Longtime Monster Energy Supercross and Pro Motocross racer Alex Ray has experienced a tough run with injuries throughout the years. Competing on multiple different brands in private teams, during his career the charismatic 29-year-old clawed his way from being a rider who missed the night show, to at one point being a fill-in at a factory team. With 2023 potentially the last season in his professional career, he features in our latest Profiled piece.

Prior to turning pro at the age of 17, Ray made appearances in the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s, last racing the event in the 450 B class in 2009.

“I raced in 2009, I raced at Loretta Lynns, right?” Ray explained. “I was in the B class and I did shit. I think I got 12th overall. I never had a top 10 at Lorettas ever as an amateur, not even 60s, 80s, nothing. Absolutely terrible! I grew up with Eli [Tomac], [Jason] Anderson, and [Justin] Starling… Starling was like a top amateur. Everyone I am racing with now.

“I was bringing up the rear, like I was even talking to Eli about this. I am like ‘dude, I’ve raced you since I was seven years old’ and he had no clue who I was. He is like ‘really?’ I am like, ‘yes’, and we are riding at the Yamaha test track.”

Ray first competed professionally at Anaheim 1 in 2011 in 250SX West and narrowly missed out on the night show onboard his Kawasaki when he qualified 42nd.

“Anaheim 1 in 2011 was my first year,” Ray added. “It was nuts man, like yeah, a long time ago. I was just a kid and at that time I didn’t know what I was doing – I didn’t know how to train, I didn’t know what to eat, I didn’t know anything. I just knew how to twist a throttle and that was it. I qualified like 42nd.”

From 2015 onward, main event appearances became more frequent for Ray in the premier class, with his progress over the years recognized with an opportunity to fill-in for the injured Cooper Webb at Monster Energy Yamaha in Pro Motocross during 2018, after competing with the Rock River Yamaha team earlier that year in Supercross.

“2018 was amazing for me,” he added. “It was the first full year I had a deal in Supercross on a team. The year prior, Cycle Trader gave me a fill-in ride, just saw me on it, got hurt, but they had seen my progress over the years. I was living at Club MX at the time, and she is like, ‘well I think you need to leave where you’re at and go to California and stay there full time and train’.

“And I had met Davi [Millsaps] at the end of 17, and he’s like, ‘yeah dude, come out to California, I’ll help you out, I will train you, like I’ll give you some guidance, whatever’. I mean, and then it pretty much just paid off, because I got a full Supercross ride for 2018 and then that turned into a factory Yamaha ride for after.

“I was filling in for Cooper Webb… it is scary, I will tell you this right now. I had not scored an outdoor point before that ride. And I remember showing up to Denver, to Colorado, to the outdoors and the team was like, ‘oh yeah, you’ve done pretty well here, but in your past, right?’.

“I am like, ‘dude, I’ve never made the motos at this race before’. Because I was not an outdoor guy. Like, I just was not. Like, I was more of a Supercross guy, because I had gotten hurt at the end of Supercross. The Yamaha experience was amazing though!”

Despite continually battling injuries throughout his career, Ray soldiered on in the years that followed, riding a Suzuki RM-Z450 in 2019, Kawasaki KX450 in 2020 and 2021, then a Honda CRF450R last year in the AMA races that he contested.

“You know, it sucks,” he continued. “It sucks because we’re all loyal people, right? And sometimes the next year, the team wants to improve, and they just tell you no. Like, ‘hey, no, we don’t have a spot for you’,” he explained.

“I remember right where I was, whenever I spoke to Dustin Pipes, and he told me like, ‘hey dude, you should pursue other options’. It was like November and I was still on a Suzuki into 2019 and he’d been leading me on. He’s like, ‘yeah, we’re looking for higher profile guys, you should probably just explore other options’. I’m like, ‘alright, I got a month and a half until Anaheim 1, but okay’.

“That’s whenever all the SGB stuff started. And it was good until obviously money got involved and then everyone knows how that went. Like, you know, Cade [Clason] and I, we didn’t get paid. You know, I just had to take that one on the chin as a lesson learned, but it sucks. It’s just business, you know, like, I mean, sometimes that’s the way it goes.”

Fast forward to 2023, Ray started his season at Anaheim 1 and was classified 21st in the main event onboard a YZ450F, but broke his thumb in Tampa which required surgery. He returned in Indy, but he cased a jump while qualifying in Detroit, sustaining multiple breaks to his ring finger.

“I’ve used up my body, but at the same time, my wrists do feel fairly good,” he said. “But this year it just sucks because of little nagging shit, like my thumb. I broke my thumb, I get back, whatever, I do a couple of races, and then I break my finger – my ring finger – which my fiance’s is pissed about, because it is all crooked now!”

With his latest injury forcing him to the sidelines once more, Ray has indicated that 2023 could very well be his last season as a professional motorcycle racer: “I just went to the races on the weekends to have fun with my family. And for all of this stuff to happen, dude, I’ve been living in California for the past six years, so it’s like, regardless of the end game, like I’m happy with whatever.

“You know, I’m happy with the career that I had, even if it wasn’t on the podium or freaking winning races or anything like that. Brandon Hartranft, he had a bad injury. And just like, you know, talking with him, like that really put a toll on me. It did… just seeing him with the stuff that he went through and what he’s still going through and everything, it’s like, ‘is it really worth it?’.

“You know, this sport’s given me so much, I just kind of want to get away with it and do something else. That’s sort of where it’s at. I am getting older and I want to be able to provide for a family and racing Supercross right now, with the results I got, I ain’t doing it.”