Coming into the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, season, a big question mark surrounded Yoshimura Suzuki. The team had just lost James Stewart to a sixteen-month suspension, and no one was sure what Blake Baggett would provide in supercross—he had no prior history of riding the 450. Nearly two months into the season and Baggett has been the biggest surprise in the class. Through seven rounds, Baggett has five top tens and finished a season-high fourth Saturday night in Dallas. What’s propelled Baggett to the front? We asked.
Racer X: You saved me. I was telling people that you would be top-five and you came through. So all the credit is mine.
Blake Baggett: It’s always you. I let you get all the glory.
You’re riding really well. I don’t want to insult you and be like, “I can’t believe you’re doing this good.” That’s almost not a compliment. But you’re riding really good.
Yeah, just being steady and trying to figure it out. Still don’t have it completely figured out.
You got fourth. And it’s not like a bunch of guys are hurt; most of the field is here. You’re just getting fourth.
Just creeping up.
And another thing: you used to suck at starts, too. What’s going on here?
We got rid of those. Changed bikes, changed teams, changed CCs.
Where did you think you would end up this year? If someone said by Dallas you’d be getting fourth, you’d be running top five speed, is that where you expected to be? Are you pumped on that?
I had no idea. I never rode a 450, ever. No amateur, nothing. I never rode one.
Mammoth or anything?
Mammoth I rode one once and I borrowed Ryan Holiday’s 450 because back then they would give us a bunch of bikes and I sold mine because I didn’t plan on riding them. They gave me two and I sold them. I never even raced them because I didn’t plan on it. Then they wanted me to race it, so I rode his bike, I think Thursday at Perris. I showed up, raced it, and gave it back right then and there. That was it.
So very little 450 experience, and then when I tried to cue you in the off-season and be like, “It suits my style,” you were like, “I don’t even know if it does.” You wouldn’t even take that.
I still don’t know.
And, let’s be honest, supercross hasn’t been awesome the last three years. So this is really good.
Yeah, we’re plugging away. It’s a whole different atmosphere, whole different team, whole different bike. Just a different situation that I’m in. It’s fresh, it’s new, and everybody’s wanting to take that next step forward. We’re inching our way, doing everything we can. It’s down to millimeters now, the stuff we’re changing. Millimeter forward, millimeter backward. Did it change anything? We’re looking for things, but still I think there’s a lot of room to improve before the year’s over. I don’t think we’re near plateau yet.
So is podium a possibility here?
I definitely think it’s a possibility, for sure. I could see [Trey] Canard. I could read his jersey for a while tonight. I was just trying to be steady and keep it on two wheels and just be in that tow, and if something happened, something happened. I made one mistake lap fifteen and kind of lost the tow and was like, all right, I’ll just keep it here, keep it steady. So I think on a good night and a good track you never know what could happen.
I think this worked for you because you were a little under the radar. I know how you like to play things. You’ll say you weren’t even riding when maybe you were. So is this whole atmosphere over here, like no one knew what to expect out of you, the team had other stuff going on and they were thinking about other dudes, does that help you? You’re not like, “Hey, look at me, look at me!”
No, my Instagram doesn’t see many views. I don’t post much. If something is going on, it ain’t getting posted.
So you’re okay with that?
Yeah, I’m fine with that.
Rick Johnson, talk about that.
Rick Johnson, big part to the team. It was a team decision to bring him on and definitely good. Most people have the motocross fitness trainers and the riding coaches that are there every day. He comes out when I want him to come out. It could be one day a week; it could be none. We could go two weeks without it. But it’s definitely a big help. It’s a whole different animal. How I rode the 250 you can’t ride the 450. You got to go back to some of the basics. It’s traction. Traction wins. Some of the things I was doing was taking weight off the rear wheel when you needed to put weight on the rear wheel. Just trying to get it to bite and then just riding technique stuff, leaning forward in some areas, foot in different places. He really helped me on the starts. Completely changed up what we were doing on the start. It’s been working. So we’re doing that and of course I have my regular fitness trainer that I use on and off that’s outside the industry and stuff. But with those two guys I feel like we have a solid program and it’s getting more solid each weekend. Trying to get a little bit of weight knowing that there’s thirty-minute-plus-two motos coming.
You’re gaining weight?
Tying to. That’s the goal. It’s not increasing huge. I haven’t seen the scale jump a pound yet, but we’re working on it. Just trying to build and trying to be at all seventeen. If fourth place is where we’re at tonight we’ll take that and go back and study and see where we can gain .0001, gain .01. Start knocking a few of those off and then you’re up there in the fight.
