By Steve Matthes and Chase Stallo
Trey Canard, Team Honda HRC, Third in 450SX
Racer X: You crashed pretty good in practice and then you came back to get the second-fastest qualifying time, which is very impressive. But then in the heat race again it kind of didn’t go your way and you didn’t get a good gate pick.
I really wanted to get that gate pick out of the heat race.
Did you just blow the start?
I blew the start pretty good. I still had a decent start, though, but [Cole] Seely kind of lost the rear and it went right into my front tire and just went down. It was hard tonight in the back. It was a pretty big difference in speed.
It was really a race about just trying to make the least amount of mistakes, with the track and everything.
It was a tough one, really tough. A lot of ruts and a lot of edges.
One of those nights where you know if you had gotten a start you could have won, and maybe a little more frustrating than that, but at least you know that.
I feel like I’ve had several of those nights this year. Everyone’s told me their two cents, and I’ve tried about everything I can try. I’m kind of at that point where it’s like maybe I just don’t even practice this week.
There’s that. The more thoughts in your head, the more things you’re thinking about—just the old adage about just forget about everything and just go start like you know you can.
The problem is you get so confused, you don’t know how you start. Did I start? Have I ever started?
Last week was a great ride, but again coming from the back and you were super fast again tonight. Let’s not do that I guess next week.
No, I’m going to try not to. If there’s anything that I can’t be bummed at is the effort. We’ve done everything we can do. We’ll get the right ingredients one of these weekends. I think I’m going to be a really great starter after all this happens. We’ve tried about everything there is to try. – Steve Matthes
Weston Peick, AutoTrader.com/Toyota/JGR Yamaha, Fourth in 450SX
Racer X: Going back to that heat race, I think Matthes even tweeted that I wish we could go back and remind ourselves in 2010 that Weston would be winning. Did you even see yourself coming this far this quickly?
Weston Peick: Yeah, definitely. I set goals for myself from when I started racing pro in 2009. I had a goal for the next ten years of my career of what I wanted to do and how many years it would take me to get to where I’m at. This year is the year that I said I would get a factory ride and I’d be making money, get salary, and be potentially close to winning races and podiums. It was just building goals and that’s what happens when you build a plan coming into the future. They pay off when you stick your head in the game and stick at it.
So you had this all planned? This is where you expected to be right now?
This was all planned back in 2010. Everything was written down on e-mails with a guy that I deal with, Bill actually. And we’ve been ever since then just building goals every weekend and that’s kind of how it ended up.
It’s got to be pretty rewarding to get to your goals.
It definitely is. It’s awesome. I had a few doubts here and there, but as long as you’re staying confident and sticking behind yourself and believing in yourself, it comes true.
You said you were getting back on the bike. It looks like it made a big difference tonight, even a week. Where do you expect to see yourself in a couple weeks?
I think in a couple weeks I’ll be a lot better. Running at Daytona last week, that’s a tough track. Obviously coming back for a few weeks on the bike. It definitely wore me out quite a bit at Daytona. My week was a little bit lighter than usual, but I still felt a little bit flat today in the main event. So I think another week of recovery and head back into Detroit and I should be close to 100 percent.
I think people forget that this is your first factory ride in supercross and you really haven’t even gotten to take advantage of it as far as testing and all that stuff. Where are we going to see you here next year at this time and the year after? Do you have goals five years from now?
Definitely. Like I said, I have goals until I’m pretty much retired. Obviously my goals are to be winning races hopefully by the end of this year and then next year obviously being a contender for the championship. That’s kind of where I believe we can be as long as I put in the work and the team’s putting in the work like they are. It should be good. I’m confident.
Is it different for you? Last year your setup was good, but a couple years ago you were in your truck. Now you’re here. Is it tough to get used to? Now you’re in TV commercials and all this stuff. It’s a big difference. Is it tough to kind of take it all in and still do what you need to do?
