Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / Rexy interviews professional racer Eric Wood in S6 Ep 18

Transcript

Rexy interviews professional racer Eric Wood in S6 Ep 18 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

0:09
What are we here for? What do you truly want?
0:13
When change is not enough, what do you do?
0:24
What are we here for? What do you truly want?
0:32
When change is not enough, what do you do?
0:44
Let's talk about it. The Proms we face.
0:48
Let's fight hatred. No down ways the mind is naked.
0:55
We can see it without a X-ray. Life is easy if we work
1:02
together. We are the keepers, we are the
1:05
people. We are all equal, filled with
1:07
purpose. The past has pain, it'll drive
1:13
you, even make you take aim. But together is where we should
1:19
aim. Together is where we should.
1:25
What are we here for? What do you truly want?
1:33
When change is night and night, what are you do?
2:22
The you'll listen to the be forever Cool podcast.
2:24
My name is Rex 45 and I have AI don't even know what the word to
2:29
use. I have a pretty cool person.
2:31
I'm going to interview and introduce him a little bit.
2:33
Very excited about that. Before I introduce him, though,
2:36
I want to just thank everyone for liking and subscribing.
2:39
Go to be forever cool.com and get connected to all the
2:42
platforms we're on. I really appreciate all the
2:45
comments and all that fun stuff, but with no further ado, let's
2:49
let's get it going. Eric Wood, welcome to the show
2:54
man. How you doing tonight?
2:56
We're doing great. Great.
2:57
Looking forward to the conversation.
2:58
Awesome, awesome, man. Well, let's get right into it.
3:01
I really appreciate you taking the time to come on.
3:04
So we really appreciate that. But let's talk about, you know,
3:07
how you got into a motorcycle. What was your story?
3:10
I started riding back in 2012, started racing in 2013, so I was
3:15
pushing 40 already. And I was fortunate that Jesse,
3:20
you know, actually Jesse Fenton mentioned in Garage 4 mentioned
3:24
Seacoast, which I bought a Ducati from and and just talking
3:27
to them got me into the whole world of what's happening that
3:30
Loudon and stuff like that. So, but like, what was your
3:33
story like? How did you get into riding?
3:35
Well, that, that that's a great crew to get started with.
3:37
Those guys are definitely enthusiasts up there.
3:40
I, I started a little sooner than 40s.
3:42
I think I got my first motorcycle when I was 3.
3:46
My my father, of course, started the Penguin Racing School years
3:50
ago, back in 1973. He was riding motorcycles in the
3:55
60s and raced all through the Seventies, 80s and 90s.
3:58
And so I had that good fortune to be born into a recent family.
4:04
My first, my first motorcycle was an Indian, a child Jet 50
4:08
and at at three years in three months, I did lapser on my
4:12
kitchen table at Christmas morning and and suffered my
4:16
first crash on my 4th lap where I strove the thing straight into
4:18
the wall. So that was that was my
4:20
introduction to motorcycling. And so, you know, and it just
4:24
kind of went on from there. I think I raced that bike when I
4:27
was five years old from my first time at a track in Pepperell, MA
4:32
and, you know, been off and on ever since.
4:34
So it's, it's been, it's been a fantastic journey.
4:37
Yeah, let's talk about your dad a little bit.
4:39
I mean, like racing was the up and down the East Coast, across
4:42
the country. And what was racing like, you
4:44
know, back in those days, what you remember.
4:47
I mean, racing was, was really different.
4:50
It was, it was huge. We used to ride.
4:53
It wasn't, it wasn't New Hampshire Motor Speedway back
4:55
then. It was called Briar Motorsports
4:57
Park and I think I first went there when I was somewhere
5:01
around six months old. So I literally should have spent
5:04
my entire life at the at the racetrack up in New Hampshire.
5:08
My dad was primarily a regional racer, although he went and did
5:13
some national stuff from time to time, did a lot of national
5:16
vintage racing, but he did some AMA Battle of the Twins stuff
5:20
and that kind of stuff. I remember he had an old bevel
5:23
Dr. Ducati that he that he competed with on that kind of
5:26
stuff. And then that was the, the bike
5:28
that I remember him doing national stuff for more than
5:29
anything. He we, they grew up in a time
5:32
when racing was Grand Prix stuff.
5:35
I mean, even newer riders, they started out on TC-2 fifties and,
5:39
and they would, they would build them.
5:41
And that was like kind of a standard bike.
5:43
You see, you know, like literally 120 fives and 250
5:45
Grand Prix bikes out there. There was a lot of production
5:47
motorcycles as well, but Grand Prix bikes were were more like
5:51
the the norm that it was kind of like the the TZ 250 was almost
5:55
like the Ninja 500 of the day. Not exactly, but you know, that
5:58
it was that was kind of the deal.
6:00
And so there was a lot of of, you know, just home grown guys
6:05
that that went and and did really well.
6:08
I remember watching, you know, young Richard Chambers out
6:11
racing and, you know, of course, you know, all the top guys.
6:16
I mean, I remember like Mike Baldwin and Kevin Schwartz and
6:19
those kind of guys racing at Loudon when I was little, you
6:22
know, the John Ulrich when he was a competitive racer and
6:25
doing endurance stuff. And, and so it, it was so I grew
6:29
up there my whole life. And so my father did this for a
6:33
long time. And then, you know, in the early
6:36
70s, there was really no, there was no licensing really.
6:41
It was like, you know, if you wanted to get a race license,
6:43
you kind of showed up and paid your money and they said, OK.
6:45
And as you imagine, that was not exactly the the safest situation
6:51
there. A lot of people crash and get
6:53
hurt pretty badly. And and so the guy that was
6:57
helping to run the track from a day-to-day, his name was Ted
7:00
Goddard. He was at the race tracks all
7:02
the way into when New Hampshire Motors fever was there for the
7:04
first few years. And so he spent decades at the
7:07
track. And so they kind of get together
7:09
and said, hey, we need to come up with a way to prepare people
7:12
to ride so they, when they understand, you know what, which
7:15
direction it was going with the flags actually mean and you
7:18
know, all kinds of crazy stuff like that.
7:19
So the Penguin School was started back then in conjunction
7:24
with the racetrack to kind of create a sensible process for
7:29
someone to come out and and enjoy the racetrack.
7:32
And so it started as a licensing thing for a while and then it
7:35
evolved since they started offering an advanced course and
7:39
various people started doing that.
7:41
John Bettencourt was the first one to to really be the leader
7:44
of that and he was one of the course the stars of of New
7:48
England. He was one of the guys that came
7:50
from our local racing area and came and won races around the
7:54
whole country. You know, Johnny was going to be
7:56
unique talent. He's one of the few guys that
7:58
won nationals both on Rotary bikes and on motocross bikes.
8:02
So could could ride a motorcycle to say at least had a, a, a
8:07
incredibly magnetic personality and was was really big on going
8:13
to race against all the national guys with his buddies from home.
8:16
And that's kind of how he he ran his whole career.
8:19
And and my father was his crew chief for a while.
8:22
They, he built TZ 750 motors. He, he actually my father
8:27
founded a company called Competition Machine and supply.
8:29
They sold stuff at the racetrack and kind of for those of you
8:33
guys who know St. and competition, St. and competition
8:35
came from him buying my father's the old inventory and, and
8:40
starting St. and competition from there and.
8:43
And so, yeah, and, and he built TZ 750 motors for a while and
8:47
then, you know, follow around Johnny and Johnny, you know, won
8:51
a national super bike race and finished third in the Daytona
8:53
200 back when it was a world level event and stuff.
8:56
So it's kind of cool to, to watch all that stuff growing up.
8:59
And, you know, so I, I had a, a really rich history and, and
9:03
upbringing with that kind of stuff.
9:04
Very, very fortunate. Yeah.
9:07
And so when your dad started the school, how old were you about
9:11
and were you the first student or were you already getting
9:13
lessons after your first crash in the in the?
9:16
In the kitchen, I was, I was 2 years old, so I wasn't quite
9:19
ready to be a student yet. I, I, I got my first sample of
9:23
the racetrack long before I was supposed to.
9:25
I think I was maybe 13 or 14 years old and threw my, my leg,
9:30
tiptoed over a GP Z550 and did a few lap times, you know, a few
9:34
laps at lunchtime one time and kind of get the, the hook for it
9:37
and stuff. And you know, I, I raced all
9:39
kinds of stuff when I was younger, you know, kind of the
9:42
traditional, we did everything. My, my brother and I, we did
9:45
motocross, we had a hail scrambles, hit hill climbing,
9:48
ice racing, like, like if it was a way to race a motorcycle, we
9:51
did it. And, and you know, I did all
9:54
kinds of regular sports too when I was younger.
9:57
I really kind of get into it more full time.
9:59
I rode my whole life, but I I really started to become more of
10:03
a full time racer like as I was finishing high school and
10:07
starting college and and that's, that's where I got a little bit
10:09
more serious with it. And, and at that time, what was
10:13
it like for someone trying to get into race and is it, was it
10:17
a lot easier than we see these young guys today?
10:19
I mean, I hear stories from some of the folks I've interviewed.
10:21
It seems like there was a more cash flow back then than today.
10:26
I mean, honestly, to get started, even today, I don't
10:29
think it takes a ton of money. I mean, if you just want to get
10:31
your feet wet, I mean, I mean, back in those days I spent 800
10:36
bucks on an 88 Kawasaki EX500 and and you know, you know,
10:41
threw some tires on it and and was ready to go.
10:43
So I thought, I mean, you know, I wouldn't exactly call myself a
10:47
world beater at that point, but you know, you can go out there
10:50
and and you know, you can do the same thing today.
10:52
You can literally go buy virtually the same motorcycle,
10:54
like how it's like a ninja 500. Then you can buy using for a
10:57
couple grand. You know, with inflation
10:59
adjusted is probably not that different.
11:01
You know, you can throw a set of tires on it and and and maybe
11:03
somebody work and you're ready to go.
11:05
So you know, the entry level stuff I don't really think is
11:09
that is that difficult right now.
11:10
It might be actually kind of a kind of a myth that I think it's
11:14
that hard to get into rotting. I mean, you don't have to show
11:17
up with a $40,000, you know, brand new Yamaha R9 and then
11:21
they would compete with the Moto America.
11:23
And that's, that's you don't need that $40,000 motorcycle to
11:25
get started. You can do it on something that
11:27
cost a few 1000 bucks and put it together with your friends.
11:29
You know what I mean? So it it, it, it's I don't think
11:32
it's that hard. So it was, it was similar back
11:35
then. I think the biggest difference
11:36
is that there were definitely more young people doing it.
11:41
You know, you know, when I get in, I was, you know, 18 years
11:45
old and the, the group of riders that was in that, you know, 18
11:50
to call it 25 range. I mean, there was like dozens
11:53
and dozens and dozens of us. It was, it was big.
11:56
It was tons of young riders. And through the majority of my
12:00
career, my career is pretty long now.
12:01
So majority could be all the way back and you know, maybe going
12:04
from the the early 80s into like maybe 2000s, you know, it was
12:09
easier to get going at a national level.
12:11
For sure. We can, we can go down that
12:14
road, you know, club race. And I still think it's very
12:16
accessible and easy for most people.
12:19
If you're going to go to nationals, I think there's some
12:22
definite bigger hurdles now. I was very, very fortunate when
12:25
I started doing the national level stuff that the motorcycles
12:29
industry was as healthy as it was.
