Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / Rexy & Louis interview MotoAmerica racer Bobby Fong in S5 Ep 38

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Rexy & Louis interview MotoAmerica racer Bobby Fong in S5 Ep 38 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 0:00
  You'll listen to the Be Forever Cool podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Rex 45. We got Luis Ortega in the
• 0:05
  building. What's going on, Luis?
• 0:06
  Man, how you doing tonight? Good, good man, how you doing
• 0:09
  this twice in one week? Man, I'm seeing you too much
• 0:11
  now. I know, I know.
• 0:13
  It's either good things or you got a lot of time on your hands.
• 0:17
  I don't know. I'm not trying to keep it busy
• 0:19
  and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.
• 0:23
  No, I I agree there and and tonight is a is a special one
• 0:27
  and and I'm glad for the opportunity as well.
• 0:30
  And you know, let's bring our guests in with with with no
• 0:32
  further ado because we gotta get this thing going.
• 0:35
  Welcome, Bobby Fong to the show. Welcome to the show.
• 0:37
  Bobby, how you doing tonight? Thanks boys.
• 0:40
  Thanks for having me. It's good man.
• 0:41
  It's good. It's good to be.
• 0:42
  It's good to be on where you guys have been watching you a
• 0:44
  little bit. So it's good to get good
• 0:47
  chatting away with you guys. Nice, nice.
• 0:49
  Likewise, we've been watching you on the racetrack.
• 0:51
  So not quite the same speed for us, but, you know, at least we
• 0:55
  we're checking each other out, which is most important.
• 0:58
  So let's. Yeah, man, let's let's get into
• 1:00
  this thing. Louis, you want to kick it off?
• 1:01
  And that's the first question. Well, I mean, first I'd like to
• 1:04
  give a little background on Bobby.
• 1:06
  I mean, I've known Bobby now for a long time.
• 1:09
  I mean, there were no Gray hairs on you at all when I first met
• 1:13
  you. So you know, just a quick little
• 1:17
  recap. I mean, obviously you've been
• 1:19
  Rd. racing in Motor America when it was DMG and were you racing
• 1:23
  when it was just regular AMA Rd. racing or did you start when it
• 1:27
  was DMG? Yeah, no, I started when it was
• 1:29
  AMA. I started in O seven.
• 1:31
  I was 15. Wow. 15 years old.
• 1:34
  Yeah, I mean at a long damn time.
• 1:38
  Well, you know, throughout the years, obviously you, you've
• 1:41
  been on a lot of different equipment, you've done a lot of
• 1:43
  different things. And you know, in the last few
• 1:46
  years we've seen your career take like a couple of drastic
• 1:50
  turns. 1 didn't look so good. And then all of a sudden, you
• 1:54
  know, you were kind of jumping around on different bikes and
• 1:57
  like, how'd that all happened, man?
• 2:00
  Man, it's been, it's been a roller coaster of a career, man.
• 2:03
  I've been on so many different teams and bikes over the years.
• 2:08
  In 20, I've had to do it a few times actually.
• 2:11
  In 20, after 2020, no, sorry, 2010 I was racing for DNA Ducati
• 2:19
  team and we had a great, great year, won some races, got on a
• 2:23
  podium multiple times. I thought I was going to be with
• 2:26
  the team in 2011. Didn't end up getting a ride in
• 2:30
  2011. Had to get a day job.
• 2:33
  Basically put up commercial doors and read it.
• 2:35
  Residential doors, any type of door.
• 2:37
  We we put it up, install it, all the stuff.
• 2:39
  So I didn't get a job a few times and then got a ride again
• 2:44
  in 2012 and then race 2012 all the way up until 20.
• 2:53
  Shit, what was it, 2021? And then that was at M4.
• 2:58
  And then in 22, I had to get a day job.
• 3:01
  It was with Alpine Stars. No, sorry.
• 3:05
  I I I forgot about it. I worked for Piaggio too, in
• 3:08
  2018-2019. I totally forgot about that.
• 3:12
  Yeah, Yeah. So I didn't have a ride in 2018
• 3:15
  as well. I had to get a job with Piaggio.
• 3:16
  I was at Northwest Sales. They called Northwest sales
• 3:19
  manager, just a Rep. And then I wrote for John Ulrich
• 3:23
  and Chris Ulrich for a few years.
• 3:26
  Didn't get a ride in 22. Got a job at Alpine Stars for a
• 3:30
  little bit doing the racer support.
• 3:33
  And then that didn't work out so long because Gabrielli at the
• 3:38
  time wanted me to just pick the job.
• 3:41
  And I, I got a bagger ride that year too.
• 3:43
  So I was doing some select bagger races and that progressed
• 3:48
  the bagger stuff and it started getting really big in 22 and
• 3:53
  Alpine Sergeant said, hey man, you can't race, you got to pick
• 3:55
  the job or you know, pick the job or pick racing.
• 3:57
  So I picked racing and then that's when Dainese, you helped
• 4:01
  me out and got me in the job of Dainese and did the race of
• 4:03
  support with you guys. And that kind of, you know, I
• 4:08
  learned a lot and then I got a super bike ride while still
• 4:11
  working with you guys, Dainese and then that progressed in the
• 4:16
  factory ride, man, that's all. The rest is history.
• 4:18
  So the last three years have been.
• 4:20
  Yeah. The last three years have been
• 4:23
  pretty, pretty exciting for you then.
• 4:25
  Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely got a little job experience,
• 4:28
  been good on the racing side, got my, my dream, you know,
• 4:32
  factory ride that I've always wanted.
• 4:34
  So that was that's been really cool, a good experience.
• 4:37
  We had a great year this year. And so.
• 4:40
  Yeah. What, what kept you motivated in
• 4:43
  the early years, you know, going, you know, having a ride,
• 4:46
  having to find a, a regular job and, and getting a ride and
• 4:49
  stuff like that. Like what, what, what kept you
• 4:51
  motivated? Because we, we see a lot of guys
• 4:53
  and, and women, you know, they, they put in their retirement
• 4:56
  papers. You know, it's, I've been racing
• 5:00
  a motorcycle since I was four years old.
• 5:03
  So it's like it's kind of the only thing that I really know
• 5:07
  how to do, do good in my, you know, and basically it's like
• 5:12
  when racing gets taken away, it feels like your identity, you
• 5:15
  know, gets taken away. So it's like it feels like
• 5:17
  there's something missing. It's as weird as that sounds.
• 5:20
  It's just like when racing gets taken away, it's like you don't
• 5:22
  even know who you are anymore. So all I know is racing really,
• 5:25
  because that's, that's all I've ever, I've been traveling, you
• 5:28
  know, the, the world by myself since I was 16.
• 5:31
  So when you don't have race and it's just you, you lose a part
• 5:34
  of your life and you know it, but it, it teaches you, you, you
• 5:38
  got to work for what you want, obviously, and you got to give
• 5:41
  it 100% because it could be over tomorrow.
• 5:43
  And I know that feeling when it's over.
• 5:45
  It's a terrible feeling. Getting a day job and knowing
• 5:47
  that you're not racing a motorcycle anymore is a shit
• 5:49
  feeling. It's a shit feeling, but we all
• 5:52
  got to do it at some point. We're not, you know, American
• 5:55
  racers, we're not making 1,000,000 bucks multi $1,000,000
• 5:58
  every year. So we, we at at some point we're
• 6:01
  all going to have to get a job, right?
• 6:04
  No. I agree there, no one likes to
• 6:06
  go back and go to work. And what was that transition
• 6:09
  like? Like and you were on the wrench
• 6:11
  team, you ended up the number one Yamaha that year in points.
• 6:16
  You know, was this something that was kind of pre written
• 6:19
  that you were going to go to Yamaha or again, it was just
• 6:21
  kind of an opportunity that presented itself?
• 6:24
  Honestly, it was an opportunity that presented itself because
• 6:28
  there is rumor. So we had a good season in 23
• 6:30
  with the Wrench team on the R1. We had a great season, won some
• 6:33
  races, a lot of podiums. Third in the championship or
• 6:37
  second or third, Yeah, third I think.
• 6:40
  And how did it work out? So basically there was a rider
• 6:43
  leaving attack as I heard of Cam Peterson was going to leave
• 6:46
  attack or they were going to let him go or something like that.
• 6:48
  So I called Yamaha and just told them, Hey, I'm available, you
• 6:54
  know, if, if the ride opens up and you know, please give me a
• 6:58
  call. And I bugged and bugged for a
• 6:59
  while and I definitely wasn't even on Yamaha's, you know, top
• 7:04
  three list. Like there was a few guys ahead
• 7:07
  of me and they turned it down because they had a different
• 7:10
  deal or better deal or thought they had a better deal.
• 7:12
  And I was third or fourth on the list.
• 7:15
  And I just got really lucky, believe it or not, to get the
• 7:17
  ride. Like I wasn't going to get that
• 7:20
  ride. But I kept bugging and calling,
• 7:22
  calling people to see if I got the ride and try to sneak an
• 7:26
  answer out of Richard Stamboli, but he doesn't make the final
• 7:29
  decision. So it was very stressful a few
• 7:31
  months after the season whether if I was going to get that
• 7:33
  right, because I've been working my whole life to get a factory
• 7:35
  ride and never had a factory ride before.
• 7:37
  So I was stressed out every day because I, you know, then I
• 7:42
  heard that they were going to sign Cambodia and then he turned
• 7:45
  it down and then it was going to be SDK and then he had something
• 7:48
  else going on at the time. So really I just got really
• 7:51
  lucky. I mean, yes, I felt like I
• 7:53
  earned the ride for sure for my results in 23.
• 7:57
  I felt like I that was the right thing that Yamam could do is
• 8:00
  give me since I was a top Yamam 23.
• 8:02
  But I really just got lucky to be completely honest and I made
• 8:06
  the best of it. Well, I try to make the best of
• 8:08
  it. You know, like we got.
