I’m assuming you’ve ridden in some snow flurries before?
We rode in snow flurries on Wednesday!

Was there any part of you, on Wednesday, that said, “Hey, I should get in some practice riding in snow because we might have this on Saturday?”
Yeah, but I actually didn’t get all the riding I wanted in on Wednesday because the weather cut it short. But it was good to get some time in in those conditions, yeah.

So why was Wednesday the last day you rode? Were you getting stretched with PR duties this week?
Well yeah, and we expected to ride here on press day on Friday but that didn’t happen. [Note: Friday’s press day riding was cancelled.] We did a lot more media than the average week. Our biggest commitment was visiting numerous local TV stations, trying to get the word out. I think it helped, we had a good crowd tonight, I think the two lower decks were full, so that was sweet.

You had some local friends and family here, too?
Oh yeah, we had well over 50 people we specifically had to get tickets for, from down on our side of the state.

The crowd was going nuts. Even when you pulled a lead you were riding by yourself, they were going nuts! How does that affect you?
I don’t care what you say, you’re thinking about it when it’s that loud! It was crazy loud! Like, holy crap.

Don’t you wear ear plugs?
Oh yeah.

And you could hear it anyway. Did it even drown your bike out at one point?
When we went over the triple, either when I was close to the lead or had just gotten the lead, the noise was…. up there. It was unbelievable.

The start. It didn’t look like you had a good start going into turn one, but you played the first turn perfectly and that helped you get up there. Were you worried?
I played it good, I was a little worried, yeah. There was someone that came from the inside, like literally out of nowhere, and that shuffled me back a little bit. I didn’t want to be second or third in line in the first turn. But I was able to sneak around, about halfway to the exit of the corner there. That set me up.

You were one of the few to jump that triple in, and then jump onto the tabletop, in the big rhythm. And then you kept doing it late in the race. Did you keep doing it because crowd was going crazy for you in that section, or was it actually pretty easy to do that?
It wasn’t easy. Gosh, at the start of the race, you could use the middle rut to do it, and then later on I was able to come down a rut and still do it. So it wasn’t easy, but that was my spot to make my time. We timed it in practice and it was a half second, maybe three tenths. That was a spot to make some ground.

Eighteen points down with two to go. Do you think more about the title now than a few weeks ago when you were further back?
I’m just doing what I’m doing. As long as I’m within 26 points, we’re doing our work.

Man, you must be feeling so much better than two or three weeks ago.
Oh yeah, we’re riding good, we’ve improved. I don’t know what to say right now. We’re rolling.

Are you going to change more things?
No, we’ve won the last two, we’re in a good spot.

The proof is, last week you said the problem had been that the window was small, it (the bike) wasn’t working in all conditions. But today, we had snow in one practice, it was getting wet, then later it was dry. So, that would make it seem like the bike worked well in different conditions. Did the track change that much?
You know, the track all day had a base. It didn’t change that much. But it was good to just go out all day and win, win, win.