Actually it’s easier, to tell you the truth. As much as the stuff that you have to do, it’s almost less than having to sit in your garage every single night until nine at night building your race bikes and then traveling and driving and stuff like that. Being on a team like this, you have a lot of stuff to do with shooting commercials and team…and all that kind of stuff, but in the long run that stuff’s easy compared to what I was doing before. So this is a win-win situation obviously being on a factory team and being able to just show up and race your dirt bike and not have to worry about anything, parts or anything like that. It’s just, “Hey guys, I need this,” and you have whatever you need, which is amazing to have. It’s definitely different. I consider doing all the PR stuff easy. – Chase Stallo
Andrew Short, BTOSports.com KTM, Sixth in 450SX
Racer X: Are we going to have to start calling you Mike Alessi or something? What’s going on?
Andrew Short: There have been a few years where I’ve had starts dialed. Like 2010 on the Honda outdoors, I think I pulled over half the holeshots, like fourteen to twenty-four. But it seems with this bike I’ve really clicked with it, starting. All year, from the first round, I’ve gotten really good starts and that helps quite a bit. Even last weekend when I’m not feeling that good, the last two, you kind of go for it and it helps. It sucks because when you do tank it makes it look horrible, but at the same time you’ve got to have some courage and go for it. Gnarly track tonight, and my finish being sixth was a lot better than last week. So I was happy. My body feels a little better. I know it’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole in the middle of the season, but I feel like if I manage it I can end this season strong.
How are you feeling? I know the last two weeks it was food poisoning and then a flight… You looked a lot better tonight.
It wasn’t ideal obviously, my last few situations, but it wasn’t the end of the world either. I feel like I shouldn't complain. Obviously my body was hurting and I couldn’t ride to my full capability. I feel like I’m on the up and up. I’ve just got to be smart not to overdo it. Now that I’m older I have to listen to my body a lot more. It kind of sounds lame. It takes some of the fun away. Sometimes when I want to ride at home and have fun I need to pull back and whatever. But it’s cool. I feel like these next few races are going to be a lot of fun. I’m really looking forward to Houston and the new one in California and Vegas obviously. We’ll see how it goes. I think I’m on the right track again.
How hard is it to pull back when you know what you want is…?
It’s hard because you want to get better and faster and work on skills, and then pretty soon you show up on Saturday and you’re flat and going backwards just because you’re not quite as sharp as you should be. When I say I need to pull back, I think that mentality is showing up on Saturday at my best. They don’t give out points on Tuesday or Wednesday; I’ve learned that over the years. That’s my mentality going forward. And everybody’s different. Every body reacts differently. I’m trying to at this point lean on my experience from throughout the years and have some fun. My situation in the past I felt like if I didn’t just straight kill it, it was a failure, and now that I’m older I have nothing really to lose and everything to gain and I can have a lot more fun along the way. These starts are helping and I really like the new bike with KTM. I think that makes it a lot more enjoyable. And all the sponsors with BTO that they’ve partnered with has been a good combination for me. – Chase Stallo
Chad Reed, Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports, Ninth in 450SX
Racer X: What’s up with crashing? Three weeks in a row.
Chad Reed: I’m hoping in an hour I’ll be more mature and I will no longer crash.
One of those things, you come around and that’s it for your night, right?
It is what it is. For me I didn’t anticipate Josh [Grant] stopping. Josh was on the inside, and from where I saw he was in perfect position to control Peick and [Eli] Tomac and unfortunately chose to stop and I just didn’t anticipate that. I had nowhere to go and ran right into him. That was a bummer. Had to come from last and got back to ninth. But my riding felt good. Felt like I kind of did a few different things on the track. It’s too tough out here to go down and not give yourself a chance like that.
The track got beat up.
It was tough. I liked that. It’s nice to go East Coast and actually ride some ruts. It was fun. Like always, they drop the gate again in seven days and we’ll see… I just need to give myself a shot at this thing. I think a good solid first lap I think I can have a shot at this thing. – Steve Matthes
