"I can't believe I lost two motos," he said, sitting down to interview.
"How many did you win?" "Eight," he replied, unmoved.

Judging by what's on paper, Ricky Renner rests at the top of his class; the 18-year-old graduated high school with a perfect 4.0 grade point average and was ranked eleventh in his class.

Though Ricky makes a sport out of consistency, paper doesn't win races. He's gone one-on-one with the most prestigious motocrossers, been fouled on by the most illiterate ogres and scolded for his own celebratory dance. His likeness has been displayed on t-shirts and national race flyers and there are videos of Ricky on youtube.com. He has been steadily racking up championship trophies and even beat the trailblazers at their own game.

In 2001, Ricky entered a harescramble put on by the Florida Trail Riders and was so far ahead of the C200 class that his dad pulled him off at the pit stop. "I did that on an 80. I had a four minute lead so he actually made me sit there and I drank a whole bottle of water and half a Gatorade; I was just sitting there. He's like, 'take your helmet off,' and I'm like, 'let's go!'

Ricky moved up to B200 after that, but he was way still out of his league. "The last [harescramble] I did, I rode a YZ125. It was at Gatorback and it poured down rain. It was so nasty. I actually high pointed the whole race by one second over Garrett Edmisten and I got moved to AA. I haven't raced one since," he said.

Sticking to motocross, the Renner dynasty dates way back and proves Ricky was born with more than just racing in his blood. "My mom and dad both used to ride. My dad won a Dade City championship I think back in '78. The same year Ricky Carmichael won it. I think he was on a 3-wheeler though. When I came along, we'd go out to Dade City every Saturday and Thursday and watching [Ronnie] ride, I guess got me into it," he said.

His charisma escalated as he described his very first motorcycle memory. "I learned to ride on this old Italjet 50, it was my brother's. I just rode it around in my uncle's yard there at his house. I had a nice red helmet, open-faced. I think I got it from my dad."

Although he's been called Pretty Ricky before, that's news to him. "If they give me a nickname, it's Rennner, because one time they made bike stands for me and when they put my name on it, they spelled it with 3 N's, so everybody always gave us a hard time about that."

2006 brought Ricky his first Pro National in Thunder Valley, Colorado, but not knowing what to expect proved to be draining. "I didn't really know what to do. I went out there and rode every practice as hard as I could and by the time the motos came around, I was already wore out," he continued without missing a beat. "In New York, [at Broome-Tioga] I actually I got third in my qualifier and it had a lot of fast guys in it. The first moto, I got in a first turn pile up with basically everybody and then I crashed like three turns later and broke my hand. I was out."

Ricky healed up in time for this year's Mini Olympics where he showcased his brand-new Honda ride. "I came out first moto in the 125 Pro class and won by 10 seconds, 'Allright, this is gonna be a good week.' My qualifiers all went good; I won two. I was winning when I crashed and got fourth, and then another third. When the mains came around, I couldn't get a start to save my life and I basically got fourth place in every class there.

Not satisfied with his week at Gatorback, Ricky landed in Munich, Germany for the International Super Cross-Over, a 3-night event that featured riders from the U.S., Europe and Canada. "That's an even worse subject," he said.

Out of 3 events, Ricky qualified for just one main. "I should have qualified; I had the fastest lap time in practice and crashed bad. The first two nights, I didn't qualify and then the third night, I qualified and got fourth so that was a good one."

His results however topped the internet; Racerxill.com reported, "Although he is often one of the fastest guys in practice, he can't pull it off in the races. But hey, at least he managed to win one of the B-Finals."

The B-final was a small final for the riders who didn't qualify. "I call it the loser's final, but I won it," Ricky said.

He reached a growing level of excitement as every day unfolded. "At first, it was just like a normal race to me. When I went out there and had the fastest lap time in qualifying for practice, then like it became a big deal to me like I didn't expect that with guys like Jason Thomas, Damian Plotts and Doug DeHaan there. I didn't expect anything like that. Then it all started coming together."

After making his presence known at the first two rounds of Winter Ams and collecting his share of victories, Ricky flew back to Germany for the Dortmund International Supercross; his best finish in SX2 with an impressive second overall and a 2-6

His dynamic attitude is entirely amusing as Ricky eagerly recalls one of the finest moment overseas. "The highlight of the whole Germany thing was the fight I got into. This guy from Finland was 7 and a half feet tall, and he t-bones me, gets up and he's yelling at me and he pushes me, and then the next thing I know, he grabs me by the throat and he's just holding me there and he was yelling at me in Finnish, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I just looked at him."

Open laughter silences the conversation; frankly, he doesn't know where he gets his humor. "Definitely neither of my parents. I don't know. I don't know where my brother got his from. Maybe my dad was a funny guy back in the day. He can be funny…looking," Ricky said. According to his dad however, Ricky's sense of humor comes, "from the dog."

Certainly it comes from his hometown of Mulberry, Florida. "The Badcock Furniture warehouse is there," Ricky added; although he sees little relief as a Florida native, save for the weather. "It all depends on where you go. There are places that are so high—it's 9,000 feet at Mammoth and here, we're zero. It's so much harder to breath up there. You don't really have an advantage in places like that, but then when it comes time for Loretta's, it's always really hot and down here it's always hot, so it pays off in some situations."

He takes after his brother and throws down a trick or two whenever he deems appropriate. "I used to get in trouble at the Florida Series races for goofing-off in the middle of a race and I started thinking; if I win by that much, I should be allowed to do a heel-clicker or something. I brought back the old-school tricks over the finish line. The no-footer. I did a one-hander once. A one-footer. I did all kinds of crazy things. Things that those pro guys, they don't do. Like Pastrana, he [doesn't] do one-footers."

As his words fill with sarcasm, the time comes to get serious. Behind the jokes lie more surprises.
In a heated battle, Ricky quickly becomes the expert. "I try not to pay attention to wherever he is. I'd rather him be way behind me and I can just cruise around, but if he's right there, I try not to race other people. I try to just race myself whether somebody's right behind me or not. You think you're always pushing as hard as you can when you're by yourself and then somebody gets with you and you're like, 'haha, I can go that much faster,'" he said.

While he's on the track, Ricky looks forward to the checkered flag and riding well to appease his parents. "My dad makes me mad on occasion. He tries to do the whole thing, 'yeah, I'm going to watch—whoever beat me—I'm going to watch the Nico Izzi show this week.' I guess he just does it to make me mad so that I'll go out and beat [Nico.] It doesn't help I don't think. My mom only says something if I ride really badly. Other than that, she stays out of it."


At least one head turns when Ricky goes to the line since his girlfriend doubles as his mechanic, and she races too.
"When my girlfriend's down, she does all the work. She keeps my gear all nice and shiny for me when I race. She holds my bike with such style. It's just a normal day at the races when she's here. It's nothing new."

However, you won't see her packing his gate any time soon. "Nobody knows how to pack my gate but me. It's a secret technique I like to use, so she just holds the bike while I pack it," he said.

Regardless of what's on paper, expect more from Ricky Renner as he knows racing won't last forever. "I want to go back to school and start college, just like part-time, not a lot. I'll just take some classes [in] architecture and designing houses; stuff like that."

"He stands out because he wants to," his dad said. "He could be at the back of the pack or he could be at the front, and he just chooses to be at the front."

"I'd like to thank my mom and dad. Wyn at Performance Honda. American Honda. Fox. Scott. PJ1. ICW. Vortex. Dunlop. Renner Racing. RKChain. Pro Circuit."