Baker City teen flies high in motorcycle race series

BAKER CITY — At first glance, the Virtue Flat Off-Highway Vehicle area looks more like a rock-strewn moonscape than a proving ground for one of the West’s most promising off-road motorcycle talents. Yet 17-year-old Kane Hellberg treats its rutted hills and sandy flats like his personal launching pad, soaring across eastern Oregon’s high desert on a bright, blustery March morning.

Hellberg’s green Kawasaki re-enters the ground with uncanny poise, kicks up a rooster-tail of dust, and vanishes toward the next ridge—engine snarling like a chain-saw choir—leaving only the echo of speed and a faint cloud hanging in the sagebrush.

The Baker High School junior isn’t here for recreation. In 72 hours he and mentor Cole Hauter, 30, will line up for round three of the seven-race National Hare and Hound Championship Series outside Murphy, Idaho—a brutal, 100-mile, two-lap scramble that attracts the fastest off-road riders in the West.

Hellberg has already shown he belongs. On Jan. 25 in the series opener in California he won his division and placed 18th overall among pros and amateurs combined. Hauter, aboard a red Honda, finished fourth in his class and 24th overall. Round two on Feb. 22 in Nevada saw Hellberg claim fourth in division and 32nd overall; Hauter was runner-up in his division and 27th overall.

“If he keeps at it he could easily be one of the top guys in Oregon and Idaho,” said Hauter, a veteran who competed in the 2021 Baja 1000. “It’s experience—that’s what it boils down to. Lots of hours on the bike. He’s insanely good athletically.”

Athleticism is an understatement. Hellberg owns the second-best triple jump in Baker High history, bounding 43 feet 6.25 inches at the March 20 season opener in Ontario. Only Dane Bachman’s 2013 mark of 44-9.25 tops him, and Hellberg has his sights on that record before spring ends.

For now, longer jumps come strapped to 250 pounds of Kawasaki. Last season he clocked 107 mph across a dry California lakebed. He has been twisting throttles since age three, inspired by cousin Talon Mastrude and a family tree thick with competitive riders—uncle Dan Mastrude and late grandfather Curt Mastrude among them.

Hellberg’s formal racing career began in 2021. By 11 he had won an Idaho series championship. The step up to National Hare and Hound racing has revealed new depths of competition. “There’s a lot of fast guys out there,” he admitted, grinning.

Hauter witnessed that speed firsthand. After easily gapping Hellberg during early 2024 practice sessions at Virtue Flat, Hauter suddenly found the teenager filling his mirrors. “He’s on a different level right now,” Hauter said of their January race in California, where Hellberg overtook him on the second 50-mile lap.

The physical toll matches the velocity. “I’ve done basketball, track, soccer, football—and racing is definitely the hardest sport I’ve done,” Hellberg said. Constantly scanning for rocks, ruts and 100-mile-per-hour jumps demands full-body strength and laser focus. Post-race soreness lingers for days, prompting Hellberg to split training time between gym workouts and seat time on the Kawasaki.

His goals stretch beyond the Hare and Hound circuit. He eyes Hauter’s 2021 Baja 1000 experience and, eventually, a professional racing career. For the moment, though, the immediate objective is simple: keep flying high, landing smooth, and leaving the competition in a cloud of Oregon dust.

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