In the hare scramble, Mark Heidel was king. He was 9, weaving between trees on his motocross bike from start to finish knowing a wrong turn could mean more than a scraped knee. But still, he loved it. The wind at 50 MPH, darting around trees, the excitement like a bird in his chest ready to break out—he loved it all.
“My passion was how fast I could go in racing,” Mark said. And of course to “win at all costs.”It was the freedom of it, he says. The wind and the excitement and the danger was secondary to the freedom. As he aged, he would work multiple jobs to ensure his freedom and a stable source of pocket cash.
Decades later, Mark hasn’t changed much. At 58, he still rides motocross, he’s still working constantly—and he’s still focused on his freedom.Now as the owner of The Flying Locksmiths’ Detroit market, Mark says he get…