Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / ​ @Highrevtrev Trevor's interview with Rexy Fortyfive in S6 Ep 12

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​ @Highrevtrev Trevor's interview with Rexy Fortyfive in S6 Ep 12 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 1:45
  And listen to the Be Forever Cool podcast.
• 1:47
  My name is Rex 45 and we're here talking about motorcycle racing
• 1:52
  and all that fun stuff. I'm excited cause World Super
• 1:56
  Bike just happened this past weekend for the first round.
• 1:59
  So I think like my guest tonight, he was probably locked
• 2:03
  in watching as well. And I know he's eager for his
• 2:06
  race season to start like I'm as as well.
• 2:10
  But with no further ado, let's bring in our guests for tonight.
• 2:13
  Let's welcome Hi Rev Trev to the show.
• 2:17
  Welcome to the show. Hi Rev Trev.
• 2:18
  How you doing man? Hey, I'm doing well.
• 2:20
  Thanks for having me, Rexy. Yeah, I wish I could say I
• 2:24
  watched all the world through bike races.
• 2:27
  I knew you were going to ask that, so I just recapped it and
• 2:29
  watched the highlights when I was on the Peloton about an hour
• 2:32
  ago, fully into that stuff. This weekend, it was my
• 2:38
  daughter's 13th birthday, so obviously I was fully engaged in
• 2:42
  that, but I knew it. I'm like, he's going to ask me
• 2:44
  about World Super Bike and I just know that I was out there
• 2:48
  dominating and it's it's still Ducati fast with some bimodas
• 2:52
  out there in the mix and Garilov kind of pulling up some top 10s.
• 2:56
  But that that was. Pretty impressive.
• 2:59
  So what that's like for you, you know, bouncing.
• 3:01
  I know birth, I think birthday parties or anything.
• 3:04
  I still got my phone out a little bit trying to, you know,
• 3:07
  have a headphone in kind of halfway.
• 3:09
  So is that hard for you to detach from motorcycle events, a
• 3:13
  racing and stuff like that when you have like a birthday party
• 3:15
  or anniversary or anything like that happening?
• 3:19
  Yeah, it's not. So for me, motorcycles like my
• 3:22
  career, it's my hobby. There's no, there's no getting
• 3:25
  away from it. So you know, even for birthdays
• 3:29
  and stuff like that, they're not motorcycle themed or anything,
• 3:32
  but there's always this constant motorcycle even in the
• 3:35
  background we had supercross plane, right?
• 3:38
  So there it's easy to disconnect, but there's always
• 3:42
  some, you know, tether there at some point for sure.
• 3:45
  OK. Yeah, no, I hear that.
• 3:47
  I hear that. And and I think, you know, with
• 3:49
  the family, they kind of know what you're into.
• 3:52
  So they all kind of sign up, right?
• 3:54
  Oh, yeah, 100%. They, there's no, there's no
• 3:56
  getting around it. You know, it's just the way of
• 3:58
  life. Even my daughter Kelly, just,
• 4:00
  like I said, just turned 13. She loves dealership shirts.
• 4:03
  She loves Honda shirts. She finally got my shirt that I
• 4:07
  have that I didn't even know I have that, that that's out there
• 4:09
  in the mall at Zoomies and stuff.
• 4:12
  Yeah. So she finally got that.
• 4:14
  Super stoked. She's been looking that thing
• 4:16
  forever. So yeah, she she's a motorcycle
• 4:19
  girl, but she's also a soccer player and stuff too.
• 4:21
  And both my daughters are. But yeah, can't get away from
• 4:24
  you. Man, it's pretty cool.
• 4:25
  And as we get into the show, we'll we'll talk about that some
• 4:27
  more. But like I do with all the
• 4:29
  guests that come on, you know, I want to just talk start with,
• 4:32
  you know, how did you get into riding?
• 4:34
  For some folks, you know, they're they're a parent or
• 4:36
  someone in their family or maybe a neighbor had a bike and
• 4:39
  something like that and they might have jumped on as a kid.
• 4:42
  For the folks like myself, I was a full blown adult and go
• 4:47
  purchase my first bike on my own and and figure that out.
• 4:50
  So what was that like for you, man?
• 4:52
  Yeah, late bloomer, man. I didn't ride my first
• 4:56
  motorcycle till I was 1819 years old.
• 4:58
  It was a A98CBR600F3, all red, no graphics on anything like
• 5:03
  that. Thing was awesome.
• 5:05
  I actually worked at a car dealership up in Northern
• 5:07
  California and a Toyota dealership and they got this
• 5:11
  thing on trade and it was just sitting back there in the shop
• 5:14
  and it was just the coolest thing I ever.
• 5:17
  Never rode a bike but I just had to have it and end up buying.
• 5:20
  I think I bought it for like 3900 bucks or something like
• 5:23
  that. Whatever they took it in on
• 5:24
  trade for back then. And of course I wad the thing up
• 5:28
  the first week. Looped it out in the mall
• 5:30
  parking lot trying to do a wheelie in front of some people
• 5:32
  and stuff but man. That's the.
• 5:35
  Word. Yeah.
• 5:35
  I mean, just kind of good luck at the draw, really getting
• 5:39
  into. Obviously I've always thought
• 5:41
  motorcycles were cool, but never really got into it.
• 5:45
  When I was growing up, I used to be a professional speed skater,
• 5:48
  so this time of the year I'm always locked into speed skating
• 5:51
  with the Winter Olympics and stuff like that.
• 5:53
  Some of my old teammates are Olympic champions.
• 5:56
  Chad Hedrick, Derek Para, Casey Boudier, Jennifer Rodriguez, all
• 6:00
  these Olympic gold medalists. You know, I've skated with and
• 6:02
  and been teammates with those guys in the past.
• 6:05
  So this is where I kind of like on that.
• 6:06
  But yeah. Yeah.
• 6:09
  So so let's talk about speed skating a little bit.
• 6:11
  I mean, so where did you grow up and where did you train and and
• 6:15
  is that like a like a family? Cuz we had John Grush on and,
• 6:22
  and he was a downhill. Yeah, a professional.
• 6:25
  And then he got into motorcycle racing and stuff like that.
• 6:28
  And I think like Haley, she was Haley Cox was another downhill
• 6:31
  skier from the New England area. Now she's racing motorcycles.
• 6:34
  So like where, where did you grow up in?
• 6:36
  How did you get into it? Yeah, I grew up in Las Vegas, NV
• 6:40
  and we'd just go to the skating rink like any other kid back in
• 6:43
  the day and we'd just go Friday, Saturday nights.
• 6:48
  And you know, they break it down, couple skate or hula hoop
• 6:51
  or whatever. And of course they have the
• 6:52
  races. And if you win a race, you get
• 6:56
  like a free coupon for a free soda at the concession stand and
• 7:01
  you get you got a coupon then to join one free speed skating
• 7:05
  practice. And then so I won a race.
• 7:07
  I don't know, I was probably like 12 or 13 years old and then
• 7:11
  just kind of got hooked into it. Didn't even own my own pair of
• 7:14
  skates or anything. Had rentals and then just had to
• 7:16
  invest and just started from the bottom and that kind of same
• 7:20
  spectrum as motorcycle race and you just kind of start off on
• 7:24
  the street there. You start off at the rink on the
• 7:26
  little local Friday night race and then and then you're off,
• 7:30
  off and running so. Well, yeah.
• 7:32
  But then you're, you know, you're training with the
• 7:33
  Olympians and stuff like that. So it's it's that that's pretty
• 7:37
  impressive as well to just kind of pick it up like that.
• 7:40
  So did someone kind of notice you or you were just going
• 7:43
  pretty much every weekend for three days for like a few years
• 7:46
  and you just kind of build up over time?
• 7:48
  Yeah, I mean, it started off social, right?
• 7:51
  You, you want to go hang out with your friends?
• 7:52
  And I was, I'm, I'm 45 years old, so in the 90s, that was
• 7:56
  where it was at, was going to the skating rink, you know,
• 7:58
  Crystal Palace on Rancho Blvd. And heck, we didn't even skate
• 8:01
  there. And we would train and stuff
• 8:03
  like that. And depending on what the meet
• 8:05
  was, what we're training for. But there was always, I mean,
• 8:07
  year round, it was twice a week. And if we're training for a
• 8:10
  regional or national or Invitational, yeah, it'd be two
• 8:14
  a days, you know, So, but yeah, just kind of started from there.
• 8:17
  But it's almost the same spectrum as motorcycle racing.
• 8:20
  You, you have junior Olympics, what they call it, and it's not
• 8:23
  even associated with the Olympics.
• 8:24
  But yeah, junior, then senior and yeah, juniors are basically
• 8:29
  like the yellow plates and and then seniors are the white
• 8:33
  plates are the experts and the same thing you have your bib or
• 8:36
  your number that it's attached to your hip.
• 8:39
  And the junior guys are the novices had black number plates
• 8:43
  with white numbers, white font and the senior guys had white of
• 8:48
  course, with Blackfont. So and just kind of battlefield
• 8:52
  promoted from that, you know, just up the ranks and skating
• 8:55
  travelled internationally was on the US team.
• 8:58
  We've we've I've raced in France and Spain national champion and
• 9:03
  20. I'm sorry, 9495.
• 9:06
  That's 'cause they 209495 and and I think it's just from like
• 9:12
  a competitive spirit type thing. You know, I had older brothers
• 9:14
  and things like that and just always had to kind of fight my
• 9:17
  way and whatever they can do, I can do type deal.
• 9:20
  And that competitive spirit just kind of came out and just kind
• 9:23
  of took to it. But yeah, a lot of lot of great
• 9:26
  skaters, national champions, international champions of
• 9:28
  they've all been team mates, have all skated with them and
• 9:31
  it's really cool to see. And you and you look at the
• 9:34
  skaters now, because this is inline, it's not ice skating
• 9:38
  like, right. So you look at the skaters now,
• 9:40
  they all start from inline, Yeah.
• 9:44
  And the transition is just fantastic, you know?
• 9:47
  That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
• 9:49
  And then so, yeah, so so you bought your first bike.
• 9:52
  You bought that up after a couple of weeks.
• 9:54
  You know, it's you know, I've this you know, I've tried.
• 10:00
  I grew up riding BMX, so I did a little roller skating, but not
• 10:04
  in line. I guess I had a rollerblaze too.
• 10:06
  But yeah, I'll be dating myself even further for the back then,
• 10:10
  then, then you, you know, and I remember, you know, I always
• 10:13
  Jack myself up trying to show off in front of somebody.
• 10:16
  Yep, that's what happens. You, you know what I mean?
• 10:19
  And so, so you know, you wasn't hurt.
• 10:21
  You wasn't hurt too bad or anything like that.
• 10:22
  Did you go get another bike? Did you take some time off?
• 10:25
  Did you say, OK, I need to go learn how to, you know, ride?
• 10:30
  Yeah, well, no, I just fixed the bike, right.
• 10:33
  I looped out. I had to replace like a stator
• 10:35
  cover and a clip on and stuff like that.
• 10:37
  The next week I had the thing and and back up and running and
• 10:40
  and going at it again. So and then learning to ride was
• 10:43
  just trial by fire on the streets.
• 10:47
  You know, every Friday and Saturday night in Sacramento, CA
• 10:50
  would go to a Carl's Junior, which out here is like a
• 10:53
  Hardee's. And it'd just be a big meet up.
• 10:57
  You know, it'll be anywhere from 50 to 250 riders.
• 11:01
  And some would just hang out and kind of parking lot pan up at
• 11:04
  and just, you know, go to a Jamba Juice or Starbucks or
• 11:06
  whatever. And then it'd be like a group of
• 11:08
  guys that would go riding through the hills of Northern
• 11:10
  California at night. And it it was called the Loop.
