Rochester's Henry Miller makes his return to pro Motocross at Millville

Jul. 18—MILLVILLE — In mid-May, Henry Miller had as much momentum as he’s ever had in his 10-year professional motorcycle racing career.

The Rochester native was coming off the best finish of his career in the AMA Supercross points standings, after placing seventh in the 250SX East series.

He was comfortable with his team, his bike and his health as the AMA Pro Motocross season neared.

Then, on May 15, Miller was riding in a practice session at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, Calif., when he crashed and landed face-first.

“Unfortunately, I had a little — I had a big mishap, two weeks before the first round” of the motocross championship, which was held May 30 in Pala, Calif., approximately 50 miles north of San Diego. “They loaded me into the ambulance, all that good stuff, and straight to the trauma center.”

Miller’s biggest concern initially was his mouth and face, after crashing to the ground and having his lower lip ripped from his gums. In a photo posted on social media by his team, MX6 Racing, in mid-June, Miller also had a slightly swollen left eye.

Fortunately for Miller, the bumps and bruises were the extent of the damage to his face and head. He didn’t suffer a concussion — “I had a good helmet,” he said. “It did its job.”

Just more than two months later, Miller made his return to the track on Saturday at a race that he has missed just twice in the last 11 years, the Pro Nationals at Spring Creek MX Park in Millville. It’s a track that Miller grew up racing on, and a track where he has had some of his best rides as a pro.

“Everything in my life — period — has been hectic for the last month,” said Miller, who moved from Texas to southern Georgia last week while also trying to get seat time in on his Kawasaki KX250 bike. “It’s just wide open, so it’s nice to be able to come back here, see some friends and family who come to the race, because I really don’t have that much time right now (to visit Minnesota).

“I was trying to squeeze in as much time on the bike as I could before coming here and — we’re racing now, so it’s in and out (of Minnesota). We have to get right back to work.”

Miller — who said he had “six or seven productive days of riding” prior to racing at Spring Creek — finished 23rd overall (17th in Moto 1, 26th in Moto 2) in the 40-rider 250 Class field on Saturday. He will head to Washougal, Wash., next week — with his body still not at 100% from the crash in California two months ago. He said he’s pain-free, but some nerve damage in his right shoulder and arm is taking longer to recover from.

“It’s maybe working at about 50%,” he said of his right shoulder and arm. “The arm and shoulder (trouble) kind of came up after the face calmed down. We were like ‘oh, wait, now there’s something else.’ It wasn’t a worry at the time. We thought it was just a stinger, then that stinger didn’t go away.

“Thankfully, there’s no pain. But those nerves control the muscles, and the muscles aren’t all activating. The arm does get tired a lot quicker because those muscles aren’t firing. It’s different.”

As he did a year ago, Miller started this motocross season in Millville and he’ll ride the remainder of the championship series this summer, which includes four more rounds and concludes on Aug. 29 at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Ind.

He’ll ride those rounds with the support of MX6 Racing, the team based out of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., that signed him a year ago just before the races at Spring Creek. Miller rode for them the rest of the 2025 motocross season, and that partnership carried over into 2026 and the supercross and motocross seasons.

“I think this is a good one to come back to, because there’s a lot of friends and family that kind of take my mind off the racing too,” Miller said of making his return at his home track, “so I can just go ride my dirt bike, not worry about other things that are going on and just enjoy it.

“It’s just been nice to be able to do something other than running and riding a bicycle.”