12:31
There was a lot more money around sponsorship wise, yes,
12:36
contingency for sure. You know, like I could go to an
12:41
AMA national back in the days and if I did what I hope to do,
12:45
which is like, all right, I'm going to go take like for
12:47
example, for a bunch of years I was riding like seven 50s and so
12:50
I go do 750 super sport, say, hey, I'm going to go try and
12:54
finish as high as I can in this, you know, maybe we can finish,
12:56
you know, win the top ten and you know, have a good finish.
12:59
And and then if I go and ride super bike as a second class and
13:04
you know, all the factory guys are ahead of us and you know,
13:06
you're competing for that like maybe 14th to the 18th place,
13:11
kind of be the first privateer in a super sport kind of thing.
13:14
You do those two things. I could go and pay for my
13:17
weekend and make money come home, you know, like they
13:19
pocket, you know, a few 100 bucks after I'm done paying all
13:21
my expenses. That's a fantasy right now,
13:25
unfortunately for a ride to be able to do that.
13:26
So I was super lucky to be able to to do the majority of my pro
13:31
career in that kind of atmosphere.
13:34
Right. And, and what was the pro career
13:36
like as far as like how many rounds were you having in the
13:38
season back then? Well, I mean there was, I think
13:44
I went back and look at my old schedules.
13:45
I mean there was some years, especially early in my career
13:48
between club racing and doing the different national series, I
13:51
did like 22 race weekends a year.
13:54
So like you know, you go from you know, March Daytona to
13:59
October Daytona and it felt like you know, you'd be racing 3/4 of
14:02
the weekends, you know, in the old days.
14:05
I mean right now for our racing in New England, we do 6 rounds,
14:08
right? And that's, we were doing 8 for
14:11
a long time and then the economy happened and things shrunk down
14:15
a little bit and some dates were harder to get.
14:17
So we were down at six. But like our club race series
14:21
used to be 11 used to do 7 races out loud and four races in
14:24
Bridge Hampton in the same period.
14:27
And you know, there's like almost back-to-back weekends and
14:29
people just, you know, it was a little bit more affordable than
14:31
to do that kind of stuff. And people just say, Hey, you
14:34
know, they, they were committed to this, you know, full on,
14:37
which is, which was great. And so you know what times time
14:41
change and things evolve and, and you just, you just rolled
14:44
it. And, you know, I think that
14:47
there's still a lot of healthy upside to the sport in the
14:51
future. So it, and that's one of the
14:52
things we've been working for for in recent years.
14:55
You know, my later careers have been focused on, you know,
14:57
trying to help grow the sport, trying to help foster younger
15:00
riders and that kind of stuff. There's a million things that
15:01
happen in between there, obviously.
15:04
And we'll talk about that some more a little bit later on
15:06
because I, I remember, you know, I started going loud, like I
15:09
said, 2013. So I think it, it might have
15:11
been 20/15/16 when you guys were talking about building up the,
15:15
the, the younger riders and investing in building up the
15:17
community and stuff like that. So I remember those conversation
15:21
and, and years later to see it, see it coming back and to see
15:24
what the bagger has been, the bagger series has been able to
15:29
do for Motor America as far as in the drawing attendance and
15:31
stuff like that. I know it's not quite where it
15:33
was, but it's definitely I, I can, I can personally say it's
15:37
definitely gotten a lot. It's grown a lot more since
15:40
2016. But let's talk about, you know,
15:43
your dad is has the Penguin school.
15:45
You're you're racing at that point where you looking at
15:47
teaching and instructing kids when you were like, you know,
15:50
graduating college around that time you were racing or was that
15:53
kind of later, later on? Well, I, I mean, I started out
15:58
just focusing on myself. I was, I was more of a student
16:00
than I was a teacher. Of course, you know, I had lots
16:02
to learn. You know, my father taught me
16:05
through my my earlier years, which was great.
16:07
And then I had lots of great mentors growing up.
16:10
I mean, like Johnny Bettencourt was someone I learned from a
16:12
lot. I think one of the guys that
16:14
probably made the biggest impact on my, on my riding and my
16:18
thought process for how I did it, because he was the guy who
16:22
was kind of teaching me as I was starting to become a pro was
16:24
probably Deal Quarterly. He was one of our advanced
16:28
instructors. Again, just a guy who is from
16:30
our local area, you know, super talented guy.
16:35
He was the last guy to be a privateer to win an amateur bike
16:40
national back when there were, you know, 1214 factory riders
16:44
and it was a really big deal and guys are getting paid 7 figures
16:47
to go do it. And he did it as as a effort
16:50
funding his own, his own deal. And so and Dale continued to be
16:54
successful for a long time. He stopped racing in his early
16:57
30s, but then went on and helped mentor a bunch of other riders,
17:01
you know, after that. And we even worked together at
17:04
at times, you know, working with riders.
17:06
I mean, we talked to when it came to bring in guys like Ben
17:11
Gaudi and T Cobbs together, you know, we were working together
17:14
with those guys a little bit. And, and so, yeah, it was, it
17:16
was a lot of fun. I mean, and, and Dale's a guy, I
17:19
talked to him this morning actually.
17:20
So, you know, long time relationship with with guys like
17:23
that. And he made an impact on my
17:24
racing for sure. Nice.
17:27
And he asked. Like, you know, back then, what
17:30
was the mindset like for, you know, training and practicing
17:34
and, and just being motivated to go fast?
17:36
I mean, we see now there's a lot of support for riders,
17:41
especially on the training side, on the mental fitness side and
17:44
stuff like that. You know, you know, I, we see
17:46
old movies and you'll see guys finishing a beer and then going
17:49
to race. So it's having a cigarette more
17:51
on car racing movies than bike racing.
17:52
But you know, what was it like back then in in the paddock and
17:56
stuff? I mean, there's a broad spectrum
18:00
of how people would approach it. You know what I mean?
18:03
I think that, you know, there's two ways we can go after this
18:06
question. I mean, broadly speaking, I
18:09
think that there was not nearly the technology of the science
18:13
behind what goes on now. I mean riders now they literally
18:17
will hire trainers and have, you know, people to help them with
18:21
their diet and people with their mental that kind of stuff.
18:23
I mean, you know, our our mental stuff was, you know, toughen up.
18:26
But a couple let's go. You know, there was there was
18:29
much less hands on with that kind of stuff and that wasn't
18:32
studied as much as far as training.
18:35
I mean, it was just kind of traditional stuff.
18:36
Guys would run. I mean, I did when I was
18:40
probably at the Pika, the most serious of my professional
18:43
career. I did more training on dirt
18:46
bikes than I did anything else, You know what I mean?
18:49
I, I, I theorized back in those days and OK, you know, a super
18:53
bike race on it on average would take 40 minutes or so, you know,
18:57
could be 35 and 40. That's kind of the average
18:59
window. And I said, well, if I can do,
19:01
you know, a 40 minute Moto on a, on a 450 motocross bike, you
19:06
know, at a pace, then I think I'm training myself to be, to be
19:10
pretty good. And you go to the gym and, and
19:11
lift to be strong and that kind of stuff.
19:12
But like for me, dirt bikes for my primary mechanism, I do a
19:17
little bit different now where I do some definitely more targeted
19:22
training on my, on my cardio fitness to do a lot of high,
19:25
high intensity interval stuff. And, and I still ride dirt
19:28
bikes, But being that my bones are more brittle than they used
19:32
to be, I try to avoid falling out of the sky from 40 feet as
19:36
much as I possibly can. So, but you know, it's, I still
19:40
love riding dirt bikes. So it's, it's still something
19:42
that I enjoy. I just got to, I got, I got to
19:44
take it a little bit in moderation.
19:47
Injuries have have made it harder to to take hits on that
19:51
and even like landing off of, you know, a big 80 foot jump can
19:54
be, can be tough. I've got wrist issues and that
19:56
kind of thing. But it's all right.
19:57
You know what, we we figured out ways.
19:59
I'm, I'm very fortunate and I have a a wife who's a, a
20:03
doctorate level nurse practitioner and so.
20:06
If I need help when it comes to nationals medically she can make
20:09
me good to go so. Nice, nice.
20:12
We, we listen, we all want one of those.
20:14
I have three sisters that are nurses and and so it's, it's
20:17
nice to be able to get some, some good information on inside.
20:21
Yeah, I, I won't share names so I can tell you this that that I
20:25
have been out during nationals when I was not racing on a
20:28
Sunday and been shocked at what some of the guys in perhaps the,
20:33
the the 90s were willing to put their body through chemically
20:37
before they would go race the day, the day after.
20:39
It's those, those guys were animals and, and, and maybe I
20:45
don't want to call it less serious because they were
20:46
certainly serious on race day, but they were also serious on
20:49
Saturday night as well. And.
20:52
And I think that's, that's, I mean, I, I think, you know, we,
20:54
we heard it from like the former NBA players when they talk about
20:57
the 80s and stuff like that. And you know, Michael Irvin from
21:01
the Dallas Cowboy days, I mean, he's still, I reminisce on, on
21:05
some of the shows he's on about those days.
21:07
So it was a different time where it seems like, you know, we as
21:12
human beings could tolerate that Where I mean, I just heard on
21:15
the news the other day the young kids now a good percentage, but
21:18
I'm not even drinking. So it's a it's a lot different
21:22
today than than how we used to live.
21:25
They'll probably live longer, but you know, it's, there's a
21:29
time when, you know, if everyone's doing the same thing,
21:33
then there's no perceived advantage, you know what I mean?
21:36
So if they're all party animals, they're all doing the same thing
21:38
and they're all dealing with the same thing on Sunday, then feels
21:41
pretty level. But I think that when you've
21:43
got, you know, a handful of people that have talent and are
21:47
insanely motivated to do all the right things, if you don't fall
21:51
in line, do this stuff as well, you're going to fall behind.
21:53
So, you know, if you want to be competitive and you want to win,
21:56
these days you almost won't have a choice.
21:58
You know what I mean? Which which is fine.
22:01
Yeah, yeah. And and you know, you mentioned
22:02
they they live longer, but we also see that riders and
22:06
athletes today in general are playing at a higher level longer
22:10
where before, you know, it was through injuries or what or what
22:13
have you. It was a shorter career.
22:17
How how long were you a pro for? And you know what made you made
22:21
you decide to step away from it? Well I mean I did my first pro
22:26
race. I mean let me see, I started Rd.
22:29
racing in general in 1990. That was my very first.
22:33
I did, I went to Bridgehampton and went out and had a good time
22:37
and broke my hand in my first race and said I'm I'm slacked
22:40
down. I can't wait to go back and heal
22:41
and do this next year. Did 4 races of the novice in
22:45
1990 and then 91 was my first full season.
22:48
I did that on EX500I, managed to win an expert championship then
22:52
and then went from an EX500 to a ZX7, which was a giant reality
22:56
slap. And you know, my third race on a
23:01
ZX7I lined up for an MA750 Super Sport National.
23:06
Rolling out the practice. I'm like, oh, this is going to
23:08
be cool. It's my home track.
23:09
We're all good. And you know, up rolls #1 Scott
23:12
Russell next to me. And I kind of felt really small
23:14
and a little out of place at that point.
23:16
I'm like, maybe I shouldn't be here, I don't know.
23:19
But ended up having a, a race long battle with someone, you
23:23
know, well, Ricky Doucette. And we, we fought it out for
23:26
20th place and had a good time. But you know, the fields are
23:30
deep back then. I think they're probably 35 or
23:32
40 riders. So we, we did a solid mid pack
23:34
and, and that was my first time ever doing it.
23:37
I did nationals all the way through probably 2010.
23:44
From there, you know, most of those seasons we're doing full
23:49
seasons. We chased the at first it was
23:52
just like, hey, I'm going to hit the ones I can make, right?