• 8:10
  We fell a few short this year. Is it normal for riders to reach
• 8:15
  out to teams for ride and stuff like that?
• 8:17
  Is that or is it just that at the point you just this is how
• 8:19
  the grind is for you? No, man fuck, that's normal
• 8:22
  thing. Every year is a dude.
• 8:24
  You're always making those phone calls, you're stressed out, you
• 8:27
  don't know if you have a ride and then even if you even if you
• 8:30
  think you have a contract, if a team goes bankrupt, what are you
• 8:34
  going to do? You know, like it's such a
• 8:36
  stressful career. I've never had a two year deal
• 8:39
  ever in my career. I've never had a team that they
• 8:42
  signed AI signed a contract that it was a two year deal.
• 8:45
  So every year I'm on a high stress alert.
• 8:47
  This deal is a little different. Like I, yeah, my contract now is
• 8:53
  like a, if I get top three in the championship, it's an
• 8:56
  automatic renewal. So it my my option obviously.
• 9:01
  But so it's kind of like a two year deal, but not really.
• 9:04
  You know, it's still, I could still say no, but that's the
• 9:07
  closest thing I've ever got to a two year deal.
• 9:09
  But so, yeah, every year you're on high fucking up like the
• 9:12
  weather, if you're going to get a ride, you're just making phone
• 9:15
  calls to everybody in the industry and trying to get
• 9:17
  something. But everybody, it's like high
• 9:19
  school. Everybody always talks like, you
• 9:21
  know, it's small world, you know what I mean?
• 9:23
  So everybody kind of knows everybody's business, but
• 9:26
  everybody always says something different, you know, So you just
• 9:30
  don't know what what's the truth?
• 9:31
  But yeah, it's very stressful in offseason.
• 9:35
  So between the phone call and the time you got the
• 9:37
  confirmation, what was life like for you?
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  Man, it was when I found out I got the ride because you, you
• 9:45
  still have to train to the offseason, right?
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  Like because you, no matter what you got to, you still got to
• 9:49
  train. So like every day you're just
• 9:51
  training. You're like, fuck, what am I
• 9:52
  doing this for? I could just be sitting on the
• 9:54
  couch, you know? So you still got to have that
• 9:56
  motivation like whether you get a phone call or not.
• 9:59
  So I was, I was on a bike ride when I finally got the phone
• 10:02
  call was like, hey, you know, they're going to send you the
• 10:06
  contract. And I was literally on the phone
• 10:08
  at Richard Stamboli on my bicycle and stopped to look at
• 10:11
  my e-mail and sent, they sent the contractor, which was, it
• 10:14
  was like amazing. And then all my training
• 10:16
  sessions got a little bit better because we had a little bit more
• 10:18
  motivation to do do better, you know.
• 10:20
  So that was, I think that was in November, December last year,
• 10:26
  yeah. Or this year.
• 10:27
  Sorry, no, last year, yeah, November, December, I found out.
• 10:31
  So they. Still had a month or two.
• 10:33
  Yeah. So they, but they stretch it out
• 10:35
  quite a while because the end of the season is September.
• 10:37
  So that's a few months of stress and for sure.
• 10:40
  No, it was dude. It's so, I mean, it's, you know,
• 10:43
  I've aged just in that little period of time.
• 10:45
  It's brutal. And your first year on the
• 10:48
  factory Yamaha team, you know, did you expect to have the
• 10:52
  success that you had coming off of the wrench team, or did you
• 10:56
  expect to maybe be the second rider?
• 10:58
  Because obviously Jake's been there a long time and he knows
• 11:01
  the bike better than anyone. Like what did?
• 11:03
  What was your expectation when you first arrived at the team?
• 11:07
  Well, attack and 23 didn't do so hot, like for whatever reason, I
• 11:11
  don't know, bike setup or riders, I'm not really sure, but
• 11:15
  the the results weren't as great as years past.
• 11:17
  So and then everybody is, you know, saying that the Yamaha
• 11:20
  was, you know, updated and you know, and then, you know, Ducati
• 11:25
  and the BMW came in right away and just started doing really
• 11:28
  good. You know, so going into attack,
• 11:32
  I didn't really know. Of course I I knew we're going
• 11:34
  to be battling up front, but I didn't know it was going to be
• 11:37
  as consistent as what we have been.
• 11:39
  The team has done a good job to elevate that Yamaha for sure,
• 11:42
  but just because of the Ducati and the BMW were new bikes.
• 11:46
  You know, the Yamaha is an older model bike.
• 11:48
  So I didn't really think that. I mean, I didn't know like we're
• 11:51
  going to be out on that front, but I didn't think it was as
• 11:53
  consistent as we were for sure. Like there was some races where
• 11:57
  I was like, you know, it was really close with the Ducatis
• 12:02
  and BMW's at tracks that, you know, that I shouldn't have been
• 12:05
  up there with them So. But like I said, I knew it was
• 12:08
  going to be battling up front, but not not as good as what I
• 12:10
  thought. When did you think you had that,
• 12:14
  that moment, that epiphany that it's like, hey, wait a second,
• 12:17
  I'm I'm actually really fast on this bike.
• 12:21
  Like is there because I know for me, I know exactly when I was
• 12:24
  like, oh man, Bobby's not supposed to be doing that.
• 12:27
  Why is he doing that? And it's like.
• 12:29
  So being aware, so I'm trying to think of the season, dude, it's
• 12:35
  weird. Like I try to look back at the
• 12:37
  season. There's not many races.
• 12:38
  I remember it was like this year, like I it's so weird.
• 12:42
  It's this is like the first year, like I'm so in this like
• 12:47
  little bubble. So like I can't even think of
• 12:49
  it's kind of bad and good because I would get off, let's
• 12:54
  just say if I won the race on Sunday.
• 12:56
  It's like I don't even remember the feeling.
• 12:57
  It's hard for me to enjoy it because all I'm thinking about
• 12:59
  was how to be better the next day or I'm going to do it again
• 13:02
  the next day or the next race or something like that.
• 13:03
  So it's, it's weird. Like when I think about the
• 13:05
  season, I it's a lot. It's a blur.
• 13:08
  But I knew like during testing in the winter, like we always
• 13:12
  tested this podium club. I knew like I was pretty really
• 13:16
  consistent doing some fast lap times for that place and I knew
• 13:19
  I was like, man, this, it could be a really good year.
• 13:22
  You know, just the consistency and each time we tested it was,
• 13:26
  I've never experienced it. Each time we tested, we got
• 13:28
  faster and faster. The bike got better and better.
• 13:30
  So it was like the team had the drive to make the bike better
• 13:33
  each time we went on track, which is really like, that's
• 13:36
  super cool of Stanbow and like, you know, that dude is going to
• 13:39
  work every day, even during the season to try to make that bike
• 13:43
  better. And it did and it did.
• 13:45
  And it got even better from the beginning of the year to the end
• 13:47
  of the year as well. Right, so how does the factory
• 13:52
  team compared to the non factory team from previous years as far
• 13:56
  as just the the bike itself? So one of the things that being
• 14:02
  being a factory rider is the testing.
• 14:05
  The testing is like man, the testing is key for you know, to,
• 14:11
  to get the bike developed around you and to try different parts
• 14:14
  and stuff like that. Most private tier teams test
• 14:16
  once or twice before the season. We tested like 552 day tests
• 14:20
  before the season. And then just the constant
• 14:24
  development on the bike. You know, he's always trying to
• 14:26
  get something from Europe, which Europe I don't think helped out
• 14:29
  too much last year. It was more just all in house.
• 14:31
  Richard Stambolanius crew there. But it was just the constant
• 14:35
  development of the bike. Every, you know, one weekend we
• 14:38
  have a different swing on it or one weekend we try a different
• 14:41
  tank. You know, it was, you know,
• 14:42
  different motor spec, a few different motor specs.
• 14:45
  So that's like the perks of being on a factory team.
• 14:47
  They're always developing and they have, you know, the budget
• 14:50
  to do so. You know, when you're on private
• 14:52
  tier team, like they're doing their best they can, but you're
• 14:56
  not going to test a lot. And the bike is basically the
• 14:59
  bike for the year usually, you know what I mean?
• 15:01
  They're just scraping the funds to get it to the track, you
• 15:04
  know, So that's the little different thing about factory
• 15:07
  team is you're always developing, you're always trying
• 15:08
  to improve. And then they have the budget to
• 15:10
  do so. And we even did like during the
• 15:13
  middle of the year, we even tested at middle high because
• 15:16
  the Yamaha's middle high because the Yamaha's struggle, they're
• 15:19
  really bad in 23. And we're like Yamaha's like,
• 15:22
  well, we need to test there. So we ended up testing there,
• 15:25
  which is it's just all these little perks like that which are
• 15:28
  super cool. Was that an easy transition for
• 15:31
  you to change your mindset from having a bike that you don't
• 15:36
  have to change all year to, you know, every day it could be a
• 15:40
  different thing you might be trying?
• 15:43
  The mindset was, you know, I was always excited.
• 15:46
  I like to try. I like testing like most people
• 15:49
  don't like testing. I love testing because I like to
• 15:51
  see like a little improvements in what like makes a bike better
• 15:54
  or not. Now it was from transitioning
• 15:58
  from my ADR bike to the factory bike.
• 16:01
  It was a pretty easy transition even though the bike, the
• 16:04
  characteristics of the motorcycle was all still there.
• 16:07
  So I knew that already, but the everything was different on it,
• 16:11
  you know, different swing arm, different motor spec, different
• 16:13
  gearbox, the ergonomics a little bit the seating position was a
• 16:17
  little bit different on the factory bike, some positive,
• 16:20
  some negative. But yeah, the mindset was always
• 16:24
  I was always excited to ride the things he never knew, like I
• 16:27
  mean, and going into race weekends, you know, they have so
• 16:30
  much data. You know, they already knew the
• 16:32
  key ring to the racetrack. They already knew like semi what
• 16:35
  spring rate we want to run just from years of development in
• 16:38
  that bike. So that was that was key as
• 16:40
  well. Another thing that I noticed
• 16:43
  from you this year is riding in the rain.
