Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / Rex interviews Mike racer 92 in S5 Ep 24

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Rex interviews Mike racer 92 in S5 Ep 24 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back to another edition of the Be Forever Cool podcast.
• 0:03
  My name is Rex 45 and this evening we got Mike in the
• 0:06
  building. How's it going today, Mike?
• 0:08
  That's. Bad.
• 0:09
  How are? You pretty good, man, Pretty
• 0:11
  good. Glad to get you on on the show
• 0:15
  and hopefully, you know, get you get to tell us all about how you
• 0:18
  got into writing and stuff like that.
• 0:21
  So I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and
• 0:23
  stuff like that. So, but let's jump into it and
• 0:28
  and you know, and let us know how you got into riding.
• 0:31
  What was it like for you? You know, were you fortunate to
• 0:34
  be on a bike at a very young age or you did something that you
• 0:38
  decided to get into later in life?
• 0:40
  Or you know how. What was your What made you
• 0:42
  decide to get a jump on a bike? I always, I always wanted one.
• 0:46
  I always wanted a bike and and my father always told me I would
• 0:48
  never be allowed to own a motorcycle in his house when I
• 0:51
  lived there. Never.
• 0:53
  And when I turned around the time I turned 21, he was like,
• 0:57
  yeah, I'm going to get my motorcycle license.
• 0:58
  You want to go? I'm like, absolutely.
• 1:00
  So I didn't start riding until I was 21.
• 1:04
  Got you. That's that's interesting.
• 1:06
  So you know, he he said not in your house.
• 1:09
  And then did he ride before or he does at the time when you
• 1:13
  turned 21, he also decided, you know, he wanted to ride too.
• 1:17
  Yep. That's just, he just kind of one
• 1:19
  day said I'm, I'm going to go get a, get my license, get a
• 1:22
  bike and, you know, asked me and my brother if we wanted to go
• 1:25
  take the MSF course with him. So we did.
• 1:28
  OK, that's what's up. Wow.
• 1:29
  So what was that like one that yeah, you know, your dad, you
• 1:33
  said, OK, let's go do it. Or you were you a little bit
• 1:36
  shocked by that? And then what was what was the
• 1:39
  course like? And and doing it with your dad
• 1:41
  and your brother. Yeah, I was shocked and beyond
• 1:45
  shocked, but I was more than happy to go do it.
• 1:49
  Course was great. I, I thought, I thought the like
• 1:52
  I said, I hadn't spent a lot of time on on a, you know, friends
• 1:56
  that have like small dirt bikes, you know, whatever, ride those
• 1:59
  around a little bit, but never anything more than a few minutes
• 2:02
  here there. So to take that and then from at
• 2:05
  the end of the weekend, have a license and be not proficient.
• 2:09
  But you know what, I'd go and ride around on the road and you
• 2:12
  know, survive was good. And that was actually that.
• 2:17
  I remember the instructor for the course showing pictures.
• 2:21
  He was, I don't know what organization he used to coach
• 2:23
  for some tractor organization and he had a picture of himself
• 2:26
  giving a A2 up ride to go out on ACBR.
• 2:30
  So like my first weekend automotive was like, really I
• 2:32
  learned about. Racing.
• 2:35
  Yeah. That that's pretty cool.
• 2:39
  And and so, you know, taking the course were were you nervous?
• 2:44
  I assume you rode a bicycle but nothing but an engine?
• 2:48
  Or was it the the just, you know, being with your brother
• 2:50
  and your dad just kind of made it more it's, you know, like, I
• 2:53
  don't know if you're camping, but kind of like going camping
• 2:55
  and just we figured out as we went along.
• 2:57
  Yeah, no, I wasn't, wasn't too nervous.
• 2:59
  Was pretty, pretty confident. My ability to do it, even though
• 3:03
  it never had, you know, like I said, from this small amount of
• 3:06
  time I'd actually spent on anything with a motor wasn't
• 3:09
  like overly difficult, you know. Brother and father picked it up
• 3:14
  real quick. Yeah, that it was.
• 3:15
  We we all took to it pretty quickly.
• 3:19
  My brother still rides. He's got a Ducat.
• 3:22
  He doesn't ride it very often. Every once in a while he'll come
• 3:24
  to the track. My father sold his bike a few
• 3:26
  years ago. I'm the only one who took it to
• 3:28
  the degree that I did. So OK, so you you got you guys
• 3:33
  got the license and and did the course.
• 3:36
  What did mom say? Not that she loves it.
• 3:39
  OK, he loves it. I've even I you know, I my first
• 3:43
  bike was ACBR 600 2006 and I took her for a ride on her a
• 3:50
  couple times and you know she she likes it even though even
• 3:56
  she's even been up to the track a few times.
• 3:57
  You know, she's she's coming watching everything.
• 3:59
  It's cool, obviously, Obviously nervous, scared any mother would
• 4:03
  be, but. Yeah, so.
• 4:06
  So you got ACBR. What did your brother get?
• 4:08
  What did your dad get? Brother also got ACBR 600 and my
• 4:12
  father got a Honda Shadow 750. And, and did you guys like ride
• 4:18
  together to different places or you kind of just started to kind
• 4:22
  of just doing your own thing? Maybe every once in a while we
• 4:25
  we'd ride together, go do whatever.
• 4:28
  Me and my brother, a couple of my friends, a few of my friends
• 4:31
  at that point had had bikes. So like, you know, I'd spend
• 4:33
  more time going out riding with them And, you know, I would
• 4:36
  actually commute to work on it at that point, which I just
• 4:39
  don't want to do now. Just doesn't really make sense.
• 4:43
  But yeah, we, we would, we would ride and my and my father just
• 4:48
  kind of slowly, he would, you know, a little bit here and
• 4:51
  there on the weekends. And that was really it.
• 4:52
  He never really got too into it. Got you.
• 4:57
  It's, it's, it's, it's interesting because you know,
• 5:00
  people can start things together and certain people it sticks
• 5:03
  with it and other people it kind of fade off.
• 5:05
  So you got a, you got a, a, a, a CVR your brother did you got,
• 5:09
  you know, your dad got the shadow.
• 5:11
  How long before you started going to the track?
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  And you know, did you did you were already kind of researching
• 5:17
  that stuff since the instructor kind of said, you know, hey,
• 5:21
  here's, you know, you can also go to the track.
• 5:25
  No, that that route, the instructor didn't really have
• 5:27
  anything to do with it. When I, I got my I got a job
• 5:33
  with the previous company that I was at, you know, and that was I
• 5:36
  started there in 2007 February O 7 never really said anything
• 5:41
  about it. I just, I showed up to work one
• 5:42
  day on my bike and the guy I was working for, he was like, you
• 5:46
  have to go to the Penguin Racing School and, and try this and do
• 5:50
  whatever. And come to find out he used to
• 5:51
  race, you know, maybe 10 years before I met him.
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  And I was like, OK, fine. So I did my first track day in
• 5:58
  O7 not not long after I got the the bike.
• 6:03
  Yeah. And then it was, you know, once
• 6:04
  a year from there, one or two a year.
• 6:07
  And yeah. And.
• 6:10
  And then so like, you know, how, how green were you going to the
• 6:14
  track? I mean, did you already like I,
• 6:16
  you had your race suit, you had boots, gloves, everything
• 6:19
  trailer like, you know, because I was living out of my, I wasn't
• 6:22
  living out of when I was at the track.
• 6:23
  I was living out of my Audi wagon and a U-Haul trailer.
• 6:28
  I well, I borrowed a trailer and I was only like I was only going
• 6:32
  to doing Penguin one day and then coming home and I'm you
• 6:35
  know, I live an hour, an hour, 15 minutes from loud.