23:54
So I hit 5 or 6 nationals a year for a while in the 90s.
23:57
I went after my first national championship in the Formula USA
24:01
series in 1997 and did full seasons all the way through
24:08
probably 2007 and then did again probably finish my career again
24:13
doing 5 or 6 races again and did that to probably 20/10/2011.
24:19
Then went back to to regional races and I still hit some
24:23
nationals here and there. I think the last time I did
24:25
Daytona 200 was like maybe 2015 and then my quote UN quote pro
24:30
races now are just kind of waiting for the pros to come
24:33
around to to the loud and so I can go play with them with the
24:35
classic. And I look forward to those
24:37
every year actually, because it's it's fun to go measure
24:39
yourself against those guys every.
24:40
Season, yeah. I was going to say, well, so you
24:44
say you're not. You're still, you're still a
24:45
pro, you're still racing. But I, I remember, I, I don't
24:50
remember before the pandemic or after it was you had a race down
24:53
at Homestead is when you guys were going to Homestead in
24:55
December. And I remember a race.
24:59
I don't remember the I know that he was a Spanish guy.
25:02
You were racing and I think he was on a 600 and it was a close
25:04
fight. I think you finished second on
25:06
that race. What is it like, you know, being
25:08
an older person racing these young guys and, and you know, as
25:11
they say, rubbing his racing, you know, what is it like today
25:14
racing with these young kids? I, I, I love it.
25:18
I mean it, it keeps me sharp. I mean, you know, I subscribe to
25:21
the theory that if you stay at this and you keep at it and you
25:24
keep going and you keep your mind fresh, you know, there's no
25:28
reason you can't be competitive well into your 50s.
25:30
It's not a problem. I mean, Jeremy McWilliams, I
25:33
think is 60 years old and still runs at the, at the front of
25:36
national races. And the key for him, because he
25:38
never stopped. I mean, you're talking about the
25:40
guy that, you know, he he was at a motor GP level at one point
25:43
and, and just kept going. And so, yeah, guy that you know,
25:46
you catch him on the right day and he can still go win a
25:48
hooligan race national against a bunch of guys who are super
25:51
talented. So, you know, I think it's a
25:54
matter of, you know, you keep your body in good, in good
25:56
condition and you keep yourself mentally sharp.
25:59
The hardest thing is you step away from it because you know,
26:03
the, your mind stays pretty adapted to processing things at
26:07
speed after you do it for a while.
26:08
And when you step away from it, it's that being able to process
26:12
information that quickly and, and, and stay ahead of the bike
26:17
that that really can catch up with you.
26:20
I mean, I had an injury, it was like 99, just utterly destroyed
26:26
my, my right knee and had nothing to do with Rd. racing.
26:29
I, I did it in my backyard on an XR100.
26:32
But I mean, it was, it was like pretty gross.
26:35
It like I snapped 3 to 4 ligaments in my knee and
26:38
fractured my femur and tibia and cartilage and meniscus all at
26:41
the same time. So I had, you know, four or five
26:45
months of sitting in a CPM machine in my, in my living
26:47
room, the machine with my leg for me.
26:50
And I missed all of that next season.
26:52
And, you know, when I came back, it was like the the biggest
26:57
thing and I was still young at that point.
27:00
It was catching up to the timing.
27:02
I was like, I was like behind on things and my brain wasn't quite
27:05
up to speed. And, you know, being young, it's
27:07
like I caught back up. But it took me a couple weekends
27:09
to be able to process things again.
27:12
And I think that, you know, if you stay with it, I mean, I've
27:15
seen racers here, you know, good, like age 70 and, and still
27:20
be able to ride. I don't know if that is what I
27:21
aspire to be. You know, I'm going to keep
27:24
doing it until I'm not competitive anymore.
27:27
And if I don't feel that I can, can reasonably run at the front,
27:31
then maybe it's time for me to step back and, and, you know,
27:35
take a rest. But, you know, at the moment
27:36
we're still able to do that. I'm, I'm really fortunate.
27:39
There's always good young kids to, to keep me honest.
27:43
And, you know, and I, when the national guys come, you know,
27:46
like I, I can't quite beat Scott, Tyler Scott or those guys
27:49
yet. But you know, we're going to
27:50
give it another try this year. We'll see how it goes.
27:52
Yeah, I, I, well, no, I'll say this.
27:54
I took a year off last year. I did it like the Sapirana race
27:58
down here last year and I did it again this year.
28:02
I didn't race between last year and this year.
28:03
And I and I jumped on a monster 1100 with these guys.
28:07
And I could only go as fast as my eyes could move.
28:09
And it was just such a, you know, I'm telling my brain to do
28:12
something on my leg is like next, next lap.
28:15
It's it's it's pretty wild. But now let's talk about like,
28:20
you know, you got into teaching because when I when I heard of
28:23
your name and saw you 2013, you were teaching Penguin.
28:25
I mean, I was in the big in the class.
28:27
So I wasn't with you at the in in the class that you taught.
28:30
What made you decide to start teaching and doing that part of
28:34
it? Well, I mean, I watched that
28:36
happen, you know, my whole life, you know, with, with my father
28:39
in the school and stuff. And I was given the opportunity
28:43
to, to teach the advanced course.
28:46
Honestly, it probably started in the mid 90s.
28:50
You know, I had just won my first national championship
28:54
doing F USA stuff. So I, I felt like we finally had
28:57
the, the credentials to, to start doing some teaching and
29:00
stuff. And I probably wasn't that great
29:04
when I first started. It was a learning process like
29:07
everything else. You know, I understood how to do
29:09
things and, and you know, the, the teaching methods of the old
29:15
days were often just like, Hey, let me show you, you know what I
29:17
mean. And, and, and I can explain
29:19
theory and that kind of stuff. And my brain as a mechanical
29:22
engineer, I, I kind of, I kind of work differently there.
29:24
So, you know, I, I, I break things down to a physics
29:29
standpoint and I don't, you know, it's, it's real easy to,
29:33
to get people glassy eyed. So probably what I needed to
29:36
learn early in my career was how to translate, you know,
29:41
mechanical things in math, which most people can understand if
29:45
you just, if they don't do it every day, it's, it's hard to
29:48
expect them to, to, to speak that kind of language.
29:51
People aren't going to understand calculus if they've
29:53
if they've never taken it right. So, but physics is a wonderful
29:57
thing because we all experience the world every day.
30:01
And there's things that are very relatable with motorcycle
30:05
racing, like everything down from how you feel traction to
30:08
how you turn to, to, to the way you, you know, apply a brake
30:10
lever and to what happens when you move on your life.
30:13
What I learned as I learned to teach over the years was how to
30:17
relate all of those things into tangible examples that people
30:21
can definitely relate to. And, and, and it helped clarify
30:25
the lessons that are, that are out there.
30:27
And so, and you know, that that's, that's been enjoying.
30:31
And I still work on that, you know, everyday.
30:33
I mean, I've been teaching for, for 30 years and I still figure
30:38
out ways to communicate things better all the time.
30:40
And I listen to other people who are also, you know, excellent
30:44
teachers and try to look to look at what their delivery methods
30:49
are and how they go about it. And it's, it's, it's exciting
30:52
for me to when I, every time still, if I get a student that
30:56
comes in and they're struggling with a, with a concept and, you
31:00
know, we can talk to them and, and help them understand the way
31:04
something works and teach them the why of why.
31:07
Like, I'm not going to say, hey, listen, like I can show you,
31:09
listen, go here, OK? Trust me.
31:11
You know, this is the line. And you're, you're, you're a
31:13
capable enough guy that if I make an X on the payment, you
31:16
can run it over, but you're not going to understand why you're
31:18
there. And so I like, try not to just
31:20
tell you what to do, but I, I'll kind of say, listen, if I can't
31:24
give you a logical reason for why I'm having to do what I'm
31:30
asking to do, then don't do it. You know what I mean?
31:34
And, and so that's been a really enjoyable part of my, of my
31:39
whole journey here because, you know, the sport is so cool.
31:42
I mean, it's like it, this is where it mixes like your
31:48
survival instincts with athletic athleticism and understanding
31:53
mechanical things all at the same time.
31:55
And so there's the ability to understand and develop and, and
31:59
a machine. And then there's the whole like,
32:02
hey, you know, you're an athlete on top of this and, and you've
32:05
got to understand how to move and, and manipulate your body
32:07
and, and, and manipulate physics to get the traction you need in
32:11
each particular segment of the corner, which changes constantly
32:13
dynamically all the time. And then you've got this whole
32:18
fear thing where you need to survive.
32:20
You've got to make sure that you do all this and you don't fall
32:23
down at the same time. Yeah, definitely as my camera is
32:29
acting up, but we'll sort that out in a second.
32:31
Let me, let me ask about just you talk about the survival
32:36
instinct 'cause I remember first going to the track and it, for
32:40
me, it was, it's, it was weird because I mean, I haven't been
32:45
in that environment. And as an adult seeing that, you
32:47
know, to me, everyone looked like gladiators and, and it
32:51
looked like, you know, when I first got to the track and stuff
32:54
like that, I couldn't put my finger on it.
32:56
And, and, and I think it was like maybe a few years ago.
32:58
It's just like, it's almost like you're getting your mind and
33:01
your body prepared to go into war as or, or survival mode
33:04
where you move differently, you're calmer, you know, so it's
33:08
a different vibe, but it's but you can feel the energy in the
33:11
paddock, especially as as you get closer to your to go out for
33:15
your race and stuff like that. Have you noticed that?
33:18
I mean, you've been in it so young, So have you noticed that
33:22
with people and stuff like that, with environment in in a
33:24
paddock? Well, I mean, there's, there's a
33:27
couple things to say there. I mean, there's definitely, it's
33:34
different than baseball or golf, right?
33:36
Like no one, no one at golf worries about breaking their leg
33:39
when they swing it on the, on the 7th tee, you know what I
33:42
mean? Or, or they're trying to
33:44
overtake their, their, the person they're playing golf
33:46
against. You know, this is a different
33:49
kind of deal. Like you, you need to, you're,
33:53
you're playing games back and forth with your own mentality.
33:55
And some people, you know, need to really focus on, on, you
33:59
know, keeping their mind on the task's hand instead of what
34:02
they're afraid of at the same time.
34:03
And so, you know, it goes down to the, some of the very basic
34:06
you teach the very first day that they're in a school of
34:09
target fixation is like, Hey, when in doubt, look where you
34:12
want to go. Don't look at what you don't
34:14
want to hit. If you look at what you don't
34:16
want to hit, you're going to run it over.
34:18
So look where you want to go kind of thing.
34:20
And, and that whole very, very simple philosophy, but that
34:24
translates to all kinds of things.
34:26
It's like when you're doing all this stuff, like focus on the
34:29
positive, focus on what you're trying to do.
34:31
Don't ever talk to yourself about what you don't want to do.
34:34
You know, it's like, you know, if you're, if you're trying to
34:38
move your brake marker up and you're saying, you know, don't
34:40
break it, the four, don't break it, the four, don't break it,
34:42
the four, because you want to break it.
34:43
The three, your body hasn't even processed the word.
34:46
Don't it just hears break it, the four, that's all it sees.
34:48
And then so like there's, there's all kinds of, you know,
34:51
and that's very, very elementary level for this kind of stuff.
34:55
And so, you know, that's one part of it and that's, you know,
34:59
the danger is part of what makes it cool.
35:01
I mean, you know, like if, if we wanted to do this as a, as a
35:07
safest possible way, we'd be racing remote control cars,
35:09
which doesn't just seem to be nearly as much fun.