• 16:46
  You're usually not known as a wet weather rider, but the
• 16:49
  couple of the rain races this year you actually did really,
• 16:52
  really well. Like what was it about the team
• 16:55
  or the bike that gave you the confidence to go out there and
• 16:57
  ride? Honestly dude I didn't really
• 17:00
  believe it. I thought it was Nikola for a
• 17:01
  while when Richard was always talks about on his little
• 17:04
  podcast he does about how good of a rain bike he makes, you
• 17:08
  know, for the rider. And I didn't believe it until I
• 17:11
  actually at Barber this this year for race 2, it was soaking
• 17:16
  wet, but for morning warm up, I mean it was just pissing down
• 17:19
  rain and that was like the proper first day I got on his
• 17:23
  bike in the wet and I'm like and I was like P2 and warm up behind
• 17:27
  Jake. I'm like, holy shit, this setup
• 17:29
  is so good. Like it just, it made me, it
• 17:33
  just made you feel comfortable. It was as much as like most
• 17:36
  people just like soften up and, you know, turn down the power of
• 17:39
  the motorcycle. And at TC it's a lot more than
• 17:42
  that for attack. You know, they change geometry,
• 17:46
  they change a whole bunch of shit.
• 17:47
  I don't know what they change, but it makes you feel
• 17:49
  comfortable. So yeah, it was something
• 17:53
  because usually I'm scared to death as you know, you could
• 17:55
  spit on the track and I'm, you know, putting on the brakes, you
• 17:58
  know, so but not the bike made the bike and the team, how
• 18:02
  they're they're set up, made the world of a difference.
• 18:05
  And so now you get through the season.
• 18:07
  I mean, for me, it felt like Laguna Seca was a big turning
• 18:10
  point because you like killed that weekend.
• 18:13
  Like you just showed up and nobody really thought you were
• 18:16
  going to do much that weekend, but you really like took it to
• 18:19
  the two guys that everybody thought was going to just walk
• 18:22
  away with the entire series. And that was like the turning
• 18:25
  point for me. And then from there on out,
• 18:27
  there's a point where you obviously became the points
• 18:30
  leader. What was it like?
• 18:31
  You know, your first time being the points leader in Super Bike?
• 18:39
  Well, it was so the Ridge was before Laguna and the Ridge I, I
• 18:45
  really struggled there. We, we struggled as a team
• 18:49
  there. But after going home from the
• 18:51
  Ridge, I ended up going to, I ended up going to my, my wife's
• 18:55
  family place in Canada for the week.
• 18:58
  It was a week before Laguna and I was just man, I couldn't even
• 19:02
  sleep. I was just like, that weekend
• 19:05
  really woke me up. I'm just like, man, I got to
• 19:07
  good. We got to get our shit together,
• 19:09
  you know, because the Ridge was like a real struggle.
• 19:11
  And I'm really hard on myself more than the average person to
• 19:14
  like an unhealthy way, you know. So going in Laguna, I'm like, I
• 19:19
  can't have this feeling anymore. Like the feeling of like getting
• 19:23
  your ass kicked that bad at, at the Ridge.
• 19:25
  I was like, I, you know, I can't have this feeling anymore.
• 19:28
  It was terrible. It was like somebody killed my
• 19:30
  dog. So we got to Laguna a little
• 19:33
  extra motivated and I usually struggle at that place.
• 19:35
  So I was, we actually, we, we did our homework and I'm just
• 19:38
  like, I never want to feel that feeling again.
• 19:41
  So we just went out and did as many laps as I could, but used
• 19:44
  tires, you know, and just put my head down every single lap and
• 19:49
  made it count in practice. And it it paid off for the
• 19:51
  races. And then we end up getting the
• 19:53
  points lead not long after that. And dude, that was super cool.
• 19:56
  But you try not to think about the pressure about the points
• 19:59
  lead, You know, you always try to say like in your mind, like,
• 20:03
  I'm not going to worry about, you know, the championship, take
• 20:05
  it race by race. But it's always in the back of
• 20:07
  your head, like, man, I want to keep this lead.
• 20:09
  You know what I mean? It is it is added pressure for
• 20:12
  sure. Like but we all have to deal
• 20:14
  with it. But it is added pressure.
• 20:17
  What was your mindset like at, you know, from a, a spectator
• 20:21
  and, and talking to folks, it's you know, you know, we had
• 20:24
  tracks where they'll say it's Ducati or BMW track and stuff
• 20:27
  like that and tracks where they they said the Yamaha is the
• 20:31
  bike, the tracks where it seemed like Ducati or BMW was supposed
• 20:36
  to do well, you were able to come and, you know, say steal so
• 20:40
  and get some points there. What was that mindset like?
• 20:43
  You know, we talked to Reese. He didn't give us much or we
• 20:46
  talked to him to try to get an idea.
• 20:48
  What is the motivation like for you guys?
• 20:51
  You know, just based on past history of what bikes have done
• 20:53
  at the track prior. There was 2 tracks this year
• 20:57
  that we knew for sure going into it like OK we might be you know,
• 21:00
  battling for 3rd year. You know, one was Rd.
• 21:03
  America and Koda Rd. America in practice in
• 21:10
  qualifying, the BMW and the Ducati was literally a second
• 21:13
  lap fast, probably more than a second lap faster in qualifying
• 21:16
  than I was going. But in the race we're actually
• 21:20
  pretty damn close, which after Rd.
• 21:22
  America I'm like, if I stayed this close and you know, at
• 21:27
  least in race one I was close. If I stayed this close at this
• 21:30
  track, I mean, we're going to be sitting good, you know, going to
• 21:33
  Dakota, because we knew those are the 2 like long straights,
• 21:36
  you know, where those those bikes going to open up?
• 21:38
  And it's crazy. The in world super bike those
• 21:42
  they have restrictions on the bikes here in America.
• 21:45
  They're full till so it they're they're full gas.
• 21:49
  So like the speed of those things are unreal.
• 21:52
  And then going to Coda this year, it really surprised myself
• 21:54
  because I didn't think like at least what Bubi's qualifying
• 21:58
  lap, you know, I was like, fuck, he's going to be a race of his
• 22:01
  own, you know, and then we are, you know, we are to keep him on
• 22:04
  his toes, you know, for race 2. So it was more than expected for
• 22:11
  sure to get a second and third out of there.
• 22:13
  I thought for sure we'd just be bound for 3rd.
• 22:14
  But we kept it close and it was super cool and it gave us more
• 22:18
  motivation going into New Jersey, which was a lot tighter
• 22:21
  track for us. And obviously Jersey was like
• 22:25
  the end of the season. There were three races that
• 22:27
  weekend. Again, the points were pretty
• 22:29
  close between you and Cambo BA. Like, it wasn't, you didn't go
• 22:33
  in there with a massive lead that you could just, you know,
• 22:36
  kind of sit back and relax and expect to win the championship.
• 22:39
  And the first race on Sunday, you won and you won pretty
• 22:43
  handedly. Like you, once you got past the
• 22:45
  traffic and you were able to just put down your old laps,
• 22:48
  like you, you really did show that you had extra pace that
• 22:51
  nobody else had. Like, what was that like on on
• 22:53
  that Saturday? Yeah.
• 22:55
  Saturday, so that was we always kind of know all year long.
• 22:59
  I'm always once it gets like 10 laps in, like I'm always I've
• 23:03
  been this kind of way my whole career, though, not just the
• 23:05
  bike. Always at the end of these
• 23:07
  races. I find an extra gear or I could
• 23:10
  just stay the same pace. You know what I mean, where some
• 23:12
  risers drop off pace and we knew that weekend for sure.
• 23:15
  Like once tires go away, I'm I'm sitting pretty good.
• 23:18
  Like, you know, I have the confidence at at the end of
• 23:20
  these races, like I have some pace.
• 23:23
  So we won it on Saturday, but again, dude, like I don't even
• 23:27
  remember the race. I can't even tell you how I felt
• 23:29
  on the podium because all I was thinking about, I had so much
• 23:32
  pressure behind me. Like I said, the pressure was
• 23:35
  normal, especially for a championship weekend, but I had
• 23:37
  so much pressure around me for the championship from all
• 23:41
  different directions. I just like was such a bubble.
• 23:43
  I don't even remember like I got on the podium and all I was
• 23:46
  thinking about was like fuck, I got to do 2 more races on
• 23:49
  Sunday, you know, two more races, which fuck going back I
• 23:54
  was, it's such a stressful week. It's stressful. 2 race weekends,
• 23:58
  CODA and New Jersey because it's like damn, we have a lot of
• 24:01
  racing left. So obviously it felt good.
• 24:05
  I was like, OK, we got a little more points gap for Sunday, but
• 24:08
  I I still have to be good. And then Sunday all hell broke
• 24:13
  loose and we all seen what happened in Race 2.
• 24:18
  And that put me, in fact, that put me on the back foot in Race
• 24:21
  3. And I don't, I don't regret
• 24:22
  anything as in like how hard I was riding, you know, like I in
• 24:27
  race 3 ended up crashing, but I had to, I had to win no matter
• 24:31
  what. Like I was just trying to win.
• 24:32
  And but it wasn't going to make any difference really in the
• 24:35
  championship because you know, Cam ended up winning it anyways.
• 24:39
  He would have got, if he would have got second, I wouldn't have
• 24:41
  won it. You know he get third so no
• 24:46
  matter what I don't regret crashing like you know in race
• 24:48
  3, like I was just trying hard race 2.