• 11:14
  It was highway 4919346-UP and around.
• 11:17
  And it was a really fun loop. But yeah, so you have some guys
• 11:20
  that do that. But yeah, just kind of trial by
• 11:22
  far from that. So you would start off the
• 11:25
  slowest guy, right? Like, these dudes are out of
• 11:27
  control way too fast. You'd be in the back of the
• 11:31
  pack. You'd pull up at the gas station
• 11:33
  or whatever the next stop is at. They've already drank their Red
• 11:36
  Bull, smoked their cigarette, putting their helmet back on.
• 11:39
  Like, oh, dude, I want a Red Bull too, man.
• 11:43
  You know? So you're kind of almost forced
• 11:45
  to kind of keep up. So you get a water break too, if
• 11:48
  you will, right? Right, so the next one.
• 11:53
  Yeah. And then you're just too, you
• 11:54
  know, you start going too fast for the street.
• 11:56
  Well, reality is you kind of make your way up in that pack
• 11:59
  and then you're leading the pack and then you're kind of too fast
• 12:02
  for the street type deal. And then you get turned on to
• 12:04
  track day. Got you butt kick there too.
• 12:08
  You're the back in the back in the track.
• 12:10
  And, and so for you, how long was that to get to the point
• 12:13
  where you're like, all right, I'm too fast for the street.
• 12:15
  And I mean, that's pretty impressive.
• 12:17
  You know, being a younger person saying, Hey, I'm too fast for
• 12:19
  the street to, to go on the track because I, I, I still see
• 12:22
  some guys that are strictly St. only and haven't made that
• 12:26
  connection yet. So, you know, from, you know,
• 12:28
  from 4:18 to, you know, riding on street, How did you get
• 12:32
  introduced to the track? And, and around what time was
• 12:35
  that like 2 years, a year, three years?
• 12:38
  Probably from about the start, the time I started to when I
• 12:41
  really got introduced in the track.
• 12:43
  So there was an interest right away, right?
• 12:44
  When you're on a sport bike, you instantly kind of get sucked up
• 12:47
  into the industry from watching motorcycles and and watching the
• 12:51
  races, going to the races and things like that.
• 12:54
  But again, some of the local fast guys there that that are
• 12:57
  AFM champions and AMA guys too that used to race like Corey
• 13:01
  Call and those guys, they would ride on the street with us.
• 13:05
  So, you know, so we would be out there and, and here's this local
• 13:08
  fast guy that's an AMA super bike guy, you know, and you
• 13:12
  know, out there riding with us. And of course he's like, we'll
• 13:14
  come out to the track and then you go out to the track type
• 13:16
  deal. And but it was maybe 2 years.
• 13:20
  So I got the bike when I was 1819 and I was racing AFM in
• 13:25
  2021 or I'm sorry, 2001. So yeah.
• 13:30
  And and AFM is a riding club out in in Northern California.
• 13:36
  Yeah, California, West Coast, it's like the Weir, if you will.
• 13:40
  It's it's one of it's the oldest, I think the oldest club
• 13:44
  racing motorcycle organization in the country.
• 13:47
  And a ton of people have come out of there from I mean Steve
• 13:52
  Rapp, Freddie Spancer, Kevin, I mean, they've all a lot of dudes
• 13:55
  have been coming out. Brendan Kettleson right now is 2
• 13:57
  time AFM number one plate. I mean, he's right.
• 14:00
  He's going to be riding for Bryce Prince this year in Super
• 14:02
  Sport, so a ton of dudes come out of AFM.
• 14:06
  Yeah, I mean, I think the East Coast guys might say the Loudon
• 14:10
  Classic might be the oldest, I think.
• 14:13
  Yeah, maybe race. But I but the track days and and
• 14:17
  and like school and stuff like that is what you're talking
• 14:19
  about. Yeah, well, AFM is a racing, is
• 14:22
  a race is a club racing. It's just like we're.
• 14:24
  OK, but it's. It's been around for at least 60
• 14:26
  something years. Oh wow, that's, that's pretty
• 14:28
  impressive. And did you start like racing
• 14:31
  right away? Because for me, I, I didn't do a
• 14:33
  lot of track days when I first I started.
• 14:35
  So I started racing a lot later in life.
• 14:37
  I was already in my 40s. I bought a bike in like in 2012
• 14:43
  and I started racing in 2013. My buddy was, I bought my, my
• 14:46
  street bike. One of my buddies was just like,
• 14:48
  ah, you got to come to the track.
• 14:49
  I got a bike for you. Yeah.
• 14:51
  I bought his SV650 and, you know, went to the track the next
• 14:55
  year. I only did the track day to get
• 14:56
  my license on that Friday, you know, did the rookie race and,
• 15:00
  and as long as you didn't crash, you know, I got my license and
• 15:03
  I, and I did that for and so I got my license and raced for
• 15:06
  about, I don't know, four or five years after that before I
• 15:08
  did the track day. And, and so I realized I
• 15:11
  probably should have done a lot more sooner.
• 15:13
  So was it like more track days for you right away or did you
• 15:17
  start racing? Yeah, just just maybe a handful
• 15:21
  of track days and then ride into racing because that was almost
• 15:24
  like what the culture was up there and I was riding like
• 15:28
  non-stop. There was one point because I
• 15:29
  mean, I was just a young 20 year old kid.
• 15:33
  My motorcycle was my only mode of transportation.
• 15:35
  So I was even racing that so and it was so easy to swap out body
• 15:40
  work back then. It wasn't complicated like it
• 15:42
  was now. Even putting a slip on exhaust,
• 15:44
  it was a bolt on exhaust. It was 3 bolts on a 954 and a
• 15:48
  929, you know, So I would literally go riding on the
• 15:52
  street, do that, that Carl's Junior ride on a Friday,
• 15:55
  Saturday night and then swap my body work overnight and then go
• 15:59
  race at Sears Point or Sonoma or Thunder Hill, you know, in those
• 16:02
  places up in Northern California on a Sunday.
• 16:05
  Wow, man, that was that, that that's pretty cool.
• 16:08
  You know, I hear that in, you know, I see videos of folks in,
• 16:11
  in the UK and stuff like that and they ride their street bike
• 16:14
  with their gear to the track and to a track day and stuff like
• 16:16
  that. But it's more, which I thought,
• 16:19
  which is pretty cool. I is I find it hard here because
• 16:21
  I'm like I still got to figure out a way to bring a chair.
• 16:24
  It's like I. Just can't just show up and
• 16:26
  ride. What was that, what it was like
• 16:28
  back then for you, you know, packing up and going to the
• 16:31
  track? Was it just as simple as, you
• 16:33
  know, loading into the back of a pickup where you were like, you
• 16:35
  know, all pimped out already? No, as simple as loading it up
• 16:40
  and and putting in the back of a pickup and barely setting up an
• 16:43
  easy up. Maybe just bumming off of
• 16:46
  somebody else's easy up and stuff like that.
• 16:48
  I'd even run dot, you know, tires, race tires, of course,
• 16:53
  but not full blown slicks or anything like that.
• 16:55
  Because I would get a brand new set of tires on Sunday to go
• 16:59
  racing and then I would ride them on the street all month
• 17:03
  until the next race and then buy another set of tires for, you
• 17:07
  know, that race weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:10
  So I was ADOT race tire guy forever.
• 17:14
  You know, and, and so were you hooked right away?
• 17:17
  Did you, I, you know, I don't know how many rounds they had,
• 17:19
  but you know where you like going to a couple of rounds or
• 17:21
  like automatic you are just like going, I'm going to all the
• 17:24
  rounds for the for the year. Yeah, I was doing, I was doing
• 17:27
  the all the rounds back then. I was in contention.
• 17:31
  I was leading the senior super, not senior super.
• 17:33
  I was where I was leading open super bike and open production
• 17:38
  class in 2001 and and won the first 3 or 4 rounds and then
• 17:43
  high sided myself to the moon at Thunder Hill and separated my
• 17:48
  shoulder and stuff and that was that was the end of my
• 17:50
  championship. So but yeah, it was, it was, I
• 17:55
  was doing the whole series back then.
• 17:57
  But then, you know, then I was just from that I transitioned
• 17:59
  just to almost strictly track days.
• 18:01
  So I just have more fun because I can go riding with my buddies
• 18:04
  and you can kind of goof off. You don't have to go 10 tenths
• 18:07
  all the time. You know, it's more relaxed.
• 18:11
  You're not doing a bunch of sitting around and waiting.
• 18:14
  It doesn't matter. Even in Moto America, man, it's,
• 18:16
  it's a bunch of hurry up and wait, you know, still or track
• 18:20
  day, you're on every 40 minutes, so.
• 18:22
  That's true, that's true. And and so at what point, you
• 18:27
  know, how long did you race for Besort before you started racing
• 18:31
  in motor America or even racing another series?
• 18:34
  So I mean, how long were you were just out in California and
• 18:37
  then and then when you start like, you know, you know,
• 18:39
  driving out out of state. Yeah, so I work for American
• 18:43
  Honda, so I was working at a dealership level back then and
• 18:47
  doing some racing again, once I separated my shoulder, I was
• 18:50
  kind of done with AFM at that point.
• 18:54
  Racing's taxing, whether it's mentally or financially,
• 18:57
  physically racing super taxing. And I and I lost a little bit of
• 19:02
  joy with it. But I was doing other things of
• 19:04
  racing. So I do like Supermoto, Norcal
• 19:06
  supermoto and Supermoto USA. That was really big back then.
• 19:10
  So I was into that and then doing some motocross stuff as
• 19:13
  well. And then when I started working
• 19:16
  for Honda, I got moved from Northern California to Ohio.
• 19:20
  So all the racing stopped for a while, yeah.
• 19:23
  Yeah, yeah. And but I still had my bike, I
• 19:27
  still had AI had AO8CBR1000 back then.
• 19:32
  And there was this series and talk about just grassroots, like
• 19:36
  not setting up anything. I was straight motocross style.
• 19:39
  This thing, there was a series called Moto Series out of Nelson
• 19:43
  Ledges, Ohio, and they would have like Friday night, just
• 19:49
  practice sessions. So you could just show up like
• 19:52
  from like 5:00 until it got dark and just go ride.
• 19:57
  No kidding. I would do that man.
• 19:58
  And I would literally just unload my bike.
• 20:00
  I would get dressed in the back of the pickup just sitting on
• 20:03
  the side of the tailgate and just put my gear on and no easy
• 20:06
  up, no chair, no nothing. And go do that.
• 20:09
  Well, they were doing, I went to go do a track day there and it
• 20:12
  rained out on Saturday, but they were racing on Sunday.
• 20:16
  And I was like, hey, man, I know, I know you don't really
• 20:18
  know me, but I know how to ride. I have my expert license with
• 20:22
  AFM. Here's all my credentials, stuff
• 20:25
  like that. Can I come ride tomorrow, which
• 20:29
  is race day? He's like, yeah, man, no
• 20:31
  problem. And at that point, I haven't
• 20:33
  even raced and seven or eight years at that point.
• 20:36
  Oh wow. OK.
• 20:37
  And sport bikes, right, right. And he's like, yeah man, no
• 20:41
  problem. I still had like radiator fluid
• 20:43
  in the bike and everything else. I had to do the kickstand switch
• 20:48
  and all that stuff there on site.