35:12
So, you know, I, I want to be at Daytona and I want to be
35:17
drafting someone going 182 miles an hour, you know, in proximity
35:21
of the wall and being able to have to say, I've got to turn
35:24
this thing with everything I got because the G forces are so big.
35:26
And like, I want to feel that I want to experience that, that I
35:29
want to be in this thing. I want to, I mean, we got it.
35:30
Like, you know, I want to experience skydiving on a video
35:33
again. I want to jump out of the
35:34
freaking plane. You know, let's do it.
35:36
So that that's, that's one of the really cool parts of this
35:40
sport is that, you know, and that kind of translates into
35:44
kind of what happens in the paddock, because when the
35:46
paddock is done right, and I think what we have in the
35:49
Northeast is really special. You know, there's a really,
35:54
there's a fine line between, you know, going all out and trying
35:58
as hard as you can to win and leaving the guy that you're
36:02
racing with that sliver of asphalt and he needs to survive.
36:06
And that's it. You don't have to leave any more
36:08
than that, but that's you have to leave at least that.
36:11
And there's got to be that level of respect and, and you've got
36:14
to be able to trust the people that you're that you're riding,
36:17
you know, elbow to elbow with at triple digit speeds.
36:20
And so, you know, that respect kind of translates into a, into
36:25
a culture of like, hey, you know what I mean?
36:27
Yeah, we're, we're all like, at least for me, like I'll help
36:32
anybody. I'll talk to anyone you want,
36:33
you want to understand how to go through turn 6 at Loudon or, or
36:36
any place else we're going. You want to know particular
36:38
trick or tell me what you're doing wrong, that's fine.
36:40
You know, like I, I, I want to, or if you need a parts or that
36:43
kind of stuff. And like, you see that level of,
36:47
of help where you've got competitors helping each other
36:50
put their motorcycles back together and staying up late and
36:53
burning the midnight oil and taking parts off their own spare
36:55
motorcycle to make things work. And that, like, it's such a cool
36:58
community when it comes to that kind of thing.
37:01
And I think that that starts with that respect that we have
37:05
to have with each other on the racetrack.
37:07
And it translates in this whole little subculture.
37:10
And I've, you know, most of my best friends in the world.
37:13
I, I know from Rd. racing and I don't think it's a coincidence.
37:16
A lot of like minded people and, and it's probably my favorite
37:20
community to be with, you know, outside of my immediate family.
37:23
Right, right. Did you feel you left enough
37:25
room for Stefano and he came up on the inside of you and turned
37:28
3 last year? I think it.
37:30
Was Yeah, yeah, that was a that was a not a big deal.
37:33
I mean, and Stefano and I, you know, I raced Stefano since
37:38
probably he was, you know, 14 and Lion and saying he was 16.
37:42
You know, I, I, I, I raced him for a long time.
37:45
You talk about someone I raced with down at Homestead.
37:46
I mean, I've had plenty of battles with, with Stefano down
37:50
at Homestead, you know, in recent years the kids been
37:53
pretty incredible. You know, he, he's always been a
37:56
good racer. And we went back and forth and I
37:59
kind of said, you know, wow. I mean, when I was younger, I,
38:01
I, we had a lot of good battles. I beat Stefano quite a few
38:04
times, but I, I don't beat Stefano right now.
38:07
Stefano is quite in recent years, especially, it's just
38:11
kind of kind of late in his career, elevated his game more
38:15
than other people his age did. And that was, that was
38:18
impressive to me that he did that kind of, you know,
38:21
Stefano's not really old, but I mean, I think he's probably
38:23
early 30s by now. And, and I would say that, you
38:27
know, he really blossomed in his late 20s into what I would call
38:32
a peak of his career when he was like, really I, and that's,
38:35
that's kind of like a little bit of a late bloom some guys.
38:38
And so he was, he was very impressive.
38:40
And you know, he was a Wildman when he was younger.
38:42
We had a couple discussions when he was 16 or 17 years old.
38:46
We don't have this anymore. He's a great kid and a great
38:49
guy, I should say. And he helps a lot of other
38:51
people ride, you know, super capable guy and someone I have
38:56
immense respect for out there. So it was a lot of fun.
38:59
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. So let's talk about the Neymar.
39:03
You're also doing that as well. So not just Penguin, you know.
39:07
How did you get involved in that part of it?
39:09
I mean, I, you know, from my point of view, I seem like
39:11
you're always there because you're always leading the
39:13
writers meetings and stuff like that, or one of the people
39:15
talking to writers meeting and stuff like that.
39:17
Is it just again because part of the Penguin program?
39:21
Well, I mean, when Neymar kind of came into being the
39:27
racetrack, and I'm sure you heard this story from John, you
39:31
know, John Grush and I were working together with some
39:33
school stuff. And, you know, we got called
39:37
into the the main office by the people that own New Hampshire
39:41
Motor Speedway and who owned the Racing series.
39:44
And we didn't know exactly what was going on there.
39:47
We walked in and they basically said, hey, just feel aware we're
39:50
not going to run the series anymore, so if you guys want it,
39:53
you should run it. And we kind of said, OK and kind
40:00
of walked out of there and said, what did we just sign ourselves
40:02
up for? And so John and I ran it
40:05
together as as kind of Co heads of the of the organization for
40:10
the first year. And then it, it made sense for
40:14
there to be one person in charge.
40:15
And I already had lots going on. Not that John didn't, but John
40:18
was willing to take on the the mantle.
40:22
And run the thing himself, which was fantastic.
40:25
He's he's been doing a great job and I've had a lot of insights
40:29
as to the, the extra efforts he's gone to really make sure
40:34
that we have a series of sustainable for the long term in
40:37
there. And we're moving the series in
40:38
the right direction. And so I've kind of always
40:42
stayed on as kind of the technical director, like, you
40:45
know, we always talk about, you know, things that are the, the
40:50
help of my experience. I've, I've worked with lots of
40:52
different organizations. I've seen tons of different
40:54
clubs and how they run around the around the country and had
40:59
some insights about how to build things when we put the whole
41:01
thing back together. You know, like one of the
41:03
concepts that that I thought was really important was to bring
41:08
the street crowd and and the track day riders into the
41:12
paddock. And so we instituted the Super
41:16
street program, which was a concept that I had observed a
41:21
club out in Colorado do very successfully and and thought was
41:25
it was a perfect model to help ensure the long term viability
41:29
of the club. So we just said, hey, we need a
41:31
place where someone who doesn't have a race bike yet, you know
41:33
what I mean? But it has common done track
41:36
days and understands what's going on and does a very basic
41:39
class can do, can be part of our race program and do it in such a
41:44
way that's like it's, it's racing, but it's kind of a
41:47
hybrid. It's it's kind of like a track
41:49
day race hybrid. And it's not serious, but they
41:52
can come and they can stay and ride like they come and do a
41:55
school on Friday and they say, Hey, you know what, this is fun.
41:58
I like to stay for more than more than one day.
42:00
And so they can take that same motorcycle that they use in the
42:03
school and basically like stick a front number plate on it and
42:06
put a transponder on it, which is easy to do.
42:09
And then they can stay and ride the weekend and they can ride
42:11
with other people that are just like them.
42:13
You know, they don't, they don't mix with racers.
42:15
They're with other Super street level riders and, and stay and
42:19
be part of the day and, and watch the racers up upfront and
42:23
close and like, and, and it's worked really well because we've
42:27
had tons of people that say, well, I can stay and do Super
42:30
street. Yeah, I'm going to line up and
42:31
I'm going to, I'm going to do a start.
42:32
And we say, listen, you know, you do the the race for Super
42:35
Street. We don't care how you do.
42:37
We just care that you're safe and you're out there doing it
42:39
right. And and so, you know, you can
42:41
take off and you can start in the back row if you want, no big
42:43
deal. And people start like that's
42:46
pretty tentative. And then they get kind of hooked
42:47
a little bit and they start racing with their buddy a little
42:49
bit. And they before you know it, you
42:51
know, we've had a ton of these people that have said, you know
42:54
what, this is really cool and we want to be a permanent party
42:57
back and go on and get the real race license and start us
42:59
novices and go from there. So to me, if, if there is any
43:03
success story that I'm really excited about, besides the the
43:07
big, loud and classic thing they can put together, you know, like
43:10
that's the thing that I think is I'm most, I'm most proud of
43:13
because that's been a really successful program.
43:15
It's really helped bring the sport to people that I think
43:17
otherwise might have been afraid to try it.
43:20
And, and, and, and I'm really a huge part of this, like I, I
43:24
believe to my bones that there's nothing in the world that that's
43:28
cooler than riding a motorcycle on the racetrack.
43:30
And, you know, if you can take some of the barriers away from
43:34
people and, and make the, make the entry price easy and, and
43:37
make it so that like there are, you don't have to have a full
43:40
race bike and, and something big a deal.
43:42
And hey, just treat it like fun what you're doing.
43:44
You know, Steve Naguera, who helps us with our basic course,
43:47
also helps coordinate the, the Super street schools.
43:51
And there's just like some class that goes on along with that and
43:54
he does a fantastic job of those guys.
43:56
He's the perfect personality to bring those people along and
43:59
keep them all excited and, and give them good information when
44:02
they need help. And you know, it's, it's, it's
44:05
really been a success story that that I think will sustain itself
44:09
for a long time. So we we really, really like
44:12
that part of what we got going on there.
44:14
And so, you know, I've always had a good relationship with
44:18
lots of the races. So John, I talk to the writers
44:20
meetings because, you know, I, I, I'm fortunate enough to have
44:24
tons of people that I, that I know and, and, and, you know,
44:28
it's, I'm glad to help him in that way because he's got plenty
44:32
going on and he doesn't need to be talking about every single
44:35
thing at the writers meeting and, and everything else he has
44:37
going on. So if I can just take that off
44:38
his plate and, and, and just tap into some of the experience I
44:42
got and help communicate with the guys when we're doing stuff,
44:45
why we're doing it and that kind of stuff.
44:46
I'm, I'm happy to do that always, you know, and so, you
44:49
know, that's an easy role and kind of fun.
44:51
Nice. What do you say to folks that
44:54
are a little skeptical about coming to the track or and I'm
44:57
pretty sure you've heard, I've heard it, so I know you've heard
44:59
it. You know, they say it's
45:00
dangerous, they'll never get out there and stuff like that.
45:02
I've been heard some people say, you know, track riding is more
45:05
dangerous than St. riding. I, I, I giggle at that because
45:12
you know, if, if, if you want any evidence, you know what I
45:15
mean, Just listen to your average racer who goes, hey, you
45:19
want to go back and ride in the street?
45:20
They're like you street's dangerous, man.
45:22
This is like crazy. You know, we don't have 18
45:25
Wheelers and kids texting and SUVs and old ladies backing out
45:29
of driveways and, you know, sand in the middle of the street and,
45:32
you know, telephone poles and mailboxes and, you know, stone
45:35
walls and that kind of stuff. And oh, if we, if there does
45:38
happen to be some sort of wall, you know that that's on the edge
45:40
of our racetrack, they buy this 4 foot thick foam padding they
45:44
put in front of it. So, you know, and if something
45:47
does happen, there's an ambulance sitting right there,
45:49
not, not 20 minutes away while you bleed out of the street.
45:52
I mean, listen, St. riding is great.
45:54
And but like, I believe that you need to have a much, much higher
46:00
degree of restraint on the street, on the street and leave
46:03
us some way more margin than you do on the racetrack because
46:06
you've got all these variables that are taken out.