• 24:51
  Obviously I wish that didn't happen on the last lap but shit
• 24:54
  happens. And give it a go next year again
• 24:57
  all. Right, how does that from and
• 25:01
  again, from the outside looking in it, you know, it seems like
• 25:04
  the well, it seemed like the build up was real and it all
• 25:07
  came came out at Jersey. But it from from the outside
• 25:11
  looking and it kind of seemed like, you know, the you know,
• 25:15
  things were happening that were kind of, you know, not
• 25:18
  necessarily say it shouldn't happen on a racetrack, but it
• 25:21
  wasn't as smooth as, you know, the rounds before and stuff like
• 25:26
  that. Do you feel like it was
• 25:27
  something that was building up and it just kind of happened at
• 25:30
  Jersey? And do you think that you, you
• 25:33
  know, I guess in hindsight, you probably would look at things
• 25:36
  and handle things a little bit differently.
• 25:38
  So like on Saturday night, what was your Saturday night like?
• 25:41
  As far as like you know, you know, how do you prepare for the
• 25:44
  next day? Do you chilling and be by
• 25:46
  yourself? Are you, are you kind of working
• 25:48
  with the team to, to try to find some more, you know, pace?
• 25:52
  I'm always trying to find pace. Like even after the race on
• 25:55
  Saturday, I was just staring at my my rear tire.
• 25:59
  I'm like, man. And I stare at the rear tire on
• 26:00
  the podium, Cameron and Josh's, and I'm like, man, my tire looks
• 26:04
  like shit. You know, like we got to, even
• 26:07
  though I had pace at the end of this race, I'm like, man, we got
• 26:09
  to figure out like my entire life has actually gone to hell.
• 26:12
  Like we got to figure this out, you know, So we're always
• 26:15
  continuing like to work. And then, you know, after the
• 26:17
  race on Saturday on racing, like on race weekends this year, it's
• 26:21
  like, I want to get the hell out of the track.
• 26:23
  Like I just want to go back and everybody knows me.
• 26:25
  I'm like, I'll eat a cook dinner at my Airbnb or I'll just go to
• 26:28
  Chipotle, do something fast and easy and go back to the room and
• 26:31
  just watch, watch a movie to try to get my mind off racing or
• 26:35
  whatever. You know, cuz I just want to, I
• 26:38
  don't want to overthink it as well.
• 26:39
  And then and Saturday it's hard to have a plan or sorry, Sunday
• 26:43
  it's hard to have a plan and a race, you know, when you're
• 26:45
  battling with other people, especially if you don't know
• 26:48
  what they're going to do or how they're going to ride.
• 26:50
  Or you know, I just try to race as hard as you can and race
• 26:53
  forward. Like that's always one thing for
• 26:56
  me is I try to race forward. Racers would know that meaning
• 26:59
  by racing forward. You know, you just want to go as
• 27:01
  fast as you can. I don't have any strategy to
• 27:03
  slow up the pace. I don't have any.
• 27:05
  I just want to go as fast as I can at all times and keep my
• 27:08
  roll speed and that's it. That's kind of how I've done my
• 27:11
  whole life. So I don't, it's hard to have a
• 27:13
  strategy when you're battling with other people, but you just
• 27:15
  want to get out in front and just go.
• 27:17
  So obviously we went down, you know, I at the end of the day,
• 27:25
  it was my fault because I should have been more aware.
• 27:28
  You know, I'm this guy behind. So obviously the guy it's, you
• 27:32
  know, behind need to be more aware of what's going on around
• 27:35
  him or around others. And I was just trying to do my
• 27:38
  normal, my normal turn, my normal speed and shit happened
• 27:42
  and I'm going down hitting Josh. And yeah, it was, it was a
• 27:46
  bummer. And then obviously we saw what
• 27:48
  happened after that. You know, my emotions got the
• 27:52
  best of me. But, you know, people need to
• 27:55
  realize it was a lot of money on the line.
• 27:58
  It's a championship, you know, like people get emotional out
• 28:01
  there and can I do, I wish I could take it back, you know?
• 28:07
  Yeah, for sure. You know, I wish that whole race
• 28:09
  didn't happen, you know, but but it did.
• 28:11
  And I didn't mean anything hurtful by it, but my emotions
• 28:15
  got the best of me. And you know, like I said, there
• 28:17
  was hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line and I just,
• 28:21
  I worked my whole life for this one moment.
• 28:23
  My whole life just kind of came crashing down in one crash.
• 28:27
  So it was. It was very frustrating on my
• 28:29
  end for sure. So now do you, you know, how
• 28:32
  are, how are you going to now that you've kind of experienced
• 28:35
  this first hand, being in the position you're in going into
• 28:38
  next season, having another opportunity because obviously
• 28:40
  you're going to be with the attack team again next year.
• 28:43
  You know, do you have a plan for next year other than just go out
• 28:47
  and ride your ass off and try to do as good as you can in every
• 28:50
  single event? Yeah, I have.
• 28:53
  I've been thinking a lot about that, You know how to be, but
• 28:55
  you always try to be better, you know, try to be.
• 28:58
  How are you going to race faster?
• 28:59
  What are you going to do in the offseason to be better?
• 29:01
  I felt like this. I always, people who know me
• 29:04
  always put it. I always put in hard work
• 29:06
  training wise and all that stuff, Eating, diet, all that
• 29:08
  stuff that's always going to be the same.
• 29:10
  There's a few turns like that I always struggle with and it's
• 29:14
  always, it's on different tracks, but it's, it's right
• 29:18
  turns that lead to a like a 180 left, you know, and it's like in
• 29:23
  New Jersey, you know, you have the wheelie heel.
• 29:25
  And you have the right and the left.
• 29:27
  Yeah, yeah, for whatever. Reason I'm it's just me, I need
• 29:30
  to work on being patient more. I always make turns too much.
• 29:35
  Why should I say it? Make it too much like AV
• 29:37
  sometimes in some of those cases where I'm rushing things too
• 29:41
  much, like I'm very impatient, even when I open the throttle,
• 29:44
  like I create too much slide too soon.
• 29:46
  Sometimes I'm going to roll off. So that was one of the things I
• 29:49
  learned in World Super Bike was how butter smooth everything is
• 29:55
  over there. Like what?
• 29:56
  They're the riders around me. Everything is you would think it
• 30:01
  is, man. You would think like those guys,
• 30:05
  how are they doing? A lot of time like they're doing
• 30:08
  being that smooth and patient with the throttle with
• 30:10
  Pirelli's, you know. But yeah, that's one thing I got
• 30:14
  to work on for next year. And I feel like if I clean up
• 30:16
  just me being patient a little bit smoother in some areas, I'd
• 30:19
  be a good chunk better in some areas because there was some
• 30:22
  turns, even a World Super Bike, like when I did World Super bike
• 30:27
  with Pirelli's and that's a whole another can of worms.
• 30:30
  Obviously there was and on both tracks there was like 2 turns
• 30:35
  that were nearly the same turn, like same style turn that I was
• 30:39
  losing so much fucking time at and I couldn't wrap my head
• 30:43
  around it because you would think like oh man, I'm going to
• 30:46
  put on Pirelli's or we all thought, we all knew it was
• 30:48
  going to be a big task on a world super bike.
• 30:49
  Sorry I'm jumping around a little bit.
• 30:51
  But since I was a super bike thing, we all thought like it
• 30:54
  was going to be a big task, right?
• 30:55
  Like we all knew I didn't know the tracks, I didn't know the
• 30:57
  tires, everything like that. And we thought like, you know,
• 31:01
  we did one test at podium club. We do on Pirellis and like, oh,
• 31:04
  we're second and a half fast or lap suite.
• 31:06
  We're good. No, we go there.
• 31:08
  It's like the easiest way I can put it is imagine riding a
• 31:12
  particular where your whole entire life on a set of tires
• 31:17
  and then everything you do on, you know how to go fast.
• 31:21
  You can't do that. It's wrong.
• 31:24
  It's wrong. It's like they're they're like,
• 31:28
  so as a team and myself and the whole package, we all struggled
• 31:33
  really bad. I mean, but we knew we were
• 31:34
  going to struggle, right? Like we knew we weren't going to
• 31:37
  light the world on fire just because of all the factors are
• 31:39
  going. But it was it was more advanced
• 31:42
  than what we thought for sure. Like there are in America.
• 31:45
  I'm going to give you just like an example.
• 31:46
  In America, you don't use that much bar brake pressure because
• 31:49
  the tires, the Dunlops, literally you could tuck them
• 31:51
  straight up and down. Like that's just how much grip
• 31:53
  we have in the front. So you use a little bit of or at
• 31:56
  least how I ride, you grab the brakes, but not that much
• 31:59
  pressure. You release them and then you
• 32:01
  just roll right and then you could crack the throttle
• 32:04
  immediately, at least me and start a slide and I can
• 32:06
  manipulate the slide and drive forward right there.
• 32:11
  In order for those guys, cuz I got all the Johnny Ray's data,
• 32:14
  Locatelli's data like every session.
• 32:16
  I could see every session from those guys or we can they brake
• 32:21
  as hardly had bigger. They had bigger brakes too on
• 32:23
  their bikes. They brake as hard as you can,
• 32:27
  as hard as you could Fucking grab that lever.
• 32:29
  You grab it as hard as you can, but they don't do it too much
• 32:34
  lean angle, so they grab it all. They make up all the time on the
• 32:37
  brakes and very short amount of distance.
• 32:39
  You release the brakes and you throw it on its side as fast as
• 32:43
  you can. But when you want to pick up the
• 32:45
  throttle, don't wait, wait and wait.
• 32:50
  And then they're do their throttle trace is so linear, but
• 32:54
  they do a lot of torque maps there.
• 32:57
  So it's different than how we do things in America.
• 33:00
  So we had to kind of reinvent the wheel and not reinvent the
• 33:03
  wheel, but change a lot of stuff that I was doing and the bike.
• 33:08
  And it's weird as once because in America I could start the
• 33:11
  slide early, I could crack the throttle early and just like
• 33:14
  kind of spin out of the tournament, drive forward there.