• 20:50
  But I had race bodywork on it, so didn't have any points,
• 20:54
  nothing like that. So I gridded 16th on the grid,
• 20:58
  got a really good start in the Super bike race, made my way up
• 21:00
  to 5th or 6th. And then it was starting to
• 21:03
  drizzle and the the leaders started and I made my way up to
• 21:05
  third. The leaders started messing each
• 21:07
  other up, you know, and I, Long story short, I went in that race
• 21:11
  and just coming off the couch. So I was kind of hooked again.
• 21:16
  But then my wife got pregnant with their first child.
• 21:18
  So then motorcycles had to go, right?
• 21:20
  So we all know that we've seen that movie.
• 21:22
  Right, right though though win a race after seven years because
• 21:25
  you might have a child. Yeah.
• 21:28
  And yeah. So then took a break again.
• 21:31
  And then when we had Cali, we moved down here to Tennessee and
• 21:36
  then it was a little bit of break from that before we got
• 21:38
  back into it, so. Got you.
• 21:40
  Wow, so at A7 year kind of hiatus off off the street bike,
• 21:44
  not street bike, but you know, asphalt racing versus dirt and
• 21:48
  and being in that stuff. What was the catalyst for you to
• 21:51
  get back into it after, you know, you leaving Ohio and going
• 21:56
  to Tennessee? Yeah, so I got another bike in
• 22:00
  2014, Sea Bar 1000 SP. Had that for a while, started
• 22:05
  doing some more track days up at our local track here, which is
• 22:08
  NCM, the Corvette track in Bowling, Bowling Green, KY.
• 22:13
  And then just started meeting this group of friends and
• 22:16
  especially I'm the Honda Rep here.
• 22:17
  So I'm in charge of all the Honda motorcycle dealers in
• 22:20
  northern Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky and a little bit of
• 22:23
  North Carolina. So seeing these guys at the shop
• 22:26
  whenever, like, hey, come pit with us, hang out.
• 22:29
  And then they didn't know I raced.
• 22:31
  So they're like, dude, you're pretty fast.
• 22:34
  I'm like, yeah, OK. Yeah.
• 22:37
  You guys go good too. And then so just doing a bunch
• 22:41
  of track days with it and then I sold the bike again and then I
• 22:45
  was off for a little bit and I got a 20 in 2019.
• 22:51
  I got a 2018 fire blade or not a fire blade, but CBR double R,
• 22:56
  the SP as well. And then just started doing some
• 23:00
  track days and stuff. And I was I was doing some
• 23:02
  motocross races and some supercross future races and
• 23:06
  stuff like that. So I've raced in like the the
• 23:09
  Mercedes-Benz Dome and Supercross.
• 23:11
  I've raced in Saint Louis, I've raced here in Nashville and
• 23:16
  things like that. But me and my buddies we're
• 23:20
  sitting on, I turned 14 at Barber, went there to spectate,
• 23:24
  brought the RV. We did the whole camping thing
• 23:26
  all week. And we're just sitting there,
• 23:29
  you know, having a couple beers hanging out and we're just
• 23:31
  looking at the lap times. And I'm like, dude, these guys
• 23:35
  are slow. Let's, let's, let's get back
• 23:38
  into it. You know, and some of them were,
• 23:41
  were looking into getting into racing as well.
• 23:43
  And I'm like, Are you sure you want to race next?
• 23:45
  I've I've seen that movie and I know how financially taxing,
• 23:49
  mentally taxing, It's it's not as fun.
• 23:52
  There's definitely a lot of fun in adrenaline rush and stuff and
• 23:55
  there's a lot of core memories for sure.
• 23:57
  But track day is a lot more relaxed and not stressed.
• 24:02
  You know, if you're stressed at a track day, you're doing it
• 24:04
  wrong, man. You should just be having fun,
• 24:06
  right, Right. But yeah, that's how we ended up
• 24:08
  getting back into it. So I had to go to Weira because
• 24:12
  that's the the club racing out here and had to show all my
• 24:17
  credentials and stuff because I'm basically coming off the
• 24:19
  couch again because it was nine years.
• 24:23
  It was 2010 when we raced in Ohio and it was 2019 before I
• 24:27
  got my bike. And then 2020 is when we started
• 24:30
  racing with Weira and had to show.
• 24:32
  I'm like, hey man, I don't, I don't need a yellow plate.
• 24:35
  I mean, if you want, I can stand back.
• 24:37
  We can that whole ceremony, but I'd rather not.
• 24:41
  So got into that lost the senior super bike championship by three
• 24:47
  points to Dan Krueger. And again, I had to balance so
• 24:50
  that you talked about balance and life had to balance life
• 24:53
  then too, because I'm also a soccer coach from my my girls.
• 24:57
  And so I would miss Saturday's race because I'm coaching
• 25:01
  soccer. And then the second we're done
• 25:04
  with the with the match, I would load everything up, head down to
• 25:07
  Barber, head down to Little Tally, you know, or wherever or
• 25:10
  Rd. Atlanta, you know.
• 25:12
  So we always miss Saturday's racing and stuff, but we we got
• 25:16
  on the box quite a few times. I think we finished third in the
• 25:18
  national championship too and stuff like that.
• 25:21
  But. That's pretty impressive doing
• 25:24
  one day out of two days, man. That is, that is, that is pretty
• 25:29
  impressive. And you know, what was that
• 25:31
  commute like? You know, you know, leaving on
• 25:33
  a, leaving on a Saturday after a soccer game.
• 25:36
  And you know, I mean where you are, what is it like 5-6 hour
• 25:39
  drive and, and you know, getting there, setting up that night
• 25:42
  and, and getting up and just going the next day.
• 25:46
  Yeah, Barbara, Barbara and little tally are 2 1/2 three
• 25:50
  hours, so not too bad. That's pretty good.
• 25:52
  And depend when our match was if it was a late afternoon game, it
• 25:55
  was it was a little rough setting up at night.
• 25:57
  Everybody you know, all the parking spots are taking up
• 25:59
  You're you're in the back lot with nothing or it feels morning
• 26:05
  game. It was a little bit easier and
• 26:06
  stuff. But yeah, the commute's not bad
• 26:08
  because being a a regional or district manager for Honda,
• 26:12
  that's all I do is drive. So, you know, seeing all those
• 26:15
  dealers and stuff that's I can drive no problem.
• 26:18
  Gotcha. Yeah, No, when I was in in
• 26:20
  Boston and you know I was, I was doing a lot of driving.
• 26:23
  Now in Florida it's not as bad, but like little tally is about a
• 26:27
  10 hour drive for me. Same thing with about Barber and
• 26:32
  and Rhode Island I guess. Might be like 8 or not 8:00-ish
• 26:36
  give or take, but it's still a lot closer than when I was in in
• 26:38
  Boston. Sure, yeah.
• 26:41
  Even Jersey from Boston was still like 6 1/2 hours and
• 26:45
  everything else is just a lot further.
• 26:47
  And I, I think when I went out to Blackhawk, 30 hour drive with
• 26:52
  the trailer and homestead, same thing.
• 26:55
  So yeah, I put in some, some long drives as well.
• 27:00
  But yeah, I, you know, I don't mind the driving, but some of it
• 27:03
  is a bit long. And being in New England, for
• 27:05
  me, New Hampshire Speeder is only track, which was like an
• 27:10
  hour and a half from where I live.
• 27:11
  So that was awesome. But then everything else was,
• 27:13
  was a hike. Yeah, you, you kind of have to
• 27:16
  be committed. And, and like you say, you know,
• 27:19
  you know, it's the, that's the downside of, of, of racing is
• 27:22
  the commute and, and financing it.
• 27:25
  Yeah, yeah. We were lucky even here in
• 27:29
  Northern California and even in Ohio, pretty lucky with tracks
• 27:32
  pretty close like Sears Point or Infineon or Sonoma, whatever you
• 27:36
  want to call it. That was only an hour and a half
• 27:38
  away. Thunder Hill was an hour and a
• 27:39
  half away. Laguna Seca was 2 1/2 three
• 27:41
  hours away. Miller Motorsports Park, that
• 27:44
  was about 12 hours away. But in Ohio, we had Mid Ohio,
• 27:48
  which was an hour and a half away.
• 27:50
  We had Nelson Ledges an hour away, Beaver Run or Beaver
• 27:54
  Falls, which is now pit race, which is gone.
• 27:56
  That was two hours away, so always been lucky.
• 28:00
  Beautiful track, right pit. Yeah, I loved it.
• 28:03
  So I used to ride that track before it had all the extension.
• 28:06
  So where Turn 1 was, you made that left kind of down the hill
• 28:10
  where they kind of wheel you over.
• 28:12
  You make an immediate right. Turn 1's almost like a chicane
• 28:15
  on the old track. Oh, no kidding.
• 28:17
  Yeah, so and then they didn't have the chicane there at the
• 28:20
  bottom. You're just wide open through
• 28:22
  there. And yeah, yeah, yeah, not
• 28:23
  through there, but yeah, this old Beaver running was even
• 28:26
  called Pitt Race back then. Yeah, that's a, that's a nice
• 28:29
  track. It was like, that's one of my
• 28:30
  favorite Barbara Pitt. A lot of tracks with a lot of
• 28:36
  turns. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 28:40
  So now, OK, so you get into where you're, you're racing one
• 28:44
  race a week, not one race, but one day.
• 28:49
  Yeah. And then at some point you say,
• 28:51
  hey, I'm going to go race Motor America.
• 28:53
  Like how did that come about? Like, yeah, so that was the plan
• 28:56
  the entire time. So to get enough points to get
• 28:59
  my my pro license, I had to go through ERA, right.
• 29:02
  So once we decided let's go do it, we brought, you know, some
• 29:07
  guys along, Daniel and Jay, Mike, Matt, those guys, they
• 29:11
  wanted to go racing too. So I helped them progress
• 29:13
  because they were getting their novice licenses and stuff like
• 29:16
  that. But we'd all kind of tag along
• 29:18
  together. But that was always the end goal
• 29:21
  was to get enough expert points and we're A to be able to be
• 29:25
  eligible for Moto America. OK.
• 29:28
  And how many points do you roughly need to to qualify?
• 29:34
  You need to have 100 expert points within I think a
• 29:38
  three-year times three or five year time gap, and you have to
• 29:43
  have five to seven successful weekends as well.
• 29:49
  So the race director of WEIRA or whatever club organization
• 29:53
  you're with has to sign off on you too.
• 29:55
  They basically have to cosign for you saying, hey, this is a
• 29:58
  safe rider, he knows what he's doing, he understands the rules,
• 30:02
  respect another, that whole 9 yards.
• 30:04
  But yeah, you have to get signed off by whatever org you're with.
• 30:06
  But it's 100 expert points. And how do they count the
• 30:09
  points? It's not necessarily by winning
• 30:12
  how you finish on on in a in a race weekend as far as points is
• 30:16
  is that is it a different accumulation?
• 30:18
  Nope. That's it, man.
• 30:19
  OK, Yep. So 25 for a win and and so on
• 30:22
  and so on. Yeah.
• 30:24
  So, yeah, you can knock it out pretty quick.
• 30:26
  I mean I did it in one season and it was 6 rounds that I did
• 30:30
  and I didn't have any crashes or anything like that.
• 30:32
  So it was all good and was able to knock that out pretty quick.
• 30:35
  And like I said, I almost won the senior Super Bike
• 30:37
  championship by and I just lost it by basically one position
• 30:42
  after missing all those days was a three-point gap between me and
• 30:45
  Dan and that was it. Right.
• 30:47
  Those are the worst. So close in the points and even
• 30:52
  if you finish in front of the guy, the guy got to finish like
• 30:54
  you know, 4 positions back. It's like.
• 30:57
  Yeah, and I'm, I'm giving up 25 points or potential 25 points
• 31:01
  every Saturday. I'm not there.
