The Superstar: Zach Osborne

Zach Osborne, if not the best, is most definitely in the top 5 of supercross and motocross riders currently competing. 

Born on September 25, 1989, Zach Osborne grew up in a racing family. His father and uncle both were racers. Zach’s dad drove stock cars and his uncle was popular in the local motocross scene. Both his uncle and father helped influence his racing career. Zach’s progress racing was extremely quick. After two years of racing he qualified for the two biggest amature races at the time. He got third in one of these tournaments and caught the eye of two top brands, KTM and Fox.

KTM invested a lot of time into Zach throughout his amateur career. This gained him a spot on the KTM’s factory team on his professional debut. He was extremely successful in the amateur leagues, but when he went pro, he fell off a lot. Although he was still very good he was not on the level he could have been due to a lot of health issues. 

In 2008 Zach was able to get a spot on the Yamaha of Troy. The team was a powerhouse in the small-bore class. He was not getting paid for riding. He stated in an article https://off.whip.live/moto/transworld-motocross-zach-osborne-long-way-around, “I didn’t have a salary, but at this point I didn’t really deserve one.” He faced a broken scapula and missed a few races during that season. 

Osborne then traveled to Europe to compete. Steve Dixon’s Yamaha helped support Osborne and was able to rebuild his career in the MX2 division of the Motocross World Championship. 

In 2013 he had to move up to the 450 class from the 250 class due to the age limit of 23, yet he never moved up to the 450 class until 2019. Then he signed a two year contract with GEICO Honda. Lots of people still saw a ton of potential in him. The 2016 season was his time to shine and prove he could be great. He claimed multiple wins. He was making 300,000-400,000 dollars a year. 

He has had great success in his seasons to follow. His biggest accomplishments were that he was the two time 250 Supercross Champion and the 2017 Outdoor Motocross Champion.  

He has lots of ups and downs throughout his career, and is now injured once again. I hope he will make another comeback if he does not retire.