up that extra inch? It’s skills and definitely kind of guts. You want to be able to come into the turn super fast.”

Thompson, a former wrestler at Windsor High and a lineman for the Jaguars’ football team before graduating in 2013, has been climbing the ranks of the American Flat Track National circuit ever since.

This weekend, he raced at the Lakeport Speedway as an offseason tune-up. Results didn’t count toward his point tally, but it’s a good preseason workout before the real races start in Daytona in March.

“It’s just fun,” he said of motoring on tracks at up to 110 mph. “When somebody is ahead of you and you catch the draft, you get sucked into the draft. It’s just a whole lot of fun, I think.”

Being successful is fun, too. Beau Thompson is the only person from Sonoma County riding at his level on American Flat Track National circuit, according to his dad.

But he wants to go higher.

There is money to be won at the premier level and bigger bikes to ride. But you have to ride and win your way up there.

“I definitely want to hit every national that I can this year. which is 16 all over the country. And I would definitely like to get top three,” he said. “Once you earn your way up to premier class then you are on purpose-built bikes that are all custom for you. That’s what I’m trying to get this year, to premier, to get my championship points.”

And it’s a family effort to get him there.

Brock Thompson, whose day job is building brewery and winery equipment, seconds as his son’s mechanic, fix-it guy and financier. Beau’s mom, Stacy Thompson, is an office manager at a medical office, and also books hotel rooms, maintains the social media presence and works with sponsors.

The group effort makes sense because speed seems to run in the family.

Brock Thompson used to race cars. In a nod to his growing domestic responsibilities, he sold his rig the night Beau was born.

“It all started racing cars in Bakersfield,” Brock Thompson said.

But in time, and after moving to Sonoma County, the family turned to two-wheeled speed. Maybe it was Brock’s passion for car racing or Stacy’s BMX background, but both Beau and his older brother, Blake, took to it.

“When they were old enough or large enough to sit on a motorcycle, we got them one immediately,” Brock Thompson said.

In the beginning, it was less about racing and more about family, Beau Thompson said.

“My parents, my grandpa, we all did it,” Beau Thompson said. “My cousins ride. We’d all go camping together and just go camping and riding.”

But the family has had a few heart-to-hearts along the way.

The first came when the expenses were piling up. Beau now works a part-time job in construction for a boss who loves racing and allows him to work a stretch, travel a stretch.

The second sit-down talk was in 2016 after the death of two flat-track riders who were racing at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

The Thompsons were there, close enough to see emergency personnel performing CPR on one of the racers who died.

“To see two young people taken in one afternoon almost made us quit,” Brock Thompson said.

“It was a month-long, ongoing conversation about whether we would continue at this level or race locally,” he said.

It was a group decision to aim high.

“We could do that, but we’ve done that,” Brock Thompson said of staying on the local circuit. “American Flat Track is the granddaddy. It’s the biggest pinnacle in our sport.”

So they stuck with the plan.

“This is what Beau loves to do,” Brock Thompson said. “I’m not going to step on his toes.”

His fears are real, but so, too, is the excitement of seeing his son race.

“I still get butterflies,” he said. “It’s competition. It gets my juices flowing just like it did when I raced cars.”

But there is another level of worry watching someone else take those risks.

“I have confidence in the machine,” Brock Thompson said. “Track conditions and other riders are really what we are up against.”

“All we can do is put him in the best equipment possible and pray like hell,” he said.

So Beau will continue to balance a part-time construction job while using a van to drive around the country jumping in races and trying to earn points that will take him to the next level. In 2017, he estimates he drove 35,000 miles and through at least 20 states to compete in 15 races.

It’s not an easy life, but it’s a fun one, he said.

“I think it’s one of those passions,” he said. “You are only young once. You might as well live it up as much as you can.”

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”