• 31:04
  So that's, so that's pretty impressive.
• 31:06
  So now, So what year did you get into Motor America and what was
• 31:11
  that like for you getting into it?
• 31:14
  The 2022 OK 21, I'm trying to look back, but I think this will
• 31:23
  be our fifth season. It started off and man, we bone
• 31:28
  stock street bikes. So I kind of said the story
• 31:30
  here. I used to ride my street bike
• 31:31
  and go race with it. Same scenario man.
• 31:34
  We don't we didn't have a budget or anything like that.
• 31:36
  It is completely a bone stock stock suspension still
• 31:40
  electronic suspension right off the showroom floor.
• 31:42
  It's not sprung for me. It's never been serviced.
• 31:45
  It got serviced one time just because I had a leaky fork seal
• 31:48
  thermos man, you know placed the seal on it.
• 31:51
  But we took a bone stock street bike with just a flash DCU, just
• 31:56
  a little Shorty acropolvic slip on on it and some carbon and
• 32:00
  body work from hustle hard racing and went out there and it
• 32:06
  literally has stock stock street bike man and and.
• 32:09
  And what class is it? This will be that you would be
• 32:11
  in the Super Stock class. Yeah, Stock 1000 class is what
• 32:15
  we started off with and we had some decent success the
• 32:20
  following year. The first year we missed out.
• 32:24
  So our first race that season was Rd.
• 32:25
  Atlanta. Of course, man, the butterflies
• 32:29
  and and the loading and that whole circus of Moto America's
• 32:33
  is a little overwhelming. You definitely have to have a
• 32:36
  team and you got to have help with you.
• 32:38
  It's not like a club race where you can kind of show up and do
• 32:41
  it on your own type. Struggle a little bit and
• 32:44
  somebody comes up and say hey, you need a hand.
• 32:47
  Yep. And I didn't have the right
• 32:51
  stuff as far as like timing equipment or pit boards or
• 32:54
  anything like that. And we were actually did pretty
• 32:58
  well, but we missed qualifying. So we first of all, we ran out
• 33:02
  of gas in Q2 and then the timing and scoring went down for Motor
• 33:08
  America. So we had no clue where we're
• 33:10
  at. And back then I didn't have a
• 33:12
  name solo or anything like that either.
• 33:13
  I was just, I was literally just pulling the trigger, you know,
• 33:17
  on my handlebars. I went by the start finish line.
• 33:19
  So that of course wasn't very accurate, but it gave me an
• 33:21
  idea. And then we'd study the sheets
• 33:24
  and stuff. But Long story short, we missed
• 33:26
  our first event by .6 of a second.
• 33:29
  Wow. So you can't even say .6 and .6.
• 33:33
  And that's, that's how quick it was from us being the first ones
• 33:37
  on the outside looking in. I think Rd.
• 33:40
  Atlanta's grid capacity is like 39 and we qualified 28th and 27
• 33:47
  made the grid so and and stock 1000.
• 33:51
  There's always 45 to 55 riders trying to qualify.
• 33:54
  So we basically qualified, you know, 2/3 up and still didn't
• 34:01
  make the show man. And talk about just devastation
• 34:03
  because you know, you have that full year of build up and your
• 34:07
  plan and your expectations and the training and the sacrifice
• 34:11
  and the financial side of it and the planning.
• 34:15
  There's so much goes into it. And then to lose out by .6,
• 34:20
  you're just like, Oh my gosh, dude, I cried like a baby.
• 34:23
  I was like, what did I do? Why did I do this?
• 34:26
  I told you racing sucks. You know, so listen, I've had a
• 34:31
  lot of, yeah, I've had a lot of long rides home by myself.
• 34:34
  I had nobody to talk to. So yeah, you had a had a bad
• 34:38
  time, but you know, at what point did you, you know, for
• 34:43
  when? I mean, I haven't raced in Motor
• 34:45
  America, but like, you know, having bad races and you know,
• 34:47
  when, when you have to drive like 8 hours, you know, six
• 34:50
  hours into it, I start to see the good that came out of the
• 34:53
  weekend. How long did it take you to
• 34:56
  take? Look at the positives, right,
• 34:57
  Because they're always positive. Tons of positives.
• 35:00
  I was disappoint. I was sad for, you know, the
• 35:04
  process because there's a lot of people that sacrifice a lot of
• 35:07
  stuff to help you out, right. So I was sad for them more than
• 35:09
  I was for myself. But back then, so Moto America
• 35:14
  changed the schedule up. But back then you only raced one
• 35:17
  time a weekend. So for us, we only raced on
• 35:21
  Saturday. It's still the same expense, the
• 35:24
  same everything, but we only had one race a weekend.
• 35:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we just hung out and partied
• 35:29
  and had a good time and watched all the races and we're just
• 35:33
  having a great time the rest of the weekend.
• 35:36
  But I told myself never again. We will never ever be in that
• 35:40
  situation again to where we don't qualify.
• 35:42
  I promise you we will absolutely qualify for every single race
• 35:46
  that we get into then. And since then, that's exactly
• 35:50
  what's happened. The next race at Barber that
• 35:52
  same year think we qualified 24th.
• 35:58
  OK. You know, same bike, same
• 36:00
  everything. Nothing changed, you know.
• 36:02
  And was it anything specific that I mean, you said nothing
• 36:06
  changed. Was it, was there anything
• 36:07
  specific that you look to, to say?
• 36:09
  Was it just butterflies that kind of might have caused you to
• 36:13
  miss out on that first time? I mean, you know, I think in
• 36:15
  general, I think and you know, for a lot of us, the first time
• 36:20
  we were not usually successful. There's always a little bit of
• 36:23
  adversity. So what was that like?
• 36:26
  Yeah, there's there's butterflies even now, you know,
• 36:32
  you know, I can line up at a local County Fair race at a most
• 36:36
  across track and I'm like, what am I doing here?
• 36:39
  Like the nerves, all right. And the anxiety is like not it's
• 36:43
  not overwhelming, but it's definitely there for sure.
• 36:47
  Yeah. What was your question again?
• 36:48
  Sorry. Oh, sorry.
• 36:50
  You know, how is there one thing you can look back on and say
• 36:53
  what it was that, you know, was it just the nerves that caused
• 36:57
  you to Oh yeah, finished when you finish?
• 36:59
  Or was it just the overall of it, you know, just the new
• 37:02
  experience right at that level, you know, which is overwhelming.
• 37:06
  I mean, so overwhelming at any level when you're the first time
• 37:08
  you get into it. Yeah, 100% lack of preparation
• 37:14
  on what exactly we needed and not knowing exactly what to
• 37:17
  expect, we jumped right into the lion's den.
• 37:21
  I was ready. Physically I was ready.
• 37:23
  Mentally I was ready. I did get a ton of arm pump
• 37:27
  because that's Rhodolana for you for sure, but that wasn't
• 37:30
  necessarily hold me back on top speed and trying to create a
• 37:33
  lap. I just didn't know what I needed
• 37:37
  to be doing. It was only my my second time
• 37:40
  ever being at Rhode Atlanta. My first time it wasn't was
• 37:43
  eight years ago. You know, I race, I I read I did
• 37:45
  a track day with STT there in 2014 and never been back since.
• 37:50
  So to try to qualify for a national first time out track
• 37:54
  had never been to and just really outgunned being on that,
• 37:57
  that double our Honda thing has a ton of mid range.
• 38:01
  It tries to spit you off in, you know, the mid range, but there's
• 38:03
  no top and it just falls on its face.
• 38:06
  So we're down quite a bit of top speed, but yeah, it's it's it
• 38:12
  was just not knowing where I was at.
• 38:14
  If I knew I had to find 6 tents, I would have found six tents for
• 38:17
  sure. So that's just me.
• 38:20
  And since then, you know, obviously next race at Barber,
• 38:22
  we had a name Solo. I knew where my lap times were.
• 38:25
  I knew where it needed to be. We'd come in and we would
• 38:28
  analyze the sector times. We would overlay that with other
• 38:32
  guys, the sector times, and kind of see where we stood and where
• 38:34
  I can approve. I would watch other races too
• 38:38
  and see where the Super bike guys breaking.
• 38:41
  Now, I'm not going as fast as super bike guys, but where the
• 38:44
  Super sport guys breaking, You know, like a Barber.
• 38:47
  The Super sport guys are doing 20 eights.
• 38:49
  You know Well I can do 20 nines, so if they're breaking there I
• 38:54
  can break there and then we end up getting down on the 20
• 38:56
  eighths too. If a super sport bike can do it,
• 38:58
  I can do it, right? So that's where we kind of just
• 39:02
  did it. It was just lack of prep, right,
• 39:04
  Right. Just not knowing.
• 39:05
  And then we learned from that. And then since then it, I don't
• 39:09
  care where we go, we're going to qualify.
• 39:10
  Got you. And now you know, you talked to
• 39:12
  you said that you didn't do outside of a slip on you didn't
• 39:15
  do much mods And even when did you start modding the bike or
• 39:20
  you haven't, you don't mod the bike as much and you know, like
• 39:23
  what did did you start changing suspension or doing anything at
• 39:27
  some point still stock suspension.
• 39:29
  Stock bike, man, that was our Cinderella story and working for
• 39:32
  Honda, I wanted to kind of show how good a bike was right off
• 39:35
  the door and floor. Literally rexy the the most
• 39:38
  expensive thing on the bike was the carbon and body work.
• 39:42
  That was the most expensive thing on the bike.
• 39:44
  So the slip on exhaust we got help on and then the flash DCU
• 39:50
  was from Paul Kinsberg, who's a Honda CBR guru who knows those
• 39:54
  things inside and out. But that's it man.
• 39:57
  There was. We never changed the spring, we
• 39:59
  never changed it anything. Wow, have you only raised
• 40:05
  Hondas? Yeah, yeah.
• 40:07
  Well, I, well, I used to work on a multi line dealership back in
• 40:11
  the day and I've ridden Suzuki's and race Suzuki's off road, but
• 40:14
  on road it's only been Honda. Wow.
• 40:17
  And and so, you know, working with Honda and and racing a
• 40:20
  Honda has Honda notice has Honda and and you know, USA or
• 40:25
  anything say, Hey, we'll help you with your program or
• 40:28
  anything. Yeah, for sure.
• 40:30
  We get some help from those guys.
• 40:32
  It's kind of a gift and a curse because I can't go out and get
• 40:34
  traditional sponsors. Like I can't go to my local
• 40:36
  dealer and say, hey, do you want to sponsor me in Moto America
• 40:40
  racing and stuff like that because it's there'd be a
• 40:42
  conflict of interest. So we do get some help with pro
• 40:47
  chemicals and the guys, you know, the canopies and stuff
• 40:50
  like that. We definitely get some help time
• 40:52
  off, things like that. We we definitely get some help
• 40:54
  out. But Moto America recognized it
• 40:56
  for the longest time. Jeff May was there and he was
• 40:58
  doing a good job. He was the only Honda basically
• 41:00
  and Ashton was on a Honda for a season or two, but it wasn't
• 41:04
  really getting noticed. But we were getting a ton of
• 41:07
  attention. We are being interviewed every
• 41:10
  single every single race weekend mode America Live Plus was
• 41:14
  interviewing us from Michael Hill to Jamie Howe.
• 41:17
  I mean, you name it, we're we're finishing, you know, 22nd and
• 41:22
  still getting mentioned on the broadcast 'cause we're on a
• 41:24
  Honda you. Know so.
• 41:27
  And that's kind of where Honda's at now is I think from our
• 41:29
  efforts that we put into it and our appearance and are willing
• 41:33
  to activate and engage with the fans and just talk to them and
• 41:36
  just bring joy. It made such a big difference.