• 6:38
  So that that wasn't terrible. Rented suit, rented boots did
• 6:44
  did the whole thing, but was instantly very comfortable on on
• 6:49
  track. Yeah, and, and I remember the
• 6:52
  the instructor who I didn't realize that the, you know, when
• 6:56
  I bought the bike, but it was the same, the coach was the same
• 6:58
  guy who sold me my, my CBR. He recognized me.
• 7:02
  He's like, you know, we talked a little bit after during one of
• 7:05
  the following leader sessions. He's like, just come with me.
• 7:07
  And we were just, you know, he was like just following me.
• 7:10
  We're going to go by a bunch of people and which is very
• 7:13
  comfortable with it, you know, just kind of just kind of took
• 7:17
  to it. Right.
• 7:19
  And did your brother or dad do track days or that was just on
• 7:22
  you? No, that that's not there that
• 7:24
  my, my brother does now he'll come up every once in a while
• 7:26
  and like maybe one a year he'll come up.
• 7:28
  And but you know, if, if I didn't have two bikes fully
• 7:34
  built ready to go and an extra gear and access to all this
• 7:38
  stuff, I, I don't know if he would or not, but he likes it
• 7:42
  when he comes up. So, you know, no pressure.
• 7:43
  He's not, he's never going to go racing, which is fine.
• 7:46
  You know it's cool. Got you.
• 7:49
  And and so you did the Penguin a couple of times, Yeah.
• 7:51
  Did you do the classroom or back then, was it just you just
• 7:54
  signed up and you just did the track?
• 7:57
  When I did it the first time, the only there was no track
• 8:01
  experience group like there is now with the C&D group.
• 8:04
  It was just license certificate as far as I remember, which is
• 8:07
  license certification and then, you know, maybe the advanced
• 8:11
  class because I remember leaving with a a certificate that I
• 8:15
  could get a race license if I wanted to within the year.
• 8:19
  I didn't, I love that, that I didn't start racing until 2016.
• 8:24
  I want a while. Right, right.
• 8:26
  So, OK, so a couple of years going a few times a year, did
• 8:31
  you bump up the track day to going more often or you just
• 8:34
  kind of kept it a couple of times a year until you and and
• 8:37
  and I guess when did you decide to start racing?
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  No, I just, I just kept it to a couple of one or two times a
• 8:43
  year. And when I bought my Pentagali,
• 8:46
  I just said no, keep the CBR and use that on the track and
• 8:49
  whatever because I don't want to crash the the Ducati.
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  And then I mean from 2010, 2009, 2010 to probably 2018, nineteen
• 9:04
  where I was playing football, still organized better football,
• 9:09
  tackle football. But when that was starting to
• 9:12
  end, I was when I I got hurt a bunch of times.
• 9:15
  So when that was starting ahead, I started going more towards
• 9:18
  track days and everything. And I was a little older and I
• 9:21
  was more financially secure to be able to go do something like
• 9:24
  that. You know what I mean?
• 9:26
  So yeah, September 2016 is for my first race weekend.
• 9:31
  Oh wow. And what was what was that like?
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  I mean, and so when you were doing the track days and going
• 9:36
  up where you you weren't sticking around to watch the
• 9:38
  races or anything like that. So.
• 9:40
  Nope. No, I was going up coming home.
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  I was and I the only other thing I remember from my first track
• 9:47
  day was I some guy over by the center garage as I was talking
• 9:51
  to him and he just looked at me, he's like, you're going to start
• 9:54
  racing. And I had no idea like anything
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  like. And he he was right.
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  It was just going to be way farther down the road because I
• 10:01
  really at that point wasn't, didn't have too much interest in
• 10:03
  doing that. But yeah, it's, I mean,
• 10:08
  eventually. So was there like any catalyst
• 10:12
  that said, OK, 2016, I'm going or just really just all right, I
• 10:16
  needed something else to do because football ended and you
• 10:19
  know, you just because were you watching like, you know, Moto
• 10:22
  America, Moto GP or anything like that at that time?
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  Started to watch Moto GP around 20/11/2012.
• 10:30
  So I've been watching it for a few years and, you know,
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  football was ending and I was like, you know, again, like
• 10:35
  started to have some money saved where I could whatever again.
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  So let's let's go do this. Let's see how.
• 10:40
  Let's see what happens. Was your was your first race
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  weekend like Saturday like? So actually you said my first I
• 10:51
  I got my I did my license for the I got my license class was
• 10:55
  the two day 2 day school in June.
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  I didn't end up racing until September, but crashed that
• 11:01
  weekend. That was that was my first track
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  crash was just before I started. I showed up with my CBR and
• 11:09
  again, I don't know anybody who's really doing this right.
• 11:11
  Like it's just I'm like, I'm just going to go race.
• 11:14
  I showed up with my CBR still had St. plastics, no case
• 11:18
  covers, no nothing like nothing. It was just Oh my God, what?
• 11:22
  I'm just going to go race and the guys in 11 and 12 N the guys
• 11:29
  that were in that garage were like, come here, like we're
• 11:32
  going to help you. And they did and they took me in
• 11:36
  and they they helped me big time and got me through that weekend.
• 11:39
  And it was, yeah, that that was kind of it from there.
• 11:43
  Yeah, so you were hooked from there?
• 11:44
  Yeah, yeah, it was. Well, I, I do remember going in
• 11:48
  my first race after my rookie race, going into Turn 3 and
• 11:52
  somebody in front of me basically went over the
• 11:54
  handlebars. Gone real banged and I was only
• 11:57
  maybe 10 feet off this tire. I wasn't that far off and I had
• 12:01
  to stop like at the wall and whatever and I I just kind of
• 12:04
  stopped was like what am I doing here?
• 12:07
  Why am I doing this? Yeah, yeah, I, I had that moment
• 12:13
  in the probably like the first session of the of the of getting
• 12:16
  the license class when they take you out, I'm like, I have no
• 12:20
  idea what they were talking about.
• 12:21
  And it's the same thing. It's just like, you sure you
• 12:23
  want to do this? But by the end of the day I I
• 12:26
  was hooked. Yeah.
• 12:27
  Oh, yeah. What?
• 12:28
  You know what you know, right. Like you, I'm sure you now, now
• 12:31
  talk to people who doing their first track days, second track
• 12:34
  days, whatever. And you talk to them and you're
• 12:36
  like, yeah, you're not going anywhere.
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  It's you can tell. Yeah.
• 12:40
  It's, it's very interesting. So, so you, you know, you, you,
• 12:44
  you, you know, I guess we could talk about this now like, you
• 12:47
  know, how cool the race community is that, you know, you
• 12:52
  show up as a stranger and, and people take time out of their
• 12:55
  day to help you get set up. And you know, it's not a matter
• 12:59
  of just changing plastics. You probably had to drill
• 13:01
  safety, safety wire holes and stuff like that for the bike and
• 13:05
  all this stuff. So, you know, they probably
• 13:07
  spending a few hours of the time and, and you know, did you know
• 13:11
  the community was, was that awesome and you know, back then
• 13:15
  and, or was it like your first glimpse into it when, when that
• 13:18
  happened? No, that that was that was the
• 13:20
  first, first glimpse of it. That was because it it wasn't
• 13:23
  even like it was just a real quick, like, Hey, you got to do
• 13:25
  this, this and this. It was throughout the entire
• 13:28
  weekend. And then I came back for
• 13:30
  October, the October round, and it was the whole time, every
• 13:33
  time I was there, you know, it was and it was little things.
• 13:35
  It was so from where we are in the north garage, you can see
• 13:40
  turn three and four and somebody and you know, they made second
• 13:45
  call, third call, whatever. And I'm ready to go.
• 13:47
  And the guys like stop, wait, you'll see people when they
• 13:50
  finally start to come around this corner, then you go right.
• 13:53
  And it was just everything from from start to finish.
• 13:55
  They help me with every little bit along the way.
