It’s been a rough go for Joey Savatgy. He lost his spot at Monster Energy Kawasaki once Adam Cianciarulo came on board, and Joey barely got time in his JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing RM-Z450 before he crashed and broke a bone in his foot, and shattered his heel in November 2019.
He was off the bike for a long time, but hoped to have a head start on Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship prep since most of his competitors were holed up in Utah for the Monster Energy AMA Supercross wrap up. Any advantages haven’t materialized, and Savatgy is still digging, trying to get back up to the elite pack of riders he used to run with.
He’s not denying the struggles. Joey talked about it in a press conference on Monday night.
Racer X: Joey, you finished eighth overall at Spring Creek. Moved into top ten in points in the 450 class. You want to tell us a little bit about how your season is going and kind of how you feel heading into the final couple rounds?
Going into outdoors, did you think you might have had an advantage because you didn’t do supercross and you were ahead, or were you still coming back from the injury?
Take us through the injury because that was a bad one. We heard it was the heel. As soon as we hear that, we know it could be 12 months. This was in Australia. What was the process? How bad was it, just the injury itself?
We saw you race Paris and New Zealand, then a long break with the injury. You’re still trying to figure out the right setting, but do you feel that it’s there? You can be competitive if you get it right?
I do feel like we can be competitive. We’re running out of time and on a shortened series that’s never good. Obviously taking the time off and being hurt is I think also a little bit of a factor, just taking so much time off, not being used to being at the races and battling. It’s been an adjustment because I really haven’t missed the whole season since I think 2014, I believe. I’ve missed some races, but the last time I missed an actual series was I think 2014 East Coast supercross. Then to take the amount of time off that I did, it’s hard. But I do still believe in my ability that I can win races. I just look at the guys who are up there now and I’ve beat those guys before. I might not beat them every time out, but we’ve battled plenty of times and I’ve won plenty and I’ve lost plenty. So it’s definitely tough. I don’t think it’s impossible. I think we just need to figure things out sooner than later.
The track prep this weekend was not really ripped as deep. It seemed like they left it a little bit fast and more hard based. Do you like what they did with the track?
What would you say has been the absolute highlight for you so far this year? Some good starts for the Suzuki as well. Is there any one thing that you can point towards and say, that was pretty solid for me?
Is a rider in your position sort of racing each weekend to cement your future in a way? Or when do you expect that to sort of be finalized?
When you had this injury and then the season is not going your way, who do you rely on to pick you up? Is it family? Is the trainers around you? I know that you’re new to the team, so I don’t know how well you know those guys.
Watch the archive of Monday night's press conference or listen to the audio from the press conference in the podcast below.