Monster Energy Supercross is getting the attention, but AMSOIL Arenacross starts this weekend as well with the opener in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kyle Regal of the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team is the new defending champion, and he’s taken a long road to get to this point.
A few years ago, he was a promising rookie pro showing impressive speed in 450 Nationals. Then came bumps and lumps with injuries and team drama, and eventually it looked like Regal’s career was over.
Arenacross gave him a rebirth, and now he’s got his eyes set on big things—defending his title, and then giving supercross another shot in 2017.
Racer X: This has to be a good feeling for you right now. There have been years I’m sure where in the first week of January you didn’t even know where you were going to ride or who you were going to ride for. And here you are now with a team and a number 1 plate—you’re a defending champion. It’s got to be pretty nice to have all of these things buttoned down, compared to where you were five years ago.
Kyle Regal: For sure. Obviously having something locked in before the series is always good to have. With me sticking with Husqvarna again this year obviously made that transition way easier. I won the championship last year on the bike and it’s only gotten better since. I’m really looking forward to getting the season started.
What is the prep like for arenacross? Do you do the exact same thing you were doing in your supercross days?
Honestly I didn’t really change it up that much. Last year when I was really winning races I feel like a lot of it came from the mental side of it and not so much what I was doing during the week. I believed I was going to be in the front. Once I won my first overall it was easier after that. Everyone always says that and it was true because last year was the first time I actually won an arenacross overall event, and then I won the championship in the same year. I just try and replicate what works, so if I had a good result on the weekend I tried to do the same thing next week during training. I was actually doing a lot of outdoor riding. I feel like with arenacross, when you get in the grind and you’re pounding out lap after lap after lap, it’s such a tight track, on a practice track—I could only go so long and I could only hit the same exact line so many times. It’s 20-25 second lap times so you’re almost spinning yourself in a circle the more laps you do. I just try to keep it fun during the week on the practice track. This year I’m trying that Rockwell Training Facility with my trainer Kyle and doing all my cardio stuff with Johnny Louch on the cycles and stuff like that. I feel really strong. I had a little bit of an injury, haven’t been back on the bike long, but it’s not like a broken bone. It’s going to take time to heal, though, so that’s why I’m not coming into the first race saying “I’m here to light the place up.” I know it’s a long series. Get points and go into the next one. I got 15th last year at the opener so as long as I’m better than that then I’m okay.
You mentioned the points reset. Do you race the first part of the year differently knowing that you’re going to have that reset anyway?
No, not necessarily. We’re all there obviously for the same reason and that’s winning. But at the same time last year, like I said I finished 15th at the first round overall, and then the second weekend I started off with like a 13th overall. So you don’t need to light the place on fire as soon as you get in but at the same time my bike is amazingly fast. It’s only gotten better the last year. I’m really looking forward to racing with a number one plate. I’ve never done something like that before, so that’s adding a lot of pressure onto the situation. Ready to get it started!
Some of these things you’re talking about, being at the Rockwell facility and working with Kyle and Johnny Louch, is that new?
Last year I had my own deal for the first half of the season and then I started working with Dylan Turner after that, and that was in Florida. Recently I moved to California. I felt like being in the limelight, to be at the places where I see my career going—that’s supercross—and being in the eyes of the industry. I feel that’s something I’ve lacked in my career. I want people to see what I’m doing during the week so they know I’m for real. I do want to race outdoors. I don’t want to be an arenacross-only guy. I’m trying to further myself. I felt that moving to California was the best way to do that. So that’s where I am now and with Husqvarna being close here it just helps a lot.
I know you spent a lot of years in Texas, and some other guys down there tell me the same thing. Matt Lemoine told me how when you’re not in California people just don’t see you, and the industry really does watch riders during the week, at a practice track on a Wednesday, not just the results you get on Saturday.
For sure, I agree. Arenacross might seem a little bit scaled down compared to supercross, but you certainly remember [Tyler] Bowers came in won races in supercross so it’s not like a guy can’t come from arenacross and win. Or even go back to Darcy Lange. He was an arenacross champion, came to supercross and was in the hunt for a Lites championship. Obviously with my results in outdoors in the past in the 450 class, I can show that I’ve been there a little bit, and I can do it again kind of deal. But then again I don’t know if I would take a 450 deal. I feel like I’ve won the arenacross championship on a Lites bike, and I need to continue racing it.
A lot of guys don’t actually transition into arenacross successfully. It’s all over the map. We’ve seen guys do what you do and pick it up quickly, we’ve seen other guys struggle. What are some of the things you had to pick up on?
Honestly it’s a lot different. I learned a lot about bike setup. Ninety percent of the tracks are usually the same. It’s always a flat turn into the whoops. I had to learn how to set the bike up to gain speed in the whoops. In supercross I feel like you can hit a bowl corner before it, come in with a whole bunch of speed and just continue that speed throughout the whoops. In Arenacross you’re coming out of this flat turn with 20 miles an hour and trying to get to 30 or 40 by the end of the section. So it’s a deal where you set up your bike to gain speed off the first couple whoops. It’s a little bit different rear shock setup, a lot softer. Also, of course it’s tighter racing. You always feel like there’s somebody in front of you or behind you, which does get a little bit crazy at times. But you’ve got to stay focused. I feel like that’s what I did really good at last year, make quick passes and onto the next guy.
Arenacross came up with this new tagline saying it’s motocross more intense. Everyone went to the Vegas finale and they saw exactly what they’re talking about. You and Jacob Hayes battling for the title, and he tries to take you out. That thing was nuts! You actually did keep your cool in what could have been a crazy situation. You seem like you’re able to take a lot of that stuff in stride.