• 13:58
  And I'm, I'm still in there. I'm I'm still with some of those
• 14:00
  guys in that garage. So yeah, it's a unbelievable
• 14:06
  group of people and really in any, in any, you know, any pit,
• 14:11
  any garage, whatever, anywhere you go, people are always
• 14:13
  willing to help. So.
• 14:14
  Yeah, yeah. And I I agree in anywhere you
• 14:18
  go, you know, there's people willing to help.
• 14:22
  So you OK, so you're racing the you're racing the the CBR600.
• 14:26
  You're in the middle weight class.
• 14:27
  Somebody, you know, goes out in front of you and and you know,
• 14:32
  do you? Do you do you know, did you
• 14:34
  notice in that moment or maybe afterwards how you reacted
• 14:38
  versus like people who have been there for a while and seeing
• 14:42
  these things? Because for, you know, for me, I
• 14:45
  was looking around like it like shook and you know, there were a
• 14:48
  lot there was like people are just calm.
• 14:50
  It's just part of it. You, you know, they know medic
• 14:52
  is there and stuff like that. But I, I definitely was just
• 14:55
  like, Oh my goodness, you know, this is crazy.
• 14:58
  I didn't notice anybody at the time.
• 14:59
  No, I think that was, I had kind of that same reaction just like
• 15:04
  this is this is wild, but why? Why?
• 15:06
  What am I doing? I don't even really think.
• 15:08
  I don't remember bringing it up to anybody, to be honest.
• 15:11
  I just got pulled back on, got back on the track and kept
• 15:14
  going. And that was that was pretty
• 15:16
  much it. But yeah, you know, you notice
• 15:19
  after a while, you know, newer people get a little worried when
• 15:22
  there's a crash and people that have been around a while, just
• 15:25
  like, no, they're up there fine, all right, We're good.
• 15:28
  If you see, if you see somebody who's been around for a while
• 15:31
  start running like then yeah, you know, something's happened.
• 15:34
  You know, that's the, that's the sign because most of us go, shit
• 15:40
  happens. And and keep it moving.
• 15:44
  So what was your writing like? I mean, you had a, you had a a
• 15:49
  good amount of time, maybe not a lot of on time track, but you
• 15:53
  had like, you know, six years of doing track days and stuff.
• 15:56
  So like when you first started racing in 2016, you know, what
• 16:00
  was like, what was your body position like?
• 16:02
  What was your, your, your, your starting?
• 16:04
  I mean, at that point I'm looking at a race in mind yet,
• 16:07
  but starting to do, you know, figure that out.
• 16:09
  So how are you the 1st that that first weekend of racing?
• 16:15
  All right, I guess I mean, I don't really have anything to
• 16:20
  any way to compare it judge it to.
• 16:22
  I mean, I can't even you can't even find the track times, the
• 16:27
  the the lab times, the results on online anymore.
• 16:30
  That was all on track and tell them it's gone.
• 16:33
  Won my rookie race. I know that other than that,
• 16:37
  like I, I don't really I know I bought my body tissue was
• 16:39
  terrible. I didn't didn't understand and I
• 16:43
  didn't really understand or learn how to learn how to go
• 16:48
  fast for years for a couple years after that.
• 16:52
  You know what I mean? Like it was just kind of out
• 16:53
  there just hoping my way through it, you know, no real plan of
• 17:00
  attack. I know nothing.
• 17:01
  So it was just, it was, it was for fun at 1st and then it kind
• 17:05
  of got serious at a certain point.
• 17:06
  Right, right. So, yeah, let's talk about the,
• 17:08
  the fun and, and the one that got serious.
• 17:10
  And you know, were you, did you try to do every round in in 2016
• 17:16
  or did you decide to do that in 2017?
• 17:20
  Like, you know, what was, I mean, you're having fun.
• 17:22
  But like, you know, for me, I, it was like what I mean, I
• 17:25
  started in 2013 and in 2015 I, I was trying to go, I was going to
• 17:29
  every 2015. I started going every round, you
• 17:33
  know, So like, what was that like?
• 17:36
  So I, I started in September. So I only did September, October
• 17:40
  of 2016 came out and did was it May, April and May of 2017?
• 17:50
  The so in April of 2017 or May, I'm sorry, May got bumped up to
• 17:56
  amateur at that point. And then that I was that was one
• 18:02
  of my last years playing football.
• 18:04
  So I still, I was, you know, games were on Saturday.
• 18:07
  So I couldn't, you know, go race and all whatever conflicts.
• 18:11
  I one day did try and race and then drive home and play
• 18:14
  football. And that did not end well.
• 18:16
  I was, I did a, did a, a GT and then another race and then just,
• 18:21
  you know, pack all my stuff, went home and went and played a
• 18:23
  football game a couple hours later and was, but yeah, it was
• 18:30
  I, I didn't get to, I didn't do every round in 2017.
• 18:33
  And then in 2018, I was like, all right, I'm going to go going
• 18:35
  to go do this this year. OK, so we like, yeah, let's talk
• 18:39
  about 2018, your amateur and at this point you've only been to
• 18:43
  Loudon or did you start to go to other tracks?
• 18:45
  No, it was only Loudon for a long time.
• 18:48
  That's the only place I've ridden until 2019.
• 18:52
  I think that that was the only place I had gone.
• 18:54
  Yeah, same here. Same here.
• 18:57
  So, yeah. So, you know, 2018, the amateur,
• 18:59
  I think I remember that a little bit.
• 19:02
  There's a lot of people in the paddock around that time too,
• 19:04
  man. So what was it like?
• 19:06
  You know, you said you you won the rookie race, now you got
• 19:09
  bumped up to an amateur, did you?
• 19:12
  Where you at? At in the middle of the back of
• 19:14
  the pack for a little bit. What was you know?
• 19:16
  I was in the back. I was in the back for a long
• 19:18
  time. I was in the back and that was
• 19:21
  some of my favorite races. Like some of my most fun races
• 19:25
  that I've had were back of the pack racing Tom Hines to not be
• 19:30
  last amateur like like that was that was it.
• 19:33
  I had actually had a ton of fun doing that, you know, get get
• 19:37
  in, get into the front tonight and all that.
• 19:38
  But just having a a good like clean race and and actually
• 19:42
  racing people was a lot of fun. And there was a lot of that
• 19:45
  going on in 2018, as far as I remember.
• 19:48
  Yeah, yeah, there definitely was a lot.
• 19:51
  I, I'm trying to think how many I think I might have been doing.
• 19:55
  Well, yeah. I mean, I wasn't there as much
• 19:57
  in 2018, 'cause I jacked myself up in 2017.
• 20:02
  I wasn't really there towards the end.
• 20:04
  So it's kind of, yeah, it was kind of rough for me in 2017 and
• 20:08
  18. Now that I think about, you
• 20:12
  know, yeah, 'cause yeah, I mean, yeah.
• 20:15
  So August. I'd, you know, I'd frack broke a
• 20:19
  gun into a car accident on the streets and, you know, lacerated
• 20:21
  my spleen and fractured my hand and stuff like that.
• 20:24
  So I was, I was I, I missed pretty much from August on and
• 20:29
  and part of 2019. So a little ridiculous, but you
• 20:34
  know, a A at what point did you start to like, OK, I'm I'm
• 20:37
  starting to figure this out. My body position is is is
• 20:40
  starting to get better I'm I'm figuring out certain corners or
• 20:44
  even just like starting to think about racing in a different way,
• 20:46
  right, Not just going out there and having fun, but you know
• 20:49
  looking at it in a way that you're trying to get better now
• 20:51
  that. That was summer mid 2018 that,
• 20:55
  that all kind of started to come together.
• 20:58
  I don't remember why or when exactly or, or what happened,
• 21:02
  but I just towards the end of that year, I was like, well,
• 21:04
  this now it's how do I get faster and what am I doing?
• 21:09
  And then, you know, Fast forward to the beginning of 2019.