46:08
I mean, like all that stuff I just talked about, if there is
46:10
some problem, if there is some truck in the middle of the road,
46:12
there's sand, there is, you know, you have someone jumping
46:15
up and down waving a flag at you, let you know it's there,
46:17
you know what I mean? So and you can't ride anywhere
46:22
near the limit that you can on the racetrack safely, you know
46:26
what I mean? Like because of all the removal
46:29
of all those dangers, so I can take any street bike and move it
46:32
right up to like, you know, 80 or 90% of its limit safely.
46:36
I can't do that on the street, man.
46:38
Like it's just like, and not live to be 54 years old.
46:41
I don't think, you know, it's it's just not how that works.
46:45
And so I believe the street, the the racetrack to be far safer
46:49
than the street. Now, can you fall?
46:50
Sure. Can you get hurt?
46:51
Yeah, of course. But you know, I can get hurt
46:53
walking across the road. You know, I, I, I will take my
46:57
risk on the racetrack where I'm riding around in a leather suit
47:01
and full protection with all those variables taken out any
47:05
day over, you know, riding like that on the street.
47:08
And like I said, I have nothing against riding the street.
47:11
Riding the street is, is great. But personally, right, my brain
47:16
is wired to to ride fast and, and, and to really like, if I'm,
47:21
if I get on soon notice, like I, I go buy a Panigale V4 or
47:24
something like that, What the hell am I going to do with that
47:26
in the street? I mean, you know, put that in
47:28
second gear and get arrested. I mean, that's pretty much what
47:30
what happens. You probably get arrested in
47:32
first gear. I'm sure.
47:34
You know, what are the more good for?
47:36
I, I don't know, you know, so, but I can take one of those
47:40
things out on the racetrack and I can say, whoa, look at this
47:42
thing can actually really do you know what I mean?
47:44
And the, the other thing that happens to the track is because
47:48
you get these opportunities to do these things repeatedly and
47:50
that kind of stuff, you can really work on your skills.
47:54
And, and that's so super important is I can go, I can do
47:57
this corner. You know, you're going to go out
47:59
there in the end and do, you know, whatever 8 laps in a
48:01
session, you need to get 6-7 sessions in a day.
48:04
And you know, it's like how many I'm going to do 50 times, try
48:06
this corner 50 times over and over again.
48:09
And I can actually test things. I can try and go a little deeper
48:12
and try a little. I can try break in a different
48:14
way and I can stuff. And when you start being able to
48:18
ride close to the limit and learn how to catch your mistakes
48:20
and that kind of stuff, it becomes muscle memory.
48:23
And, and having those correct reactions become muscle memory
48:27
is what saves your life in the street.
48:29
Because then something happens and the idiot in the truck does
48:32
back out in front of you or something does happen like that
48:34
and and there's some obstacle you'd expect to be there.
48:38
You've got the correct reactions ingrained into your muscle
48:41
memory. So now if you can just stop as
48:42
fast as you can, you don't hork the brake on all at once like
48:45
your average St. guy who like, I don't blame the average St. guy,
48:48
but he has know what he's doing. And so he grabs the brake, tucks
48:51
the front and stuffs himself on the truck and he gets killed
48:53
right where But as where the racer knows how to apply the
48:58
brake as hard as he can, take lean angle out of it and do all
49:01
the other things that you learn on the street and how to target,
49:04
fixate, how to look for the solution, how to find the hole
49:06
that you're going to escape through rather than drill the
49:08
side of the truck. Like all that becomes
49:11
automation. I was telling someone the other
49:13
day about, but like the scariest moment that I think I ever had
49:16
racing was like just something that that my brain did by
49:20
reaction. It was like 2004 and the AMA had
49:25
just switched from seven 50s to one thousands for super bikes,
49:29
right? And we're at Daytona now in the
49:31
old days there was ACCS club race warm up weekend before the
49:35
national, all the pro guys would go.
49:37
And so we're out there on our on our thousand CC zero bikes at
49:41
Daytona on the banking. And I'm going around these
49:43
banking, getting ready to go around and and come out to the
49:45
chicane. And I'm on 1000 CC motorcycle.
49:49
I'm doing 160 miles an hour and the things, you know, super
49:54
heavy in my hands and I got to set like you have to treat the
49:57
banking, which is this, you know, gigantic Oval and I have
49:59
to treat the banking corners like like a corner, like like on
50:03
a small biker on the banking, you just kind of go around and
50:05
do whatever you want. Like, yeah, you know, like and
50:08
yeah, you got to muscle it, but like like 1000, like you got to
50:11
start up high and you have to turn the thing in the right
50:13
spot. You get apex in the right spot
50:15
because there's so much too difficult force in that thing.
50:17
If you don't do that, it drags you all the rest of the wall and
50:20
you can get really hurt, you know what I mean?
50:21
So I'm treating it like that. Now I'm going 160.
50:24
Now there's some guy is the CCS club race weekend who bought
50:28
himself A-1000 and he's scared crapless.
50:31
Like he's just like whoa. And I'm he's probably doing 80
50:36
and I'm doing 160 and now 80 at the banking is like, you can do
50:40
whatever you want. It's like the scariest guy on
50:42
the racetrack is not the guy who's going the same speed you
50:45
are. It's the guy who's going so slow
50:47
that he has the ability to take a 90° turn anywhere he wants
50:50
because he's got that freedom, right?
50:51
You understand what I'm saying? So so this guy is I'm closing
50:55
this guy with 80 mile an hour closing speed.
50:57
And I'm like, I see him coming. I'm like, oh boy.
50:59
And he's right in the middle of the tracks.
51:01
So I'm like, all right, I'm going to drop down underneath
51:02
him, you know, and apex this this banking where I want to and
51:07
and as I get about here, he goes and turns left and I literally
51:13
just said, Oh my God, what's he doing?
51:15
And I focused just out of reaction on where I wanted to
51:18
go. And I'm not exaggerating.
51:20
I missed his back tire with my front tire by about half an inch
51:24
and it was turned like as hard as I could up the banking to
51:28
make it happen. And just like we did this just
51:30
crisscross 80 mile an hour thing and I just went to the chicane,
51:33
pulled in, pulled in the bank and just kind of like, OK, all
51:39
right, little deep breath. That could have been ugly.
51:41
And and you know, I saw the results of a incident like that
51:48
not long before, because back when Daytona Motorsports group
51:52
DMG ran the Super Bike series for a couple years, which was a
51:56
an atrocity, they thought it was smart to have pace cars out
52:01
there during Daytona. Yeah.
52:03
And so we are out on a, on a super bike race and a pace car
52:08
came out and I believe the two were involved were Jamie Hacking
52:12
and Aaron Yates. I, I could have this wrong, but
52:14
anyway, I knew they were both riding blue and white bikes.
52:16
And you know, it was probably, I don't know, 8 or 10 laps into
52:20
the race And I came around the banking in that same exact spot
52:26
where I and this is it was and I'm not exaggerating.
52:30
The banking is 60 feet wide and it's probably 1000 foot shot
52:34
down to the chicane from there. And it was nothing but parts
52:37
everywhere. There was just pieces of
52:39
motorcycles all over the racetrack everywhere I went.
52:42
Whoa, something really bad went down right here.
52:45
And what happened was the pace, the pace car pulled out and I
52:48
don't know who was in front of the back of them.
52:49
I've been hacking was in front and the ace behind them hacking.
52:52
So the pace bar Yates said hacking checked up and Yates
52:55
went boom and drove in the back of them.
52:56
Both their bikes exploded and I mean, and and that's someone
53:01
that probably had a 20 or 30 mile an hour closing speed, but
53:03
one guy chopped the throttle and now, you know, double or triple
53:06
that. And it's like roof that I've
53:07
been ugly. But like the thing that saved me
53:09
in that situation was just years of training myself to say, when
53:13
you see something crazy, seek the solution as far as as fast
53:18
as you can make a decision and and and go.
53:21
And if you, and if you spend more than, than, than a fraction
53:24
of a second thinking about it, that can be the difference
53:26
literally in this case between life and death.
53:29
And, and, and, and so, you know, and I've had my kids tell me and
53:33
my kids did motorcycles. They didn't do it to this level.
53:36
They were just having fun with like driving their cars.
53:38
But the, the little bit of racing that I had them do is
53:41
like, man, it's a couple of times they're like, you know
53:43
what I did? Like I just like my brain just
53:46
automatically do this. And I, they said, I've watched
53:48
my friends do the same stuff and they froze up and smashed the
53:51
car and get in accidents and hurt themselves and hurt the
53:53
cars. It's like, so it's like, I don't
53:55
know. Racing helps you train to look
53:58
for solutions, which I don't think in life there's ever a
54:01
case where that's not a good thing.
54:02
You're not unless you know and you know to practice it because
54:05
it's the same thing. When I was a young guy, I froze
54:07
in my first accident in a car and I thought I could drive and
54:11
then realize I couldn't because I would have missed the pole if
54:13
I could. So I had to learn how to, to
54:17
drive better and, and learn to pay attention and use my eyes
54:21
more. I mean, I, I love four wheels
54:23
more than two. I love two wheels too.
54:25
I can't say more, but I've been on 2 four wheels longer than two
54:28
wheels. So I just got more time on it.
54:31
Let me ask about the, the, the mentor program and we'll talk
54:35
about Woodcraft a little bit. You know, you decided to do this
54:39
mentor program. What is, what has that been
54:42
like? What was the, the, the, the
54:44
reason behind deciding to say, OK, I'm going to you already.
54:48
Yeah, I'm hearing you. You're already a busy man and
54:50
you're like, I'm going to do this one with a.
54:53
Well, OK, so the mentor, you asked me the reason, isn't it?
54:56
It's clear as day because I can remember I had the vision burned
54:59
in my head forever. So I was teaching my advanced
55:01
class and I'm sitting there and it's a good size class.
55:05
There's probably 18 or 20 people in there.
55:07
And you know, I'm going through and I'm kind of one of those
55:09
days where I'm, I'm talking and, and we're hitting the subject is
55:12
almost automatic and almost kind of like watching myself from
55:14
above a little bit. And I'm, and I just kind of
55:17
looked around the room as I'm talking and I'm like, there's
55:20
not a person in this room is have a little bit of Gray hair.
55:23
Like there's not one. I don't think I get a student in
55:26
here that's under 40 and, and I'm like, I got a full class.
55:29
I'm happy this is good. But like, I'm like, this is not
55:31
good for the sport. Like it.
55:32
And, and I sat there that weekend and kind of looked
55:35
around the pack and was remembering my younger years
55:39
riding. And that particular weekend, I
55:41
think there was like 2 kids at the racetrack, you know what I
55:44
mean? And, and neither one of them was
55:46
strictly serious and they came back.
55:47
I'm like, man, like I'm like, if we don't, if we don't fix this,
55:53
I mean, there's no future because there's going to come a
55:56
day that all the 40 and 50 and 60 year olds become sixty 7080
56:00
year olds and they're not going to be riding anymore.
56:02
And so, you know, we need to someone to take care of the
56:05
sport along. So and I kind of made that
56:08
comment, that observation to John Grush, who, you know, was
56:12
still pretty heavily involved in the school that time He was
56:14
helping me teach back then. And we decided, and he told me
56:19
actually about how they structured some of these mentor
56:22
programs for the skiers that they had because John, many
56:27
people know when he was in his younger years was a world class
56:30
skier. And so, yeah, and literally
56:33
could ski at the world level. He's a, you know, borderline
56:36
Olympic guy that might have been there had he not ski through a
56:39
ski shack and put himself in a coma for six months.
