Kyle Desrochers has been tasting dust from MX tracks in Connecticut, New York and Tennessee for the past three years now and did it with an eye on a big prize.

Like, the New England Regional championship.

Kyle, 15, a sophomore at Newtown High School, won that New England Regional championship a few weeks ago in Winchester, New Hampshire, by beating out about three dozen other riders in the 12 and older 250 C class.

There were three motos in the class and he won ‘em all. Sure made up for a fifth-place finish in the 125 C youth under 18 class (though that wasn’t all bad, considering there were better than 90 other riders competing).

Like lots of kids in town, Kyle did the youth soccer, Babe Ruth baseball and youth football thing but he has been riding dirt bikes forever and in 2004, with some money to spend, tried MX.

And now it’s MX – all the way.

He started out small, hitting the local and area tracks in Bethel and Milford and District 34 Motocross in New York on Sundays.

“It’s intense (at District 34),” said Kyle. “It’s huge and has more jumps than Bethel. And you’re always nervous when you hit the gate because there’s, like, 70 kids going off.”

After a few months of learning the ropes, it was time to start looking for bigger and better bikes.

Though MX is now a family affair thing for the Desrochers – Rich (the dad), Cole (the brother) and Missy (the mom) are all into it – Kyle was the first one to start racing. Now he has sponsors like RER Motor City out on Route 25 in Monroe and Titan MX in Newtown where he gets his bikes, his gear, and his spare parts.

Kyle has been to Tennessee (back in March) to race in the Loretta Lynn Area Qualifier (it takes place on her ranch, about 65 miles west of Nashville) and qualified for the regional, where he finished 25th overall.

“There were lots of kids there,” said Kyle, “and all of them were really good.”

He wants to go back to Tennessee and wants to qualify for the Loretta Lynn Amateur Nationals and then compete in the Mini O’s in Gainesville, Florida. Well, two or three times each week, in between school and homework, Kyle hits the track to train and with a New England Regional trophy now in his possession, he has hit sights set on bigger and better things.