• 21:12
  I crashed the CBR and turn 8 scented flying through the
• 21:18
  gravel at 9 and 15 feet up in the air and then destroyed it.
• 21:23
  So it was time for at that point I was like, well, going to buy a
• 21:27
  new bike. It's all in.
• 21:29
  And that's what it was from the time I bought the, the ZXX in in
• 21:34
  May, I think I June, yeah, June or July, I got picked it up.
• 21:42
  That was it from then on, that that's what I was, that's what I
• 21:44
  was doing it. Was and, and yeah, refresh my
• 21:47
  memory. Did you buy it already built or
• 21:48
  did you buy it and build it? Yeah, so over over the
• 21:53
  offseason, from 18 to 19, I was going back and forth with Leroy
• 21:58
  all the time. You know, that was a that was a
• 21:59
  lot of fun. Something was said about me
• 22:03
  getting a new bike or doing whatever.
• 22:04
  And, and Scott Mullen had had commented on the post that, you
• 22:08
  know, I have AZX 6, it's already built that he had been, he had
• 22:11
  been, you know, it had been because that was the 2019 was
• 22:16
  the first year the new, new body, new fairings, new body
• 22:19
  stuff. So they used all those fairings
• 22:22
  and armor bodies, the, the bike that Scott had, they sent those
• 22:25
  fairings to armor bodies. And you know, Woodcraft was
• 22:28
  using it for R&D and whatever. So he just happened to have this
• 22:32
  bike and then after I crashed, I, I sent a message like, do you
• 22:35
  still have it? And he's like, Yep, I do.
• 22:37
  And that was it. I, I bought it fully, fully
• 22:40
  built, took it off the showroom floor and two days later brought
• 22:43
  it to, to Palmer to test it out. That was it.
• 22:49
  But it was like fully built, ready to go bike.
• 22:51
  So that was that was, that was not really the cheapest way to
• 22:54
  do it, but that was, you know, I think that.
• 22:58
  Yeah. I mean, I think in the, in the
• 23:00
  hopefully in the long run it's cheaper, but you got to put all
• 23:03
  that that cash up front where if you have to build it yourself,
• 23:06
  you can kind of, you know, piece it together is based on how you
• 23:09
  feel like and stuff like that. Yeah, it's, it's not what he was
• 23:15
  doing too, you know, I mean, like I got AI, got a bike from
• 23:17
  somebody who knew what they were doing.
• 23:19
  Yeah. I mean, like it was all set.
• 23:21
  I didn't have to worry about anything.
• 23:23
  And when the and I mean it was a pretty immediate the difference.
• 23:27
  I mean, obviously it's ones a Honda, ones a Cowie.
• 23:31
  But as far as like suspension and just power and stuff like,
• 23:34
  well, you know, we want to talk about power because again, a
• 23:35
  little different. Did you notice the difference
• 23:38
  right away? Immediately I got on, I got on
• 23:41
  that they hit Palmer. I, one of the guys that I was in
• 23:45
  the garage with Loudon happened to be at Palma and I was like, I
• 23:48
  could do and at that time my best was like, you know, high
• 23:51
  nineteens and I was like, I could do eighteens on this bike.
• 23:53
  And then the following weekend I did, you know what I mean?
• 23:56
  Like I, I knew instantly it just was way better.
• 23:59
  And that's I, I still love this, you guys.
• 24:01
  I thought it was great. I just didn't fit on it very
• 24:02
  well. It was, it was really cramped.
• 24:05
  Yeah, it's it's interesting how, you know, we got all these
• 24:08
  different manufacturers and and, you know, certain bikes fit
• 24:11
  certain people. It's it's such a weird thing.
• 24:15
  So you so you got to you got to build bike.
• 24:18
  You know how how much of that the bike or your confidence.
• 24:23
  I mean, I assume you got you went into 2019 like you know,
• 24:26
  ready to fight in the middle to upfront.
• 24:31
  Yeah, that was, it was starting to get, starting to get to that
• 24:34
  point where yeah, that, that that's kind of where I was at
• 24:36
  was up there, you know, top 10s in the dash.
• 24:41
  I think I got A at one point I did on the on the ZX6 at one
• 24:46
  point, I think I got third in the dash as in in 2019.
• 24:50
  So yeah, that was, that was all. Like I said, as soon as I got
• 24:55
  the that ZX6, it all just kind of changed.
• 24:57
  Like it was all, it just suited me better.
• 25:00
  And yeah, and everything just kind of kind of came together,
• 25:04
  which, you know, once that happens, now you're you're going
• 25:09
  back, you're in what, when once you started having a little bit
• 25:12
  of success, like you're going to walk away from that.
• 25:17
  Not, not at all. I mean, that's, that's that's
• 25:19
  the crazy part about it. You know, you just you, you're
• 25:21
  trying to you start thinking about because I think for for
• 25:24
  20/19 was the first time I went to Homestead.
• 25:28
  So that's the first time another another track for me and, and
• 25:32
  just, you know, seeing that. So, you know, you mentioned
• 25:35
  going to Palmer and stuff like that after going to Loudon, did
• 25:40
  did that change anything for you going to a different track, just
• 25:43
  seeing a different layout? I.
• 25:46
  Remember thinking it was pretty easy, Yeah, like just something
• 25:50
  about it just because it just didn't have, you know, the turn
• 25:54
  3 and I and I and I haven't, I haven't been there.
• 25:56
  I haven't been there since. So, I mean, I've only been there
• 25:58
  one, one time. I so I just don't remember being
• 26:02
  a very difficult like, I mean, there are walls and stuff
• 26:06
  everywhere, right? Like you can never race Almer,
• 26:09
  but I just yeah, I I don't remember being as as difficult
• 26:13
  as loud as it was still fun, though.
• 26:15
  I I had a blast. It was totally kind of and I
• 26:19
  think it's kind of like, you know, New York, you know, you go
• 26:20
  to New York and you can do, you know, 8590% and still have a
• 26:26
  really good time. You know, you don't, you don't
• 26:28
  have to go 100% and risk anything out.
• 26:31
  You don't want to do that out there, in my opinion.
• 26:34
  But you know, you can go ahead and just ride there at 85, nine
• 26:37
  percent and have a blast. And I think that's kind of what
• 26:39
  Palmer was from what I remember. Yeah, I I've only been there
• 26:43
  once myself. It might have been around the
• 26:46
  same time if, if, if memory served, it might have been a one
• 26:50
  and one and done. So you know, you got the, you
• 26:53
  got the, the new built bike, you're getting quicker and stuff
• 26:57
  like that. You know, are you, are you doing
• 27:01
  any kind of training outside of track day and just going to the
• 27:05
  track or you know, did you, did you do maybe like the advanced
• 27:08
  Penguin School or anything like that?
• 27:11
  I did the advanced school a couple times and you know, each
• 27:13
  time I did it, I got faster. Have you, have you done it?
• 27:18
  Have you, you've taken a class like there's more information
• 27:23
  than anybody can process in a day in that class.
• 27:26
  Like Eric will spend and out, if you give him three hours, he'll
• 27:30
  spend 3 hours talking about turn 1, you know what I mean?
• 27:33
  And it, it pays off, it's 100% worth it.
• 27:35
  But it's just, it's so much information that you have to
• 27:38
  take it multiple times in order to, to, to get everything out of
• 27:41
  it. So I did that a little bit, did
• 27:44
  that a couple times, you know, drop a little little bit of time
• 27:47
  each each time. And I think when I get the end
• 27:49
  of 2019, maybe in the dash or something, I did a 79.
• 27:57
  So that that's kind of how I finished off, finished off that
• 27:59
  year. It was it was a pretty good it
• 28:01
  was a huge jump for me anyway for for one year to go from
• 28:06
  yeah, this is this is fun. This is what I'm doing.
• 28:08
  I like doing it to Now it's here we go, you.
