Rock Sanders takes life at a pretty fast clip. Sometimes at more than 150 mph. Achieved in 4.60 seconds, within an eighth of a mile. And he’s very good at it. Three weeks ago, the 20-year-old from Columbus finished second in the world in his Ultra 4.60 class at the 2018 Manufacturers Cup World Finals at the South Georgia Motorsports Park near Valdosta, Georgia. It’s a finish line he’s been working to get a shot at all year. Actually, for the past 15 years or so, ever since he got his first dirt bike as a kid. It was inevitable, one might say. His granddad, Doug Frierson of Albany, Georgia, raced professionally for 25 years. His dad, Roderick Sanders Sr. of Columbus, also raced. “Little Rock,” as Roderick Sanders Jr. became known, was bound to put on the helmet.
“I was about 8 or 9 when I first raced at the Columbus Drag Strip,” he recalled, talking by phone from Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, where he is a sophomore majoring in heating, air conditioning and refrigeration technology. His voice conveys his enthusiasm for his sport and the lingering high of the World Finals.
“I had a special-made bike back then with a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower motor on it,” he chuckled. “It was like a mini big dragbike; it would go about 70 mph.”
That first race was against his best friend, who got off to a faster start. Sanders Jr. — Rock — still remembers the excitement of gaining on the other bike, passing it somewhere around mid-track and being first across the finish.
“That was the best feeling,” he said. He was hooked.
“Rock’s father and I teamed up when Rock was 8 years old and built his first junior dragbike,” said Frierson, the racer’s grandparent. “At age 10, after feeling he was ready to ride a larger and faster bike, the second one was built. By age 13, he was racing competitively with racers 20 to 30 years his senior.”
Team Sanders
Under the mentorship of his granddad and father, Rock honed his skills and did well. So much so, the family eventually decided to compete at a national level, which riders can do at age 16. They have since logged thousands of miles. When Rock Sanders races, Team Sanders is with him — his dad, his mom Sara, granddad Frierson and any of the racer’s siblings and extended family that can be on hand.
If others didn’t take “the kid” seriously at first, they probably soon did: He finished in the No. 2 and No. 4 positions for his class in 2016 and 2017, respectively, before qualifying for the 2018 Finals.
“If you see him out of his leathers (race uniform), you’d be thinking ‘no way, this kid races motorcycles?’ He doesn’t look the part,” his proud dad laughed, noting Rock’s age, clean-cut appearance and happy-go-lucky demeanor. “Here he is, competing at the World Finals, representing Columbus and Mississippi.”
With Frierson’s experience, savvy and race world connections, he is a critical component of the team. The 69-year-old retired U.S. Marine Corps major has built his grandson’s bikes, including the one Rock raced in the finals in November. It was a gift at Rock’s graduation in 2017 from New Hope High School.
Frierson has required a few things in return: that his grandson finish high school and that he acquire further education after that, or serve in the armed forces. The discipline Frierson demands helps fuel race success.
“I’ve always treated Rock like a little marine,” he said. “Me being a military man, if you’re not disciplined, I won’t give you the time of day.”
Rock’s respect for his grandfather is evident every time he goes on the track with Leatherneck Express emblazoned on his bike, along with the Marine Corps emblem.
While some competitors travel the race circuit in luxurious motor homes, sometimes with hired helpers, Rock’s father said they’re doing it on their own.
“We go in a truck pulling a trailer,” he said with a grin, at home in Columbus with his wife, Sara. “We’re doing this with mom-and-pop money. We do everything ourselves.”
“We’re all Rock’s got,” Sara said, scrolling through race photos. “I just cook.”
Her husband’s response came quickly: “Without her, we couldn’t hold this thing together.”
Rock values his support system. It’s what allows him to keep at it, frees him to focus.
His grandfather and Deshawn Wheeler out of Louisville, Kentucky, are his primary mechanics, but Sanders Jr. is part of that crew as well. Every detail counts in a sport where results are decided by milliseconds. Even weather enters into the calculations.
“The dew point, the atmospheric pressure, all of that — there’s a ton of stuff in how the motor runs,” Rock said.
Sanders Sr. reinforced that: “Weather can be everything. It can make that bike sneeze, cough or puke up.”
In the lights
After competing in the I-65 South Dragbike Racing Series all year, getting to November’s World Finals with the fastest bikes from all over the globe was a year-end goal realized. There, race by elimination race, Rock bested each two-man pairing in the 4.60, until he was one of only two competitors left. His bike was “running good, loving the weather.” His starts had been good; it’s where races are won or lost, where competitors have to stay “in the lights” with hair-trigger reflexes when the starting pre-stage, stage, yellow lights and then green light flash on in rapid succession. Timing and instinct are literally everything.
“That’s the live-or-die moment,” said Rock’s dad, describing the tense excitement.
Race time neared.
“I felt really nervous at first,” admitted Rock. “But then I focused on what I was doing: Now I’m on the bike; I have a checklist I have to go through — make sure I’m in first gear, make sure I do a good burnout … ”
His start was sharp, but in this showdown, he would cross the finish line a breath behind the other bike. One might think he’d be crushed.
“I was disappointed, but you’d be surprised at the sportsmanship we have, the bond we all have with each other,” said Rock. “After we leave the race, there’s no fussing, no arguing. We shook hands. We were like, man, that was the best race!”
Camaraderie is a big part of it all.
“There’s unity, there’s good people, black, white, all nationalities,” Sanders Sr. said, going on to tell of an accident the family had just before arriving at a race; Rock’s bike was damaged. Other racers came to their aid, offering parts off their own machines.
Rock said, “We have met the nicest people that we have ever come in contact with, people that would give you the shirt off their back.”
Goals for 2019 are still taking shape. Making a run at a World Finals again means real commitment for the whole family. There is school to consider, where Rock looks forward to earning EPA certification in his field of study.
“But what keeps me wanting to race, what keeps me coming back to it is the people — and the thrill. It’s in my blood. We just love racing. We just love it.”
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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