Racer X: Blake, you were consistent on the podium leading into, was that the plan?
Blake Baggett: No no, the plan was to go for wins all along. I just didn’t do it. In Houston we had some problems, managed to come through to get third. And in Atlanta, I was there but I didn’t make it happen. So I just came in here with an open mind and got it done I guess [Laughs]!
So after those first two races, you showed some speed, did that help your confidence?
Yeah, definitely. Coming into the season, I didn’t know how fast everyone was going to be going. So I felt good in Houston with my speed. But I got a bad start in the heat race and had a bad gate pick in the main, and it was really tough to pull out a start on the outside on that track. So I just tried to be smart and come out there. So I knew we had some work do on the starts, but the speed was good. We worked on the starts and got that fixed, and I got a pretty good one in Atlanta. We just…couldn’t pass! I just stuck behind Barcia and couldn’t go anywhere. I brain faded. So we worked on that next, and here we are.
Baggett laid the wood down in Daytona.
Photo: Simon Cudby
Anything to even talk about with this main? You just put the hammer down.
Yeah we definitely put the hammer down for sure. I’m pretty pumped on that. It’s about it. We won Daytona! And hey man, I guess I need to take you out to eat now. Didn’t I promise you that back from that video we did in Houston?
Yeah you did. Does that count for Daytona?
Yeah you know what, that’s how good a guy I am. Even though I’m buying for you, I’m going to remind you of it.
And you got a nice bonus for this, right, so we’re all good?
Yeah. So we need to do this!
Sounds good to me! Hey talk about setting your bike up for this track? It’s not a regular supercross, but it’s not really a motocross track, either. So how do you set this up?
Well you know, normally people soften their bikes up for this, because your supercross setup is so stiff. But we ended up doing the opposite.
Stiffer!
Yeah! We actually went even stiffer. We did not make one adjustment that made the bike softer. We ended up stiffening things up quite a bit. I don’t know, it could be because I’m lighter anyway, so I don’t run my supercross stuff so stiff anyway. So this track was so rough, the bike was just diving into everything, so we just kept making it stiffer.
During the day, you mean?
Yeah. We didn’t even touch the shock, we just kept stiffening up the new Separate Function Fork, and it worked awesome.
Baggett got his first win of 2011 at Daytona.
Photo: Simon Cudby
So you came in with one setup, what you thought would work, and then you kept having to make changes?
We stiffened it after every practice. That’s what worked!
So where do you go from here? You’re in the thick of the points battle.
Well, a few of the guys had some problems, so I’m just trying to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. So we’ll take this and move on. What’s next, Indy?
Yeah but I think there’s a dinner in there.
Yeah, yeah, dinner and then Indy. [To Ryan Villopoto coming off the podium: “Hey Ryan awesome job!]