• 28:10
  Know, here we go. Yeah.
• 28:11
  So, you know, 2020 we come around.
• 28:13
  I I assume you had big plans and the world had a little different
• 28:18
  plan for us because we had the pandemic and stuff like that.
• 28:22
  What was that like? And and then, you know, I, I
• 28:24
  assume you must have done the first round that Loudon like the
• 28:27
  rest of us when we could and we had to keep our distances and
• 28:30
  stuff like that. Nope, I couldn't do any of that.
• 28:36
  November of 2019, I got home, my brother got married in Aruba.
• 28:41
  I got home from the wedding. Three days later, I was out
• 28:43
  playing flag football and ruptured my patellar tendon in
• 28:46
  my right knee, Which when after you have that surgery, your leg
• 28:51
  is locked straight in a brace for six weeks.
• 28:55
  I went back to work after a couple weeks just because I was
• 28:58
  foreman on that job. I could do it, whatever.
• 29:01
  And couple, so maybe two or three weeks after I got to
• 29:07
  unlock the brace, I tore the ACL on my left knee walking into
• 29:10
  work. Yeah.
• 29:15
  So 2020 I, you know, because of COVID and everything, I couldn't
• 29:21
  get my surgery and doctors weren't doing ACLS.
• 29:24
  The only reason I got it done is because the way my meniscus tore
• 29:28
  it made it an emergency necessary surgery.
• 29:31
  So I got that done in like April or May 2020.
• 29:37
  Couldn't you know, it takes, you know, a couple, couple months to
• 29:40
  kind of get back, you know, comfortable with and you know,
• 29:44
  your full range of motion and you strengthen your quads or
• 29:46
  whatever. So probably maybe July,
• 29:50
  September, July or August, I went out.
• 29:53
  I was like, I'll go do a, a practice day, see how I feel.
• 29:58
  I went into Turn 6 and I went to try and get my foot back from
• 30:04
  shifting back onto the, my toes back onto the pegs and I
• 30:08
  couldn't, I couldn't do it. I lost all they used my
• 30:12
  hamstring for a graft. So I didn't have any hamstring
• 30:15
  strength. I couldn't get my leg back at
• 30:17
  night. I was so I like parked it and
• 30:21
  one of the experts almost hit me and I felt horrible my I, I
• 30:24
  couldn't do it so I didn't get to ride at all 2020.
• 30:27
  It was wow, wow. Yeah.
• 30:28
  So, you know, as I mentioned earlier, my injuries and stuff
• 30:32
  like that, you got racing on the brain.
• 30:35
  There's a pandemic happen and, and you got to recover like, you
• 30:40
  know, so like what was recovery like for you?
• 30:43
  And especially having a season like 2019, getting your fastest
• 30:48
  time and now you're sitting out all of 2020.
• 30:51
  You know how you know, you know, how motivated were you?
• 30:55
  And it because you know, for me, I, you know, from being around
• 31:00
  racing and stuff like that, you get hurt, you go recover, you go
• 31:03
  do everything you need to do. And that's just kind of how I
• 31:06
  approached it, you know, I, it, for me, I all of what, 20 when I
• 31:13
  came back in 2019, I probably shouldn't have been riding until
• 31:16
  my hand healed because by the end of 2019, my body position
• 31:19
  was all jacked up because I was compensating for my wrist
• 31:22
  hurting and stuff like that. And I really had to, you'll go
• 31:26
  in and, and, and deal with that in the sense that like, OK, I
• 31:29
  went to, I got the RC390 just to fix body position, go slow
• 31:33
  because then and, and I'm still strengthening my hand.
• 31:36
  So you know what, what was, you know, recovery like for you?
• 31:41
  And just the mental part of that because it's, you know, it's a
• 31:44
  process. The, the recovery, recovery
• 31:48
  wasn't terrible as far as far as like, you know, actually being
• 31:52
  able to function and go do my, my day-to-day stuff.
• 31:55
  Not long after the ACL surgery, I was, I was riding my bicycle
• 31:59
  and doing stuff and, and, you know, all that stuff was fine
• 32:03
  because of the hamstring part. Riding was really difficult
• 32:06
  mentally was awful to the point where like my mother and my
• 32:12
  girlfriend have all said to me that, you know, it, it's
• 32:15
  dangerous. And yeah, like, we don't love
• 32:17
  the fact that you do this, but we'll never ask you to stop
• 32:21
  because of how miserable I was to be around in 2020.
• 32:25
  Like, I, I, I watched, I, I was like, you know, different
• 32:29
  weekends. I'd be, you know, because now I
• 32:32
  have weekends, you know, more weekends to go do stuff, be on
• 32:35
  the boat, my friend's boats and whatever out of the lake.
• 32:37
  And I'm watching live timing and I'm watching all the guys that I
• 32:41
  was, you know, up at the front with get way faster and I'll
• 32:44
  bump up the expert that year. And I can't race.
• 32:47
  And I was miserable. I was a horrible person to be
• 32:50
  around. So yeah, that was that was
• 32:52
  tough. That's that sucks.
• 32:54
  To have it have it taken from you is the worst.
• 32:57
  It's one thing if you decide to give it up.
• 32:59
  If it's taken from you, that's terrible.
• 33:01
  Got you. So and, and so you know, OK, so
• 33:05
  you got through 2020, I assume you came back in 21 and you
• 33:11
  know, what was that like coming back?
• 33:12
  And you know, did you, you know, did you did, were you working
• 33:16
  out and stuff like that just to strength, strengthen your body
• 33:19
  to prepare to go racing? Yeah, I was doing everything,
• 33:23
  everything I could to to just to try and get back in whatever way
• 33:27
  I could, you know, whatever I could do to modify the bike
• 33:31
  ergonomics and stuff like that. You know, like at one point if
• 33:34
  you went and looked at my bike, I had three pieces of sea foam
• 33:37
  stacked on there, so. Remember that?
• 33:39
  Yeah. Yeah, to change the yeah to so I
• 33:41
  could actually have enough leg room to move my foot around and
• 33:45
  do all that stuff right. And I guess for for the viewers,
• 33:49
  how tall are you? 61 OK.
• 33:53
  Are you not a small guy? No, it's, it's a little cramped,
• 33:58
  but yeah, it was whatever, whatever I could do.
• 34:02
  You know, I got, I got things to lower my foot pegs and raise my
• 34:07
  seat and, and just do anything I could to, to make it fit, you
• 34:10
  know, make it work. You know, when you had your
• 34:12
  wrist thing, like you say, you, you do whatever you can to, to
• 34:15
  make it work and, and figure out how to, how to get around it.
• 34:18
  Because if it doesn't get any better, you still got to figure
• 34:21
  out something, right. Like.
• 34:24
  Oh, yeah, and you know, for me, like, you know, I had to get
• 34:28
  help getting the getting the glove off my hand and sometimes
• 34:32
  getting it on because my, my, my wrist was on fire.
• 34:36
  Still still got back out there, though.
• 34:38
  Yeah, we're. Not smart like we're we're still
• 34:42
  going to go out, we're still going to go race.
• 34:43
  We're not smart. But yeah, I never got to go do
• 34:46
  it. Yeah, that's that's that's the
• 34:49
  craziest part about that. So in 2021, by the end of 21,
• 34:55
  did did you feel you were as fast as you were at the end of
• 34:59
  2019 or did you like, OK, 22, I'll get there.
• 35:03
  It was, yeah, I was starting. I was starting to get there
• 35:05
  again. I was starting to get there.
• 35:09
  I had this, this thing where I'd been an amateur for so long at
• 35:13
  that point that like, you know, in the, in the, in the Facebook
• 35:18
  group and stuff, like there were people going back and forth
• 35:21
  about who's going to win what or whatever.