• 41:39
  And it takes a lot of stress off me going out and talking to the
• 41:42
  fans and, you know, give them a poster or a knee puck or some
• 41:46
  Honda swag. That was such a big deal that I
• 41:49
  think it made an impact. And look where Honda's at now.
• 41:52
  I mean, they got, well, Moto America has kind of screwed that
• 41:55
  up a little bit, but I was. I was going to ask about that.
• 41:59
  We, we can touch on that a little bit for the new changes
• 42:03
  for this year and, and what that, what that's looking like
• 42:05
  for you. So you know, you went racing
• 42:08
  with your, your, you and some other guys today.
• 42:11
  Are they still in motor America racing?
• 42:14
  And, and what's your crew like when you, when you go to the
• 42:17
  track and stuff like that? Is it, you know, family and
• 42:20
  friends or is it those guys that that come in and help you
• 42:23
  support everywhere, every round? No, just family and friends,
• 42:27
  man. It's my buddy Robert Lankford
• 42:29
  and and Travis and Jay and Daniel Shumake.
• 42:32
  Those guys are really kind of helped out and been part of the
• 42:35
  journey since day one where the guys sitting up on the hill just
• 42:38
  having a good time, being spectators and say hey, we can
• 42:40
  go do that type deal. And then just put your money
• 42:43
  where your mouth is. And man, Lord knows you pay a
• 42:46
  lot of money. It could be a clap.
• 42:49
  You know I. I.
• 42:51
  I looked at the, the fees for the lightweight class the, and I
• 42:56
  was like, yeah, it's, it's a big difference than club racing, the
• 43:00
  fees that you got to put up to get into a, a race weekend.
• 43:04
  But it's also pretty cool to be able to, to race at the, one of
• 43:07
  the, the highest level in the US and be competitive and stuff
• 43:12
  like that. So do do any of the the the
• 43:15
  folks in the paddock give you a Flack for for not doing any mods
• 43:18
  on the bike since it's a deliberate thing.
• 43:22
  No, it it actually worked out pretty well because some people
• 43:26
  wanted to see me succeed. They see where the potential's
• 43:28
  AT and where the lap times are at.
• 43:29
  I mean that Rd. Atlanta, for example, we were
• 43:32
  down 18 miles an hour just going straight and I'm 63 and some
• 43:37
  change and, and 215 lbs before I wrap a kangaroo around me.
• 43:42
  Wow, you know, so it's a lot of it's a lot of drag and it's a
• 43:47
  lot of meat and metal to kind of get accelerating and slow down.
• 43:51
  So I always just make it up on the brakes.
• 43:52
  And that's why I kind of compared myself to the more of
• 43:54
  the top speeds and where the Super sports guys are breaking
• 43:58
  at because we're almost we're in that middle ground.
• 44:00
  We're almost in no man's land. We're not as fast as the BMWs or
• 44:04
  you know, a built anything because we had a stock street
• 44:07
  bike. I mean my bike put out 178
• 44:09
  horsepower rear tire. That was it.
• 44:11
  Right, right. So, and can you change like the
• 44:13
  the, the the front master cylinder on those bikers or is
• 44:16
  it that's all stock? And if you were to go with like
• 44:19
  a, a, a better master cylinder than the stock, would that
• 44:22
  improve your time? It's significantly enough to
• 44:25
  maybe, you know, change your mind a little bit on yeah.
• 44:28
  So, yeah, so that is the one thing we did change.
• 44:32
  We changed the master cylinder. We put a Brembo up there because
• 44:35
  on the stock Double R, it's a, it's a mixed match.
• 44:38
  So the master cylinder stock was like a Nissan master cylinder
• 44:42
  and then with rubber lines and it's ABS and everything of
• 44:45
  course with Brembo calipers. So I swapped all that out.
• 44:50
  I put Golfer super bike lines on it with the Brembo Cordecosa
• 44:56
  1920, whatever it was. And that was the only
• 44:58
  performance modification that we did to it.
• 45:01
  We we deleted the ABS, all the ABS plumbing is still there.
• 45:05
  All I did was just pull the fuse.
• 45:06
  So, so all the weight, all the plumbing, everything is still
• 45:11
  there. Just pull the fuse and just
• 45:13
  Direct Line straight to the calipers.
• 45:16
  So definitely a disadvantage. But to answer your question, no
• 45:19
  Flack from it. People wanted to see like where
• 45:22
  I could be without it. So as you know, Hayden Gilliam
• 45:26
  end up jumping on a Honda and I end up, I end up knowing those
• 45:30
  guys pretty well over at the Real Steel team.
• 45:32
  And the bikes were changing from 20 threes because we didn't have
• 45:37
  a 2024 model year. So they were riding the 20
• 45:40
  threes and then for 25 the bike was changing to the bike you
• 45:44
  currently have now. So like, hey, we're getting the
• 45:46
  new bikes. We have all these old bikes for
• 45:49
  basically like show bikes at that point.
• 45:51
  They're just on display at local dealerships or in a museum
• 45:54
  somewhere or whatever. And Jerry Nickel, the owner of
• 45:57
  that and and Hayden Gillum said, hey, you can ride one of our
• 45:59
  bikes. We want you to ride one of our
• 46:01
  bikes for next year. So I'm like, OK, well, let me
• 46:05
  see what I can put together here because it's still super
• 46:07
  expensive, right. Thanks for the bike.
• 46:09
  It's one part of the puzzle. Let me see if I can figure out
• 46:11
  the other parts of the puzzle. And got support from Hustle Hard
• 46:15
  and Forestar Racing and John Cook, the dude from you know,
• 46:19
  the old track day winters guy helped us out financially and
• 46:23
  stuff and we are able to put a program together and and do the
• 46:26
  full season so. And this is you talking about
• 46:29
  for 26. For 25.
• 46:31
  O25 OK, so I had. 26 We're still working on it.
• 46:34
  Got you, Got you. How did you do last year?
• 46:37
  Good considering. So again, first time on a
• 46:41
  fireblade? Yep, never rode the bike before,
• 46:45
  wasn't set up for me or anything like that.
• 46:47
  We actually get the bike right from Hayden.
• 46:49
  He's putting on a slip on exhaust from that thing and it
• 46:55
  still has his numbers on it and everything.
• 46:58
  And we take it right from the Honda racing truck straight to
• 47:01
  tech. And I'm like ripping off his
• 47:03
  decals as we're going through tech and never even seen the
• 47:07
  bike before and couldn't figure out how to turn on the rain
• 47:10
  light because you got to make sure that's working through tech
• 47:12
  and stuff. And I'm calling Mark.
• 47:13
  I'm like, hey man, how you make all this stuff work and then get
• 47:16
  it and just no seat time. Never seen the bike until that
• 47:20
  Thursday and The thing is again, it was a show bike.
• 47:24
  It wasn't set up for anything and it's pissing brake fluid out
• 47:27
  of the master cylinder. Oh gosh.
• 47:30
  So I got a total of 4 laps of practice before I had to go to
• 47:34
  qualy and never ridden the bike in my life.
• 47:38
  And so I mean 4 laps around there.
• 47:40
  So maybe like 8 minutes of seat time and again coming off the
• 47:44
  couch because I did one track day right after Barber Motor
• 47:51
  America around, but it was raining.
• 47:53
  So we were out there and I was on my bike.
• 47:54
  I didn't ride their bike, I was on my bike.
• 47:57
  I did one session and it was just non-stop rain.
• 48:00
  So we didn't do anything else. So basically coming off the
• 48:02
  couch got about 8 minutes of seat time on a bike I'd never
• 48:05
  ridden and we put all girls 17th on the grid.
• 48:09
  So yeah, it was it was good. But then we had challenges with
• 48:14
  that. We the right, right at the first
• 48:16
  race. You can see it on on Moto
• 48:17
  America that the bike overheated on the grid for it was supposed
• 48:21
  to be a quick start. And for whatever reason, Moto
• 48:23
  America's just they just kept us there forever.
• 48:26
  And I've never had a bike overheat on me like that.
• 48:29
  And you know, they pull all the fans and everything else off of
• 48:32
  it to save weight, which I need weight savings for sure.
• 48:35
  And the thing just overheated. But unfortunate for for Taylor
• 48:41
  Knapp and Bryce Kornbach, they wanted themselves up on the
• 48:44
  first lap, which created a red flag.
• 48:47
  And I'm just walking through the crowd and I'm pissed off.
• 48:50
  I'm coming over the over the bridge, the pedestrian bridge
• 48:53
  and people are trying to talk to me.
• 48:54
  And I just slammed my visor down like, no, we lining back all
• 48:58
  this effort again, right? The road to Atlanta curse is
• 49:00
  happening. Didn't even get to do a lap
• 49:03
  again, 4 laps of practice, you know, whatever.
• 49:05
  And bike overheated. But anyways, we got the bike
• 49:08
  going again and I ended up finishing 17th in the race.
• 49:10
  Got a horrible start because I'm like this thing just overheated.
• 49:14
  I don't know what's going on with it.
• 49:16
  It's going to blow up on me. And I didn't got 17th in that.
• 49:20
  But the next day on Sunday, I must have hit a button or
• 49:24
  something happened, whatever. But the bike wasn't going.
• 49:27
  It was doing like 152 miles an hour down the back straight
• 49:30
  away. And I'm like, what?
• 49:32
  I must they must have when it overheated, it must have like
• 49:35
  did a gasket or warped something and she's just losing
• 49:39
  compression. I'm not sure.
• 49:41
  So they take it back to the ray shop and Mark throws it up on
• 49:45
  the dyno, but he's he's pulling all the data because they have
• 49:48
  all their data on it, right, Right.
• 49:50
  And he's like, dude, you're like in mode 7.
• 49:53
  I'm like, what's mode 7? He's like, it's slower than a
• 49:56
  rain mode. And I'm like, I I didn't touch
• 49:59
  any buttons, man. I don't know.
• 50:01
  I don't even know. I don't even know how to use
• 50:02
  these buttons on this. Yeah, yeah.
• 50:04
  So. So that was frustrating too,
• 50:06
  because we had a ton of Honda brass there as well.
• 50:09
  So we had a whole full hospitality set up for him on
• 50:11
  the hill in DNA, the president of Kunamoto factory, where fire
• 50:15
  blades and all that stuff from Japan was there.
• 50:17
  There's a bunch of Japanese dignitary.
• 50:20
  You know, my bosses were there 'cause Honda's headquarters are
• 50:23
  in Alpharetta, GA. So they're just 45 minutes down
• 50:27
  the road, you know, And so all the brass was there and they see
• 50:30
  their riding, just they see their guy fighting for top
• 50:33
  fifteens the day before and then barely hanging on for top 30
• 50:36
  because I'm only doing 150 miles an hour on the back
• 50:39
  straightaway. Oh man, that that, that has to
• 50:41
  be tough in a situation like that.
• 50:43
  Not necessarily, you know, you know, things happen in a
• 50:46
  racetrack. So you, you know, you, we just
• 50:49
  learn to adjust to the mechanicals and stuff.
• 50:51
  But when you do have, you know, VIPs around and stuff like that
• 50:56
  and, and, and all that and that, that puts an extra layer on
• 50:58
  that. So how, how do you, how do you
• 51:00
  go through that? And you know, and how do you,
• 51:03
  how do you, how do you walk through those situations?
• 51:05
  Well, you know, it's called racing, not winning.
• 51:09
  So the results are going to be the results and there's going to
• 51:12
  always be a ton of adversity. But as long as you learn from
• 51:15
  it, as long as you have fun and just kind of remember that
• 51:18
  you're there to entertain. I'm 45 years old.
