REDMOND – Perched on an undersized dirt bike, pint-sized motorcross prodigy Chris Aldredge concentrated Sunday on picking a line of attack as he eyed the dirt track before him at the Deschutes County Event Center.

The John Tuck Elementary first-grader tore through the course during afternoon practice runs, bouncing through a section of moguls that riders know as ”woops” and sailing off jumps that stopped riders three times his size and twice his age. With his stepfather watching from the sideline, Chris circled the track for 12 minutes spinning his wheels around the corners and rearing back on the throttle as he launched himself skyward.

”He’s been riding ever since he was four (years old). And he learned if he was going to win, he had to jump,” said Casey Mott, Chris’s stepfather.

Hundreds of Central Oregonians turned out this weekend to watch professional riders soar high above the ground at the Event Center in Redmond. But on Sunday afternoon, when, for $20, amateurs had a chance to ride the same track, Chris was in a class by himself.

If he has his way, 7-year-old Chris will follow in the foot steps of his favorite rider, Travis Pastrana an aerial exhibitionist who at 15 years, won a gold medal at the X-Games, the freestyle motorcross equivalent of the Olympics.

But not every rider who came out Sunday has an eye on the stars, or even the skies for that matter. Brian Woodard drove up from Klamath Falls Saturday with his two sons and a young friend to watch the Fifth Annual Northwest Indoor Supercross Championships. They stayed the night and spent Sunday afternoon churning up the same dirt the pros rode on just a few hours earlier.

”It’s harder than you think,” he said. ”I’m 42 (years old) and it’s killing me,” said the high school math teacher, who is accustomed to the wide-open desert racing of Central Oregon.

For his son, 13-year-old Seth Woodard, Sunday was a first opportunity to ride under a roof like the pros.

”I thought it was cool,” he said of the track that features 180-degree hairpin turns and 15-foot high jumps.

And the professional riders of the Metal Mulisha crew who wowed crowds over the weekend?

”They were pretty sick,” said Woodard, offering the highest praise in extreme-sport speak, before speeding off into a cloud of blue smoke – his back wheel kicking up a rooster tail of loose dirt.

Outside the Expo Center, amateur riders and their families and friends soaked up the sunshine with elbows on pickups and backs in lawn chairs. They shared stories over cold beers and bottled water, as the next generation of riders buzzed around the parking lot on tiny 50cc dirt bikes.

An unforgiving sport, motorcross takes a toll on a body. Pro riders peak in their mid-20s and are quickly eclipsed by another round of newcomers, ready to fly higher and crash harder.

For Chris Aldredge the session is the start of another week of practice and a season that he and his parents hope will bring his first national title. His parents are already planning an April trip to Las Vegas and a journey in August to Tennessee.

Mott, a former rodeo performer who retired to concentrate on his stepsons racing, estimates the family spends almost $20,000 each year to support Chris’s competitive riding. This year, said Chris, ”I get to ride with all the fast kids.”

”And what are you going to do there?” prompts Mott.

”Battle,” said Chris with a gap-tooth grin before striding back in to take another run around the course.

Eric Flowers can be reached at 541-504-2336 or eflowers@bendbulletin.com.