56:41
That's a different story. But anyway, the So that came
56:46
from that. And we said, you know what my
56:49
goal is, I want to, I want to go from two people right now.
56:51
And I said, you know, and if five years from now, I want to
56:54
see 20 kids at the racetrack. And so how do we do that?
56:57
And it's like, well, we take some of the knowledge that we
57:00
have and, and some of the questions for both kids and
57:03
parents. And we say, Hey, listen, like
57:05
we've done this and we can where we want to share our our
57:09
knowledge with you guys and, and pick a select group of kids that
57:13
have the right kind of attitudes.
57:15
You know, they got to be good kids.
57:16
They got to be, you know, getting good grades and they got
57:17
to be willing to be good representatives of the sport
57:20
same time and have talent. And, and we want to bring some
57:24
of these kids into the program. And we got really lucky in that
57:29
we got some just fantastic kids along the way.
57:32
Our our first couple kids, we were on the program were like
57:35
Ben Gladdy and T Gobs, who were both just absolutely fantastic
57:40
kids, incredibly talented, motivated, and you know, make a
57:44
Long story short, you know, from the time we took those kids in
57:46
the program, both of them within five years had not only gotten
57:50
to be front running club races, which was our original goal.
57:54
So like they won mode American nationals, both of them.
57:57
And so we're like, wow, you know, and then, you know, we had
58:01
all kinds of, you know, like the Brianna McHugh and Jacob Crosman
58:05
and Renee Franco and the the list goes on and on of just like
58:08
these great kids that we brought in that that did all kinds of
58:12
really fantastic things. And, you know, we've had
58:16
probably a couple dozen kids through our program.
58:17
And I think that as we have brought kids through, it's, you
58:23
know, those kids tell other kids about it, you know what I mean?
58:26
And the kids that Michael plays soccer go ride supermoto instead
58:29
for a little while and they go, hey, listen, like there's a path
58:32
here, you know what I mean? And and so and, and, you know,
58:35
there's nothing that brings excitement to the paddock like
58:38
watching a 12 year old kid like Nathan Betancourt go out there
58:43
and, and, and ride and beat adult experts.
58:46
And some people go whoa. And it's fun, you know what I
58:49
mean? It's like it's always cool to
58:51
see all kinds of fresh new faces come up and, and anyone going
58:55
through the ranks for the first time has a fan club, which is
58:58
always cool, you know what I mean?
59:00
It never wants wants the root for the new guy.
59:01
And that's awesome. It's great for the sport, but
59:04
it's a little extra special when it's a kid who's 12/13/16 years
59:09
old that it, that's a good kid to bet to boot.
59:12
And there's lots of people that have been doing this for a long
59:14
time. You know, all those people with
59:15
Gray hair, some of them have had businesses and they, they do
59:19
well enough that they were willing to help a little bit and
59:21
like these kids get some help and, and it's, it's just been
59:24
really cool. And so I, you know, I had been
59:27
racing for a long time and not that I don't enjoy racing, I
59:29
absolutely do, but it's like, I've been doing this for a while
59:32
and I'm reading loud in a million times.
59:33
There have been 10s of thousands of laps there.
59:35
I'm like, what can I do to make this a little more exciting?
59:37
And it's like, well, I can share what I'm doing with, with, with
59:41
a group of kids. So I've got kids this year still
59:44
that, that are, that are really good.
59:45
I mean, Nathan Bettencourt and Tommy Hines and Cole Thompson
59:49
are in our program this year, and we're just excited to to
59:53
share as much as we can with them.
59:54
These kids are motivated. You know, Nathan's going to ride
59:57
World Super Sports 300 this year.
59:59
Yeah. I mean, you know it, It's
1:00:02
awesome. And, and, you know, and, and
1:00:04
Tommy and Cole are both great, great kids.
1:00:06
And I've watched them develop in a bunch of different ways, like.
1:00:09
You know, yes, they've all become better Rd. racers, you
1:00:13
know, and winning championships and being being upfront, but
1:00:16
they've also like developed in a bunch of other ways, you know,
1:00:18
they public speaking and their communication and like, you
1:00:22
know, you watch a kid mature and grow and it's like, man, like,
1:00:25
you know, like some of these kids, like I was talking to
1:00:27
Renee again tonight, you know, like, like Ray hasn't been in
1:00:29
the program for years, but she's such a good kid and and you
1:00:33
know, like, and she's moving on her life and she's doing adult
1:00:35
stuff and she's, you know, got her jobs, but she's still racing
1:00:38
and she's going to ride three different motorcycles this year
1:00:40
and stuff. And just like, you know, I'm,
1:00:43
I'm super lucky to, to be involved with kids like that and
1:00:47
that we have the kids and the families in in New England that
1:00:52
are, that are that kind of quality and just make you want
1:00:55
to support them, you know, in any way you can.
1:00:57
So it's, it's been probably the energy back in my racing program
1:01:03
for the last few years is absolutely been as a result of
1:01:06
those guys. And then, you know, like if I'm
1:01:08
trying to motivate them and, and say, Hey, listen, like if you
1:01:12
want to reach this goal that's hard, you're going to have to do
1:01:15
XY and Z. And, and we talked about all
1:01:17
these different things and like, it's going to be hard and
1:01:19
there's going to be time to suck.
1:01:20
And there's only time that you are the only one that's going to
1:01:22
be able to motivate yourself, you know what I mean?
1:01:23
And so I've got to be that example.
1:01:28
Even when I don't want to, there are days I don't want to work
1:01:31
out, the days I don't want to go work on this.
1:01:32
I mean, I don't want to go, you know, like if I say that I want
1:01:37
them to do it, then I have to do it too, you know what I mean?
1:01:39
And, and just like they do, like they come to me and get racing
1:01:44
advice and get, you know, like I still learn myself, you know
1:01:47
what I mean? Like just because I'm the
1:01:49
teacher doesn't mean that my learning is stopped.
1:01:51
I believe my learning never stops.
1:01:53
And there's, you know, I can learn sometimes even from
1:01:55
students. It's which is kind of amazing.
1:01:57
But there, there's lots of people that I, that I have lots
1:02:00
of respect for. And so if I'm telling them to
1:02:02
say, listen, figure out what the next thing is, and we talk about
1:02:06
these different strategies, but when, what's the next thing
1:02:08
you're working on? What's the next skill you're
1:02:10
working on? And, and they come back and
1:02:11
like, if I push them hard enough and I piss them off enough,
1:02:14
they'll ask me, what are you working on?
1:02:16
I'm like, well, all right, you know, and so I got to have an
1:02:18
answer for that. And so I, I, and so that need to
1:02:22
be able to truthfully say, well, I'm working on this.
1:02:25
And this is what I did. This is how I did it, you know
1:02:26
what I mean? I've, I've got to, it's got to
1:02:30
be motivated. And, and so, and I give some
1:02:33
credit back to my kids for the fact that, you know, last year I
1:02:37
had, I had a lot of fun. And when the login classic came
1:02:40
around and, and I was racing with those guys that are top
1:02:43
national guys. I, I credit my kids back with
1:02:47
giving me some of the motivation to do the work that was required
1:02:51
for me to be able to, to, to expect the bill to do that.
1:02:54
You know, it's like if you do the work, then you have the
1:02:57
right to expect to be able to win or, or at least to, to be
1:03:00
competitive, right? And, but if you didn't do the
1:03:02
work, then maybe you don't. And so you've got to be that
1:03:06
example. So those guys have absolutely
1:03:08
given me that motivation, which I'm grateful for.
1:03:10
Nice, nice. That's, that's a beautiful
1:03:12
thing. Let's let's talk about, you
1:03:15
know, I've had other folks on, I have Nathan and Michael on the
1:03:19
show, the other family members on the show as far as their kids
1:03:22
race and stuff like that. The road to Moto GP world super
1:03:27
bike, the top level. You know, I, I, I heard you
1:03:31
mention how, you know, 6-7 figures back in the day, is it
1:03:35
possible to bridge a gap? So, you know, families, I mean,
1:03:39
I hear stories, I don't know how true they are, but you know, we
1:03:41
hear stories of writers putting up a lot of money to ride and
1:03:45
stuff like that. You know, you mentioned, you
1:03:49
know, folks with companies that money in and stuff like that.
1:03:53
Do you think about that side? How to How can we bring outside
1:03:58
money into the sport or get the sport to a place where you know
1:04:03
riders can't sustain themselves and not necessarily who they
1:04:07
know or whether they have the best personality to sell
1:04:09
products? Well, I mean, there's there's a
1:04:13
bunch of different sides to that for there to be money to be had
1:04:19
in any program, like if you're really going to try and have
1:04:21
money in it, the sport itself at the highest level has to have
1:04:26
enough exposure, you know what I mean?
1:04:27
And I think that that, listen, anytime you run an organization,
1:04:33
right and mode America is no exception to this.
1:04:36
There's going to be things that people do that they take
1:04:38
exception to. They say, hey, listen, you know,
1:04:39
like these guys shouldn't be doing this.
1:04:40
This is dumb. And and I have my opinions for
1:04:43
that kind of stuff as well, right?
1:04:45
But overall, I think that their their hearts in the right place.
1:04:48
They understand what they want to do and they want to bring the
1:04:50
sport to eye level. And I believe that they are
1:04:53
succeeding in bringing more eyes to the sport.
1:04:57
There's more there's more spectators coming there are
1:05:01
there's better media coverage, there's more television coverage
1:05:04
on the way and TV time and, and true eyeballs in the sport.
1:05:08
Like that's what's going to bring actual money back to the
1:05:11
sport, right? And so that's going to be a a
1:05:16
slow process and and everyone's got to continue to be patient
1:05:19
and, and I but I believe that they're headed in the right
1:05:21
direction there. You know what I mean?
1:05:23
Every organization makes vote pause one and the other, and you
1:05:26
can disagree with things, but like I think they're that their
1:05:28
overall goal to elevate the sport is fine and they're and
1:05:33
they're doing well. So that that's going to get
1:05:35
better. You know, you're the national
1:05:39
level stuff. If I'm going to speak truthfully
1:05:44
about it, right, and not just blow smoke because I love the
1:05:46
sport and I want everyone to do it, which I do it like you can
1:05:50
do it. You can do national stuff at A
1:05:52
at a baseline level for a, a reasonable amount of money.
1:05:56
And it's not like it's not expensive, but you can get
1:06:00
enough local support, I think to, to put a program together
1:06:04
for a lot of people when you get to the top national stuff right
1:06:07
now. Unfortunately, this is not the
1:06:09
case when I was a pro and it's it's unfortunate because, you
1:06:15
know, there were lots of rides for free.
1:06:17
You know what I mean? Like my, my rides that got, you
1:06:21
know, that that brought me the teams that I wrote for, right?
1:06:24
You know, they were, they a lot of times they would get some
1:06:26
support from the factory. They get bikes or they get
1:06:28
discounts on motorcycles or, or that kind of stuff.
1:06:31
Very few of them actually got, you know, real cash and stuff
1:06:35
from from the actual manufacturers.
1:06:37
Some had outside sponsors and that kind of stuff.
1:06:39
You know, like the first real factory ride I kind of got was
1:06:43
like a Kinko's Kawasaki, which is like a, you know, a factory
1:06:45
supported the Kawasaki team that had money from Kinko's and that
1:06:48
kind of stuff. And that was, you know, that was
1:06:50
cool. And that was that was a little
1:06:51
easier back then because there were more eyeballs to sport.
1:06:54
You got the the crowds were bigger those days.