For sure. I feel like it goes back to the way I was raised. Honestly a lot of things have happened. I’ve been through a lot. I went back to the rig in the moto before when I got taken out, when [Chris] Blose crashed in front of me in the whoops and I went down. I lost my front brake and my clutch lever in one crash, just got knocked down. And I still got up. I still have the mentality that anything can happen. It is arenacross so literally anything can happen. It is more intense. In that final race [with Hayes] that’s not the way I wanted the championship to go down; I don’t race that way and I don’t feel like it’s right. But at the same time it’s arenacross and stuff happens. It’s a race. You go to the checkered flag and that’s what always I was raised growing up to do. As soon as it happened—and I’ve watched the video a lot of times as everyone else has—you can see I never even hesitated to do anything other than go for the motorcycle and get back on it. I stayed calm, I wasn’t even thinking about anything else but getting back into the race. At that point the race is seven minutes long, so every second counts. Luckily my Husqvarna has electric start because I would have been down for another 20 or 30 if that wasn’t the case.
I’ve also heard that in arenacross dudes can bang bars pretty good and still be friendly after the race. Are there any hard feelings left between you and Hayes? How’s it going to be when you show up in the same arena again in a few days?
There’s going to be a huge hype as far as rivals between me and him. He runs the number two, I have the number one. So the whole thing is getting pumped up a little bit. But things happen in the heat of the moment. I don’t race like that. I don’t plan on racing like that. I’m not going to race like that. So the biggest thing, I’m going in same plan as last year, just be as best as I can be and whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. It’s not like I can predict the future. I’m am who I am. I’m going there to do what I’m hired to do and that’s win races.
You’re not changing your approach just because of one block pass last year.
No, I only tangled with one person last year and it wasn’t even my fault so it’s not like I race that way. I’m not really too worried about it.
In the big picture of your career or even your life, can you believe you’re in this position now? You’re champ, everyone wants to do an interview with you; you’re the guy everybody’s looking at now. You’ve had times where you were the guy on the outside looking in. You’ve made the comeback. You revived your career. What does that feel like?
It feels good, for sure. I have to thank Rockstar and Husqvarna for the opportunity, I’m so happy it all worked out. I think it was right before 2014 in arenacross. I sat down with Zack Mashburn and Jeff Click, they have some amateur kids we were working with. I thought I was done, I was just going to be a coach or trainer or get a job in the oil fields. They’re like, “Just give it one more shot. Just put it all in and see what you got. Just finish the series.” We looked at all my results and in every series that I was in, I got pulled out of or something happened, I missed some races. They told me to just get a whole year of experience doing every single race and then if something comes up the next year, I would have all that experience I could lean on. So the first year I did all the races. Did pretty well. Got a lot of podiums and I finished fourth overall. I taught the kids again that summer and they’re like, well, here’s your chance. And it was just funny because it was all laid out literally the way they had told me to do it, Zack Mashburn and Jeff Quick, just get the year experience and then maybe fight for the championship the year after. That’s exactly what happened! So big thanks to those guys for making me step up. That part of it I thought was really cool.
You were that far down? You were basically weren’t even going to be racing anymore?
Yeah, I needed more money to go racing than I was actually making. Stuff like that starts happening and I was having a lot of injuries. It was getting tough. But I had fun the year before when I finished fourth, and to win the championship last year obviously that’s a huge thing for my career. I feel like it’s getting back in the right direction and this is just the start of it. I obviously plan on being a supercross and outdoor guy starting in 2017 full-time. That’s the goal right now and I’m doing everything I can to shoot me that way.
So in 2014, it’s not like an arenacross team came to you and said, “We remember you were pretty good, in motocross and supercross, how about trying arenacross?” You just made it happen yourself?
I straight up bought the bikes. I was getting them built and then TUF Racing, I talked to them and told them I had a Honda and they said that’s the kind of bikes they had, so I just shipped some bikes up there so they could work on them. I was fully funding everything, basically. It was my last shot. I put all my eggs in that basket and at the end it worked out well. Hopefully I can get an opportunity in supercross again. I feel like I can really do well with the experience I have now in tight racing and being aggressive. When I raced supercross before I didn’t have that much experience because I went straight to the 450 class.
That’s a pretty wide variety of skills. I feel like the arenacross specialists, they might also do well in supercross, but to go all the way to the other end, to be good outdoors also, that usually doesn’t happen. But in your career you’re actually known just as much as an outdoor guy.
That just goes to show even the background that I have. When I was growing up I would ride with [multi-time Arenacross Champion] Chad Johnson. I was like 14 to 16 when he was in his prime in arenacross. But I would still be buzzing around the outdoor track, too. It’s kind of funny now because the guy that was building his bikes and helping him back then is actually now the team manager of our team. So it’s pretty cool it’s come all the way around like that now.
So you’ve got two goals. You want to defend your title, but you’re also looking at it as almost an audition to show people what you’ve got for supercross in 2017.
For sure. When I was talking with [Rockstar Husqvarna team owner] Bobby Hewitt before the season, I told him, “I don’t want a championship bonus. I want a contract from your team for 2017.” He goes, “If you win the championship I’ll see what I can do.” I’m excited. I’ve got good opportunities, amazing people around me. At the end of the day I’ve got to make it happen and that’s winning races. You need to write things like that down. I’ve got his words written down and taped to the mirror, I look at it everyday when I’m brushing my teeth. I’ve got a great opportunity right now and I’m working really hard to make this all happen.