• 35:23
  And I've been there for so long that people were like, Oh yeah,
• 35:26
  I'm going to, people would say I was going to be up at the front
• 35:28
  for middle weight Grand Prix. And then, you know, people like
• 35:32
  Mike Lee came around and, you know, I think it was 2122 and
• 35:37
  going fast and you know, like there's always somebody coming
• 35:40
  up. So it's like I was still up
• 35:41
  towards the front, but I was never like winning all the races
• 35:44
  like that or anything, but still racing against up up there with
• 35:49
  a bunch of guys that were going pretty good.
• 35:51
  So yeah, like, like somebody. Coming along to to, you know,
• 35:56
  make you go faster. That's why I got that two O 6 in
• 36:00
  Daytona. So it was just like, I got to
• 36:03
  get this guy. Well, yeah, that's, yeah, that
• 36:08
  somebody, somebody passing you or doing whatever will will make
• 36:10
  you do things that you never thought you'd be able to do,
• 36:12
  right. Yeah, for sure.
• 36:14
  The red mist, you're like, I'm I'm doing it now.
• 36:17
  Going to winter crash, but yeah, we go.
• 36:21
  Yeah, no, I agree. It's, it's such a, you know, you
• 36:25
  know, for me in 21, I started going to other tracks, you know,
• 36:31
  outside aloud and I racing the other tracks outside aloud.
• 36:34
  And I guess in 2019 I did homestead, but I didn't do
• 36:37
  anything really in 20. Towards the end of 2020, I did
• 36:40
  homestead again. In 2021 is when I started going
• 36:44
  up and down the East Coast doing Azra and CCS and you know, being
• 36:48
  around gym and, and Sergio, those guys, you know, you know,
• 36:54
  really got me to, to perform at a different level.
• 36:57
  Because you know when, when you first get out there, you know,
• 37:00
  you know, if it's, if it might rain, I'm not racing.
• 37:03
  You know, if, if I didn't plug my tire warmer with enough time
• 37:07
  on for the tire to get warm up, I wasn't racing.
• 37:09
  You know, all these things that, you know, if it wasn't right, I,
• 37:12
  I wasn't racing and, and, and then just seeing them getting
• 37:16
  over adversity of, of things breaking and they still got the
• 37:19
  race suit on and, and, and they're still trying to get back
• 37:23
  out there and race and they'll get out there race and get on
• 37:25
  the podium. So did racing do anything like
• 37:29
  that for you? Like, you know, have your view
• 37:31
  of like overcoming adversity. I mean, you played football, so
• 37:34
  I assume in football you probably already saw that
• 37:36
  anyway, playing on teams and stuff like that.
• 37:39
  But what is it like, you know, dealing, you know, I think one
• 37:41
  time we talked about like, you know, rain ties, racing in the
• 37:44
  rain and stuff like that. And you know, I finally started
• 37:46
  doing it in 21 and I've been racing for like 7 years and
• 37:50
  didn't race in the rain at all. Yeah, Well, that that was, you
• 37:53
  know, down at Pitt, right. You were like, I don't know,
• 37:55
  it's going to round. I don't know if I'm going to do
• 37:57
  it. Yeah, you got to Yeah, I know
• 38:00
  it's it's a different it's a it's a different thing than than
• 38:05
  you know, I've I've played team sports my whole life.
• 38:07
  It's there's still always team sports is still always you can
• 38:12
  lose and you could have done everything and still another guy
• 38:15
  that maybe didn't do their job or do well, whatever.
• 38:19
  Racing is up to you, man. Like it's it's it's it's you got
• 38:23
  to you're having a bad weekend. You got to find a way to turn it
• 38:25
  around. You have a bad year.
• 38:27
  You got to find a way to turn around and it's it's up to you
• 38:29
  completely. And you have to have the, the
• 38:32
  mental strength and ability to be able to do that, you know,
• 38:35
  and, and I'm just, you know, and confidence really like the whole
• 38:39
  thing, just being confident. And if you don't have that, you
• 38:42
  just, you're not going to be able to do it, not well anyway.
• 38:45
  You'll be able to go out there and turn laps, but you're not
• 38:47
  going to be at your best. Right.
• 38:50
  Yeah. And, and it's such A, and it's
• 38:52
  such a confidence is such a tricky thing because you know,
• 38:56
  it, it's, you know, sometimes it's, it's as simple as, you
• 39:01
  know, a, a mechanic saying they changed something on your bike
• 39:04
  that was wrong. And, and regardless if that was
• 39:07
  true or not, that's a whole different story.
• 39:09
  But just somebody saying something to it gives you more
• 39:12
  confident to just take a little bit more risk that that's out of
• 39:15
  your comfort zone and and that makes the difference and, and it
• 39:18
  changes your world. Yeah, it, it, it does.
• 39:21
  It doesn't even have to be anything major.
• 39:23
  It, you know, it's, it's all little things that you have to
• 39:26
  put together. So now, now I'm coaching
• 39:29
  Penguin. That's one of the things trying
• 39:31
  to, you know, it's not huge leaps and bounds that you, that
• 39:35
  you're trying to get people to, to do.
• 39:37
  You know, every, every session you go ahead, work on this
• 39:40
  little thing in this corner this time, you know, try for a
• 39:43
  couple, a couple laps and and then from there, build on that.
• 39:46
  You know, it's, it's never just a huge thing.
• 39:48
  And still, you know, coaching. I still got to tell myself that
• 39:54
  all the time. Go ahead.
• 39:56
  Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit more.
• 39:59
  You had gotten bumped up to expert and stuff and and so
• 40:02
  like, you know, what made you decide to get into coaching and
• 40:07
  and how's it been, you know, to to help people out and, and get
• 40:13
  them a little faster? And is that also making you look
• 40:16
  at yourself a little differently when you race?
• 40:21
  Yeah. So we got the the get bumped up
• 40:28
  the extra thing. I, I that year 2022, there was
• 40:33
  six of us in middle weight that got bumped up that year or
• 40:36
  something like that. Like that whole group was really
• 40:39
  good and that pushed all of us to just go faster, right.
• 40:43
  It was a, it was a pretty good group.
• 40:45
  They're all, we're all still, still racing right now, which,
• 40:49
  you know, doesn't really happen very often.
• 40:50
  You know, people come and go and whatever, but that, that whole
• 40:53
  group is, still, is still going, which is pretty cool.
• 40:57
  The, the coaster thing. So I coached Pop Warner, I
• 41:01
  coached high school football and stuff.
• 41:02
  And really at work, I'm really big on teaching apprentices.
• 41:06
  Like I, I like doing that for, you know, whatever I can do to
• 41:10
  help them or whatever. So when it kind of came came to
• 41:15
  that point, Tom Hines for a long time was trying to get me in in,
• 41:19
  in in coach with Penguin. So when the opportunity came
• 41:23
  along, I was like, yeah, absolutely love to.
• 41:26
  It's it's been really good and it's cool not to, you know, not
• 41:32
  to talk bad about anybody. There's some people you talk to
• 41:34
  like they don't get it, they're not going to get it.
• 41:36
  And and that's fine. You want to go out there and,
• 41:39
  and, you know, spend laps and, and have fun that that's cool.
• 41:43
  But when you, you're dealing with somebody and you're
• 41:45
  coaching them and like, they get it and you, you know, you go out
• 41:49
  and you follow them for a couple laps and they're doing
• 41:50
  everything right. And like, you come back and talk
• 41:53
  to them and they're super excited and like they know they
• 41:55
  get it. That's awesome.
• 41:56
  That's that's fun. Yeah, it, it, it, you know, I
• 42:00
  can tell from a, a spectator standpoint and, you know, just
• 42:04
  even or having just people, you know, race racers come up and
• 42:07
  talk to me. It's like it, it changes your
• 42:09
  day, it changes your ride home. It, it, it's, it's like another
• 42:13
  tool in the, in the toolbox that you have of information that
• 42:17
  that, that helps you in the future.
