For those who don’t know you, tell everyone about yourself in a nutshell.

My name is LeeAnn Bange and I race the Women’s class in the GNCC series. I’ll be riding the 2012 YZ250F in the Womens class this year for the Obermeyer/Raines Racing/OffroadViking.com team.

How did your ride with the new Obermeyer/Raines Racing/OffroadViking.com team come together?

Well, last year I was on the Keystone Offroad Racing Team. Right before Unadilla I started thinking about what I wanted to do and started getting some ideas ready. We found out that our XC2 rider was going off to a local college and we weren’t sure if there was going to be another year for the full Keystone Offroad team, so I started thinking about some other opportunities. I talked to a few people and started to try to get a sponsor list together that I wanted to pursue for 2012. I knew Jason (Raines) because I had been to his schools and the Keystone team would always send him our race reports, so I shot him an email to see if there was anybody that he knew of that I could for the 2012 season. At that time, I had no idea that they were working on putting together a team but he emailed me back a couple of days later and told me that they were in the beginning stages of putting together an amateur Yamaha team. So he told me to just get a resume together and that they were working on getting some sponsors at that time. I just kind of kept on him about it and just kept asking him questions about what I needed to do, then it really came together at Loretta’s at the end of the season. Pretty much the whole team got together there and we just kind of talked about sponsors and contracts. Then I signed the next week!

What’s the new team like so far?

Well, I met Keith Obermeyer for the first time at Loretta’s and I’ve met Drexel Payne and Zach Nash, and I had met Morgan Moss at Loretta’s. Of course I knew Jordon Milbauer from racing the Womens class together, and met her fiancé Cooper Bailey through her. Then I met Corey Macdonald when we went to South Carolina for the first time and got to ride with some of the guys for the first time. Unfortunately Moss got hurt and they were looking for a replacement rider and it worked out great with Jed Haines getting the replacement ride because we live close to each other here in Pennsylvania so we’re going to be able to travel to a lot of places together.

It definitely sounds like it can be a pretty tight-knit group! So how’s the 2012 YZ250F  feel to you?

Yeah! Very. We’re getting to know each other pretty well and we’ve spent a few weekends together riding. As for the bike, before I got my 2012, Drexel let me ride his some and it was awesome. The changes they made to the bike are great. The piston has so much over-rev and the changes to the frame are awesome. This past weekend we put mine together and I just got the suspension back from Factory Connection. We put some different gearing on it and it’s going really well.

How much of a help is it to have a former top rider such as Jason Raines working with the team?

Oh it’s awesome! You can say you’ve been on a team and they can help you financially but I think Jason can bring a whole other level of support to the riders. Not only does he know what it takes to be a top rider, but he also has the connections and knows how to get you what you need to get. He also has some great work-outs for us and has been working with us a lot on the training side in addition to getting sponsors together. He’s been getting gear and other products for us to test, and he just really cares about the riders and supports us like that.

How did you get started in the off-road world?

Well, I started racing back in 2004 and at that point I was on a TT-R125 and didn’t take it really serious. My cousins and my family had raced and I started out just going to the races as a spectator until I decided I wanted to try it out. I raced the TT-R in the air-cooled class and just kind of went from there. It sounds kind of funny but I had the TT-R built with a whole bunch of BBR stuff on it and it had YZ forks and a big bore kit. We used to do the local Pennsylvania hare scramble races and it just kind of escaladed from there to doing some ECEA races and a lot of other local races. In 2007 I tried my first ever GNCC in the C-class on a CRF150R and it was really different for me because the GNCC tracks are a lot faster than the local races. The in 2008 we decided to do the GNCC’s full-time and that’s when I got on the YZ125 and it grew from there. We got a little more serious about it and I started training more and it led to better results. I got used to the GNCC tracks, the various terrain and just all the traveling involved with it. Now it’s normal to me and the local races seem weird because you’re back early and eating supper at home where as with the GNCC’s you’re driving through the night or waiting until the next day.

How did the 2011 season go for you?

