05/19/2026
Sunday, May 17th. Moberly, Missouri:
Bill Little # 501 — 2OG Racing
Despite being just 4-1/2 weeks post-op with the new ACL and newly-removed Meniscus, (and the knee being somewhat sore following a heavy Saturday workout), Bill saw the strategic benefits of riding two-laps per moto to gain last place points, without too much risk of injuring his healing knee.
For one thing, he had to miss Round 2 of the Coal Train Energy Missouri State Motocross Championship Series, since that round was 3-days after his surgery.
That missed round pushed him from 6th, all the way back to a tie for 9th in the overall for the series.
In addition, a re-reading of this year’s rules showed that riders must compete in 6 of the Rounds, BUT, this year’s series is only 7 rounds, not 8 as it had been in the old days! This catch — made just before the start of the race — meant that missing this round would disqualify Little from the overall points standings.
Pulling the Velcro straps of his knee brace super tight, Little winced and climbed aboard his Beta RX450 and headed to the line to see how his knee would hold up to two laps of punishment.
In Moto 1, another rider went down and Little bettered his position to 8th until he’d nearly completed the required two lap minimum. Bill pulled to the side of the track and allowed the rider to pass as Little sat and waited for the checkered flag to cross the finish.
In Moto 2 — surprised at how well his knee held up in the first moto — Little rode faster, still keeping himself grounded over jumps. Midway through the first lap, he realized he wasn’t in last place and he let the other rider by as he’d planned.
However, the urge to race got the better of him and Bill soon realized that he was staying right on the other rider and even setting him up for a pass in a coming turn.
In what proved a surprise to both Mark and Bill’s wife Beth, common sense actually set in midway through the second lap, as Bill found himself jumping obstacles instead of rolling over them and preparing to drive hard to the inside of a turn for a pass.
Little, briefly thinking that he didn’t want to destroy the newly-repaired knee, waited for the other rider to get through the turn and then Bill made his way to the edge of the track near the finish and waited for the checkered flag.
His 9/9 finishes wouldn’t have appeared to have been beneficial in the overall, until he later compared the riders finishing ahead of him.
Although the official series standings have not yet been posted, several of the riders who were ahead of Little in the overall were not in attendance at this Round, which means that Little’s combined 26 points from Rounds 1 & 3 should put him in 5th Overall for the Series, a distance behind Coffman’s 49 point 4th place and 1 point ahead of friend and first Round winner, Guy Cooper! (Bill insisted that this post mention that last part because even though Guy only planned to race a single Round, this is the only chance Little will ever have to say that he’s leading Cooper in a Motocross Series!😂)
With 5-weeks before Round 4, Little is hoping to have enough healing and therapy behind him to be somewhat competitive and hoping to be fully competitive by Round 5 in July!
2OG teammate Mark Coffman, who is still a hopeful in the Monster Energy/MX Sports AMA National Amateur Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s in August will next race at the Regional Qualifier in Mid-June at Lincoln Trail Motorsports in Casey, Illinois.
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