• 42:19
  So, you know, helping people out is, is really good.
• 42:23
  And, and, and you know, and you know, you guys, you know, don't
• 42:26
  have to do it, right. It's not, I mean, I know you
• 42:28
  enjoy coaching and stuff like that, but you don't have to give
• 42:32
  back your time. You could just want to be at the
• 42:34
  racetrack and just focus on yourself.
• 42:35
  So, you know, taking that time out to give other people and to
• 42:41
  help them and, and, and, and, you know, and yeah, the ones
• 42:43
  that are open, it's easy, but you still have to, could try to
• 42:47
  talk to the, the, the ones that you know, don't, don't want to
• 42:52
  hear the truth. They want to hear their truth.
• 42:56
  Yeah, Yeah. The total different thing, yeah,
• 42:58
  that's there are some of those there.
• 43:02
  There are definitely some of those out there.
• 43:03
  So, you know, that's a huge deal.
• 43:06
  And, and, and So what is it like, you know, working with
• 43:09
  Penguin School, being part of that, being around, you know,
• 43:13
  all these guys. I mean, I don't know how long
• 43:15
  Eric's been racing, but he's probably been racing well over
• 43:18
  30 plus years. Yeah, he, yeah, like 30 years
• 43:23
  and he really like, just genuinely wants nothing more
• 43:29
  than than to keep the sport going and, and to, you know,
• 43:31
  help it grow and, and all that. And and that's really what what
• 43:37
  the coaches are out there doing too, right?
• 43:39
  Like it is we are telling people what we're coaching them.
• 43:42
  They're they're improving and, you know, say, hey, like I
• 43:45
  noticed you did this, this and this, right.
• 43:46
  Like awesome, that's going to keep people coming back too, you
• 43:50
  know what I mean? And not even from like a
• 43:51
  business standpoint of we want to, you know, the school, it's
• 43:54
  just it keeps the sport going. And that's that's kind of a huge
• 43:57
  thing. There's a there's a lot of good
• 44:01
  guys that that coach and girls that coach for Penguin.
• 44:03
  You know, there's a lot of talented people, just a lot of
• 44:05
  good people, you know, people that that you like working with
• 44:08
  and and being on track with and, you know, get in the classroom,
• 44:13
  you know, every now and again with with Jeff and then go out
• 44:16
  there and race against them Saturday, Sunday and it's
• 44:18
  awesome. You know, it's a lot of fun.
• 44:22
  Try and do whatever we can to to to help all the students and try
• 44:25
  and get them to come raise them. Ultimately is is kind of the
• 44:28
  goal. Yeah, that's all I mean.
• 44:30
  And you know, I, I remember Eric talking about this years ago and
• 44:37
  you know, before some of the, the, the young folks we see
• 44:40
  that's come out of the Penguin School in or in Motor America.
• 44:44
  And, and to see that now years later, it's, it's pretty
• 44:49
  incredible. It's easy to, to sit here and
• 44:52
  say, Hey, this is what we want to do.
• 44:54
  But then years later, you can actually see that the sport is
• 44:57
  actually coming back. We see the attendance in in
• 45:00
  what's going on in Motor America now and stuff like that.
• 45:04
  Are we seeing what Moto GP wants to do with giving the US 24 hour
• 45:09
  the access to Moto GP and stuff like that?
• 45:12
  So does the so it is really getting better.
• 45:15
  Do you see that as well, you know?
• 45:17
  Oh. Yeah, yeah, the you know what,
• 45:22
  the Super street Class A bit a bit NEMA, right past two rounds
• 45:27
  there's been like 20 something entrance.
• 45:29
  Wow. And, and for the Super street
• 45:31
  class, which is great, you know what I mean, It's it's like that
• 45:34
  perfect stepping stone to to get people on, on the racetrack on a
• 45:39
  Saturday and in that environment.
• 45:41
  Yeah. Can you, can you just talk a
• 45:42
  little bit more about this, the Super Street class?
• 45:44
  Because unless you're at Loudon, I don't know if you know what
• 45:47
  that is. So it's just kind of an in
• 45:50
  between. It's a stepping stone from track
• 45:52
  days to to racing on. So for, for Loudon, what they do
• 45:58
  is on Saturday, they'll do a heat race to kind of set grids
• 46:01
  for the next. I think don't they do two or
• 46:04
  three more races throughout Saturday.
• 46:06
  Sunday, I think it's 3. So they'll do the heat race to
• 46:09
  set their grades. And then they, they get to go
• 46:10
  and race with basically a trap day prep bike.
• 46:15
  You know, they don't have to do the full race bike like like we
• 46:18
  all have. And it's, it's good like they
• 46:22
  get to go out there. They do, you know, lights, you
• 46:24
  know, full start and it gets it gets it's a perfect transition
• 46:28
  that gets people to go from that to racing without all the
• 46:33
  commitment upfront. You know, you don't have to go
• 46:35
  buy a 10,012 thousand dollar race bike, you know, fully
• 46:38
  bought, ready to go. You don't have to go do all that
• 46:40
  work yourself if you're not comfortable doing that.
• 46:44
  It's just it's a good, it's a good intermediate stuff there
• 46:48
  and I so I'm going down to jersey this weekend and Azra has
• 46:52
  a time trials thing they're doing this weekend, which I I
• 46:56
  haven't seen before. I don't know if that's a new
• 46:57
  thing, but it's, I believe if I remember correctly that I read
• 47:02
  that track day guys can do it too.
• 47:05
  So the racers and I think advanced their expert track day
• 47:08
  riders go out and do this time trial thing and when you know,
• 47:13
  whatever you win for fastest lap times or top three or however
• 47:16
  they do it. So it seems to be a thing where
• 47:18
  they're they're trending towards having more of this this
• 47:21
  stepping stone into racing, which is good.
• 47:25
  Yeah, it makes a lot of sense because you know that the
• 47:27
  commitment is real upfront 1 you know, you don't know what you
• 47:32
  need. So and then you're kind of, you
• 47:34
  know, you're, you've already signed up for the class, you
• 47:36
  probably already have a suit or you have a bike.
• 47:39
  And then when you get there, you know, there's a whole list of
• 47:41
  things that you still need. So and that's not even signing
• 47:44
  up for races. So to, to, for them to do that
• 47:48
  and then for the, the public to react the way they're reacting
• 47:52
  in the sense of more people are coming out and, and trying.
• 47:55
  So it is definitely working. Let's, let's talk a little bit
• 47:59
  about going to different tracks. You mentioned going to Jersey
• 48:03
  after being at Loudon for so long.
• 48:05
  I knew it was like for me when I first got to Homestead, I went
• 48:07
  to a different track. One of the things I learned is
• 48:09
  that I suck at going right? So I, I had to work on that.
• 48:15
  But like, you know, I know you've gone through a few tracks
• 48:17
  now you know, what was your like your first impression?
• 48:20
  Going to a new track other than Loudon and then just going to
• 48:24
  different tracks over the years? The first time I went to a
• 48:30
  different track, I don't remember if it was the homestead
• 48:33
  or it might have been Pitt when we went down to Pitt race to the
• 48:36
  Penguin day down there after Moto America.
• 48:40
  It's it's a lot to, to try and learn a new track and, and kind
• 48:44
  of I just, you have to start from zero with everything and,
• 48:50
  and, you know, gearing quick. You're going to be in each
• 48:53
  corner where all your reference points are and, and, and
• 48:56
  everything. And it's a skill to be able to
• 48:59
  learn a track and race it in a weekend like that to and be
• 49:04
  competitive. You know what I mean?
• 49:05
  That's a that's a, that's a skill that some of you have to
• 49:09
  practice do and you can't not do it for a while until you're
• 49:11
  going to turn up to a track and just just go fast, you know,
• 49:17
  and, you know, be able to go on a track walk and understand what
• 49:20
  you're looking at, right? Like, but maybe you took the
• 49:24
  scooters around for, for a lap or two, right?
