Freddie Noren is One of the Most Underrated Riders of All-Time

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I was thinking the other day about riders and how lucky we are to have some really great personalities in this sport of ours. Then it kind of struck me, we are all very fortunate to have a rider like Freddie Noren in the pits. I’d say that he’s very easily one of the most underrated riders of all-time.

Noren’s first trip to America to race was in 2010 at the Motocross of Nations in Colorado, but then he came over in 2011 to race his first season of the Pro Motocross Championship. The rider from Sweden would continue to grind out the Nationals each year since.

His progression took a few years to get the hang of racing here in America, but eventually he started creeping toward the top ten. My first memory of Fred is either in the 2011 or 2012 season. Freddie’s now wife, Amy is originally from Ohio, which is my home state. Freddie had purchased a bright yellow or green van (I don’t remember which because I’m color blind) from my buddy at the time and fellow privateer Christian Telker. I remember Telker parking next to Freddie at the Nationals and he would just tell me over and over about how cool that he was.

In 2014 he got an offer to fill-in on a Factory Honda for about half of the series. During this run with the team he would get his first top ten overall finishes here in America, never finishing outside of the top ten in those five rounds.

In 2015, Noren would get another chance to fill-in at Factory Honda for the injured Cole Seely. He would get more career highs, including a fifth place finish in the second Moto at RedBud.

Since then, Noren has been a constant threat to the top ten in the Pro Motocross Championship on any given weekend, no matter what year or bike it is that he is racing. Although he hasn’t had quite the same success in Monster Energy Supercross, his motocross results make up for that.

Last year, at the age of 31, Freddie had the most consistent year of his life in both SX and MX. He earned national number 22 and truly made gains on his SX skills in the process. He did all of this while riding for two different teams and manufacturers as well!

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Now we’re three rounds into the 2024 Pro Motocross Championship and guess where Fast Freddie sits…

10th in points.

He’s gone 11-9-11 in the first three rounds on his Madd Parts Kawasaki ride. He’s setting himself up for another great summer. As the series shifts to the East Coast swing we will begin to see even more life out of him as well.

For almost 15 years now, Noren has been a constant factor in the results and WE need to appreciate how good he actually has been for the duration of his career.

Also, I will spare you the rant because you’ve heard it so many times, but he’s the nicest rider ever. ALL-TIME. This man will offer you anything that he has and he will ask you how you are, while genuinely caring about what you say back to him.

We must protect Fast Freddie at all cost. I try to out-nice him and give him the most compliments when I see him, but he always one ups me because he is nicer than I am. He does it without trying.

We’re lucky to have him around the sport and we need to start recognizing his accomplishments in his career more. Maybe after each race we can do a NICE report on his day at the races, eh?

Who is on your list of most underrated racers of all-time? Freddie Noren is at the top of mine.

Main Image: Octopi Media