Coty Schock’s Improbable Journey to the Podium: “I’m living my dream”

Prior to the start of the 250SX West Region, in my annual Power Rankings column, I had Coty Schock fifth. Here is what I wrote:

Don’t sleep on the Shocker. Remember, he finished third overall in the East Region in 2024. While this class is deeper, he’s coming off another full off-season with the Club team. I have him as a sleeper pick to win a race this year.

If I were to write those words five years ago, I would have been laughed out of the industry. Even Coty himself would have laughed. Coming out of Delaware—a known motocross hotbed—Coty didn’t have a ton of hype. Hell, he had zero hype. His best finish at Loretta’s? 15th, twice. He raced the 450 Class in Pro Motocross in 2018 and 2019 and finished 58th and 27th in points. In 2020, his first in Monster Energy AMA Supercross, he raced the 250SX East Region. He finished 37th in points.

Then, he caught his stride. In 2021, he finished 9th overall in the West Region and followed it up with a 10th in the 250SX East Region in 2023 (he missed most of 2022 with a knee injury). He was ready for a breakout season in 2024, only to lose his ride with Phoenix Racing Honda. He had nothing.

During the off-season, he went to ClubMX training facility in South Carolina to clear his head and ride his two-stroke. At the time the team was full, so he didn’t even think it was possible to join, nor did he even think about it. Then, on Dec 11, 2023, the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team issued a press release announcing they were giving him a deal for 2024.

What did he do in return? He went out and shocked the world by finishing third overall in the 250SX East Region and the team rewarded him with a new three-year deal. He had found not only a future, but a future with a team he’d always wanted to ride for.

“When I was on previous teams, I always looked at Club and I was like, ‘Damn, they got a solid platform going on and they want to win, so, there’s no excuses,’” he said in the post-race press conference following Arlington. “And, yeah, when I got dumped from the previous team and I had to go searching, honestly, that’s where I wanted to go. So, I went there first, showed up on my two-stroke one day, and, you know, Mike B [Bonacci] gave me the opportunity. He was like, ‘Hey, like come into the office and have a conversation,’ and ever since then it’s kind of changed my life, in a way. That solid group of guys with that whole crew. Yeah, we’re not a factory team, it’s all good. But they put in the work and we’re still figuring things out and, yeah, I mean, we’re proving that it works, right? And in previous years they’ve had J-Mart [Jeremy Martin] on it and Phil [Nicoletti] and Garrett [Marchbanks], right? And they’ve put in some solid results over the years, and it’s been proven, right?”

This year Schock has been a solid top 10 fixture, going 6-6-5-8 to begin the West Region. In Arlington, he finally had his breakout ride, capturing his first career podium with 2-4-6 finishes in the Triple Crown. Did he ever expect this kind of success and is there more to come?

“I don’t know, you and I will both find out,” he said. “This is my thing, like I always knew I could ride a motorcycle well, but I never really had the structure growing up. And I’ve really locked down these last few years, and I’ve checked off everything that I’ve ever wanted to accomplish, right? So, now I’m making new goals and I’ve gotten this far. So, how far can I really go? That’s just where I’m going to leave it.

“It’s pretty cool what I’m doing,” he added. “I’m living my dream. I’ll admit that and I just want to keep going and see how far we can go at the end of the day, cause being from Delaware, no one’s really ever done anything from Delaware, so for me to podium, right? Like, nobody even knows that Delaware is a state! [Laughs] So let’s be honest. So yeah, there’s two motorcycle dealerships [in Delaware], I think, and nobody really knows what moto is. So, I come from a place where it’s not really meant to be, and, yeah, I’m having a blast, so it’s pretty cool.”

Images: @octopi.media