Where And How It All Started: Bobby Fong – MotoAmerica

Brandon Catterson

2 years ago

Bobby Fong leads Stevie Bonsey (5) at the Lodi Cycle Bowl in one of many battles between the two phenoms at the racetrack that has been running races continuously since 1953. Photos courtesy of the Fong family.

Where: Stockton, California

How: Burning Laps At The Lodi Cycle Bowl

The list of motorcycle greats who did battle at the Lodi Cycle Bowl reads like a who’s who of motorcycle flat-track racing history: the Jorgenson brothers, two-time AMA Grand National and three-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts, seven-time AMA Grand National Champion Chris Carr, two-time AMA Superbike Champion Doug Chandler, the Bostrom brothers, Ben and Eric…the list is long of those who raced on the famous quarter-mile oval where battles have been waged since 1953.

Bobby Fong was a boy among men in 1997, but he was a number-one plate holder at the Lodi Cycle Bowl nonetheless.

One lucky kid who had the good fortune of living just 10 minutes up the road from the Lodi Cycle Bowl was Bobby Fong, and there weren’t any better places for an aspiring young racer to buckle up a steel shoe and nurture their talents. And, like many who raced there before him, Fong already had visions of road racing dancing in his head.

“Believe it or not, as a kid the goal was always to go road racing,” Fong recalls. “I loved my right-handers.”

The dream of road racing turned into reality for Fong, who has been a star in the MotoAmerica Championship since it started in 2015. The Stockton, California, native has proven to be much more than a one-trick pony as he has tasted success in three classes, including the premier MotoAmerica Medallia Superbike class where he has three career victories. Additionally, Fong won the 2019 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship and earned his first Mission King Of The Baggers victory in 2022.

Fong (1) and James Rispoli (71) go at it at the Springfield Nationals. These two are still going at it with both of them meeting on track in 2022 in the Mission King Of The Baggers class.

Running the number-one plate at his home track, the Lodi Cycle Bowl in Lodi, California. Even as a young flat tracker, Fong had notions of going road racing.

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