Brandon Paasch has raced the track at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville hundreds of times.
After honing his skills through countless youth races and turning motorcycle racing from a hobby into a career, Paasch is heading back to his home track for the first time in three years — though this time with much higher stakes than usual.
Currently in third place in his class, the 19-year-old will compete in the MotoAmerica Superbikes at New Jersey event from Sept. 11 through Sept. 13 , round six of the nine-round 2020 MotoAmerica series, looking to climb the leaderboard with the benefit of knowing each of the 14 turns at the Millville track.
Millville "was actually the first track that I rode,” said Paasch, reflecting on his early racing days. “So, it’s the home track for me, it’s my home race. I’ve been riding here since I was a really young kid.”
Four years ago, Paasch won the MotoAmerica KTM RC 390 Cup national championship, clinching the title at the race in Millville. And now he will be looking to capture that magic once again at the MotoAmerica track nearest to his hometown of Freehold.
Growing up on a farm alongside family members who ride motorcycles and dirt bikes, Paasch began showing an interest in bikes when he was hardly old enough to walk.
“We had a bike that didn’t run that always just sat in the backyard when I was really young,” Paasch recalled. “From the time that I was like a year old, I would always go to the bike in the backyard and just sit on it and play with the throttle and the brakes. I was always on it.”
Paasch’s family noticed his fascination with the dirt bike and helped him learn the ropes. By the time he was 2-and-a-half years old, Paasch was already cruising around by himself on a working bike equipped with training wheels.
“I was around three years old when I was riding with no training wheels and no help,” Paasch said. “By the time I was four, I did my first race at Englishtown.”
Competing in the Supersport class, which features 600cc bikes that can reach top speeds of up to 170mph, Paasch’s current bikes have a lot more weight and a lot more power than the KTM RC 390 that he rode to a cup title in 2016, let alone the 50cc bike that he zipped around the family farm on.
Paasch has come a long way since clinching the cup championship four years ago. Last year, he became the first American to compete in the MotoGP Moto3 World Championships at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England, a 150,000-seat venue that is one of the most prestigious in the world.
New Jersey racer Brandon Paasch takes a corner during a race.
However, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing in his professional career. In 2018, about two months prior to the end of the season, Paasch was involved in an accident that resulted in a broken wrist during the first lap of the morning practice run.
“It rained the night before and I hit a wet spot,” the Jersey racer said. “Right when I opened the gas, it was on a wet spot, and I just lost traction on the rear tire. Then it hit a dry spot and it just tossed me over.”
He was able to heal up just in time for the final race of the season at the Junior World Championships two months later in Spain. He jumped up a class, adding more weight and power to his bike, to test his skill level and help decide which class he wanted to compete in before the start of the next season.
The day before the race, Paasch was involved in another accident in which he injured the same arm that had just finished healing.
“I was going into a corner and I just was asking a bit too much from the front tire,” Paasch said about his second major crash in two months. “I just lost grip on the front and washed out. It was a real easy crash, but I was going 80 or 90 miles per hour. The way that I rolled on my arm, just kind of cracked it.”
He decided to compete that weekend before returning to America to recover from a broken arm and a dislocated wrist.
“I got hurt pretty badly,” Paasch said. “But I felt in my head I could win. In racing, it’s 90 percent mental. If you think you can win and you come in with the confidence, chances are you’re going to be towards the front of the race.”
Near the end of last season, Paasch won a national championship race in England before heading to that same track in Spain for the Junior World Championships and suffering another significant accident in the morning warmup.
“I was going like 120 miles per hour,” Paasch recalled. “It was very cold in the morning. The right side of the tire got cooled off because you don’t really touch the right side of the tire for a long time on that track. There was no grip and the bike was out from underneath me before I even knew what was going on.”
Paasch suffered the accident on the final lap of the practice session and dislocated his shoulder and AC joint, partially tore his labrum, broke a bone in his arm and chipped his collarbone.
Despite being in significant pain, Paasch competed in the race and actually finished near the middle of the pack. He was unable to ride for more than three months, but took solace in the fact that the accident occurred in the final race of the year.
“It sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world,” Paasch said of his extensive injuries.
With a solid knowledge of the track in Millville and his loved ones in the stands, Paasch figures to fare much better at the MotoAmerica event at the track on which he curated his skills as a junior racer.
After living in England for the last two years and competing in races at venues in countries ranging from Spain, Italy and Portugal to Holland and Scotland, Paasch is looking forward to his first race on American soil in three years in front of his friends and family.
“It’s good to be home,” he said.
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