• 51:22
  Nobody there is there to sign me up on a factory ride.
• 51:26
  And you could be half those guys and the top ten aren't getting
• 51:29
  signed for factory rides, right? So, so I just try to have fun
• 51:34
  with it and stuff like that. So even during that adversity, I
• 51:36
  still went off into the fan loop and did a burnout for the fans
• 51:39
  and did a wheelie and all that other stuff, you know, and, and
• 51:42
  just had a good time with it and tried to make the best
• 51:45
  experience possible. Because that's all it's
• 51:47
  ultimately about is having a good experience.
• 51:48
  And, and racing's an entertainment sport, man.
• 51:52
  We're all just paying to be clowns in the circus.
• 51:54
  So you got to have fun with it for sure.
• 51:57
  You you definitely do and and some of us take it a little bit
• 52:01
  too serious. What would you to say the folks
• 52:03
  that are looking to, you know, try to do a rate?
• 52:06
  Well, I guess let's, let's talk about the changes for Motor
• 52:10
  America and feel free to express as much as you feel like as far
• 52:14
  as how you, how you looking at this new season coming in?
• 52:16
  Because I, my question initially was going to say, you know, for
• 52:19
  folks, try and get into it, What would you say to them?
• 52:20
  But after the after the changes and stuff like that, how do you
• 52:23
  feel about this upcoming season? It's it's very delicate because
• 52:32
  stock 1000 had a ton of entries, a ton of interest and it was
• 52:36
  like a stepping stone, a really good stepping stone for a club
• 52:40
  racer on a big bike to make it, to have the opportunity at
• 52:44
  least, right? Most of those guys don't make it
• 52:46
  just because you're good at club race and stuff like that.
• 52:48
  It's still extremely, extremely difficult to qualify for a
• 52:52
  national. So by taking away that class and
• 52:56
  combining super bike class, it really, it takes a, it takes
• 52:59
  away from the OEMs exposure because you're not going to have
• 53:04
  those guys on the R1. Everything's going to be Ducatis
• 53:06
  or BMWs and Hondas, right? There's not going to be a Cowie
• 53:10
  back there. There's not going to, there's
• 53:12
  only a couple Yamahas and stuff like that.
• 53:15
  So it's, it makes it more challenging to get into that.
• 53:18
  Now the other side of it, you can go the route of like
• 53:21
  hooligans racing, which there's a lot more OEMs in there.
• 53:24
  But Mode America just announced, well, they sent us a letter
• 53:27
  saying that they're not paying a purse for hooligans.
• 53:31
  Oh wow. So you're racing for free,
• 53:35
  you're paying all these entry fees, everything else.
• 53:39
  There's not, there's not a bunch of body work on that to try to
• 53:41
  get exposure for your sponsor and everything else.
• 53:45
  So now the Hooligans race is basically glorified club racing.
• 53:51
  You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's really not a purse
• 53:53
  there. The 600, the Super sport stuff
• 53:56
  is a little bit interesting too, because it's they're all
• 53:58
  balanced bikes. They all have EC us that are
• 54:01
  regulated to try to be similar horsepower and stuff because I
• 54:04
  mean, they're all basically mini super bikes now being, you know,
• 54:09
  the, the V2 and the R9 and Gixxer 7 fifties.
• 54:13
  Those were super bikes back in the day.
• 54:15
  So then trying to dumb them down and stuff.
• 54:19
  So it's, it's difficult to get into now the, the, the cheapest
• 54:23
  route would probably be the hooligans because there's more
• 54:26
  opportunity there. But those hooligans are not,
• 54:29
  most of them aren't even like the, the HDS, not even legal to
• 54:31
  the rules. So I mean that Pan America is
• 54:35
  looks nothing like what, what it really is in the, in the real
• 54:38
  world and stuff. So there's not even a
• 54:39
  correlation there. So I could see why OEMs are not
• 54:42
  participating in that because what they're racing is doesn't
• 54:46
  even look what it looks like on a showroom floor where an R1 or
• 54:50
  CBR or Gixxer looks like what you could buy on this showroom,
• 54:54
  right. So it's interesting in that
• 54:57
  aspect of it. No one's, no one's going bagger
• 54:59
  racing. Those things are, you know,
• 55:01
  quarter $1,000,000 superbugs. They're Moto GP baggers.
• 55:05
  I mean. Right, right.
• 55:06
  Well, I mean, they, they're going to be, they're going to be
• 55:08
  at least in six rounds of Moto GP.
• 55:10
  I don't know if it's the same. I assume they're going to have
• 55:11
  their own bikes in Moto GP. Yeah, series versus the US
• 55:16
  series, which is unfortunate that there's not more people in
• 55:19
  the bag of series because it sounds like from talking stuff
• 55:22
  to the guys, like we have Reese on the show and, and from
• 55:26
  Attack, Yamaha and, and Lewis as well.
• 55:30
  And, you know, they talk about the draw that, you know, the
• 55:32
  baggers have brought to the series as far as the fan base
• 55:35
  and stuff like that. So you know, and again, not
• 55:38
  everyone has a $1,000,000 to throw out a bike.
• 55:42
  That's cheap, $1,000,000 is cheap, man.
• 55:45
  I mean, even the program we're looking to put together, it's
• 55:48
  cheap. It's still 100 grand to do like
• 55:50
  the whole season. Right, right.
• 55:52
  So and that's just like on the private tier effort, which is
• 55:55
  like decent support, but if you do nothing, if you don't pay
• 55:59
  your crew, you do nothing like that.
• 56:01
  It's six to seven grand a weekend, right?
• 56:04
  They race Moto America. Right.
• 56:06
  Yeah. Where you can get away with
• 56:08
  doing a club race for like 1500 bucks, 2000, correct, right.
• 56:13
  So because you can run the same tires over, especially at little
• 56:17
  tally, you're not be throwing tires at little tally.
• 56:19
  Yeah, I race a couple of RC390's so I can keep a tire for a few
• 56:24
  rounds. Yeah, yeah.
• 56:27
  So, so it's a lot different. So, so for you, are you more in
• 56:33
  favor of the way things are? Do you think it's going to give
• 56:36
  you more exposure or is it just, it's just a consolidation of, of
• 56:41
  of the where the big bike racing is is heading to?
• 56:47
  Yeah, I don't, I don't know, it's the consolidation's a weird
• 56:51
  one, right, Because there's there's all these funky classes
• 56:54
  again with Twins and Hooligans and Baggers and stuff like that.
• 56:57
  The Baggers does draw a big crowd.
• 56:59
  I don't know if Hooligans does or not, but it it definitely
• 57:02
  fills the paddock up. But I don't think people are
• 57:04
  there necessarily to see the Hooligans.
• 57:06
  But Baggers 100%, they've done a great job with that.
• 57:09
  It's really competitive. Nobody breaks away with it.
• 57:12
  But losing stock 1000, I mean there's another 50 entrants
• 57:16
  again that was financially good for Moto America that's no
• 57:21
  longer there. I've already had a Super bike
• 57:25
  license or Super Bike Cup license.
• 57:27
  We raced Super Bike Cup last season in 2025 S for me, there
• 57:31
  was no advantage. I could go to a super bike race
• 57:33
  anytime I wanted to already and attempt to qualify even at a
• 57:37
  round that wasn't stock 1000. If I wanted to go to Laguna Seca
• 57:41
  or the Ridge and go or New Jersey and go race Super Bike, I
• 57:45
  can go ride super bike. So there's no advantage for me
• 57:48
  on that side of it. So where the disadvantage is all
• 57:51
  those other guys that solely race stock 1000 because it's,
• 57:55
  it's a, it's double the expenses, right?
• 57:58
  You only get one extra set of tires for super bike up.
• 58:04
  So you still have to kind of manage your tires.
• 58:06
  Now you have extra time on track, extra fuel, you know,
• 58:10
  every time you touch the track, you just do a practice session
• 58:14
  or a quality session or even race.
• 58:15
  Every time you touch the track it's 650 bucks.
• 58:19
  So, so go ahead and add two more super bike races to that.
• 58:22
  Now you're talking, you know, another couple grand.
• 58:25
  A lot of stock 1000 guys couldn't do it.
• 58:28
  And quite frankly, a lot of stock 1000 guys can't qualify
• 58:30
  for a super bike race anyways because you go from 108% for
• 58:35
  super bike, what you're doing about 2 1/2 to 3 seconds a lap
• 58:40
  faster than the stock 1000 guys. So let's just say they're doing
• 58:44
  3 seconds lap faster. But now they're qualifying time
• 58:47
  is one O 8, where in stock 1000 they're going 3 seconds slower
• 58:52
  than super bike and their gap is 110.
• 58:55
  So as long as you're within 110 on stock 1000, you're in the
• 58:58
  show. So you have to find a stock
• 59:01
  1000. Guy has to find 5 or 6 seconds a
• 59:04
  lap to be able to even try to qualify for a super bike race.
• 59:09
  Oh yeah, that's that, that, that's pretty wild.
• 59:13
  And you would think how many riders are, what's the Max
• 59:19
  riders on a super bike grid 'cause I mean, you, you
• 59:22
  mentioned, you know, 50 guys could try to qualify and 20
• 59:26
  eights making it a 27 is making it.
• 59:28
  Yeah. And those fees are still going
• 59:30
  to Motor America. And these guys are not getting
• 59:32
  to race. We're now you know you, you know
• 59:35
  you may only get those 30 guys and there's no additional fees
• 59:39
  coming in. Yeah.
• 59:41
  So, so financially it doesn't make sense too.
• 59:43
  I know the OEMs don't like it because the stock 1000 class is
• 59:48
  closer to what they can sell, right?
• 59:50
  Because you're going to have all the privateers buying bikes
• 59:53
  based off contingency money. Honda had huge purses the last
• 59:57
  two seasons with contingency money.
• 59:59
  I mean, it was $10,000 for stock 1000 win and we and we paid all
• 1:00:03
  the way back to 10th. And that's on top of whatever
• 1:00:06
  purse you got for Moto America and your sponsors and things
• 1:00:10
  like that. And then we talked to Super
• 1:00:11
  Bike. It was 25 grand for a win.
• 1:00:14
  Or super bike win and then it trickled all the way down to
• 1:00:17
  10th as well. So you could finish 8th in a
• 1:00:19
  super bike race and still make a couple grand, you know, just off
• 1:00:23
  the Honda Contendency, right? Yeah, they lose all that.
• 1:00:27
  And then and the grid capacity kind of changes too.
• 1:00:29
  So Rhodoland is like 39. I think Barber is 34.
• 1:00:37
  Only make the grid so there's a cap, right?
• 1:00:39
  So if 3434 guys are fast enough to make the Super bike great at
• 1:00:43
  Barber, they'll be 34 guys on that grid.
• 1:00:46
  And if they have to send guys home, they go home and they
• 1:00:48
  actually change it because the capacity was getting so big that
• 1:00:51
  if you weren't fast enough, if you didn't make 110% on Friday,
• 1:00:56
  you didn't even get a chance to qualify again on Saturday.
• 1:00:59
  They cut they cut the fat right away, man.
• 1:01:03
  So you have to go. And, and, and you know, you've
• 1:01:07
  been there. So and you said there's only one
• 1:01:09
  time that you didn't make the cut.
• 1:01:12
  What is it like for those guys that try, do they come back?
• 1:01:15
  I mean, I say guys generically generalizing, but obviously
• 1:01:20
  women can also try to qualify as well.
• 1:01:22
  What is it like for those folks that, that, you know, struggle
• 1:01:25
  to not, don't, don't make the, the qualifying times, you know,
• 1:01:30
  do they come back? Do you find that they come back?