• 33:17
  Once you spin on the Pirellis, you lose such a big gap.
• 33:22
  It's weird like you can't gain that time back and like the TC
• 33:25
  and the bike will just go with the tire friction.
• 33:28
  It just holds you back so much and you're not driving forward.
• 33:32
  So you lose like 3/10 just on opening the throttle.
• 33:35
  At least I was because I'm trying to like get on the gas,
• 33:39
  but then I spin and then you lose time immediately.
• 33:42
  Well, they're just like, but their bikes like you look at the
• 33:48
  Yamaha there, it looks like a completely different motorcycle
• 33:51
  to ours. Like their ergonomics, the the
• 33:54
  frame they have different, they have bracing on their frame.
• 33:57
  They have a lot of different shit that, you know, we don't
• 34:00
  have as in just like different style, like there's more than
• 34:03
  one way to skin a cat, but different forks.
• 34:06
  We end up trying their setting and harass, starting of harass,
• 34:10
  which was immediately better. But then we kind of started
• 34:13
  straying a little bit back to what we know geometry wise in
• 34:18
  America, but with their fork and shock valving, which was night
• 34:22
  and day different than what we have here.
• 34:24
  So it was a big learning experience.
• 34:26
  Can I take anything away other than just being a little bit
• 34:29
  more smooth and bring it to America on the Dunlops?
• 34:33
  No, but at least I know that I can change my style when need
• 34:37
  be. You know, like you're always
• 34:39
  learning something. You're going to use that
• 34:40
  technique or something down the road at some point, right?
• 34:44
  But it's night and day different than I could ever imagine.
• 34:47
  So how did the opportunity to even go the World Tour bike even
• 34:50
  happen? Like like, how'd the moons line
• 34:53
  up for you? Because did you ever think you'd
• 34:54
  end up racing in a World Super bike race at all?
• 34:58
  You know. So we knew Richard Samboli done
• 35:01
  a few wild cards before, right. And fuck, I'm like, I was always
• 35:06
  like, I would do like a little like mention it in the beginning
• 35:09
  of the season, like I'll be cool to do world super bike, be cool
• 35:11
  to do world super bike. And you know, and he he started,
• 35:16
  you know, getting hard on a little bit for it throughout the
• 35:18
  throughout the season. And then in the middle of the
• 35:20
  season, we're like, let's see if we can get the funds to do this
• 35:23
  thing, you know, And then I was like, well, well, we should do
• 35:27
  Estrel and heres because they're back-to-back and they're like,
• 35:31
  yeah, let's try to work on it. And then Pirelli, actually
• 35:34
  Pirelli and some other key sponsors like Strac and helped
• 35:39
  us out to make it happen. You know, once once they told me
• 35:43
  I was doing it now, I was so stoked.
• 35:45
  When you're in that, when you're, when you're getting your
• 35:47
  ass kicked on the weekend, it's hard to enjoy it, you know what
• 35:50
  I mean? Like when you as a racer, you're
• 35:51
  like, fuck, I'm 20th place right now, right, right, right.
• 35:54
  Miserable. But when you leave.
• 35:56
  The day, at least in her rez, you know, knowing that if I
• 35:59
  would have dropped 4/10 in the race at the end of the race, I
• 36:03
  could have been battling for 10th place, you know what I
• 36:05
  mean? Like it was at my race pace at
• 36:07
  the end was always pretty good and it was always like a really
• 36:10
  like competitive times. But I'm still in 18th or
• 36:13
  whatever I was, you know, it was cool when you leave the track,
• 36:18
  you're like, man, I just did world super bike, you know, and
• 36:20
  you can see yourself improving each session.
• 36:22
  And Jerez was really good because Estrel was more of a
• 36:25
  struggle. And that was the first weekend.
• 36:27
  Jerez we, every time we went on track, we went faster and
• 36:30
  faster. And that was really cool to see.
• 36:32
  And we, we closed the gap to the front And that was like, what
• 36:34
  we're looking, looking for was like, I think in Estrel, one
• 36:39
  point I was, you know, 3 seconds off of the top guy per lap,
• 36:42
  which is an eternity. And no matter how hard I ride
• 36:46
  you, the harder I rode, the slower I went because I would
• 36:49
  just spin more and the bike would just get sucked into the
• 36:52
  ground. And then just I wouldn't, I
• 36:55
  didn't really, I didn't get it as a team.
• 36:57
  I couldn't comprehend it. And then after sitting on it for
• 37:00
  a week, I'm like, OK, man, I need to be smooth.
• 37:03
  I need to maximize these brakes. Like I never even, you know, I
• 37:06
  was getting callous on my I don't get callous on my fingers
• 37:09
  from breaking. I was for finger breaking, four
• 37:14
  finger breaking and I have literally callus on my fingers
• 37:17
  from that weekend. Like you don't do that in
• 37:18
  America. You just don't.
• 37:20
  So it was it was different, but it was cool.
• 37:23
  Like when we left Perez, I'm like, fuck, we just did world
• 37:25
  super bike. That was cool.
• 37:26
  But when you're in it and you're getting your ass kicked, it
• 37:28
  wasn't that cool. Now you've, you've been home for
• 37:33
  maybe a week or so now I, I want to wrap up the jersey and, and
• 37:39
  just the, you know, the incident and stuff like that and, and
• 37:42
  just your emotions as far as you know, you, you, you, I don't
• 37:45
  know if you mentioned when you found out infant middle season,
• 37:48
  you were, you were going to get the wild cards for, for, for
• 37:51
  world super bike, you know, but you know, there was, there was
• 37:55
  a, there was a lot of media play on, on your gesture when you
• 37:59
  crashed in race 2 and stuff like that.
• 38:02
  You know, it, it didn't turn out the way you wanted to.
• 38:05
  It's your first year on a, on a factory team.
• 38:09
  You know, maybe at the beginning of the season, I don't know if
• 38:11
  you thought you'd be fighting for 3rd place or for 3rd place
• 38:14
  or even for the championship. We're fighting for the
• 38:16
  championship, finishing third. You know, in that moment, you
• 38:21
  know, jersey, you know, and end of race three, you know, I'm,
• 38:24
  I'm pretty sure you didn't want to hear anything from anybody.
• 38:27
  But what, what how were you able to re recharge or or get
• 38:32
  yourself ready for world super bike?
• 38:34
  How did you feel? You know, towards the end, I
• 38:36
  mean, that got a lot of play on on on social media and stuff
• 38:40
  like that. You got sanctioned and stuff
• 38:42
  like that. You know, you know, nobody wants
• 38:46
  to be Dennis Rodman and unless you're at a party, so.
• 38:49
  I'll be, I'll be real and I'll, I'll, I'll start from start from
• 38:53
  the bottom. I'll tell you how it was when it
• 38:58
  happened. So it wasn't me and Josh's first
• 39:03
  incident, You know, I mean, me and Josh have been at Rocky Road
• 39:06
  for years, you know, You know, at least on the track, at least
• 39:10
  not off the track. Everything has been cool off the
• 39:12
  track. On the track, me and him had our
• 39:14
  differences a lot and so did a lot of other riders.
• 39:21
  How should I word this? Basically, I was doing my same
• 39:24
  line. It was also last lap and he has
• 39:28
  a Ducati which you can really use the strengths of a Ducati,
• 39:30
  you could break really, really deep.
• 39:32
  And he knows that he has he has as much as power as he can,
• 39:36
  which is kudos to him because he uses it to perfection.
• 39:39
  I mean, he's, he's won a lot of races that way, you know, using
• 39:43
  his strengths and the bike strengths to win.
• 39:46
  And he use, he tried to use those strengths and the wrong
• 39:49
  corner, which I wasn't expecting it, which basically means that
• 39:52
  he, you know, I need to keep my roll speed to make a lap time.
• 39:57
  And he could easily slow the pace down in the race.
• 40:00
  You could see when he leads the pace drops like 1/2 a second or
• 40:03
  a second, you know, and I was just trying to move forward and
• 40:08
  I hit his rear wheel a few times out there during the race.
• 40:10
  And then on that lap, I wasn't expecting him not to open the
• 40:16
  throttle or brake, whatever he did.
• 40:17
  I didn't expect him to just be parked there.
• 40:19
  And that was my bad, because I should have.
• 40:22
  I should have been more aware. I should have been way more
• 40:24
  aware of my surroundings and what possibly could happen
• 40:27
  because like I said, I'm just trying to race forward.
• 40:30
  I'm not like I it's just hard to race that way, you know, when
• 40:33
  people try to use it, those strengths.
• 40:34
  And after crashing, I did that gesture.
• 40:39
  No, I didn't mean I was going to kill him.
• 40:41
  Like what everybody's saying, like I that's absolutely
• 40:44
  ridiculous. I'm no murderer, you know, I
• 40:46
  mean, I don't care how hard, like how upset I get, I'm not
• 40:49
  going to murder anybody at race motorcycles.
• 40:51
  And you know, so I was just, you're through to me.
• 40:54
  You're done to me, you know, Like, yeah, people think like,
• 40:59
  oh man, you're the second guy. Like, how did he make you crash?
• 41:03
  You know, it's like, well, shit, dude.
• 41:04
  Like there's a lot of other things that come into play, you
• 41:07
  know, so a lot of people don't know the real story on what
• 41:11
  happened and everybody could have their opinions, which is
• 41:13
  fine. I mean, that's fine.
• 41:14
  But I definitely went off social media for a while.
• 41:17
  I did apology, I went off social.
• 41:19
  I still, I'm still off social media.
• 41:20
  I haven't gone on social media since.
• 41:23
  It's honestly been nice. But I've been that way a few,
• 41:25
  few times in my career. Just kind of a Instagram,
• 41:28
  Instagram, Facebook, whatever, cleanse, you know?
• 41:33
  But yeah, so after that and then the, you know, Race 3 crash,
• 41:37
  like, I don't regret Race 3 like that.