1:06:56
Now they're getting better. There's some Motor America
1:06:59
events now that, that have some good crowds, some still suffer a
1:07:02
little bit, but there's some events, you know, things like
1:07:04
Elkhart Lake and and Laguna in recent years that have gotten
1:07:07
better and better again, where they're getting big numbers of
1:07:09
people out there. But they I think what the big
1:07:12
money is going to come from is from the television audiences
1:07:15
and that kind of stuff right now from a a local standpoint, we
1:07:20
definitely train our kids to to try and do two things.
1:07:24
I mean, and this is just reality, right?
1:07:28
Most of what the support comes from these days is from people
1:07:33
who just want to help. Like, yes, there is a certainly
1:07:38
a element to it where certain businesses can benefit from the
1:07:45
race stuff. It's challenging to have enough
1:07:47
reach to make this happen, but it sounds like it takes a real
1:07:50
concerted effort on the kids part to to to do things that
1:07:56
will actually bring monetary benefit to a sponsor.
1:07:58
But it absolutely can be done. And we talked about all that
1:08:02
kind of stuff. So like you've got to be
1:08:05
attractive. If you're going to be getting
1:08:07
sponsors from from 2 angles. You've got to be a good enough
1:08:11
kid that the kid, the people that that want to sponsor you
1:08:16
actually want to help you. Like they like you, right?
1:08:19
I know it sounds funny to say this, but like that's where a
1:08:22
lot of help comes from. It's like, hey, you know, you're
1:08:25
a good kid, you know what I mean?
1:08:26
You're out there, you're trying really hard, you're working
1:08:28
really hard and, and you have respect for people and you carry
1:08:30
yourself well and you and you present well in public and that
1:08:33
kind of stuff. And so people want to help that
1:08:36
kind of stuff. And, and, and, and if you ask
1:08:38
for a lot of times for, for an older mentor to you, like, you
1:08:43
like recognize what they're good at and you ask that person to
1:08:47
help share some of our knowledge.
1:08:49
The average person is usually a pretty good person and they, and
1:08:52
they want, and they want to help.
1:08:53
And an older person that's had success in life actually
1:08:56
relishes the opportunity to share their knowledge with the
1:09:00
younger with the younger person. And it's like, sometimes you're
1:09:03
actually doing that person as much as services as anything
1:09:06
else, because like, you know, sometimes you do stuff, you
1:09:08
sponsor people because you think it's going to help your
1:09:11
business. Other times you do it because
1:09:12
you know, it makes you feel good and, and you like what's going
1:09:14
on and you want to do with some of the goods.
1:09:15
You kind of have to balance that, you know, and it's it's
1:09:18
interesting because quarterly again, taught me some
1:09:22
interesting stuff about that because he got some sponsors
1:09:25
along the way and he had some some big time stuff.
1:09:28
He was sponsored at one point by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
1:09:31
And if you don't know who that was, it was like a it was a big
1:09:33
cartoon back in the days, right? And the guy was into it, right.
1:09:36
And so, you know, how do you drive value for the guy that
1:09:40
that that owns Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
1:09:42
He doesn't care. He doesn't need your you know,
1:09:43
he isn't you're not going to make him more money, you know
1:09:46
what I mean? But if you put on a good show
1:09:49
that like, hey, shows you're trying to promote his brand and
1:09:52
I kind of suffer, then he can write it off.
1:09:54
But then like when that guy comes to the racetrack, your
1:09:59
obligation then as someone who wants to get sponsored, wants to
1:10:02
continue to be sponsored is to like figure what that guy likes
1:10:06
and figure what he wants to do and make him feel like he's
1:10:09
involved. Give him a give him what he's
1:10:12
looking for. Like guy like that doesn't
1:10:14
really need money. He doesn't really care if more
1:10:16
people, you know, if 1000 more people watch the the cartoon on
1:10:21
Saturday morning. Like it's not going to affect
1:10:22
his bottom line. Yeah, Mike and he and he can
1:10:24
write off the expense because it does, but he's going to spend
1:10:28
the money on that because he wants to either have the
1:10:31
prestige of being an owner or he wants to get special access to
1:10:34
the racist or he wants to be treated like someone who's
1:10:37
important and he wants to do something important on the team.
1:10:39
And so you need to understand those needs and what the
1:10:42
motivations are, the people who can actually help and then
1:10:44
genuinely go to serve them. And and it's a win win, you
1:10:48
know, I mean, because, you know, you get to help this person
1:10:51
achieve something they want and it's same time, they get to help
1:10:54
you do what you want same time. And so I think that you need to
1:10:57
really think about those things in those terms if you're going
1:11:01
to be successful. And it's not one particular
1:11:03
formula that that's going to do it.
1:11:05
It's it's you have to put that all together.
1:11:06
And these, you know, and these these programs can be built like
1:11:09
that. So that that's the kind of
1:11:12
thought process I think that we've been teaching the kids to
1:11:16
try and go after when they're trying to get help and it's been
1:11:18
successful. We've had, you know, like Renee,
1:11:22
who was talking to today has a dealer and I'll, I'm not going
1:11:25
to do promotion stuff. He's a good friend of mine.
1:11:27
He's a fantastic individual and he supports her because he's
1:11:29
just a great human being. But you know, he's got she has
1:11:33
support from from a dealer who's a who's a friend of mine and you
1:11:37
know, she's doing it because he likes her and he recognizes what
1:11:40
a good kid she is and Howard Show and he wants to help
1:11:43
because why? Because he can.
1:11:46
And and it's like, if I'm going to put some of my effort in my
1:11:48
heart, like I want to help someone like this, and I can see
1:11:51
some of myself and her and that kind of stuff.
1:11:53
And that's that, that's the kind of stuff that that works for a
1:11:56
lot of people. And you can do club racing like
1:11:57
that forever, you know. Oh, no, definitely.
1:12:01
And I, I, I appreciate the words because, you know, from the
1:12:06
outside looking in, and I'm more outside looking in it, it and
1:12:10
just hearing families and stuff like that, you know, it, it, it
1:12:14
seems like, you know, there's a door that's closed down the
1:12:17
road. They just haven't gotten there
1:12:19
yet. But you know, I but hearing you,
1:12:21
you know, with this information, it is if you're starting early
1:12:24
enough and you do build these relationships like that, it's
1:12:27
possible that that door may never close.
1:12:30
And listen, you know, if you're going to do national stuff,
1:12:32
right, sometimes if you're really motivated, like you need
1:12:37
to go and make a sacrifice and say, hey, listen, I'm going to
1:12:41
go do a season and I'm going to pay for it and I'm going to
1:12:43
figure out a way to do for it. And something like you sometimes
1:12:46
you go into some debt and do this kind of stuff.
1:12:47
And like, if you want to get help at that level, it's a
1:12:54
combination of being either really, really fast, OK, and and
1:13:00
working your butt off Now, like, you know, a person that comes to
1:13:03
mind of someone who's put that work in and really earn what
1:13:07
she's got is Kayla Yaakov, right?
1:13:09
And you talk and there are people that talk about, Oh yeah,
1:13:12
she got opportunities because she's a girl and everything
1:13:15
else. And there's lots of breasts
1:13:16
behind that. I'm like, dude, I'm like Graham
1:13:19
Ray Hall and and Ben Spies hired her not because she's the
1:13:24
fastest girl in the country, because she's the fastest under
1:13:28
18 rider in the country, period. And, and that kid has the whole
1:13:33
package, right? She does all these things that
1:13:36
I'm talking about. She's super likable.
1:13:38
Why? Because she's a good kid.
1:13:40
Like she carries. She doesn't do anything stupid.
1:13:42
She speaks intelligently. She doesn't do anything dumb.
1:13:45
She works her butt off. And I have all the respect in
1:13:48
the world for her recent podium finish in the Daytona 200
1:13:53
because I know what she did in the offseason.
1:13:56
She went down there and lived down there and sacrificed and
1:13:59
rode every day and and found the best meant that she could, which
1:14:03
PJ, who is her teammate also a really good kid is like
1:14:08
recognize her and what did he want to do?
1:14:10
He was not just her teammate. He was like acting as her
1:14:12
mentor. He's helping the teacher along
1:14:13
the way, showing her stuff and and how to ride at that level.
1:14:16
And they trained and trained and trained and trained and that kid
1:14:19
put in the work that I have not seen anyone else like.
1:14:22
There is not a harder working person in the paddock than than
1:14:25
Kayla Yakov. So when she finished on the
1:14:27
podium, man, that kid earned that.
1:14:30
And, and, and that makes me and, and someone like that dude who
1:14:34
doesn't want to support someone like that.
1:14:36
I know, you know, I mean, sponsorship should be easy for
1:14:40
her to come by, but it's not easy.
1:14:43
Like it's easy because she did all this work.
1:14:46
And that's why that's why she gets a lot of stuff because she
1:14:48
earned that stuff. You know, she freaking drafted a
1:14:52
guy who's ridden in Moto GP for for the third place in the wind.
1:14:54
Like, OK, like kid you, you earned that kid, you earned
1:14:58
that. You know, like there there is no
1:15:00
one pulling over. He's trust me, he didn't want to
1:15:02
get beat by her. He didn't let her win, right?
1:15:05
So so I mean, that's, that's the way you do it.
1:15:10
You know what I mean? You know, like, and another
1:15:13
person you've been talking to, like, like Stefano, right?
1:15:15
Stefano's had a bunch of good rides.
1:15:16
Well, Stefano is smart. Stefano helps a bunch of people.
1:15:20
He does a lot of teaching in the offseason.
1:15:22
He trains his butt off. He rides all the time.
1:15:26
And because he rides all the time, the kids got crazy skills
1:15:29
and he not only is he super fast, but he's very entertaining
1:15:32
to watch. You know, like the kids wheels
1:15:34
are almost never in line, right? So and so is that always the
1:15:39
fastest way on the racetrack? I don't know.
1:15:42
He's made a pretty good living doing it.
1:15:43
But either way, it's super entertaining.
1:15:46
So there's like a certain group of people that says God, like I
1:15:49
want to be on that kids bike. Why?
1:15:51
Because he's a freaking animal. And, and I don't want to support
1:15:54
that. Like that's the kind of stuff
1:15:56
that it takes. Not everyone's cut out to to,
1:15:59
to, to put in the kind of sacrifice and work it takes to
1:16:03
excel at that level. If you are that like that's what
1:16:06
it takes, you know, like this, for every Stefano Mesa or
1:16:11
Stefano or Kayla Yakov, if there is that that gets it done,
1:16:15
there's 10 people that have the same amount of talent.
1:16:17
They haven't put in the amount of work.
1:16:19
I agree. It's just the it's just the
1:16:21
reality. Yeah, it is.
1:16:23
Which is it? Which, you know, I mean, it's,
1:16:25
it's unfortunate for, for those folks that don't, I mean, I
1:16:28
mean, I, I understand it because I mean, it takes a lot to
1:16:31
motivate yourself every day when you don't.
1:16:33
Want to do it? You know, and I have to say this
1:16:35
too, right, is that you can do all the right things and you can
1:16:40
do all the work and everything else.
1:16:42
And unfortunately in life, sometimes you have to have a
1:16:45
little bit of luck. Yep.
1:16:47
The right person has to be there.
1:16:48
You got to put yourself in the right circles.
1:16:49
They got to see you. So part of The thing is like, if
1:16:51
you want to have the opportunities to get these, get
1:16:54
these sponsorship deals, the chances of these rides that are
1:16:57
there, you know what I mean? Then you have to put yourself in
1:17:01
the spot. You have to show up at the
1:17:02
races. You have to be there.
1:17:03
You have to be in their faces. The the people that are looking
1:17:05
around, looking for the next kid they're going to hire to ride
1:17:09
their twin scuff bike on their team.
