Next weekend the freestyle motocross community heads to Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California, for round three of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters freestyle competition and Wes Agee is one rider hoping to improve upon his third-place finish in last year’s inaugural event in Southern California.
This year marks the second time the prestigious event finds itself in the mecca of freestyle motocross. Last year’s course saw some big hits, including a massive 60-foot high step-up – the biggest hill jump to ever be included in an X-Fighters course. It plays into the hands of those who grew up freeriding in the hills of Southern California and Agee is one of those riders.
Last year, Agee came in as an underdog and he impressed the 15,000 fans and the judges, beating the likes of Levi Sherwood and Danny Torres to finish third. This year he won’t be able to fly under the radar in his home event.
Recently we caught up with Temecula, California’s Agee as he was fresh from his trip to South America for his first-ever X-Games appearance in Brazil. We asked him about his experience at X-Games as well as his plans heading into X-Fighters at Glen Helen after such a fantastic result last year.
How’d you get involved with freestyle motocross?
Well I grew up in Southern California in Fallbrook. I was born and raised there until I was 15 and I rode dirt bikes on the weekends at Ocotillo Wells and Beaumont, places like that. I started riding a lot more out in the desert and then hooked up and started riding with guys like Jimmy Fitzpatrick and some of the [Metal] Mulisha guys and soon enough I was making money riding my bike and just tried to get better and better every year and now here I am. I live out in Temecula just riding dirt bikes.
How much has Red Bull’s involvement helped with evolving your freestyle career?
Since Red Bull stepped up and started helping my program it’s definitely helped out my career a lot. It’s been great. I get a lot of respect riding for such a prestigious company. I’ve been working hard at what I do for a lot of years so it’s great to have Red Bull’s backing; they really give me a lot of support, and those guys really take care of me. It’s great to be promoting their brand.