• 41:39
  That shit happens. You know, I was just actually
• 41:41
  trying to ride as hard as I can. And Richard told me too.
• 41:43
  It's like, you need to win this thing or crash, you know?
• 41:47
  And that was it. And then what also upset me was
• 41:52
  before Race 3, Heron was telling people and it got back to me
• 41:56
  that no matter what, he wasn't going to pass Cameron because he
• 42:00
  knew he knew that if he passed Cameron, I would win the
• 42:06
  championship, right? So he was actually he, that
• 42:10
  actually literally got brought to my attention before race
• 42:14
  three, you know, so there was nothing I can do.
• 42:17
  And you could see that he was holding the pace up for from SDK
• 42:22
  or whatever. And then he did a search forward
• 42:24
  like, so that actually really upset me more than me hitting
• 42:28
  him, you know, in Race 2, you know, of him saying that.
• 42:32
  So that was a big bummer. I don't know how true it was,
• 42:34
  but I had heard it from a few different sources or said it to
• 42:38
  the media and got to the wrong person.
• 42:39
  Whatever, it got back to me. Yeah.
• 42:44
  I mean, at the end of the day, I was the second guy in line and I
• 42:48
  should have been more aware. But moving forward to the week
• 42:52
  leading up to World Super Bike, obviously I didn't have social
• 42:55
  media. So that really helped.
• 42:57
  But here and there I would talk to people on the phone.
• 42:59
  It's like, oh man, your, your thing's really blowing up.
• 43:01
  And then, you know, then I get the call from Moto America and I
• 43:06
  got sanctioned $3000 for that. So, you know, they had to do
• 43:12
  something. And I think Josh got sanctioned
• 43:14
  too for flipping off SDK as well.
• 43:18
  Right after there's a photo of Josh flipping off SDK.
• 43:21
  I thought in my mind that doing this gesture was a lot better
• 43:25
  than flipping somebody off on live television.
• 43:27
  But people read into this a lot deeper than I could ever
• 43:30
  imagine. So, but yeah, leading them to
• 43:33
  World Super Bike, I had to really figure out like, I had to
• 43:36
  really not think about Jersey, right?
• 43:38
  So I had to like just think about World Super Bike and I
• 43:41
  went straight back to my training program and then what
• 43:45
  Super Bike hit And then, you know, I I wanted to personally
• 43:49
  do better than I did. I should be happy what I've
• 43:53
  accomplished there, even though the result wasn't good.
• 43:55
  But I think this week is barely starting to hit me like all the
• 43:58
  weekends that I really haven't really processed, you know, like
• 44:02
  this week is like the first week where I'm like, I lost a
• 44:05
  championship because I couldn't really process it throughout the
• 44:07
  week leading up to World Super Bike.
• 44:10
  So this week has been, you know, just.
• 44:14
  Been a bummer. It's finally hitting you.
• 44:17
  You. Know now is it?
• 44:18
  Is it weird? Weird might not be the right
• 44:21
  word because you know, when you came into the season, you were
• 44:24
  hoping for top three, top four and you and you were fighting
• 44:29
  for the championship towards the end and the last round and stuff
• 44:32
  like that. You know, you, you, I heard you
• 44:36
  say you're hard on yourself with training and just in general as
• 44:39
  far as racing and stuff like that.
• 44:41
  And maybe still too soon because world super bike just happened.
• 44:44
  But do you, you know, pat yourself on the back?
• 44:47
  Do you sit here and, and, and you know, if you watch F1 race,
• 44:51
  you don't even, you know, drink champagne if you win a
• 44:53
  championship. But have you taken a moment to
• 44:56
  say, Yo, I, I really did a lot this year, really incredible.
• 44:59
  I might not have ended the way I wanted to, but it's pretty dope
• 45:03
  what you did from me looking on outside.
• 45:06
  I appreciate, I appreciate that for me and I'm going to just
• 45:10
  keep it real. I'm a glass.
• 45:12
  What is it, half full? Half empty.
• 45:14
  Half empty, sorry, half empty. That's always kind of been my
• 45:18
  personality a lot like which is really negative, but I have
• 45:24
  tried. I really do always try to like
• 45:26
  think back like, I mean, we've succeeded, you know, a lot this
• 45:31
  year, but you know, sometimes I let the dark days get get over
• 45:35
  me more than more than it should, you know, doom gloom
• 45:39
  sometimes, but I like I think that's what keeps me going still
• 45:43
  like me being that hard on myself, which is like I said,
• 45:46
  it's not healthy because you know, like even after World
• 45:50
  super bike, I'm just like, fuck, well, what can I do?
• 45:53
  You know, next year if I'm on the team, you know, it's just
• 45:56
  like it's hard for me to process things like that and really
• 46:00
  think back like, oh man, we had a good year.
• 46:02
  I tell myself we had a good year, but I don't completely
• 46:05
  feel it, you know, because I didn't achieve the end goal.
• 46:09
  You know, that's like the big thing for me, but I really am
• 46:12
  trying to be more positive. Well, see, that's one of the big
• 46:15
  things when we look at racers from our point of view,
• 46:18
  obviously your point of view, you're looking at as this is
• 46:20
  your job, this is what you do. You want to succeed.
• 46:23
  You want to do the best possible like any one of us, any of us do
• 46:26
  with our own work and with our own lives.
• 46:28
  You want to do the best we can. But then we look at it as fans,
• 46:31
  we look at you and we look at first like you came in this year
• 46:35
  and you were probably in the best shape that I've seen you in
• 46:37
  in a long time, man. Like you were lean, like you
• 46:39
  were ready to go. Like there was something in your
• 46:42
  swagger at the beginning of the year that you were like, this
• 46:45
  might be my only opportunity. I'm going to give it 150%.
• 46:48
  Like I'm going to come in as sharp as I can to do whatever I
• 46:51
  can. Because like you said at the
• 46:53
  beginning, nothing's guaranteed. You know, there's no guarantee
• 46:56
  that that you'll be there unless you perform a certain amount or
• 46:59
  you do this or do that. So you do have to kind of as
• 47:02
  much as as hard as you are in yourself.
• 47:04
  Like, there are some positives in what happened this season
• 47:08
  that, you know, you got to look at.
• 47:10
  I mean, again, dude, you got, you got, you were the third
• 47:12
  person in line to get a ride. No, that's that's that does bum
• 47:18
  me out. Say that.
• 47:20
  You were the first chick they let go.
• 47:22
  You were the second chick. You were the You were the torta
• 47:25
  that was left when the lights turned.
• 47:27
  Yeah, that still does bum me out quite a bit, you know,
• 47:30
  especially what I, I felt like I did in 23 on a Yamaha.
• 47:34
  But yeah, I, I, I need to look back because I did, I did
• 47:40
  succeed quite a few times in the year.
• 47:42
  And it was, this year was definitely super.
• 47:46
  I mean, I'm always locked in, but it was like sauna every day,
• 47:49
  ice bath every day, riding motocross twice as much as I
• 47:53
  always do, putting in long motos and just kind of taking it to
• 47:59
  the next level. And I, you know, it was, you
• 48:01
  know, this is my job. That's what you're supposed to
• 48:03
  do. But it was like, you know, to
• 48:06
  the extreme, I'm with the diet and just everything.
• 48:08
  And it's like always watching footage between the races and
• 48:12
  doing studying or do just do something.
• 48:15
  It was like every day, 24 hours, you know, a day or during the
• 48:18
  day when I'm awake. I was all just motorcycles.
• 48:22
  Like how am I going to be better?
• 48:23
  What am I going to be better? Oh, I can't eat this because
• 48:26
  this is not going to make me faster.
• 48:27
  Or, you know, fucking dine in my sauna because I I usually
• 48:32
  struggle in heat races. So I've been doing a lot of like
• 48:34
  heat training and freeze in Jamaica ice bath.
• 48:38
  It was just miserable. But I mean, like I said, I all
• 48:41
  that paid off. It did and it really did.
• 48:43
  So yeah, I just got to step it up one more next year.
• 48:48
  Just 5 or 10 more minutes in the ice bath, 5 or 10 more minutes
• 48:52
  in the sun. It's so brutal.
• 48:54
  So in the world Super Bike side of things, because you know,
• 48:59
  this is where I want to get a lot of information from you
• 49:01
  because we don't get the opportunity to speak to people
• 49:05
  that have been actually racing next to top rack and these other
• 49:08
  guys. Like we know the level of
• 49:11
  competition there is high. Is it the level of competition?
• 49:14
  Is the level of equipment better?
• 49:16
  Like what are all the differences that really make
• 49:19
  these guys in World Super Bike like that much?
• 49:24
  So first thing was immediately, not only the brakes, obviously
• 49:30
  like they, they their bikes and how they have it with their
• 49:34
  engine braking and their rear brake usage and how they apply
• 49:39
  the brakes. Dude, they could turn.
• 49:41
  I've never seen anybody turn a bike that like opening the
• 49:47
  throttle and continuing to turn their motorcycle and stand it up
• 49:51
  and go like the turning on when they could flick it left to
• 49:54
  right was ungodly real. Like I I could never even saw
• 49:59
  anybody ever do that. And they it's like they can slow
• 50:02
  the bike down enough and their bike with their engine braking
• 50:06
  and they could just go Wham and just fuck, they could just turn.
• 50:10
  It was it was unreal on that side.
• 50:12
  And then just the brakes, man, like it's crazy on how much
• 50:18
  brakes like those guys can use. And that's where like top
• 50:21
  records really good at obviously is like brakes, but it wasn't
• 50:25
  like it wasn't the speed. So I was trying to carry more
• 50:29
  speed to the apex to the term like, well, that's where I make
• 50:32
  my time up is like speed, roll speed here.
• 50:35
  It's like, no, they actually do so tard breaking in such a short
• 50:39
  distance, but they end up like with their engine braking and
• 50:42
  everything, they end up stopping and then just back in turning
• 50:46
  and it's just like blew my mind away.
