Mookie Wilkerson is a professional AMA motorcycle racer who has found success not only on the racetrack but also as a high school teacher and motorcycle coach. Despite his busy schedule, Wilkerson has become an important figure in his community, earning the Distinguished Service Award in his county for his contributions to his local community. Through Wilkerson’s story, we will see how a passion for motorcycles and a dedication to education can come together to create a truly remarkable individual.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What are you doing?
Mookie Wilkerson: My name is Mookie Wilkerson and I ride motorcycles and I instruct. I do a lot of instructing on motorcycles and I’m also a school teacher.
I teach calculus and pre-calculus by the day and several other things. But my main thing is instructing on motorcycles. I do racing on the side, of course. My passion is instructing others and watching them grow as a rider.
Caption: Mookie at the race track (Photo: Owned by Mookie Wilkerson)
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: You said you’re a teacher and you coach. I feel like those two things really represent that you love to help people, you love to teach people. I want to know who taught you how to ride motorcycles? How did you get into it? Who taught you about this great lifestyle that you are a part of?
Mookie Wilkerson: My father, he originally taught me how to ride a motorcycle. I was about nine years old, but of course he would never think that I would go into racing — something so dangerous. But, he taught me and I enjoyed it. I took to it like a fish to water and never looked back.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: Tell me a little bit about your racing history and how you got into that because you’ve had a lengthy career.
Mookie Wilkerson: It all started when I went down to this place called Adams Motorsports Park now, but it used to be called Adams Kart Track. Everybody rides minis down there. People were telling me there’s these little Ninjas [to ride] because they used to not let people out there with more than 400 ccs.
I had a little dirt bike at home and I was like, “you know what, can I come out here?” So, I put some tires on it and came out.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: When did you eventually turn into a coach?
Mookie Wilkerson: In 2009.
Caption: Mookie on the track (Photo: Owned by Mookie Wilkerson)
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: With your coaching, I know you’re going out and you’re helping troubled youth and teaching them how to ride motorcycles. What drew you to helping kids, specifically to teach them how to ride motorcycles? How did you get into that?
Mookie Wilkerson: The kids would be like, “hey, can I be a part of this?” And so I’ll be like, “heck yeah.” I would give them a little incentive — if you do this or get to this time, I’m going to give you a key chain or a t-shirt and [the coaching] just grew. Then it actually went really big, a big life-altering change happened at the end of 2011, the beginning of 2012. I got pulled down to this really big, big, big sponsorship and I took all that sponsorship money and gave it to these seven kids that did not have an opportunity to race at all. I built those kids up to race and every single one of those kids had a chance to ride in the pro ranks. They all went AMA Pro or MotoAmerica, every single one of them.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: You’re doing so much and people are recognizing that, and you recently were awarded Citizen of the Year in your county. Tell us about that.
Mookie Wilkerson: I was awarded the Distinguished Service Award that’s usually reserved for people who have been in the service of people in the education community for 30 years or plus. It’s usually principals or superintendents of districts [who receive it] and here I was a teacher who won it. That never happened before. But they saw everything I was doing in the community besides just the teaching, besides coaching track, besides the motorcycles.
Caption: Cornering on the track (Photo: Owned by Mookie Wilkerson)
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: So, tell me about your favorite riding spot in California.
Mookie Wilkerson: Sonoma. So all the Northern California tracks. Unfortunately, I live in Southern California, but the Northern California tracks, I think they kind of got us beat.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: What about for a day ride outside of racing, where is a spot you like to go to?
Mookie Wilkerson: I haven’t ridden on the street very much because I did go down before. I was riding in the canyons, like people like to do and went over the double line a little bit and went head-on with a truck. That’s before I started racing and that’s why I started racing. So, since 2004 or 2005, I’ve never ridden on the street again.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: Really? Okay. So you just like the track?
Mookie Wilkerson: Yes. Because everybody’s doing the exact same thing. There’s an ambulance there, there’s helicopters. It is a very controlled environment. It’s controlled chaos because of course racing is wild.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys: In the accident that you were talking about when you were on the road, what did you learn when you went down?
Mookie Wilkerson: Don’t ride over your head and don’t ride with an ego.
Caption: Mookie in race-mode on his Yamaha 600 (Photo: Owned by Mookie Wilkerson)
If you are looking for a motorcycle racing coach, contact Mookie through the Motorcycle Coaching website. Ride safe, and thanks for reading!
