Presented by 6D Helmets
Mitchell Oldenburg has gone through a lot in the last few years, both good and bad. Widely considered one of the top riders in the 250 class, he claimed Heat Race wins, Main Event podium finishes, and top qualifier honors at various times in Supercross. That he logged the single fastest lap of the 250 class in practice at the 2019 Las Vegas Supercross, against both coasts, proved that "Freckle" knows what's he's doing on the bike.
Unfortunately, much of his two-year contract with Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha was spent on the sidelines with injuries (a complicated collarbone break and torn ACL in 2018, a third-degree burn in 2019) and as a result, he was not re-signed to the team for 2020.
Oldenburg could have easily walked away from the sport and started a new career as an electrician, but instead, he pursued a deal to race the 2019 Australian Supercross Championship with Penrite Honda. The ride meant a multi-month move to the suburbs Melbourne, Australia, in a house with his wife, infant son, and mechanic, Nathan Alexander.
Through the five-rounds series down under, Oldenburg showed class-leading speed and won the three-moto overall at the 2019 AUS-X Open Supercross this past weekend. But the biggest perk came a few weeks into the series when the team told Oldenburg that they were going to run a full operation for the 250 West Coast Region of the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Series with him as one of the two riders.
Oldenburg has done a lot of reflecting in the past year and during my last night with his family at the team house we talked for an hour about the setbacks, breakthroughs, and future.