• 50:48
  And that's where they make up the time like tents, like 3 or 4
• 50:52
  tents just on the brakes, but not the roll speed to the apex.
• 50:55
  It was just brakes in a short amount of distance.
• 50:58
  And that was like unreal to me to see.
• 51:00
  And they have it figured out. I mean their bikes, they have
• 51:03
  different frame concessions over there, so they could like modify
• 51:06
  their frames a little bit. At least all the Yamahas had
• 51:08
  that. You know, I had some of the
• 51:11
  Yamaha guys. I don't know how true it was.
• 51:12
  It was like Massimo, who is he kind of looks over all the
• 51:18
  electronics for all the Yamaha teams.
• 51:20
  Like he kind of created the system that they're running.
• 51:23
  An Italian guy and he was just like you on our frame.
• 51:25
  You go one second faster. I'm like, well fuck, I'm not on
• 51:28
  your frame. Why would you tell me that?
• 51:30
  You know, like, why would you tell me that?
• 51:33
  I'm not getting your frame, so I don't know how much of truth
• 51:38
  that was, but yeah, he's like, yeah, you want our friend?
• 51:40
  You go one second pass and I'm like, oh fuck.
• 51:42
  Thanks a lot. So can can you bring those kind
• 51:46
  of things over like break in into into motor America you.
• 51:51
  Can't dude, like you just can't do it on our tires, everything
• 51:55
  can you? You can't do it.
• 51:57
  Can you bring a container of Dunlops and give them all Dunlop
• 52:00
  fronts and say let me see you do that shit now dude?
• 52:03
  Like, and that's the thing too was actually when top rack, when
• 52:06
  top rack went to Coda, you know, and top rack went to Coda and
• 52:10
  everybody was shitting on his time, you know, like basically
• 52:13
  it was like holy shit, he just did a 2O67 or whatever it was,
• 52:16
  which is insanely fast, but that track suits a Pirelli more than
• 52:21
  you could ever imagine. Like dude, like if you which he
• 52:24
  maximizes his breaking, obviously, but like you can
• 52:28
  never do that on a dead lot there.
• 52:30
  That's why he made-up so much time just on a, you know, BMW
• 52:33
  first time at the track. It's like the breaking dude,
• 52:35
  you're probably making up just in breaking sections in a second
• 52:39
  alone, you know? But yeah, I know it.
• 52:43
  And by the top rack's super cool too.
• 52:45
  Like he hung out multiple times in the garage and just hung out.
• 52:49
  He was super cool. He was one of the coolest dudes
• 52:50
  there. I mean, there was a good chunk
• 52:52
  of dudes over there in the pits that really welcoming.
• 52:56
  The Italians, not so much, you know, like they're really when
• 53:01
  you're on track, everybody. 'S tense.
• 53:02
  They're. On track too.
• 53:03
  They're. They're really Italian.
• 53:05
  They're just, they're really animated on the bike, man.
• 53:07
  They're just always, you know, they're always, dude, I would
• 53:10
  be, I won't name any names, but I would be on the track, right?
• 53:16
  Like in practice and I'm really caught like cautious of like
• 53:19
  getting in people's way, right? Like I, I'm just, I, I'm aware
• 53:22
  of my surroundings. I could see people coming up,
• 53:25
  you know, you could feel them, you could see it, whatever.
• 53:27
  And I would move out of the way, two different guys, two
• 53:30
  different times. I would move out of the way
• 53:33
  completely way before they even got to me.
• 53:35
  And they were way faster than me at some points, and they're
• 53:39
  still just fucking throw their hands up and all this.
• 53:42
  And I'm like, what was that for? And I end up apologizing, like,
• 53:45
  well, why am I even apologizing? Right.
• 53:48
  Right. I didn't do anything wrong to
• 53:49
  you. I didn't even slow your lap up.
• 53:51
  I was way out of the way, you know?
• 53:52
  And so, yeah, other than some Italians just being really
• 53:57
  animated, everybody was really cool.
• 53:59
  Like, super cool. More than I could ever expect,
• 54:02
  actually. So would you say it's the the
• 54:05
  folks over there in the paddock more warmer than in the North
• 54:09
  America? No, but believe it or not dude,
• 54:14
  most people came over to me because of that damn video from
• 54:18
  music. I mean when you're famous.
• 54:23
  Man. Yeah, dude, when they say I mean
• 54:26
  dude, I don't know how many of you use that.
• 54:27
  That video somebody told me it was like 8 mil or even.
• 54:30
  More Wow, OK. Yeah, You know, a lot of people
• 54:34
  came up to me and were like, no, no, no, yeah, yeah.
• 54:40
  But no, they're they're pretty welcoming mode.
• 54:43
  America. Everybody's pretty welcoming as
• 54:44
  well. Just because I've been in the
• 54:45
  pits so long, everybody kind of knows you already.
• 54:47
  But the racers are really cool because we do, you know, every
• 54:52
  weekend Michael Hill does like a paddock show deal.
• 54:55
  So every racer has to go on stage, or at least the world
• 54:57
  super bike guys. And, you know, we're all just
• 54:59
  hanging out in the back. And then we called on stage, but
• 55:01
  everybody was super cool, you know, spoke a lot, like eager,
• 55:05
  like a one was super cool. Vandemark was really cool.
• 55:08
  The Brits are always, the Brits are always cool, you know, So
• 55:12
  there's a good chunk of people that were really cool and kind.
• 55:14
  And then the whole Padda team too was super nice to us.
• 55:17
  I thought there was going to be more, definitely more.
• 55:19
  Intense. Do do you think that the the
• 55:23
  facilities there like compared to what we have here, you know,
• 55:25
  you only went to two races or two events, what are the
• 55:29
  facilities like? And like is there a difference
• 55:32
  in like the overall show value like what the where the way
• 55:35
  world Sewer Bike puts on their events versus what we do here?
• 55:38
  Like what do you think could be taken from there and brought
• 55:42
  here to make our events even better?
• 55:45
  Dude, man, it's so different because we're all out of
• 55:49
  garages. Obviously every, everybody's
• 55:51
  always out of garages, right? And most tracks we go to don't
• 55:54
  have garages and Estrel, I mean they gave us 1/2 of a garage.
• 56:00
  So I mean literally we have, if we have a space this big, I mean
• 56:04
  literally it was 1/2 of a garage, half of 1/2 of a garage.
• 56:08
  I mean, we had enough space for the bike and speed mechanics.
• 56:11
  It was wild. But I mean, I literally just
• 56:14
  lived in that garage, dude. Like it was even that garage.
• 56:17
  But then they do they, they start setting up world super
• 56:21
  bike teams. They start setting up on Tuesday
• 56:24
  before the weekends because Tuesdays, because they have all
• 56:27
  the big setups, like all the hospitality setups, proper
• 56:31
  hospitality. So I mean, they're they're cooks
• 56:33
  there and everything. That was unbelievable.
• 56:35
  We can never do that in America because that we were broke.
• 56:38
  You know, everybody's broke. I mean, my team eats
• 56:42
  Chick-fil-A, but I mean, no, they don't even, I mean they eat
• 56:45
  literally cold cuts, you know, and shitty bread.
• 56:48
  So I mean, I mean, they're the, you have a proper chef and you
• 56:52
  have a barista, you know, and most of the team, the big teams
• 56:55
  do, you know, but we all the Yamaha teams kind of eat
• 56:57
  together. So we had we ate the Yamaha
• 56:59
  hospitality and you know, 20 different selections of food and
• 57:04
  different pastas and barista there desserts.
• 57:08
  It was unreal. And they did breakfast, lunch,
• 57:09
  dinner there every day. And at least in Spain, which
• 57:13
  drove me crazy, was even if I wanted to leave the track, I
• 57:16
  couldn't because things don't open until 8:30.
• 57:20
  So I mean, that like blew my mind.
• 57:22
  I'm just like, fuck, I don't know how people do it.
• 57:24
  I want to be laying in bed at 8:45, you know, you know, So it
• 57:28
  was so we, I just stayed at the track at least until 7.
• 57:31
  They did dinner at the track at 7:00.
• 57:33
  So I ate dinner at the track and they do, you know, breakfast
• 57:36
  super early in the morning there.
• 57:39
  It's just a different lifestyle. You know, like the times they
• 57:41
  eat to, you know, all of their time is spent at the track.
• 57:45
  Like when I went to Mazano to go watch Garrett Gerlach in the
• 57:48
  beginning of the year. I mean, it drove me crazy being
• 57:52
  at the track that long. That dude was doing shit at the
• 57:56
  track at 9:00 at night that his team wanted them to do at 9:00
• 58:01
  at night. And they just spend all their
• 58:03
  time there. Like it's crazy, Like that's
• 58:05
  their home, you know? And then just go back to sleep,
• 58:07
  you know, it's, it's a lot. Usually I like to raise and get
• 58:10
  the hell out of there, you know, and just turn my brain off.
• 58:15
  Yeah. So you have you have things that
• 58:16
  you brought back that you might incorporate does as the attack
• 58:20
  Yamaha as a whole, the guys that were able to work.
• 58:23
  I know Reese's out there cheerleading and and supporting
• 58:26
  and stuff like that. Do you guys look to say, hey, we
• 58:29
  have an edge because we're able to have a couple of rounds and
• 58:33
  and we're all super bike and we learned a couple of things that
• 58:36
  we may be able to throw into into Mode America for next
• 58:39
  season. Yeah, myself and the team too,
• 58:42
  especially the team, because they made, you know, the team
• 58:46
  didn't they have a relationship with Yamaha in Italy?
• 58:50
  But it wasn't like, you know, close, like they're not sharing
• 58:53
  notes all the time and stuff like that.
• 58:54
  Richard always kind of does his own thing, but just meshing that
• 59:00
  bond a little bit more with Yamaha over there and, you know,
• 59:02
  just showing face and hanging out with them, you know, and
• 59:05
  seeing how they do things, you know, with their motorcycle.
