Trail Rider Magazine

8 Trail Rider Rider Spotlight Rider Spotlight Nicholas "T-Rex" DeFeo Nicholas "T-Rex" DeFeo By Elaine DeFeo By Elaine DeFeo It was a cold day in February when our T-Rex raced into this world. Thinking back to that day, we say, "Yup, nothing slows this boy down!" Except maybe when you're short li le four-year- old's arms are trying to put goggles on over a big helmet. That's when the nickname T-Rex start- ed. Nicholas always caught on fast to physically challenging tasks and loves adventure. He started riding a pedal bike when he was only three and has always been drawn to the sound of dirt bikes. Nick's first dirt bike was a used 2005 KTM Mini Adventure with training wheels. We thought it was beyond his ability, but, man, were we wrong. Soon a er he started riding, the training wheels were tossed, and a er a few tries and a lot of crashing, he was off and running. All he wanted to do was ride, and ride he did! Every day when he got off the bus he couldn't get his riding gear on fast enough. One day a friend said why we don't bring him to a NETRA event. We signed him up for a Nervous Novice event, and at that point he was bi en by the race bug. His first race was in 2009 in the NETRA Pee Wee 5 class. I remember him being nervous on the line, but when the race started he took off. With mom and dad running, chasing and spo ng on the track, I think we were more nervous. Thank goodness for sweep riders. He finished and was happy. We spent a few years in the NETRA peewee 5 class building his skills and ge ng faster. Then one day we received a phone call from Carol Hery that they were picking Nicholas up and bringing him to race the Unadilla GNCC. They loaded up, and Elaine and Nick were on their way with the Herys to Unadilla. Nick had moved up to a 2006 KX65, and learning how to use a clutch, as any parent knows, is not fun mes. But again, he caught on quickly. For the next few years we con nued to race the NETRA Pee Wee series, then a new series started. His sister Abby started racing J Day Offroad, and due to Nick's age he was not able to race. When Nick turned five we signed him up for the 65 class in J Day. He raced for the next several years in J Day Mini classes. Nicholas won his first championship in the J Day Sprint Enduro series, taking the Mini A championship in 2016.

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