Pahrump OHV Park: An 11-year old off-road racer wants to park to open

At the age of 11, a Pahrump boy had to choose between two of his biggest hobbies: playing in his soccer tournament or receiving his first-place trophy in an ATV series at an award ceremony.

Kroi Ryan loves to play soccer but also has a strong passion for off-road racing after dedicating a larger part of the year to practicing and mastering his jumps on his ATV. This time, he chose to receive his 90cc stock open class ATV trophy that he had worked so hard to get.

“I worked all year long to get that trophy,” Ryan told his mom. “I really want the trophy.”

This is the second time Kroi has won this trophy.

His love for off-road racing came at an early age for Ryan, his mother Nicole Ryan said. His older brother Kevin Ryan, 22, has also been drawn to the sport. It’s somewhat in their bloodline as the boys’ father also used to race, but on a dirt bike.

While Nicole’s oldest son had no desire to race, Kroi on the other hand was obsessed with the idea of racing like his dad once did, but this time on his own ATV.

“Kroi loves jumps. That’s his favorite thing about racing,” his mother said. “The bigger the jumps, the higher he can go.”

Race season usually happens during the school year and the 11-year old rider has to miss roughly 16 days of the school calendar. Eighteen days is the maximum number of days a student can miss of class in public school before running into issues. This is due to the multi-day event with qualifications, placement and finally the race day. But Kroi doesn’t like to miss school.

“My son loves school,” Kroi’s mom said. “It’s an addiction for him. He loves, loves, loves school as much as he loves racing.” And he’s only OK with missing school if it’s for racing.

And Kroi does all this with a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for him to communicate, called Apraxia.

“Having a disability at times can be a [hinderance], but it can also be a superpower,” Nicole said.

“If he can do it, I can do it”

Before Kroi wanted to race ATV’s, he was enamored with trophy trucks as the entire family has been following the truck races.

“But that is very expensive,” Nicole said. Trophy trucks can range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to a million dollars, something most families cannot afford.

“Well, we can’t afford to do trophy trucks, but dad used to race dirt bikes,” Kroi told his mom. “Can I race my quad?”

Nicole thought to herself, “Ugh, alright, it begins,” something she knew was coming, yet wasn’t quite prepared for the moment.

“He’s always jumped his bike, he’s always jumped his quads,” Nicole said. “He’s always been fascinated with going fast and jumping.”

But before Kroi began to race, Nicole wanted to ensure he was able to communicate properl. His parents are in the stands and can understand him, but due to his Apraxia, the track officials might struggle to communicate.

“If (officials) come up on my son and they can’t understand him, then they can’t help him,” Kroi’s mother said. “That was a major thing for us, we wanted to make sure that he was able to speak, that way he would always be safe.”

In 2022, Kroi got started learning his way around the track. His first year was difficult as he had an under-powered quad and had taken some rolls from racing his ATV.

But 2025 will be his last year of racing ATV’s as Kroi is reaching the maximum age limit of the 90cc series. His options are to upgrade to a 250cc or 450cc ATV or jump to a dirt bike, and the family will tackle that next December. And as Kroi will start up middle school and he wants to join as many teams as he can, he will end up having to decide between off-road racing or school sports. Racing is a big-time commitment, as to even qualify for the championship races, the racer must participate in a set number of races, which means a lot of weekends.

OHV Park update

Kroi is not the only kid in town to ride his off-road vehicle; many kids and adults have been riding around the desert, including in places that might not be as safe.

Off-roading is why the Ryan family stays in Pahrump.

“I would prefer to see my son out there on his dirt bike or his quad or his bicycle riding around than being stuck inside glued to a TV screen,” Nicole said.

The county had their groundbreaking of the Pahrump Off-Highway Vehicle Park in 2022 after discussion of the park started in 2020, a project that Jimmy Lewis has been behind from its inception. Lewis is the chair of the OHV Park Avisory Comittee and a off-road expert.

Two years later and the park still seems to show no progress when driving by the site. Kroi, who wants the park to open, is confused about the hold up. He talked to race event coordinators to see what they can do to help open the Pahrump facility.

“I want to have a place for the kids to be able to go ride because I was that kid at some point in my life,” Lewis said. “I realized how valuable it was to put me on an off-road vehicle, and it kept me out of trouble.”

The initial grant came from the Nevada Off-Highway Vehicle commission, money from the OHV sticker program. The county would match the grant and 40 acres of land in the southern end of Pahrump off State Route 160.

The team started to work on what they would need to do to put the park in place, but everyone wanted to hop on a tractor and build a facility.

“It’s a little bit different than that,” Lewis said. The two biggest struggles Lewis has had so far are the dust and noise that creating a track produces.

Residents in the area have had an issue with the noise the track could create and so the first thing on the agenda for the OHV Park Avisory Committee was to install a sound barrier. Next, the track needs a watering system to reduce the amount of dust.

To make matters worse, the committee will have to improve the soil on the track so that it can retain moisture.

“The soil out there is frankly horrible,” Lewis said. “It’s ‘poof dirt’ like we have every place in this valley.”

This has resulted in having to burn the soil, which required grading permits that had to be approved. The truck needed to properly drain the water content, and when it was time to move the dirt, the plan was interrupted with some of the major flooding events when highways were down.

The committee would like to open a state-of-the-art facility that won’t get shut down the moment it opens. But currently, there is no expected opening day.

What will open first is a youth track in the spring.

To keep up with updates on the track, the OHV Park Advisory Committee will meet on Jan. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building.

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.