Although he is sidelined for the start of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, our man “Filthy” Phil Nicoletti is recovering well from his broken arm suffered during Monster Energy AMA Supercross. “Filthy” was at home watching the races but he is hoping to return to racing several rounds into the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Nicoletti still answered some of your questions!
Got a question for Phil Nicoletti? Send it to Phil@racerxonline.com.
(Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity.)
Hi Phil,
Sucks you’re hurt because now I’m on flights with A-Mart and Marchbanks and you don’t get to join in the bench racing. So your two teammates apparently had a decent battle in the second 450 moto at Hangtown, A-Mart was 12th and Marchbanks 13th. Marchie’s hand was full hamburger and looked gross and painful. Anyway, please tell us about some gnarly battle you’ve had that most fans didn’t see. Everyone is watching the guys leading, but have you had a full-scale 30-plus 2 classic for like 10th that no one saw on camera? Tell us about life in those trenches.
P.S. You are not getting paid for this.
Weege
I think A-Mart and Garrett have been doing well. Garrett excels more at the hard square edge chop tracks, more so than Alex. Garrett did really well at Pala last year, as well as Colorado. It’s crazy that Alex and Garrett are both rookies in the 450 class. One guy is 20 and the other is 32. Both going through the same growing pains getting used to a bigger bike.
As far as myself and battles, I honestly couldn’t even tell you. There have been so damn many! When you’re battling 4-10 at a pro national, most of the time 25 seconds separated five of us. That’s every single moto. You can look at the results now, and it’s the same thing. So it’s actually hard for me to choose a specific moto because you’re almost always pushing to catch someone and you almost always have someone trying to catch you, doesn’t matter what position you’re in. But I will say I’ve have had some banger motos with Weston Peick. We were under the same semi at JGR, and we were good friends. We always happened to be battling close in the outdoor championships as well. I think you know the personalities of me and Weston pretty well. We definitely didn’t want to go to the truck as the guy who got beat!
Phil,
Now that the Europeans usually kick our butts at Motocross des Nations, we all know they have next-level speed and technique outdoors. So now we get to see Tony Cairoli racing on the tracks we know. Have you noticed anything different or unique about his riding style or approach compared to the Americans? I’m not sure if you watch MXGP or not, but if so, is there stuff that they do differently that you pick up on?
Uncle Sam
Is it just me, or have we really not got to see much of 222 in the motos? I know he ripped the holeshot second moto at Hangtown and what not, but it’s been hard to tell on TV. The biggest thing that has always stuck out to me with #222 is his bar set up. He runs quite a high bar for his size. If it’s not the bar it’s the positioning in the mounts that makes it look high. He’s always ran them like that since as long as I can remember when seeing pictures of his bike. It makes him ride very neutral and straight up and down on the bike. Like I said last week, he’s doing a lot of adjusting himself to get used to our schedule and set up. Overall track time is the biggest thing. Track time for him is cut in half from what he is used to. It would be much different if he was at Lommel, Mantova, or Trentino and could do those tracks in his sleep.
Hey Phil. So hopefully you’re back racing soon. End of the year, RedBud is rolling around with Motocross of Nations again. Have you considered firing off an application to Team Puerto Rico? Maybe getting A-Mart back there too? Osborne? Lots of famous alumni there. Let’s not even talk about the 2018 team, that was insane. Anyway, what about PR, Phil?
Mark from Michigan
Mark,
I have definitely entertained that idea. I have even talked to Justin Brayton about doing it for shits and giggles. I thought that would be awesome to do it with him and that be his last outdoor ever. Problem is that actually takes some effort to do, and the summertime grind. JB is way past that point in his life, and I don’t blame him! I would enjoy it a lot if the proper team was put together. We will have to see. I have to get back to racing first and get back to old form before I can think that far ahead. But I’m not saying no to the opportunity!