1:17:11
They're going to look in the paddock for who's showing up and
1:17:14
who's showing promise and who's putting effort in to give that
1:17:17
ride or maybe let you buy that ride that would normally cost 80
1:17:21
grand and let you pay 40 grand for it or whatever that is.
1:17:24
And you just, you got to look for those opportunities, you
1:17:26
know what I mean? And so you and so, but
1:17:28
unfortunately there are certainly people that have done
1:17:31
all the work that those guys have too and just haven't had
1:17:34
the good fortune. So the reality is there's always
1:17:36
an element of luck to it as well.
1:17:38
You know what I mean? You got to put yourself in the
1:17:39
position to have the luck to begin with.
1:17:42
Yeah, I agree. Because it's tough.
1:17:43
I mean, you know, you know, Charles Barkley and Reggie
1:17:46
Miller comes to mind. People who came close to getting
1:17:50
titles and and and don't. And I mean, there's a lot of
1:17:52
folks in the motorcycle world as well, you know, injuries or one
1:17:56
thing or another, just, you know, they did everything right.
1:17:59
And, and, and it's life and, and we all, we, I think we all have
1:18:02
parts of that and everyone, I don't think anyone it is, will
1:18:07
get out of that. Before we get out of here, let's
1:18:09
talk about woodcraft. You know, I've, I, I, you know,
1:18:12
I started hearing about Woodcraft before I started
1:18:15
coming to the track and stuff like that.
1:18:17
It took a, took a little bit for me to put the two and two
1:18:20
together that Eric Wood is Woodcraft.
1:18:22
But like, how did that come about?
1:18:24
You know, and, and the work that you guys do and, and you know,
1:18:28
it seems like you make parts that just work and they work the
1:18:32
best for racers. Well, that's kind of because
1:18:36
that's where I come from, right? And you know, there is no one
1:18:41
perfect product. You have to decide who you're
1:18:43
making things for and what what market you're going to serve.
1:18:46
You can make the most beautiful jewelry out there, or you can
1:18:49
make the lightest or that kind of stuff.
1:18:50
And I decided that like, listen, I want to make stuff that is as
1:18:55
functional as it possibly can be.
1:18:56
So let me go back to how it all started, which is which is your
1:18:59
question. You know, I'm mechanical
1:19:02
engineer, so I went to school for, I went and interviewed for
1:19:05
jobs when I was done and all my buddies were getting, you know,
1:19:08
corporate jobs at Gillette and not going to stuff in Boston.
1:19:10
And I kind of said I went through the interview process,
1:19:14
but kind of half heartedly. I just never felt like it was
1:19:16
like I didn't have a desire to go work for a big company and do
1:19:19
that kind of stuff. So I literally took my
1:19:21
mechanical engineering degree and went back to work for
1:19:24
Brockton Cycle Center as a parts guy for a few years and, and
1:19:28
just kind of went through probably 700 business plans of,
1:19:33
of what I could do for my own business along the way.
1:19:36
And I'll make a Long story short, but I had a friend, TJ,
1:19:41
who was a factory mechanic for Yamaha team and he lives close
1:19:46
by to where I was working. And well, he wasn't, he was not
1:19:51
a factory mechanic for Yamaha team at that point, but he got
1:19:53
that offer and he was working with a local machine shop and
1:19:57
they were trying to make rear sets.
1:19:59
And they had made one rear set kit.
1:20:01
And, and I had seen him, you know, showing off his his one
1:20:04
kit that he had at the racetrack a couple of times.
1:20:07
And he was trying to work together and get a business off
1:20:09
the ground and came to me and said, Hey, I get this job offer
1:20:13
from Yamaha and I've been working with these guys.
1:20:15
You know, I know that you're a mechanical engineer, you know,
1:20:18
you have any interest in doing this?
1:20:20
And I kind of went home and thought about it and said.
1:20:22
Yep, this is this, this, this is the opportunity that I'm waiting
1:20:25
for and, and just took it from there.
1:20:28
And I never imagined that it would be a, a 30 year career.
1:20:32
This is, I did that in 1996, now 2026, this is 30 years doing
1:20:36
this. And we started just making rear
1:20:38
sets and then we started making clip ONS and then we made stands
1:20:41
and that kind of stuff. And I kind of, I, I read a bunch
1:20:44
of books about how to, how to market and, and do that kind of
1:20:48
thing and how to design. Like I knew how to design
1:20:51
products, but I didn't like, I understood philosophies of how
1:20:54
to build things and how to target things for a certain
1:20:57
market. And I said, listen, like I'm a,
1:20:58
I'm a racer, right? And I need to make stuff that
1:21:03
does the function perfectly, but like at the same time, if I
1:21:06
crash on it, this has to be repairable.
1:21:08
It's going to be easy to do. And and you know, everything
1:21:11
that I sell and I've now got, you know, a dozen product lines
1:21:15
and make things for thousands of different motorcycles.
1:21:18
I have to be able to take any particular product line that I
1:21:22
sell and articulate to you in 15 seconds or less.
1:21:25
Why this is the right product for the market group that I'm
1:21:29
looking to sell it for like, which is going to be people that
1:21:33
our performance riding on the street and track days and
1:21:35
racers. That's that's that's my core
1:21:37
audience. You know, we make parts for
1:21:38
other other bikes and other stuff, but like that's that's
1:21:41
what hits home. That's where my passion is and I
1:21:44
have the good fortune that like I do other things in this world
1:21:48
and I ride and so my whole life revolves around street bikes and
1:21:51
and and riding fast on the racetrack.
1:21:53
And so when it comes to making product lines, I'm fortunate to
1:21:59
have the insight and have access to other people that can help me
1:22:02
understand the inside of what they're looking for.
1:22:05
And so we can build products that are going to work, that are
1:22:07
going to really suit the needs of people.
1:22:09
And then I try and sell them for a price that racers can afford.
1:22:12
And we try and make everything here in the USA and try and, you
1:22:14
know, just do all the right stuff.
1:22:16
And, you know, sometimes the, the, it's the simple stuff that
1:22:20
makes a difference. You know what I mean?
1:22:21
Just making sure you always, you treat people right.
1:22:23
And I know it sounds like a very trite and simple thing to say,
1:22:26
but like, how many businesses have you worked with, you're
1:22:29
thrilled to work with that you that, that every time you call
1:22:31
them, you know, they give you exactly what you, what you need
1:22:34
or, or, or if they call you. And if you, I'm sorry, if you
1:22:38
call them and you're looking for something and they don't have
1:22:40
exactly what you're looking for and they point you to somewhere
1:22:43
else, you know, like, how many companies do you know, like
1:22:45
that? And to me it's simple, but like,
1:22:48
that's how I would want to do business, you know, that that's
1:22:51
how I would want to be treated if I could.
1:22:53
So it's just like, it's a pretty easy constitution to, to roll
1:22:56
by. And I've, I'm fortunate to have
1:22:57
a lot of great people that work with me because I absolutely
1:22:59
can't do it by myself. And, you know, we now make all
1:23:05
kinds of stuff, you know, from every kind of control apparatus
1:23:10
you've got to electronic key switches and all the bike
1:23:13
protection stuff you want to, you know, we have a couple
1:23:16
product lines that we carry that aren't ours.
1:23:18
We believe in like, like our bodies and, and like the endo
1:23:21
exhaust and that kind of stuff. And you know, we servo buddies
1:23:25
and yeah, like, it's just, I'm super lucky, man, because I get
1:23:30
to go to work every day and work in an industry full of people
1:23:33
that I love with, with stuff that I'm genuinely passionate
1:23:36
about. I don't know what else you could
1:23:38
ask for in life. You know what I mean?
1:23:40
It, it, it pays my bills. It allows me to, to, to race
1:23:44
and, and have the freedom to do the stuff I want.
1:23:46
And I'm super grateful that that I have this opportunity in life,
1:23:51
so. And you don't ever think to, you
1:23:53
know, just go, you know, buy a place in Jamaica somewhere and
1:23:56
just go fishing. Dude, fishing's boring.
1:24:00
I mean, dude, it's like, like, I mean, you know, I, I've, I've
1:24:03
said this a bunch of times to myself.
1:24:05
It's like I could go hit the lottery tomorrow and make $100
1:24:09
million and the fundamental things that I'm doing in my
1:24:13
life, it wouldn't change. I'd, I'd still make motorcycle
1:24:17
parts, I'd still teach my school, you know what I mean?
1:24:20
You know, I might, I might, I might fly a little nicer, you
1:24:23
know, all on the way and, and, and maybe have, you know, one
1:24:26
extra car that was nice or something.
1:24:28
But you know, like, like I don't need anything else besides what
1:24:32
I've got. And I like, I, I'm, I, I, I live
1:24:35
just fine, you know what I mean? I, I don't, I don't, I don't
1:24:38
need to make $10 million a year. I'm, I'm good if I, if I want to
1:24:41
make $10 million a year, I'm not going to start a motorcycle
1:24:43
business. You know what I mean?
1:24:44
It's not, it's not what I'm here for.
1:24:46
And so, you know, that's, that's my asset test, you know what I
1:24:50
mean? Would I change my life
1:24:51
significantly if I don't have 1,000,000 bucks?
1:24:52
Nope. Then I'm probably doing the
1:24:53
right thing. Nice, nice.
1:24:55
Same here. Same here.
1:24:55
I don't, I don't think I'll do anything differently.
1:24:58
I've been doing the same thing for a long time now.
1:25:01
So and I and I, and I enjoy it and I do appreciate life in a
1:25:04
way that like, you know, you got to do the things you enjoy doing
1:25:07
versus like when I was young, I chased money as well.
1:25:10
And, and I realized young enough that it was just kind of like
1:25:14
happiness is more important than, than how much you make at
1:25:16
the end of the year. So.
1:25:17
Yeah, you need some. You need enough to eat and it's
1:25:19
fun to have enough to be able to go on a vacation once in a while
1:25:22
and that kind of stuff. But you know, like once you've
1:25:24
got a house, that's that, that that's, that's paid for and you
1:25:27
know, you, you, you have the ability to participate in a cool
1:25:30
hobby like this and you can go visit your family when you need
1:25:33
to. Like, what else does a person
1:25:34
need? You know, it's all good.
1:25:36
It's all good for sure man. I want to thank you for coming
1:25:39
on. I could keep talking motorcycles
1:25:40
all night, but we'll, we'll stop here, man.
1:25:43
I, I really appreciate coming on tonight and taking time to share
1:25:46
a little bit of your, your story with us because, and I know you
1:25:50
have a lot more to, to share because you have a unique story.
1:25:52
And, and the fact that you've been doing this since you were
1:25:54
three on, on two wheels essentially.
1:25:57
And to be able to do that for a very long time now, a lot of
1:25:59
people can, can say that. So that's pretty impressive.
1:26:03
Yeah, thanks, man. I'm, I'm grateful to be able to
1:26:05
to meet people like you. That's part of the cool part of
1:26:07
this industry is, you know, I've seen you around and I've seen
1:26:10
your podcast, but now we've had a chance to talk a little bit
1:26:12
each other. And next time we see each other
1:26:14
face to face, we'll have a little bit more to talk about
1:26:16
and and I look forward to, you know, talk to you again.
1:26:19
If you want me to come on again, I'm happy to do that and you
1:26:22
know, just grateful the opportunity.
1:26:24
Awesome, man Likewise, I'm I'm looking forward to seeing you in
1:26:26
Loudon. Eric Woods.
1:26:28
My name is Rex 45. It's the be perfect cool
1:26:29
podcast. Peace.