BIOGRAPHY

Joey started riding a motorcycle at the age of 5. Due to is father’s past motorcycle racing career, he was groomed from the start for the future. Mike Pascarella has stated that as long as Joey was having fun riding, he was going to teach him the skills he needed to be successful. Mike has said he also has taught Joey about the mistakes he had made during his career to help Joey avoid them too.

Joey started racing at the age of 6. His first series was cross-country in the D-36 pro class. Right off the start Joey showed he had that special drive inside him. Every time Joey race he showed some type of progression. Two years after his first start in the D-36 adult C class enduro series, Joey earned his first Championship. Over the next few years Joey earned a first in the D-36 youth B class, forth in the D-36 youth A class, and a first in the Hollister National Cross-country Championship riding a Yamaha TTR-125. One of Joey’s early accomplishments was to become the first youth rider to turn D-36 AA youth.

In 2005, Joey and his father went to a Supermoto race. After seeing the exciting racing, Joey told his father he wanted to try the new sport. After a few months of riding supermoto, Joey participated in his first amateur National Supermoto Championship in Reno Nevada. Joey walked away from the event as the AMA/NASMOTO Premier Mini National Champion.

In 2006, Joey and his father met Paul Lima (GPHusqvarna Team owner). After seeing Joey at the national race, Mr. Lima saw some great potential in Joey and decided to help in a limited capacity. With the help of GPHusqvarna, Joey stepped onto a 250cc motorcycle (TC250 Husqvarna) for the first time in January. At the time it was unknown if Joey would be able to adapt to the bike because of his size. When talking with Joey at the time, he said his goal was to win the 250cc National Championship at the end of the year in Long Beach California. Joey raced his local series and placed first in Supermoto USA Premiere Lightweight series, third in Supermoto USA 250F series, and second in Supermoto USA 450 series. The end of the year had come and Joey was off to Long Beach to try to accomplish his goal to be a champion. Joey entered the event and was going to race in the 250F and 450 classes. After the first practice in the 250F class, Joey’s father and Mr. Lima believed Joey could possibly accomplish his goal. In the 450 class Joey was towards the front in practice, but there was several individuals that were very fast and Joey was going to be riding his TC250. The result in the 250F class was Joey accomplishing his goal as AMA/NASMOTO SM2 (250F) National Champion. In the 450 class it was quite a battle. Joey and another rider battled and pulled away from the field. During the race, Joey showed his skills. Riding a bike that was under power to the rest of the field, Joey showed the fans and factory teams (GPHusqvarna, TroyLeeDesign, Graves Yamaha, HMC KTM) that he was the new and up in coming amateur. Joey pushed the leader so hard the Leader’s bike had a front brake failure. With that failure came Joey’s first AMA/NASMOTO SM1 (450) National Championship. The year taught Joey that he can accomplish any goals he sets out to accomplish.


In 2007, after coming off an extraordinary 2008 season. Joey gained some experience on a factory racing team (GPHusqvarna Supermoto team). He responded to the opportunity by winning 250 and 450 AMA/NASMOTO National Championships while ridding a Husqvarna TC250 for the second year.

At the end of 2007, Joey decided he would like to try road racing. Joey applied for the first ever Red Bull Rookies Cup in the US. His application was accepted out of approximately 600 kids. After receiving an invite from Red Bull and having never ridden a roadracing type motorcycle, Joey stepped on a 125cc road racing bike for the first time. Joey rode the 125cc road racing bike approximately six times (two actual days of testing) before the interview with Red Bull. During the interview process, Joey was immediately in the top ten in testing. Due to Joey’s strong skills and ability to adapt to different motorcycle disciplines, he was invited to ride in the first AMA Red Bull Rookies Cup 2008 season. At the end of 2008, Joey finished seventh in the standings and was invited to participate in the Red Bull Rookies Cup in Valencia Spain (last round of the Motogp series). Due to Joey’s potential, he has was invited back to participate in the 2009 Red Bull Rookies Cup. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Red Bull Rookie Cup series was cancelled in the United States.

In 2008 Joey was invited to the Moto-X World Championship games in San Diego. Joey’s lap times were in the top ten, but due to some bad luck, he was unable to qualify for the main event. The event showed that Joey was in fact fast enough to ride with the Pro field at the age of 15. That year in August, Joey was invited to participate in X-Games XIV. Due to a schedule conflict with the Red Bull Rookies Cup, Joey decided to decline the invite.

In November 2008 Joey participated in his first official professional Supermoto race. Before the race Joey had only ridden a Supermoto bike a couple of times due to his Rookies Cup obligation. Riding a 2007 Yamaha YZF450 Joey finished fourth and sixth in the AMA Premier Supermoto (450) class. The result of the weekend showed that Joey belonged in the Premier Class at the age of 16.

In January 2009 after learning the Red Bull Series was cancelled Melvin Nash (Huntly Nash’s father) decided that his son and Joey had so much potential that he didn’t want to see their roadracing careers end. So he started to put together the “Living the Dream” racing team. The goal was to continue Nash and Pascarella’s progression in the field of roadracing. The team was going to participate in the AMA East Coast Supersport series for individual 16 years old to 21 years old. The Living the Dream team’s first race was Daytona. The Sunday before the Supersport race, Joey’s new race bike had a major melt down. Joey’s engine was completely destroyed. The team ran into a second problem too. The back up motor had been lost in shipping before Daytona and was nowhere to be found. The team managed to find a completely stock Yamaha R6 motor (with approximately 5000 miles) for the race. The result of the Daytona Supersport race was Tyler Odem passing Joey on the last lap to take first place with Joey .310 seconds behind.

In February of 2009, Joey signed his first professional racing contract with Troy Lee Designs. He will be riding the Xtrm/AMA Supermoto Lites series. Right off the back Joey states he is going for the number 1 plate. Anything else will not do.

When asking Joey what his goals are he responds by saying, "I am interested in trying many different styles of motorcycle racing and my goal is to become a champion in all that I try.”