Nothing gets fans fired up like privateers on two-strokes, and Matt Burkeen is the latest to stoke those flames by putting a Yamaha YZ250 into the motos at High Point. He’s not done, either, with plans for this weekend at RedBud and more. It’s a super low-budget operation, but the fan support is making it worth it for a rider who once stepped away from racing completely.
We dialed Burkeen in this week for more.
Racer X: Tell me about why did you decide to ride a 250 two-stroke? Where did the idea come from? How long had you been planning to do that?
Matt Burkeen: I’ve only ridden YZ250 two-strokes for probably about the last three years or so. I just got one because it was really affordable and really fun. When I first got one, I had no aspirations of doing nationals or anything like that. I really didn’t even know if I wanted to race it. I just wanted to ride and have fun. I started racing it locally a lot and started feeling really, really good on it. I’ve wanted to do the nationals for a few years, but Yamaha hadn't paid to homologate the YZ250, so I wasn’t able until this year. They paid so the 2022 YZ’s are able to race. So, that’s why this year I decided to find a ’22 YZ and give it a shot. I was kind of between nationals and Loretta’s, and nationals just sounded like way more fun.
Talk a little bit about the experience. What’s it like trying to race a two-stroke on a track where basically the four-strokes are making all the lines and arching the corners the way that they do? I’m sure it’s got to be a little bit difficult to adjust to those types of ruts and how gnarly the track gets, because you hadn't experienced that before on a national track. So, what was that like?
That was honestly probably the biggest thing that I underestimated was how hard the track was going to be to ride on a two-stroke. I’ve done some nationals in the past, and I remember them being super gnarly, but I definitely didn’t realize how much harder it was going to be to ride on a two-stroke. Every part of the track is completely hammered, and you have no time to rest. On a two-stroke, you can’t really just shift up and lug it around when you get tired like a four-stroke. You kind of have to keep riding it as hard as you can. So, that was probably the biggest thing I underestimated. It was really hard to ride out there.
Obviously the fans were stoked on it. What kind of reactions did you have, not only from being on the track, but maybe back in the pits? Did you have some cool moments with the fans?
It actually was even cooler than I ever would have thought! I knew it was going to be cool, but it was amazing. First of all, the sight lap the first moto, I didn’t even really end up looking at the track because the fan response was so cool. I had to take it in. Probably a minor miscue on my part, but it was just so cool, everybody cheering for me and how loud they were. Then back in the pits, too. Even between motos, I hardly ever got to sit down or stop talking because people were coming through and saying hi. I even had a guy come through and give me some gas money between motos, which was super cool. [Laughs] It was just cool because the first moto I got 38th and I was kind of embarrassed, really bummed out about it. Everybody that came through [the pits], it was like they had no idea what place I had just got. They just loved it. So, it kind of helped me keep it in perspective why I was there and why I was doing it and made me realize that it was just sick that I’ll get out there, and hopefully I’ll get better.
Going back to qualifying, obviously you were in the B group. You qualified straight into the motos on lap time. Did that almost surprise you a little bit, or did you feel that speed-wise coming in, you had it and you just needed to execute?
So, I knew coming in if I rode how I know how to ride and how I’ve been riding throughout the year, I knew I would be good. But, like you mentioned, the B practice, that was kind of a wildcard of sorts. I’ve been in some B practices before and it’s so haywire out there with the amount of guys and the amount of skill levels varying. I even noticed that High Point, the A practice had 42 people and the B practice had 48. So, I really felt like I had my work cut out for me. I was lucky in the sense that I was able to get out front and I had a couple laps clear. So, I knew that’s kind of what I needed to do. I had a feeling I would be okay as long as no unusual circumstances happened. I felt really confident about my speed.
Obviously, you’re having fun doing it, so you’re going to keep going into Red Bud. How many more rounds are you going to try to do this? Is Red Bud it, or are you doing more?
As of now, I’m planning for Red Bud, Millville, Unadilla, Budds, and Ironman. I definitely haven’t really thought about doing Pala at the end, but to be honest, it’s a little bit of a pipe dream for me to maybe do Washougal. I haven’t even really tried to plan it or anything yet. It’s just on the wish list. As long as I qualify into Red Bud, I might try and hit up some other privateers and see if I can’t try to make my way from Millville to Washougal. But, it should be at least five more rounds, as long as there’s nothing that sets us back, or anything like that.
You’re doing like a whole proper tour. I thought maybe this was just a one-off thing. That’s cool to hear.
Especially to buy a license. I had to buy a 2022 bike just to even be allowed to race. So, I figured if I was going to go through all this effort, I wanted to really set it up. I also am not really getting any younger, so you never know. This might be the last year I get to do this. I’m trying to make the most out of it while I can.
Going back a little bit to the last time that you tried at a national, what was the decision back then to take a hiatus from racing, or not actively try to follow the circuit anymore? You had a couple injuries, but was there a big one that really put you back a ways and then you just thought better of it, or what was it?
I did the nationals in 2014 out of the same truck that I’m actually in right now, just me and my dad and a reasonably stock KTM 250F. It was such a grind. I didn’t necessarily mind the grind, but the grind that I was having to do and the money we were having to spend for the results I was able to get, it wasn’t really adding up. It was kind of mentally draining me, too. It was just starting to not feel like it made a whole lot of sense. Then I had a couple of deals to try to race supercross the following year and people kind of flaked on me. I had some people say they were going to do some stuff that they didn’t. So, I was still going to do supercross on my own, but I ended up getting hurt a couple more times getting ready for supercross. I finally just said I don't think this is for me. For a while, I completely stopped racing for a year or two until I rediscovered my love for it. It’s kind of crazy for me to say, but I was a little bit over it.
