Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea, the current eni FIM Superbike World Championship point leader, today got to meet and ride motocross with one of his childhood idols, Jeremy McGrath, at Pala Raceway, in Pala, California.

Like Rea, McGrath–a seven-time AMA Supercross Champion, a two-time FIM Supercross World Champion, an X Games gold medalist and a race-winning driver/owner in the Lucas Off-Road Series–has an affiliation with Kawasaki, which set up today’s meeting.

“I was staying a few extra days in California to do a few Kawasaki PR things,” Rea told Roadracingworld.com Wednesday. “They [Kawasaki] said it was going to be full of flat-fun activities, so I asked if there was any chance of going motocross riding. They said, yeah, let’s go. Then they asked, where do you want to go and is there anyone you want to ride with? I said, Jeremy’s one of my heroes. When I was a kid I looked up to him. He was the guy every young kid wanted to be. They said they could make it happen, and now we’re here.”

The day started with Rea and McGrath exchanging autographed helmets. Rea said he has a sizeable collection of helmets from motorcycling greats and that McGrath’s would be one of the prizes of the collection. McGrath, however, told Rea that he only had helmets from two motorcycles road racers, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

“He’s not the biggest collector, but the ones he has are proper Championship guys,” said Rea. “So hopefully I can add a World Championship to his collection.”

Rea and McGrath then rode several motos together on the various tracks at Pala Raceway, and both men showed that they still know how to get around in the dirt very well.

“The boys here in California are spoiled,” said Rea, who won a British Motocross Championship on a Kawasaki when he was younger. “That’s a proper Pro track right there.”