Libby 5-year-old girl carries on family tradition on track

Blond hair whipped around under her helmet like the orange flag sticking out from her four-wheeler. The boys, many of them bigger and older, easily passed by on their dirt bikes.

Kira Stehlik of Libby celebrated her fifth birthday just days before she took to the Mill Pond Motocross track to compete in a sport dominated by males.

“She’s tiny, but sassy,” Karen Stehlik said about her daughter, who was the youngest female competitor at the event.

Kira was the only mini-ATV rider at Sunday’s annual Libby Arenacross competition, so her class was combined with the smallest of the dirt bike riders. 

Between races she munched on a bag of popcorn and strolled the grounds wearing her miniature racing attire. She and a fellow rider – her competition – played on her motionless, dirt-splattered Honda as they waited

for the next race.

While most mothers don’t consider entering their pre-kindergarten daughters into motocross competitions, Karen says it was a natural decision in Kira’s case. Her dad and 11-year-old brother have competed in the sport since before she was born.     

“Her big brother races and her dad races,” Karen said. “She said she wanted to and we said OK.”

Kira’s four-wheeler, which was handed down from her brother, Bryce Moeller, was too big for her to drive when she was 3, so she had to wait until last year to participate in motocross.

Bryce, who has competed for six years, won third place in his first race Sunday.

“I’m the youngest guy in my class,” he said, “and got third from dead last.”

Karen and dad Justin Stehlik, an avid motocross racer and president of the Mill Pond Motocross Association, cheered both kids on at the competition.

Justin has broken his collarbone twice while racing, and Bryce has also been to the hospital because of a dirt bike wreck.   

Karen said she’s not nervous about Kira’s safety on her little four-wheeler, or the dirt bike she will graduate to as soon as she’s able to stay upright on a pedal bike.

“The little bikes are fine,” Karen said. “It’s what it leads to that scares moms.”

Kira’s wheels don’t leave the ground as she pulls up over the jumps, but her brother soars through the air. Kids start out on dirt bikes that don’t have enough power to be dangerous, Karen said. But as they grow and their skill level improves, they move up to faster and more powerful bikes.

Karen watched her son go from a bike with a 50-cubic centimeter engine – the kind Kira competed against – to his current 125-cubic centimeter engine. She’s not looking forward to her little girl following those dirt bike tracks, but being in a motocross family, it seems inevitable.

Kira may become the next top female motocross racer, but for now she’s happy “going fast” on her mini ATV.