• 59:09
  And my team learned some stuff too.
• 59:11
  So we're going to try this offseason to try to incorporate
• 59:15
  some of those things and testing to see if it works with our
• 59:18
  tracks and tires. So yeah, not only myself, but
• 59:20
  like just trying different things here.
• 59:22
  And then we're riding the team as well.
• 59:26
  Learn some stuff and got a few they got a few tricks they want
• 59:29
  to try got. You so you'll you'll be in the
• 59:32
  paddock and at 9:30 PM. I'm.
• 59:37
  I'm. Wild bro, that drove me crazy.
• 59:42
  Yeah, so. And now you were there obviously
• 59:47
  that we had two Americans racing in super bike.
• 59:50
  Like what was the feeling or did anybody say anything about the
• 59:54
  fact that one doing a round in America Like anybody mention
• 59:57
  anything or any of the riders say that they would love to have
• 1:00:00
  a round in the US? Oh, dude, everybody wants to
• 1:00:03
  have a round like a more proper world super bike round Laguna.
• 1:00:05
  Like everybody wants to go back to Laguna.
• 1:00:07
  Like they love that place. Like fuck, let's go to Laguna.
• 1:00:09
  We've been trying to get go to Laguna.
• 1:00:11
  Like they love most, most of the races, they love America, they
• 1:00:14
  love to come. You know it.
• 1:00:17
  It's not really, you don't really appreciate America until
• 1:00:21
  you're in a different country for a few weeks and you're like,
• 1:00:23
  fuck, there's nothing like the great US.
• 1:00:26
  Just everything is just so open. And but yeah, the races love.
• 1:00:29
  They want to come here badly. Well, do they want to come here
• 1:00:32
  because it's America or because when they get here they can
• 1:00:35
  actually go out and nobody's going to bother them because 90%
• 1:00:37
  of the people will have no clue who they are?
• 1:00:39
  Probably a little bit of both, and they just have room to
• 1:00:42
  breathe. Dude, it's crazy.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah. Because last year before last,
• 1:00:47
  we had Bazecki go to New York City for a day to do like an
• 1:00:51
  event, and he literally walked all around New York City with
• 1:00:55
  like three or three people. Yeah, not one person.
• 1:00:57
  Recognized not one person was like, hey, you're Marco Bazecki.
• 1:01:00
  No, and it was like go. Wild to me, do you want a pizza?
• 1:01:04
  Like whatever. And it's crazy too, like in
• 1:01:06
  towns, like where we stayed at, you know, if you have a team
• 1:01:11
  shirt on or something like that, like it's like you're, you're a
• 1:01:15
  fucking star. You know, it is a different
• 1:01:19
  feel. Like we, they, they allow the
• 1:01:21
  fans to walk on the other side of the garage like it wasn't a
• 1:01:26
  fan walk for the riders, but they allow like the, the fans to
• 1:01:30
  see the garages and outside, you know, a certain amount of time
• 1:01:33
  throughout the day. And I was standing out there
• 1:01:37
  just like looking around, not doing autographs or anything
• 1:01:39
  because I didn't have to at the time.
• 1:01:41
  And literally a kid asked was like, Hey, can I have a knee
• 1:01:44
  puck? And I, my Leathers were hanging
• 1:01:46
  up kind of outside. So I didn't have a dryer, a
• 1:01:48
  proper dryer. So I was like hanging out in the
• 1:01:50
  sun and I ripped it off my, I ripped it off my, my suit and
• 1:01:55
  gave it to this kid. And the fans came unglued.
• 1:02:00
  They were just like, literally the kids were crying like it was
• 1:02:03
  crazy. But you don't get dude, you
• 1:02:05
  don't get that in the US, man. Like the the dedication of fans
• 1:02:09
  are unbelievable, but they are psycho too because they're like
• 1:02:12
  come over and like, can I have a helmet?
• 1:02:15
  You know, It's like, yeah, it's like, no, yeah, like, no,
• 1:02:19
  they're aggressive about things too.
• 1:02:20
  But like the dedication from the fans, obviously you guys saw
• 1:02:23
  what top Rex fans you know after the Bulgar thing.
• 1:02:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You needed security like Marquez
• 1:02:29
  in Italy. Yeah, too.
• 1:02:31
  Seriously, you just don't. You just don't get that in the
• 1:02:33
  US, man. So given the opportunity, would
• 1:02:37
  you go again? Yeah.
• 1:02:38
  No, for sure, I would go again, even though I'm agreeing to get
• 1:02:41
  my ass kicked right off the bat, you know what I mean?
• 1:02:44
  But it's it's it's weird because like there's only like, you
• 1:02:48
  know, when you see like when you're riding with those guys,
• 1:02:51
  it's like, man, they're everybody is good, like
• 1:02:54
  everybody's really good there. But it's not like, holy shit,
• 1:02:57
  that dude has something that I've never seen before other
• 1:02:59
  than top rack, other than top rack.
• 1:03:02
  When I see that dude riding, I'm like, whoa, like how, how did he
• 1:03:05
  do that? Like, how did he make that bike
• 1:03:06
  turn so good, You know? But everybody, it's just on how
• 1:03:12
  they, they just learn to, you know, maximize their bikes with
• 1:03:16
  those tires and those tracks, man.
• 1:03:17
  And that's as easy as I could put it, dude.
• 1:03:20
  But like, yeah, they riding around those guys.
• 1:03:22
  Everybody is quick. But like, they're not doing
• 1:03:25
  anything different there. There's just 20 of Cameron
• 1:03:27
  Beaubiers there, you know? So.
• 1:03:30
  Yeah. 20 Cameron Beaubiers on on different tires.
• 1:03:35
  Yeah. On different tires, yeah, so.
• 1:03:39
  And what's your offseason going to look like?
• 1:03:41
  Like, obviously you know you're going to be riding next year,
• 1:03:43
  but is, you know, do you have any additional plans this year,
• 1:03:46
  this offseason, not just working out, but just other things you
• 1:03:49
  want to do? This.
• 1:03:49
  I got to dine in. I got to dine in Phoenix coming
• 1:03:52
  up. OK yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:54
  But honestly, for the next at least month, I'm actually
• 1:03:58
  looking forward to at least a few weeks of just doing.
• 1:04:03
  Yeah, I've been still riding my bike.
• 1:04:04
  I still work out just because that's just like my daily
• 1:04:06
  routine, but nothing crazy. I'm really just looking forward
• 1:04:11
  to like just chill. So I felt like I was on the road
• 1:04:14
  a lot this year just with either testing or doing something, you
• 1:04:18
  know, it'd be cool. Just honestly just to hang out
• 1:04:20
  and just relax. Because I feel like even
• 1:04:22
  throughout the season, like yes, I'm traveling, but when I'm home
• 1:04:26
  it's all fucking motorcycles. So I want to kind of turn my
• 1:04:29
  brain off for next few weeks still and and then get back to
• 1:04:33
  it. Obviously the testing will start
• 1:04:35
  ramping up and then doing some stuff with Yamaha and you know,
• 1:04:39
  just little stuff like that. And I don't think it'd be home
• 1:04:41
  so long until I get the edge to get back on the road, so.
• 1:04:47
  Nice. I, I think that I think we're
• 1:04:49
  right just about it right, guys. Is anything we missed that you
• 1:04:52
  might want to add, Bobby? Nah, man, thanks for thanks for
• 1:04:56
  having me, dude. Like you and Lewis, dude, it's
• 1:04:58
  it's cool to be on here and it's cool to tell my, my side of the
• 1:05:01
  story and, you know, love me or hate me, I mean, we all make
• 1:05:05
  mistakes, you know what I mean? We're all human.
• 1:05:08
  And yeah, we'll try again next year for the championship.
• 1:05:12
  Listen man, there, there's like a 1,000,000 people that would
• 1:05:14
  love to be in your shoes right now, so.
• 1:05:19
  I'm just glad that you know how I feel when I I get on the track
• 1:05:23
  with you. The first, the first session for
• 1:05:28
  sure. You're like, holy shit, I'm a
• 1:05:31
  club racer. Yeah.
• 1:05:34
  Were you feeling like like Ricky Bobby when he came back from his
• 1:05:38
  big accident? And he's like, is that the other
• 1:05:39
  riders? Dude, it's crazy because like,
• 1:05:43
  and it's like, it wasn't just like I said, there would be like
• 1:05:46
  an Estrille, dude. Like I would overlay my data
• 1:05:50
  with like Lockatelli and I'm like good here, good here, good
• 1:05:53
  here, good here, really bad here, like in one turn and then
• 1:05:58
  good, good, good, good, really bad.
• 1:06:00
  And it was always like 2 turns that just like blew my whole
• 1:06:03
  last time. Then I just couldn't get my head
• 1:06:05
  around myself. And the team is.
• 1:06:07
  Yeah, wow. Well.
• 1:06:08
  At least you got some. At least you got some knowledge.
• 1:06:10
  So the opportunity comes up next time or comes up again, but you
• 1:06:14
  might at least you're not coming in at at zero, you're coming in
• 1:06:17
  maybe like four or five versus just a complete yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:21
  Seriously now? Well, thanks for having me boys.
• 1:06:23
  I appreciate it dude. Hey, we appreciate the time.
• 1:06:26
  Love having you on here, love hearing your side of the story,
• 1:06:28
  love hearing your season overall, and we wish you the
• 1:06:31
  best this coming season. Obviously with everything else
• 1:06:33
  you do going forward. Thank you so much.
• 1:06:35
  Man, I appreciate it. Thanks guys.
• 1:06:38
  My name is Rex 45 is to be forever.
• 1:06:39
  Cool podcast. We got the real Luis Ortega.
• 1:06:42
  We got Bobby Fong in the building.
• 1:06:44
  Peace. Peace.