Who’ve you linked up with so far?
I have a friend and his dad owns a motocross dealership. They sell Huskys, so I got a couple Huskys to keep it as close to the KTM as possible. I already know the setup pretty good for that bike. We’re still working on all our sponsors, but probably within the next two days we’ll have that stuff figured out. We’ve got some pretty good people so far jump on board. We’ll get Renthal, Maxima, ProFilter, HGS Exhaust Systems, Rekluse, Acerbis I believe, and I’ll be wearing THOR. I’m not positive on my helmet yet, but I’ll have Alpinestars boots, 100% goggles, and POD Knee Braces. I’d say we’re on the homestretch of getting the sponsor stuff figured out. We’ve pretty much got everything, not finalized, but sorted and figured out. It’s been really stressful, that’s for sure.

I can’t even imagine. As far as your effort for the summer, are you laying the groundwork for all nine races, or are you angling toward a fill-in ride if one pops up?
If we have to do all nine rounds on our own, we’re doing all nine rounds on our own. Obviously a fill-in ride would be easier, that’s for sure, but right now we’ve got transport figured out for all nine races, and all the parts we’re getting, we’re getting them as if we’re going to race nine rounds. We plan on doing the whole series and it’s coming together.

Were you surprised when you heard Justin Bogle was coming back?  I know I was a little surprised.
No, not really. He rides with me, and when we left for Salt Lake I think he’d ridden once. But when we were in Salt Lake he was riding quite a bit. If you’d have asked me before Salt Lake I would have said, “Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to come back. At least not for the outdoors.” But he was riding a good bit. Our team thought maybe he wasn’t going to race, but I kind of knew he was. I know what it’s like when you start riding again. All you want to do is race. I wasn’t super surprised by it.

Was it an awkward conversation when they broke the news to you?
No, not really. I was kind of expecting it. It’s really expensive to do three guys, and I do think if they could do three guys they would. I was the fill-in rider, I knew that, and there’s not anything to be mad about. It was smooth, everything was good, and those guys have helped me out a little bit since then. I can’t thank them enough for letting me ride the bike for the time I was able to.

I know it’s last minute and everyone pretty much has everything set, but was there any interest from any existing teams?
No, not really. Not really at all.

Well, being on a team would be better of course, there are definitely advantages but in terms of results, do you think it makes that big of a difference? Tell me if I’m talking out of my ass here, but with bikes being so good, it’s not like a factory bike is going to shave ten seconds off your lap times, right?
I don’t think so. If you’re on a factory bike it’s a pretty big difference from a production bike, but nowadays you can really get pretty much everything they have. There’s just some stuff you can’t. My bike isn’t going to be that much different than what I was on before. If you do the privateer way the right way, you can be competitive with those guys. That’s my plan, that’s my goal. I’ve never had more motivation to beat factory guys.