Two weeks after getting his first dirt bike, Rob Riner, partner at Panattoni Development Co., entered his first race—and came in last place. He has been obsessed with the sport since getting his first 1971 Yamaha mini enduro JT-1 at the age of 9. “I had been begging for one, working hard and keeping my grades up,” he says. “Before deciding to buy, my dad took me to some trails near our home in Big Spring.” There, they came upon another 9-year-old riding around the tracks. Riner’s father asked the kid if he thought Rob could handle one of the bikes. “Aw, hell,” said the kid. “He rides it all the time.”
Riner continued to ride and race, both motocross (races on closed circuits) and cross country (races on the open road), and eventually became a state champ. He wore No. 69, because “it was the same number right side up or upside down, in a dogpile,” he says. Still passionate about the sport, Riner races in regional and national events ranging from Unadilla in New York to Barstow-to-Vegas, a desert race. Recently, he and three other team members competed in the Baja 1000, an off-road race that takes place on Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Riner’s 260-mile leg ran from the Sea of Cortez across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean, with elevation changes of 13 feet below sea level to 2,300 feet above it. “It was a whipping,” he says. Despite mechanical issues, one team member who got a concussion, and another who had hyperthermia, the team finished eighth in its class.
The thrill of competition has sustained Riner’s interest in the sport for decades. “When you get on the bike, you are focused only on what you are doing at that moment,” he says. “You’re not planning another build-to-suit or figuring out infrastructure. To be hyper-focused and be successful at it is very rewarding. The other thing I like about it is the competition and the camaraderie, as well as the physical conditioning that’s required.”
