How did you pick your racing number?

AMACCS or WERA assigned me 58 sometime early 80's. Before that, I don't even know what the heck
my thinking was, I was too worried about getting the next race and eating.
 
GeorgiePorgie said:
Stand up jet skis ??
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Yup...rode Yamaha Super Jets and earned a National number one year in the Expert class. I ran the Sport class on a Yamaha Wave Blaster too and some races. That sport turned into a big money sport to try and compete so I went back to MX....
 
My first racing number back in the day was 777. I was born in 77 and I was going to be 7. I was six at the time and the number was my dads idea and I thought it was pretty cool. Ran that for 6 years and retired. Got heavy into sports and picked number 24 to wear as someone I looked up to wore that number. When I got back into riding/racing I couldn't decide which number to run and I went with the 24 and it has stuck. If I had a dollar for every time I get ask if I run 24 because of Jeff Gordon I could pay for racing for a year. lol My response is no I wore that number before he had it on his race car, so he copied me.

This thread is pretty cool, I feel for the most part a number has a story behind it. I myself know people by their numbers. :)
 
479 is the number of letters in the first, middle and last name of a girl I liked who died in a house fire in the 6th grade.
In the late 70's I asked the AMA if I could have 479 as my last 3 numbers which years ago was AMA Life Member Earned.
 
I raced back in the late 70's and 80's, and the last number I used back then was 29. I don't even remember why. Then I was out of the sport for almost 20 years when I went off to college and then started a family. When I returned to racing, I wanted to lessen the chances of someone else having the same number, so I added the 1 in the middle. Now I'm 219.
 

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I for some reason liked the number and had 36 as my jersey number for all athletics like Football, Baseball, Basketball starting back in middle school. Naturally used it for my racing number as well. When I started racing vintage about 16 years ago, the sanctioning body controlled the rider numbers and 36 was already assigned to another rider.

I had to come up with something else so I added the "1" to it and ever since then have used "361".
 
I started racing late in age. First bike I bought had a 4 on it so I just ran it for a couple years. When I got a new bike with blank plates I decided to try and pick my own number. Ended up using our anniversary date 913. I've only ever seen one other bike with the same number but never at a race.
 
My football # was 55 from the 3rd grade through highschool. Kept getting to the track a little later than another 55 in my class and got tired of having to slash it. Saw the fast boys from LL, etc. running a letter after theirs, so I used the 'k' along with it: 55k What does the K stand for? Oh, I dunno, take your pick: Kim, Kawasaki, as in $55,000, and so on. Nothing specific.
 
Mine of course is a longer story with a few kinks thrown in for good measure. Back in the Day as many people have mentioned, you used the last 3 digits of your AMA # as your number. My dad was at a race somewhere where this was being forced on everyone and he didn't have an AMA card or the money to get one for the race. So he "borrowed" Mike "Robert Deniro's look a like" Monomorono's AMA card for the race which ended in 163. My dad did pretty well in that race, and decided he liked the # and always ran it after that, never using his own AMA # after he got a AMA card of his own. Later on, after many injuries to my dad, my mom refused to let me "race" motorcycles and I just rode with my dad on practice days on various mini bikes while I was a kid. Once I was big enough for my my first full size bike, he got me a 1985 KTM 125 at age 15, which looked just like his 1985 KTM 250. He put 163 on it just like his bike, so he could leave it on the trailer and my mom couldn't tell the difference that it was my bike that I started racing vs his second bike as a spare……. and the number stuck with me then too. So I've been 163 for 30 years in a row now based on my dad pulling a fast one on my mom so I could start racing at age 15. Luckily, we've never had to race each other, because when we were about the same speed, he was busted up with a compound fractured leg for 2 summers while I was getting faster and better. By the time he returned to riding / racing after that 2 years off, I was the faster of the 2 of us and never had a battle of death with my dad on the track. Thank goodness, because I'm not sure if both of us would still be alive if we had tried racing each other at the same speed, I'm sure he would have taken me out and left me on the ground at that time.

When I go to Loretta Lynn's and need a 2 digit #, I always ask for #63 so I can drop the 1 and still be as close to 163 as I can. It's become my number that everyone just knows it's me and I don't think I'd run another number ever, kind of a tribute to my dad for getting me into riding and racing and even sticking his neck out against Mom, so I could race.
 
Back when i started out racing on 80cc bikes i used to go to the races with some friends... their numbers where 65 and 95 so i just kind of went with 655 to fit in and have never changed it...
 
Birthday April 14.Happy Birthday to me!! 414#
Jack too ; May 1996. So...596#
I used to run Ezra Lusk #11 cause liked it!
 
1979 on the way to my first race stopped at an Ace hardware and bought a packet of mail box numbers. Got to the track and discovered the set had six 1's, three 2's and two of everything else. Told my dad to pick the biggest number he could so I was 211 until I turned pro.
Last year when my son started I told him to pick any number he wanted, and for some reason he went with 117. I did not ask why but figured why not "no one would have that number" First race there were three with that number, second race two had the number... nuts... he picked 11 this year and no one has it... go figure.
 
First race in 1978 at Hi-Point Rita Combs said run the last 3 didgets of you AMA number so you don't have to put tape on for using a common number so ran 049 for years and AHRMA in 2007 gave me B49 so not far off.
Works as never had to black tape with an X or anything on my plates!
 
Rob-- I totally remember that KTM, and I didn't even know ya yet! Michelle was in my French class at WHS. She used to help me out by letting me peek at her tests. I liked her OK, but I had to listen to her girly BS in order to stay in her "copyable" good graces. So I had to listen to every single event that ever happened between you guys! Hahaha! One day, she told me that you rode dirt bikes, (I was just a backyard bandit at that point-- still am!) and she showed up with a gang of pics of you riding that then new KTM at Amherst. I was like WHOA!! This dude is a GOD!!

Once I started riding at real tracks-- that's when I met ya. I'd hate to say it, but I was more excited by riding dirt bikes when I hadn't done it yet. I love jacking around, but I'm not huge into racing like I thought I'd be back then. I think I exhausted my competitiveness, and left it behind when I left wrestling. --L*64
 
Man it's really cool to read how everyone picked their numbers. A lot of different and interesting ways.
 
I Just ran 2 on my bikes when i started racing cra hare scrambles. It looked better then no number, or a bumper sticker!
Im sometimes known as 2 slash also.
 
I got mine from the last 3 of my AMA number. There are about five of us in the central Ohio area that run 746, including me, Matt Robinson, and Chad Benson
 
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