Before someone actually paid him to design and construct supercross tracks with devious twists, ceiling-bumping jumps and harrowing turns, Mike Muye was riding dirt bikes in Pennsylvania. He started at age 5, and the hobby developed into a passion, which developed into an obsession, which developed into a … job. And not just any job. A dream job. More than, even.
“It’s pretty cool,” Muye says, “to be the only guy that does this in the world.”
Officially, Muye is the senior director of operations for Monster Energy AMA Supercross. His job is distinct, germane to one human, because of the sport he works in. Where NFL players, NBA stars and MLB teams compete primarily in home and away stadiums, motocross riders travel the country, racing on tracks they have little time to familiarize with, let alone master. This isn’t like tennis, where competitors travel the world playing various tournaments, clashing on courts with the same dimensions and surfaces and tailoring their preparations depending on whether it’s clay or grass or hard court season.
