Caleb Grothues is a motocross rider who was awarded a Scholarship within the 2017 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program, and was paired with Stan Longinidis as his Mentor.
Caleb was born in Perth in 2000 and became hooked on the excitement of motorsport at the age of seven. Just one year later, he claimed his first national title when he won the U7 – U9 category in convincing fashion.
Caleb won the national title again in 2012 and blasted onto the world scene with victory at the World Championships in the 65cc class in the same year. He was flown to Monte Carlo for the FIM Championship Awards alongside the world’s best riders and spent the next year touring the world perfecting his skills.
In 2014, Caleb finished on the podium at the national junior titles and in races held at Loretta Lynn’s, Winter Thor Olympics Mini O’s and the FIM Junior World Championships. 2015 also started well until Caleb collided with another rider at the FIM EMX 125cc Championships in Italy and was forced to have his ring finger and pinkie amputated. He faced 6 months of rehabilitation and the prospect of never riding again.
“The hardest thing about the accident was having a year off,” he said. “I lost a lot of training and fitness. Trying to get a lot of strength back through my hand was difficult, but we’ve come back strong.”
Undeterred, Caleb regained his fitness and returned for the Australian Junior Nationals where he finished on the podium, missing the gold medal by just 1 point due to bike failure. He then returned to racing and training full time and relocated to Germany to continue competing at world level.
Caleb on his Scholarship selection – “When I got the call I was absolutely ecstatic. I was speechless,” Grothues said. “I couldn’t believe it had happened to be honest.”
“It was an honour to be acknowledged and hopefully I can be a good role model for others in the future.”
“I’m pumped to be involved with the people that have come through the program,” Grothues said. “To see what they’ve done in other sports – it’ll help me get to where they are.”
Honours & Achievements
- 2008: National Champion (U7-U9)
- 2012: National Junior Champion
- 2014: National Junior Championships – podium finisher
- 2014: FIM Junior World Championships – podium finisher
- 2014: Winter Thor Olympics Mini O’s – podium finisher
- 20114: Monster Energy Cup – 14th
- 2017: MXGP of Lombardia – 41st
- 2017: MXGP of Portugal – 29th
- 2017: MXGP of Switzerland – 26th
- 2018: MXGP of La Comunitat Valenciana – 9th
- 2018: MXGP of Portugal – 14th
- 2018: MXGP of Switzerland – 15th
- 2018: MXGP of Bulgaria – 16th
- 2018: MXGP of The Netherlands – 5th
- 2019: MXGP of Great Britain – 12th
- 2019: MXGP of France – 19th
- 2019: MXGP of Russia – 9th
- 2019: MXGP of Latvia – 16th
- 2019: MXGP of Belgium – 22nd
- 2019: MXGP of Sweden – 20th