We hear that a lot, especially in your case too. You were a pretty highly-touted amateur rider, so coming through the ranks it was all you knew for so long. We’ve heard that same story, you get a little bit burnt out. What was that catalyst that got you back on the bike? Did someone bring a bike to a track one day and you just felt like, I’ve got to jump on it? Or what was it?
I didn’t have a bike for quite a while. Every once in a while, I would ride a buddy’s bike and I would have a lot of fun on it. A person that owned a pest control company, the grandmother of the people who we know who own this company, they sponsor a lot of riders. They ended up helping me get a YZ450 back in 2016, and that’s completely what re-kick-started it. Then I started racing locally again. I raced Mini O’s that year. That really got me back into it.
What have you been doing for work in the downtime?
For the last year or so, up until this year, I was working at my local dealer. But now this year I have just been training kids locally and racing. I go race local pretty much every weekend, whether it be an outlaw race or a Victory Sports race or just a local district, or anything. If there’s anything around, I’ll go race it. During the week, I do a lot of one-on-one and two or three-person groups as well. I kind of just do my own little thing around where I live now.
I saw you went and did the Justin Brayton shootout race. I think you had a big crash there. What happened there?
That was super rad. That was a last-second thing. Our mutual friend, Checkers [Chris from Race Tech], hit me up and offered to help me get up there for the weekend. My truck doesn’t run that great, so I borrowed a friend’s Ford Ranger. This thing had no cruise control and no AC, but it had four wheels so I was into it. It was a 17-hour trip down. I went by myself. The weekend was going awesome. There was really good people to race. Marshal Weltin was there, Zach Williams and Isaiah Clark. We were having a lot of good racing. Sunday, I finally got out front for the first time of the weekend. Weltin had won everything, so I was really kind of sending it, trying to be the first person that beat him in the weekend. I tucked the front end really hard and had a huge, huge crash. I probably should have gotten way more hurt than I did. I just banged my shoulder up really bad and did a low-grade AC separation. It’s actually lingered and has been bothering me a lot more than I would have thought. I’m actually still feeling that trip today.
That’s tough. How is it now?
A lot of things are okay, but it’s not great for sleeping. Definitely two thirty plus twos at High Point did not help at all, because the Sunday and the Monday after High Point, I couldn’t lift my arm even a little bit. I’ve been in the gym a lot since then and I think I’ve gotten it to a lot better of a point than it was at High Point. My arm was basically useless for a couple days after High Point. So, I think it’s just the duration that gets it because there’s not a whole lot of strength in it right now. I’ve been working a lot on mobility. So, I’ve just been kind of trying to dig myself out of the hole I put myself in in Iowa.
This may be kind of a tough question then if you’re trying to deal with the injury at the same time, but do you have a main goal that you’re trying to achieve? Obviously, getting into the motos was probably step one. Would points even be something that you feel like is possible, or are you just happy to get into the motos and do two thirties?
For right now, I’m happy with getting in the motos, just because of where I’m at with my shoulder. If I wasn’t dealing with the shoulder, I think I would have been trying to shoot for points, even if it is a little bit overzealous. I want to at least try to shoot high. I definitely don’t think it’s a realistic goal just yet, so maybe once like Unadilla and Budds Creek and Ironman come around, maybe I’ll be able to get closer to the top twenty. A couple goals I do have, I want to qualify in the top twenty. I think that’s probably most attainable for me because my one-lap speed I think is probably the best thing that I have. Then the other thing, if we have a mudder, I want to put this thing in the top fifteen or something, because I really like the rain. The last person that scored points on a YZ250 was a friend of mine, Cody Gragg, and he did it in the rain at Budds Creek. I think he got 13th. So, I would love to try to repeat what he did, because it was badass.
Talk about riding a two-stroke in the mud. How do you even approach that situation? Are you much lighter on the clutch to try to save it? It sounds like you have a lot of fun in it, so how do you approach that?
It’s funny. I actually just raced in the rain a couple days ago on Sunday. Being that I’m a lot of self-funding and doing a lot of my own work, I’m definitely good at managing the bike. I’m not hard on the clutch or anything like that. I just try to be smooth. I think the biggest thing, even regardless of four-stroke or two-stroke or anything, is just mindset. I just get so excited whenever it rains. I just think it’s a good time. I saw somebody said something about rain in the forecast for Red Bud and I got all excited, but then I looked and it looks like sunshine. So, I might be out of luck there. But if it rains at any other races, I would put myself on my fantasy team. That’s for sure.
It’s awesome to hear the attitude that you have about this. It’s obviously great to see you back at the racing. Who would you like to thank for making it happen for you this year?
HBI Auto is my title sponsor. Huge thank you to them. Also, Dean Hussian Insulation is a huge sponsor of mine as well. Devil’s Ridge MX, Miserable Clothing company, Freedom MX, South of the Border MX, Dusty at Real Ink Graphics, Donnie at Yamaha for helping me get my hands on a 2022 with the crazy supply chain issues that are going on. FMF, Kenny Day at Fox. Matt at South of the Border for getting me some Enzo forks to use, because I had a sponsor bail on me. I was about to be using stock forks at the race. I still ended up using a stock shock, but big thank you to Matt for letting me use his forks. Thank you to David Braswell, Chris Reisenburg. Huge thank you to Race Tech for coming on in the last week or two. Air Wheelies Only, Victory Sports Racing, Greg Colscott, the Strader family, Brad Godfrey, and thanks to you for giving me this interview. Thanks to my mom and dad for the support, too. It’s going to be a fun summer. I’m stoked for it.