• 1:01:32
  Do you find these, some of these folks are like 1 and done, They
• 1:01:34
  trying once and then they're like, they don't, they don't get
• 1:01:36
  there and they just kind of say, all right, that's it.
• 1:01:40
  Yeah, I think it it's all personalized and and whatever,
• 1:01:43
  you know, deals they have in life because some of these guys
• 1:01:46
  invest a ton of money and again, we didn't invest anything.
• 1:01:50
  The most expensive thing was some carbon and body works.
• 1:01:52
  So but even the weekends are still expensive.
• 1:01:56
  So you guys have even track day guys, right?
• 1:02:00
  They chase the dragon and they go down this rabbit hole on oh
• 1:02:03
  man, if I if I could just adjust my clickers this and that I can
• 1:02:06
  find 4 seconds, you know, and stuff like that.
• 1:02:09
  So they, yeah, you see guys legit get bummed out and they're
• 1:02:13
  ones and done's and some guys kind of keep coming back over
• 1:02:16
  and over and you're like, man, why are you, why are you still
• 1:02:19
  racing? You know, but it's, it's just
• 1:02:22
  part of it, you know, It's racing's hard, man.
• 1:02:27
  Man, I, I, I have not raced that level.
• 1:02:29
  I've raced club race and, and I've had, I had a full year
• 1:02:33
  struggle and it was a lot of talking myself off the ledge,
• 1:02:37
  driving home from the track, from club racing and you know,
• 1:02:41
  and, and because it, it's, you know, it's, I don't know.
• 1:02:44
  I mean, I think like any individual sport is what it's
• 1:02:48
  like, you know what I mean, where you're just out there on
• 1:02:50
  your own and, you know, at least with a tennis racket or maybe a
• 1:02:53
  basket. Well, basketball in the
• 1:02:54
  individual sport. But tennis racket or golf, you
• 1:02:57
  know, it may be a little bit different because, you know,
• 1:03:00
  it's not the same speed per SE, but you know, it's, it's, you
• 1:03:05
  know, I had to, you know, you know, I was like, I can do
• 1:03:08
  better than this. I had to face myself a lot of
• 1:03:10
  times in that mirror and, and sort it out.
• 1:03:14
  And, you know, and we talk about the adversity and but that's the
• 1:03:18
  beautiful thing about it, though.
• 1:03:19
  If you can stick it out and you get past it and, and you start
• 1:03:23
  to find success, like you feel like you could do anything.
• 1:03:27
  Yeah, yeah. And, and having fun with it is
• 1:03:30
  probably the biggest advice I can give anybody with it because
• 1:03:33
  again, it's called racing, not winning.
• 1:03:35
  Yeah. And there's only one winner and
• 1:03:37
  there's 40 dudes on that grid or 35 dudes on that grid.
• 1:03:40
  Only one of them's gonna take home the trophy, you know, and
• 1:03:44
  all the glory and stuff like that.
• 1:03:46
  But you're only as good as your last race anyway.
• 1:03:47
  So you went on Saturday, and then you're 11th on Sunday.
• 1:03:50
  No one remembers you won on Saturday.
• 1:03:52
  You only remember. You remember that on Sunday, you
• 1:03:55
  know, So the sport's cruel that way, too, to where you can win a
• 1:03:59
  championship and not even have a ride the next year.
• 1:04:02
  Yeah, like Andrew Lee or, you know, the Super sport guy, I
• 1:04:07
  forget his name, shot before us, you know, won the championship.
• 1:04:11
  And look, even Josh Heron this year, you know, he got booted
• 1:04:15
  out his seat and he almost won the championship last year.
• 1:04:17
  Now he's riding a hooligan. Yeah, no, that, that's pretty
• 1:04:21
  wild, you know. And, you know, what do you think
• 1:04:24
  about the the, this state of motorcycle racing in the USI
• 1:04:29
  mean, you've been kind of you've been racing off and on for over
• 1:04:32
  20 years and fortunate enough to be in, in motor America the last
• 1:04:37
  four years, five years. You know, I've had other folks
• 1:04:40
  on that talk about what it was like in the 90s and, and the
• 1:04:44
  early days where there was so much money in there like.
• 1:04:47
  Yeah, could. Get 100 grand plus, you know how
• 1:04:52
  you know, and you're also in, in the, in the, the community as
• 1:04:57
  well as, you know, working for Honda and stuff like that.
• 1:05:00
  So you're kind of always looking at numbers and, and seeing what
• 1:05:04
  folks are doing on the consumer side, not even on a race side.
• 1:05:08
  So you know how you know, and, and, and I say all that to say,
• 1:05:11
  I think, you know, for me doing this podcast, one of the reasons
• 1:05:14
  I do it is to kind of bring awareness to racing and stuff
• 1:05:18
  like that. Cause for me, I didn't know
• 1:05:20
  about it till my buddy told me about it and I was already in my
• 1:05:22
  40s and I didn't know that you can go too, you know what I'm
• 1:05:26
  saying? That kind of thing.
• 1:05:27
  And I think there's, and I've talked to a lot of other people
• 1:05:29
  that's in that similar situation.
• 1:05:31
  So, you know, how does it look to you?
• 1:05:33
  Do you see the improvements or, or, or, or what improvements may
• 1:05:39
  do you think that we should be looking at to try to, to improve
• 1:05:42
  on and stuff like that? How's it been for you the last
• 1:05:44
  20 years? And and and the in the
• 1:05:46
  motorcycle community racing and also just on the consumer side.
• 1:05:50
  Yeah, it's it's different for sure.
• 1:05:53
  So back in the day, I think sport bikes were way bigger.
• 1:05:57
  We didn't have, you know, live TV back then.
• 1:05:59
  Everything was pre recorded. It was on speed TV and you
• 1:06:04
  watched a different time and stuff like that.
• 1:06:06
  It was barely ever shown live, but the fan base was there.
• 1:06:09
  It was crazy. I mean, like I said, back in the
• 1:06:12
  day we'd go on these motorcycle rides that have 60 to 200 riders
• 1:06:16
  to show up at a Carl's Junior. So I see some of that now still
• 1:06:21
  in Nashville and stuff like that, but nowhere near as big.
• 1:06:25
  The exposure that Moto America is doing is, is pretty good
• 1:06:29
  with, with the, their social media presence, their YouTube
• 1:06:32
  channel, Moto America Live Plus is really awesome.
• 1:06:35
  You know, once the season gets started, you better believe I'll
• 1:06:38
  have that thing on from when it starts till when it ends.
• 1:06:41
  And Rodger Lee and Jamie do a fantastic job and so does
• 1:06:44
  Michael Hill and the guys. It's it's good content.
• 1:06:48
  What they have to figure out is how to get more money in that in
• 1:06:53
  the end of the program, right? Like I said, they're not paying
• 1:06:55
  hooligans this season. That's crazy.
• 1:06:57
  That's absolutely crazy. How do we get more outside
• 1:07:01
  sponsorship into the series to get better exposure?
• 1:07:06
  Because there isn't any. There's not a single athlete out
• 1:07:09
  there that has an energy drink deal.
• 1:07:12
  Where's where's the monster athlete?
• 1:07:14
  Where's the Red Bull athlete? Where's those guys that every
• 1:07:17
  other sport has besides a Moto America racer?
• 1:07:23
  The dude that's not even qualifying for the night show in
• 1:07:25
  supercross has a Monster Energy logo on his helmet, you know,
• 1:07:29
  and he's not even making the night show.
• 1:07:32
  And, and we for some reason there's a big disconnect there
• 1:07:37
  that I can't put a thumb to. But maybe some of it's the rules
• 1:07:40
  again, which almost kind of killed the sport when DMG took
• 1:07:43
  it over because AMA was really taken off and it was doing
• 1:07:46
  really well. And then DMG just kind of
• 1:07:48
  crushed it, right? That's where you lost all the
• 1:07:50
  the manufacturers and all the money went away, things like
• 1:07:54
  that. And the money is not quite there
• 1:07:56
  even from the manufacturer side of it.
• 1:07:58
  You better believe it's manufacturers have money.
• 1:08:01
  Look at the supercross side of it.
• 1:08:03
  I mean, it's it's insane. But yeah, the Moto America just
• 1:08:08
  needs to figure out how to get more sponsorship dollars in
• 1:08:13
  there. That makes sense.
• 1:08:14
  It can't just be mission tortillas.
• 1:08:16
  You know, you just can't hang their hat on on some of these
• 1:08:21
  outside sponsors that some of these writers bring in.
• 1:08:23
  And the next thing you know, they're the sponsor of a of a
• 1:08:27
  class and then their whole budget's gone, right.
• 1:08:29
  And then you don't like a steel commander.
• 1:08:31
  You don't see those guys around anymore.
• 1:08:33
  They came in with I think Gabe, Gabe de Silva.
• 1:08:35
  They came in with Gabe and, and next thing you know, they're, I
• 1:08:39
  think they're with the real steel guys and they're
• 1:08:41
  sponsoring the stock 1000 class or whatever and how they don't
• 1:08:45
  exist. So that's where they got to kind
• 1:08:48
  of figure it out. But I think the sport as a whole
• 1:08:50
  is growing. If you go to the the races, the
• 1:08:53
  fans are fantastic there. It's the hillsides are packed.
• 1:08:57
  You go to Barber, you go to Rd. America that if you've ever been
• 1:09:00
  to Rd. America, that place is
• 1:09:01
  beautiful, absolutely beautiful. It's Barber on steroids.
• 1:09:05
  OK. All right.
• 1:09:06
  And this year? All 4 1/2 miles of that track,
• 1:09:10
  the fans are just lined across and they were sold out at
• 1:09:13
  camping there, which I don't know how because it's it's huge.
• 1:09:17
  It's absolutely huge. And the fans are lined all the
• 1:09:20
  way across. Barbara was packed.
• 1:09:23
  Code is a little weird one where there's not quite as many fans
• 1:09:26
  there, but it's it's still a good turn out.
• 1:09:29
  But everywhere we go, Rd. Atlanta's packed, Barber's
• 1:09:32
  packed, Rd. America's packed.
• 1:09:35
  So the fans are showing up for sure.
• 1:09:37
  And I think they're getting record attendance, so they're
• 1:09:39
  doing something right. But we got we have to figure out
• 1:09:41
  how to get the money in there because it's not sustainable.
• 1:09:45
  We just can't have privateers scratching off bucket list and
• 1:09:50
  and hoping that's going to feed the sport because it's
• 1:09:53
  definitely not because the manufacturers aren't invested
• 1:09:55
  into it, because there's no one to invest into it.
• 1:09:58
  We're not going to take a Twins Cup guy and turn him into a
• 1:10:00
  super bike rider. You know, we're not going to
• 1:10:03
  take a hooligans guy and turn him into a super bike rider.
• 1:10:06
  So there has to be more stepping stones and there has to be
• 1:10:10
  better communication and better collaboration between the OEMs
• 1:10:14
  and go to America so that it makes sense.
• 1:10:18
  And that's where that money is going to come from.
• 1:10:20
  If you get a factory Honda out there, there'll be money coming
• 1:10:23
  behind you. Get factory Cowie back there.
• 1:10:25
  Guess who's coming back? Monster Energy.
• 1:10:27
  If factory Cowie's out there, Monster Energy's coming back,
• 1:10:31
  you know, like you'll, you'll see that stuff, but you get
• 1:10:34
  support for mission tortillas and you know, progressive
• 1:10:37
  progressives on everything right now as well, right?
• 1:10:41
  So yeah, they're they're on both Hondas.
• 1:10:44
  They're on Ashton's team, Hayden's team.
