On The Pegs November 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 11 | Page 105

On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 11 - November 2019
105
back and see if I can finish next year.
You’ve also raced some hill climbs this year. Had you ever ridden one of the
humung-ous twin engine motorcycles?
No. Even this year I didn’t ride the big, super nitro bikes just because I kind of felt
like, ‘Let’s keep it safe through this time and get my intro to this thing.’ But I’d never
ridden an extended swingarm bike, either. That was something pretty new and
different that took a little getting used to. I actually went out the night before. I
asked the guys, “If I’m doing this thing, I’d like to ride the bike a little bit beforehand
because I want to do good. I don’t want to get up there on this extended swingarm
the day of the race and crash because I’m not used to it.” So one of their top riders,
Logan Cipala, and then Matt Musgrove, who promotes the series, they took me
out the night before. We actual-ly went to the Taters’, another family that does hill
climbs. They have a little practice hill, so we went up there and kind of got used to
the swingarm a little bit. It ended up being huge for me because it was different to
start with. Once I had a couple runs on it then I felt a lot better.
Throughout your career you’ve raced motocross, supercross, GNCC, sprint
enduro, ISDE, flat track, hard enduro and hill climb. You have some unique
perspective. Which one is the hairiest, and which one takes the most talent?
That question is all about perspective because I could say that it takes more talent
to race to do a hard enduro, but tell that to a guy that’s only done hard enduro his
whole life. He would say supercross takes more talent, because he’s already good
at hard enduro. You take a supercross guy, they would say there’s nobody that’s on
our level. We’re the most talented dudes. Put them at Erzberg and they’re going,
‘This takes way more talent.’ Then as far as you said the hairiest, supercross is the
highest risk factor thing that I’ve ever done, just because you’re going so fast and
there’s so little room for error. There are rhythm sections where the jumps are dang
near vertical, and if you crash you’re not just sliding down the dirt or rolling in the
grass. You’re landing into one of those faces. That’s the one that worries me the
most. I haven’t done any of the desert racing, Baja and all that, and I don’t want to.
It looks too dangerous for me. But supercross, the risk factor is really high to go as
fast as you need to go to be competi-tive.
When you set out this pretty wild schedule in 2019, there was no mention
of ISDE. Was on the schedule and you were just waiting to hear the team an-
nouncement? Why no ISDE on the schedule?