• 49:26
  And just like you have to be able to do that and see what
• 49:29
  you're, and know what you're looking at because otherwise
• 49:32
  you, you're going, you're blind, you're trying to walk the track
• 49:35
  at, you know, whatever speed you're going at each corner.
• 49:39
  It just, it doesn't work that well.
• 49:40
  You got to have a plan of attack.
• 49:42
  Yeah, I I found that, you know, in the beginning it was really
• 49:47
  hard because like I said, in 21, I think I did too in in 21, I
• 49:51
  did 21 rounds, I believe. And and I think yeah, and I
• 49:56
  think six of them weren't loud. And so at least I knew that
• 49:58
  track. But Roeblin was new for the
• 50:00
  first time. NC bike CMP jersey, you know,
• 50:06
  these are Daytona, these tracks are all all new.
• 50:09
  And what I found, I mean, it's, it's like it's, it's once you
• 50:15
  Start learning new tracks, it becomes a little easier because
• 50:19
  not yet using your brain in a different way.
• 50:21
  But like the first few tracks was, was really hard to like,
• 50:24
  you know, get a grasp on. But then like, after a while I
• 50:26
  was just like, oh, I'm picking this up.
• 50:28
  You know, you, you, you kind of just get used to it.
• 50:30
  I don't know if it was the same for you as you're starting to go
• 50:32
  to new tracks. It's just, you know, just
• 50:34
  learning in the tracks. It's just, you know, the
• 50:36
  process. It doesn't, it's not taking as
• 50:37
  long as it used to. Granted, I'm not breaking lap
• 50:39
  lap records or getting close to the lap record of the of a
• 50:43
  middle weight bike or anything like that, but I found that as
• 50:46
  the more I was getting to new tracks, it's it's just became a
• 50:48
  little bit easier for me to to learn them.
• 50:51
  Yeah, you learn how to learn basically, you know what I mean,
• 50:54
  to kind of simplify this, you just, you learned how to pick
• 50:59
  all these things, you know how to how to learn a track, how to
• 51:01
  pick up what different corners are and you know all that stuff.
• 51:06
  Yeah, yeah, it's a valuable skill.
• 51:08
  And I know like, that's, that's one of the things when when you
• 51:11
  do the advanced times with Eric, you know, he tells you he's
• 51:13
  like, but what I'm telling you is not how to go fast out loud.
• 51:16
  And I'm telling you how to go fast everywhere.
• 51:18
  You can take this information and apply it to every track and
• 51:21
  break every one of them down and you know, every kind of corner
• 51:25
  and, and what's, you know, what's important, what isn't?
• 51:29
  That's that's an important thing to know if you're going to go
• 51:31
  actually try and race in another track, you know, you're trying
• 51:34
  to track days. You still want to know that
• 51:36
  stuff. It's not nearly as important
• 51:37
  though. You know, it's just to to go
• 51:41
  race somewhere else. There's a lot of work involved
• 51:43
  in doing that part of it. Yeah, it, it, it is.
• 51:47
  And let, and before we get out of here, let's talk a little bit
• 51:50
  about your race prep. Well, I guess we heard of your
• 51:53
  race prep then what is your race prep now for the weekend?
• 51:57
  You know, when do you start to prepare, you know, whether to go
• 52:02
  to the track, but also mentally to go to the track.
• 52:04
  Like do you, do you have a process for yourself that you
• 52:07
  that you kind of lean on more these days?
• 52:11
  No, at this point I just kind of, you know, it's, it's, it's
• 52:14
  race week, you know, and it's kind of in that mode at work.
• 52:17
  Like it's race week. I'm not going to be here Friday.
• 52:19
  So, you know, whatever. So, so you already start
• 52:22
  prepping from like Monday because.
• 52:24
  It's like, yeah, it's. Kind of it's race week.
• 52:25
  You're already kind of triggering like, you know, I got
• 52:28
  to remember these things. I got to make sure I have this.
• 52:31
  Yeah. Well, so I mean, it's now after
• 52:34
  the first and it and it, but it's like every down to backing
• 52:38
  my trailer into its spot, right. So once you get a couple of
• 52:42
  rounds into the season, it's just it's easy.
• 52:45
  You've done it a couple times, like you're back in that groove.
• 52:47
  So it's like race prep, getting all the stuff basically, once my
• 52:51
  garage is empty, I know I have everything, you know, like
• 52:54
  that's that that's how I I know I'm good to go.
• 53:00
  But yeah, it's it's you know, do laundry a couple days before
• 53:03
  make sure I have all my stuff ready to go And and truck is
• 53:07
  trailers hooked up to the truck on on Wednesday night.
• 53:10
  Yeah, I got a work. I have a separate work truck
• 53:12
  company truck. So when I get home Thursday I
• 53:15
  just parked company truck, get in my truck and I go to the
• 53:17
  track. And nice, nice.
• 53:21
  Do you have any any superstitions, any rituals?
• 53:26
  I tend to drink a Red Bull in the morning on Saturday and
• 53:30
  Sunday, and I'll have a Foster's beer at the end of the day.
• 53:36
  Superstitions, no rituals. There's a couple different
• 53:40
  things, you know, a couple things we do in the garage, you
• 53:42
  know, things like lots to try, lots of different bourbon.
• 53:48
  Somebody always brings something and we always try, you know,
• 53:51
  bring something new. And that's kind of a just a one
• 53:53
  of the things, you know. Yeah.
• 53:56
  Other than that, no, no real superstitions or anything.
• 53:59
  It's just, it's all kind of the, the same after a while, you
• 54:03
  know, like you, you just, you do what you do.
• 54:06
  I'm just, well, I'm saying like I always have Red Bull in my
• 54:08
  cooler, but not necessarily like have to have one before a
• 54:12
  certain race or anything. Yeah.
• 54:14
  No, it's, it's, it's all kind of the same.
• 54:17
  We just get there. As long as I get there Thursday
• 54:20
  night, like I like, I like to, it's all kind of, yeah, all just
• 54:24
  kind of flows and happens. I didn't really think about it.
• 54:26
  So I couldn't tell you what any of those, any of those
• 54:29
  superstitions or any of that really is.
• 54:31
  Right. Yeah, no, I, I hate that.
• 54:32
  I don't, I don't have any of the superstition, just a couple of
• 54:35
  rituals and that's about it. But you know, the biggest thing
• 54:39
  is, you know, getting to the track early.
• 54:41
  Like I've, I've tried getting in the morning of the, the, the
• 54:44
  race weekend or, or late night before.
• 54:47
  None of that works. You really have to get there to
• 54:50
  where you can set up, do everything you need to do, have
• 54:53
  a good night's rest. Yeah, that's, that's the
• 54:55
  biggest, the biggest thing is, is you know, don't, you can't
• 54:59
  wake up in a panic Friday morning, you know, like rush to
• 55:02
  get everything done. It's it's not going to work,
• 55:04
  especially now because coaching spend so much time on track.
• 55:08
  Like we don't have a bunch of time to, to spend throughout the
• 55:11
  day working on our own stuff. I mean, we can if we have to,
• 55:14
  like something breaks, whatever. But you know, you're there to
• 55:16
  coach and help. So you want to be on track as
• 55:19
  much as we can. So the yeah, the key is get
• 55:22
  there, get there early and get set up and and just be able to
• 55:25
  relax. Nice.
• 55:28
  Yeah, That's that's some good advice.
• 55:31
  And Mike, I want to thank you for coming on the show, man.
• 55:34
  I really appreciate and you sharing your story with us.
• 55:37
  It's it's pretty cool. And I'm I'm sure I'll see you on
• 55:40
  a racetrack soon. My name is Rex 45.
• 55:44
  We have Mike in the building. Peace.
• 55:47
  Yeah.