Florida and Georgia were not really a let-down but it kind of frustrated me because I had put in the time at the gym but I don’t really get the chance to ride in the sand as much as I’d like to so I think I was a little unprepared. After that it kind of turned around, I got a second at Steele Creek and that was amazing for me. I felt like it showed me just how fast I can go and I wanted to keep my consistency going through the rest of the year but I just kept having stupid luck issues. At Snowshoe I got hit and then fell in a creek and the bike got hydro-locked, so that ended my weekend there before I could even finish the first lap. I did have really good races at both of the Pennsylvania rounds and I was having fun but after Snowshoe my mental game just kind of went down the drain. Physically I felt like I was capable of doing a lot more and my sprint speed was there but I just didn’t have the mental endurance. It was like one little thing would mess me up. At Loretta’s I fell in the first turn on Friday and pretty much the rest of the day I was just trying to dial back. It tough because it seemed like if I had one big bobble it would just take a lot to get over it. So this year I’m trying to not only work on my physical strength but also my mental strength as well.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2012?

I really want to be top-3 consistently every weekend. I want to be a contender for first and with the equipment I’m on this year, I feel like I can do that. I just need to work really hard in the gym and practice being mentally prepared. Being mentally prepared is just as big for me because I feel like if you put in the time, it makes you that much more sure of yourself and you’re ready to go.

How has the competition in the Womens class changed since you’ve been racing?

It’s grown so much. I remember back in 2008 when I started the GNCC’s, Mandi Mastin was the front runner for several years and she had the Women’s class dialed. Back then I was getting a win here and there, then Maria came over and she’s just an amazing rider. She showed us what a woman could do in off-road by getting really high overall finishes. The class itself though used to be kind of small, we used to see maybe twelve riders on a good day, but now we’ve grown and at Loretta’s we had almost thirty riders. It was really awesome! Basically we just need to grow the Women’s class, get more competition in there and I think that will get more publicity. It’s awesome to see the class changes for this year with the Girls and the Womens Amateur classes. There’s probably several girls out there racing the Youth classes against the boys and now they have their own class to be competitive and that will let them grow into the Women’s Amateur class. I think the Womens Amateur class is a really great idea because I feel like the Women’s class can be discouraging for some. There’s some huge names in the Women’s class like Maria Forsberg, Mandi Mastin, Ashley Crouch, Jordon Milbauer plus everyone else, and I feel like to the weekend warrior, the girl who just wants to go out there and ride can be a little discouraged by racing against the big names. So the Amateur class is really good because it not only gives them the opportunity but it can also grow the Women’s classes a whole.

There’s more support for the Women’s class than ever before, what do you see in the future for the Women’s class?

I can definitely see the support growing. This year, with Maria getting a ride with the Factory KTM team shows some of the younger girls that there can be a future. In motocross, there’s so much more competition because they see that the top girls are getting paid to ride and that’s some little girl’s dreams. I would love to see that in off-road and see the girls in the youth classes looking up to Maria and see that they could make it somewhere because Maria is definitely paving the way. That was a huge step for her to get a factory ride.

What kind of advice would you give to any aspiring Women’s racers out there?

I would definitely say to just ride hard and set goals for yourself. Don’t always ride by yourself because it doesn’t really grow you as a rider. Ride with other girls, ride with guys. I rode with my team from last year a lot and at times it could be discouraging because with the boys, you can keep up with them on minis but when they hit their growth spurt and get on a big bike, they’re gone. Mostly, just don’t get discouraged. If you stick with it, you have a goal in mind and it’s something you really love just go with it because you only live once.

Who would you like to thank?

First and foremost I’d like to thank God and my family for supporting me every step of the way. Of course, the Obermeyer/Raines Racing/OffroadViking.com team. Keith Obermeyer for his support for the team, Jason for setting us up with the work-outs and training with us and just keeping tabs on us making sure we have everything we need. Daniel from Offroad Viking, we did a shoot with him the other day and he was really awesome as well as the whole Offroad Viking crew. Also Fly Racing, they’ve already helped me out so much with gear and helmets and just making sure we all have what we need. Factory Connection, Yamaha, Yamalube, GYTR, Kenda, Sunstar, Fastway, ProMoto Billet. Rekluse with the EXP clutches, I’m definitely going to be getting my hands on one of those for the year (laughs). IMS, Gaerne, and EKS Brand Goggles.