Privateer Profile: Cole Siebler

The start of the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship has been bittersweet for 23-year-old Cole Siebler. The upside is that Cole signed with the upstart Rockstar/Hart & Huntington Honda team; the downside is that Cole is 0-for-2 in making the AMA Supercross main event. Regardless, Siebler is a very talented, hard-working racer who we’ll surely see in the main event in the near future.

Racer X: First of all Cole, I apologize for how things went at Anaheim. You ended up 4th in the LCQ and Heath Voss got the Racer X Gas Card up on the podium and everything, but he used his provisional to get into the main and said give that money to Cole. So at least you got $750 out of it.
Cole Siebler: Yeah, that helps out a lot. I’d like to thank Heath, he’s a good guy and that was good of him to do that. But yeah, Anaheim didn’t go that great for me. I wasn’t really prepared for the mud.

A lot of people were probably like that. How difficult was the track? Sitting in the stands it looked okay, but I know it was probably a lot more treacherous.
The dirt wasn’t that bad. It started to get real tacky, but the tricky part were the ruts. It’s hard to see them from the stands, between all the rhythm sections and all the jumps. There were also some really deep ruts out of the corners up to the face of the jump. So it made it really technical, and I was just coming off an injury and wasn’t prepared as much as I hoped.

I know that you came into Phoenix hoping to do better, but what happened there?
Like I said, I haven’t been quite 100 percent and I got on the new bike with the Hart & Huntington team, and the bike is awesome. The team is great, but I just didn’t put it together. My starts were terrible, so I’m going to work on those this week, as well as some sprint motos to get my speed up to where it needs to be.

How different was the track in Phoenix from Anaheim?
The dirt was really good—it was dry. The track wasn’t very technical and a lot of guys were going fast, so it was difficult to make up time. A lot of guys were going the same speed, so it was almost where you started was where you were going to finish. But Anaheim will be interesting this weekend with the retro track they’re doing.

What would Carey Hart come up with as far as a retro tattoo?
[Laughs] I’m not sure1

Just kidding, but do you guys have anything special planned?
As far as I know, I’m not sure!

Your team isn’t  that old as they got started back at the U.S. Open, so how did you get hooked up with those guys?
Well, when Josh Demuth was injured, I was one of the only available guys who were privateering it doing my own deal, so they called me up and asked if I’d be interested in filling in. I was really pumped to get this opportunity because I was paying for everything out of my own pocket before the season getting ready for the races. So it helped me financially. And it’s a great team. I felt right at home as soon as I got on it and the bikes are awesome. We’ve been testing a lot and I think the bikes are the best that I ever ridden. I think I’m going to start doing really good once I get a little more time on them.

And you are practicing your starts?
Yes, this week I’ll be practicing a lot of them!

Anyone you want to thank, Cole?
Yeah, definitely. I’d like to give a big thanks to the Rockstar/Hart & Huntington team, Fox, DVS, LeoVince and all the other team sponsors. And Carey Hart and Kenny Watson and everyone who gave me this opportunity.