• 1:10:46
  The Yamaha team is progressive, so.
• 1:10:49
  We got to start inviting like the tech folks to come out and
• 1:10:52
  watch some races and stuff like that.
• 1:10:54
  I mean, we see them at the UFUFC fights and all these stuff.
• 1:10:56
  So we got to get some of these tech guys to come out and, and
• 1:10:59
  check out the motorcycle race and then and maybe they might
• 1:11:02
  start throwing some of that tech money at at Motor America. 100%,
• 1:11:06
  yeah. Like a ChatGPT or Perplexity or
• 1:11:10
  a Groke or whatever you call it. Yeah, those get those AI money
• 1:11:13
  out there. But yeah, it just has to be some
• 1:11:15
  sort of outside money. But I think it really stems down
• 1:11:18
  to is getting the OEMs back involved.
• 1:11:20
  You get the OEMs back involved. That money's going to come
• 1:11:22
  because the OEMs don't want to front that full bill, but they
• 1:11:25
  can show the package, right? And then you're going to get
• 1:11:29
  that cross collaboration because the OEMs are going to want to
• 1:11:31
  show their rider doing well, showing their bikes doing well.
• 1:11:34
  If they're doing that. The sponsorships are wanting to
• 1:11:37
  tag on top of that. But at this point you basically
• 1:11:40
  have, out of the entire paddock, you have 5 paid riders, 6 paid
• 1:11:46
  riders, you know, that's it. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty tough.
• 1:11:52
  I mean, I've, I've heard some stories of, of, of some of the
• 1:11:55
  writers and you know, what they have to go through and, and some
• 1:11:58
  of the money that they have to rate erase and stuff like that
• 1:12:00
  to be able to go ride. And you know, it, it, it, it's
• 1:12:04
  such a tough thing because it's kind of, you know, it's like,
• 1:12:07
  you know, you got the skills, you just don't have the money.
• 1:12:10
  It, it, it's like that. It's, it's one thing you know,
• 1:12:13
  to, to, to say you're just not quick enough.
• 1:12:15
  It's another thing when it's just like it's out of you, not
• 1:12:17
  necessarily out of your hands, but it has nothing to do with
• 1:12:20
  what, what, what you have going on.
• 1:12:22
  It it's just, it's just the funding kind of thing.
• 1:12:24
  Yeah, the funds are expensive. Anything racing's expensive,
• 1:12:27
  right? Even when I was a speed skater,
• 1:12:29
  that's expensive. Like this is a carbon.
• 1:12:32
  The boot, the shoe part of it, we call it a boot.
• 1:12:36
  It's a full carbon fiber with microfiber materials customized
• 1:12:41
  to our foot and everything. And those things are 2500 bucks
• 1:12:46
  just for the boot. And then we add the chassis, the
• 1:12:48
  plate to it. That's another five or $600.00.
• 1:12:51
  Every one of those wheels is $10 and then the ceramic bearings
• 1:12:55
  and stuff like that. And then of course you got my
• 1:12:56
  entry fees and, and I think racing is, is, is expensive,
• 1:13:01
  man. It always has.
• 1:13:03
  It is man. You know, it's it's it's the the
• 1:13:06
  ones that with the money usually holding the trophies, which is
• 1:13:10
  which it was cool to see Primack, you know, win it
• 1:13:13
  because I think they were like the first satellite team to to
• 1:13:19
  win a championship because it's always been like, you know,
• 1:13:21
  factory team or something like that.
• 1:13:23
  Yeah. So, you know, before I I let you
• 1:13:26
  go, I really appreciate it already because we're kind of
• 1:13:28
  over time a little bit to you, you know, what do you think of,
• 1:13:33
  you know, what's going to happen in Moto America in Moto GP with
• 1:13:37
  this new season coming on boards?
• 1:13:40
  Do you have like a favorite? I mean your your Honda guy so
• 1:13:44
  you rooting for Honda all the way.
• 1:13:46
  Does that mean you're you're not a Marquez guy since he came to
• 1:13:49
  Ducati? No, I'm a Marquez guy for sure.
• 1:13:53
  The guy's just an animal. He's a beast.
• 1:13:55
  I know the ailments I have from pinched nerves to separated
• 1:14:00
  shoulders to whatever. And he's has his arm like
• 1:14:02
  falling off before he's out there still kicking butt.
• 1:14:05
  So I don't know if some of those guys do it.
• 1:14:07
  But again, they have the resources and the funding and
• 1:14:09
  the best doctors in the world that kind of, you know, put
• 1:14:11
  Humpty Dumpty back together again.
• 1:14:13
  So I think it's going to be a really interesting year with the
• 1:14:18
  Yamaha and see if they can get that thing not to overheat and
• 1:14:21
  perform better. And I'm really curious to see
• 1:14:23
  how Top Rock does. Yeah, I think he's, you see
• 1:14:29
  where like he's running his mouth about something.
• 1:14:31
  I don't think he's running his mouth.
• 1:14:32
  I think he has the expectation, like he wants to go out there
• 1:14:34
  and do well, right. And then the opportunity.
• 1:14:38
  But yeah, I think it's going to be a market show again.
• 1:14:41
  I don't know how I know that a couple of the Ducati guys are
• 1:14:44
  going to be on the 20 sixes. The VR46 guy got a bike and mark
• 1:14:50
  or not Mark, but Alex has a 2026.
• 1:14:53
  So we'll see how they just kind of get along with it.
• 1:14:55
  You know, I'm worried I'm I think it's going to be washed
• 1:14:58
  and repeat of this year again. We'll see if Jorge Martinez
• 1:15:03
  healthy and rated Rock'n'roll. I know he got cleared to ride,
• 1:15:07
  but who was on their Perelia? That really came strong at the
• 1:15:11
  end of the year. Oh, Mazaki.
• 1:15:13
  Mazaki yeah, yeah. So he, I think, I think he has,
• 1:15:16
  he's going to be fired up and ready to rock'n'roll this year
• 1:15:19
  too. But I'm more interested in next
• 1:15:20
  year when the when the bike gets smaller, all the arrow goes away
• 1:15:24
  and everything else. So.
• 1:15:25
  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm excited for next year as well.
• 1:15:28
  Just curious to see. I don't know, I we'll see if it
• 1:15:30
  was like, I think it was O 7 when they did that.
• 1:15:32
  It went down to the 800CC back and I think it was O 7.
• 1:15:36
  It'll be interesting to see how much closer the the the racing
• 1:15:40
  becomes in in in 2000 and 2007. But you know, this year, you
• 1:15:46
  know, yeah, it's, I don't know if it's going to be Ducati all
• 1:15:50
  the way because we'll see how much difference the the the 26
• 1:15:54
  is from the 25, you know, and and it's like, you know, I don't
• 1:15:59
  have to say to you like the first round doesn't really tell
• 1:16:01
  you to give you the full picture of what's.
• 1:16:04
  Going on SO. It's like by race 5 or 6 or
• 1:16:07
  something like that, we'll stop to see it settled out and see
• 1:16:10
  who have it figured out quickly. Yeah.
• 1:16:13
  And we have to see if Ducati catered that bike more to Marcus
• 1:16:16
  even further, right? Because that was the big thing.
• 1:16:18
  They they they cater that thing to 25.
• 1:16:20
  And Bagnaya just fell on his face like he was that was his
• 1:16:24
  baby. I mean, he was dominating with
• 1:16:26
  that thing. And then they kind of tweaked a
• 1:16:28
  little bit to Mark and then they he couldn't ride it.
• 1:16:31
  And I think it's going to get even more tweaked to Mark.
• 1:16:33
  And I don't think, I don't know, man.
• 1:16:35
  We'll, we'll see. That's why it's called race and
• 1:16:37
  not winning. What your thoughts about that?
• 1:16:40
  You've been a hunter guy for a while.
• 1:16:42
  You know, I, I, I personally think like Ducati's shooting
• 1:16:46
  themselves in the foot because here's a guy that gave you 2
• 1:16:48
  titles that you haven't had since.
• 1:16:50
  I don't know, I think it was, I figured when Casey did, it was
• 1:16:54
  in O7 OO whatever the case may be.
• 1:16:57
  And the granted mark has a lot of titles, but like, you know,
• 1:16:59
  this guy gave you 2 titles back-to-back and, and regardless
• 1:17:03
  of who was on that bike, to me, Ducati would have won the title,
• 1:17:07
  right? And, and, and so it was one of
• 1:17:08
  those things like how you treating this guy that gave you
• 1:17:11
  2 titles back-to-back, You know, why are you treating this guy so
• 1:17:16
  bad to me? What, what are your thoughts on
• 1:17:18
  that? Should the Honda, should, I mean
• 1:17:20
  should Ducati have been a little bit more loyal to to Petco
• 1:17:22
  because it doesn't seem like they they or is it just
• 1:17:25
  business? It's 100% nail on the head.
• 1:17:28
  Just businessman. It's business and politics,
• 1:17:31
  that's all it is. There's, like I said, that the
• 1:17:35
  sport is cruel. Doesn't matter if you're Moto GP
• 1:17:38
  or Moto America, man, you could be champion one year and not
• 1:17:42
  even have to ride the next. So man, the sport does not care.
• 1:17:46
  They just care about performance and if you're performing, you'll
• 1:17:49
  be OK. Now there are fan favorites like
• 1:17:52
  a Jack Miller and some of these other guys that just kind of
• 1:17:55
  linger around the back, but they have so much charisma that they
• 1:17:59
  get a ride, which is taking up opportunity for some other guys
• 1:18:02
  that can kind of get up there and challenge.
• 1:18:04
  But they're just a they're a commercial like blessing.
• 1:18:08
  You know, the the companies want that guy because they're going
• 1:18:11
  to go out and activate with the fans and stuff like that.
• 1:18:14
  And that's kind of what we do too, right?
• 1:18:15
  We're a top 15, top 20 team. We're never going to win a race,
• 1:18:19
  not in Moto America, but we're a fan favorite.
• 1:18:22
  Everybody. We're on your podcasts, you
• 1:18:24
  know. What I mean like.
• 1:18:26
  So, so yeah, that's that's the key is you got to be a well run
• 1:18:31
  package. But long term short, they do not
• 1:18:34
  care, man. The sport doesn't care.
• 1:18:36
  The companies don't care. Either win or or we'll find
• 1:18:40
  somebody that does. Yeah, pretty much.
• 1:18:42
  Pretty much, yeah. I guess as as a fan, that's only
• 1:18:45
  that's, I mean, I get it and I fully understand.
• 1:18:47
  I just don't like it. And even if you win man, it's
• 1:18:50
  it's not guaranteed. No, no, it's not, man.
• 1:18:54
  Well, hi, Rev Trev, man, I, I thank you for coming on, man.
• 1:18:57
  I really appreciate it. I mean, we've almost an hour and
• 1:19:00
  20 minutes and I could probably talk another hour and 20 minutes
• 1:19:03
  with you, man. I'm pretty impressed with what
• 1:19:06
  you're doing. I mean, be at 45 and racing in
• 1:19:08
  the motor America. There's a lot of a lot of people
• 1:19:11
  that would like to include in myself.
• 1:19:13
  I hope to one day to at least get one shot.
• 1:19:16
  So man, you're doing it for all of us.
• 1:19:17
  Man. I really appreciate it, man.
• 1:19:18
  Thanks for coming on the show. Yeah, no problem.
• 1:19:20
  Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.
• 1:19:23
  It's it, it flies by man. So I definitely enjoyed it man.
• 1:19:27
  And yeah, I hope to do it again sometime.
• 1:19:30
  Awesome man. Thank you.
• 1:19:31
  Peace. Thanks.