“Filthy” Phil Nicoletti is headed to Anaheim 1 to race 250SX West on his Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha. He's still got time to take your questions and provide his answers. However, we've yet to ask Phil if he wants to do this feature again in 2023. Could this be the last UnPhiltered ever?
Knowing Phil he will probably complain and complain and then log another edition next Friday. But let's just enjoy the suspense of a good cliff hanger episode!
Email Phil@racerxonline.com if you think he might answer next week.
(Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity.)
Hi Phil,
Two part question for you.
When doing simulated races simulated with your teammates how do you balance practicing the race intensity while also trying to stay injury free before the season starts?
Also what do you do during the season to help with staying healthy (getting the common cold) with all the traveling you do. Do you just up your vitamin C?
Regards,
Nick D
Nick,
Solid questions…so the simulation days get pretty hectic. I’m going to be honest here. Sometimes it is a bit too much and we are all racers at heart. So any time you line us up on a 6 man gate drop for a 15 plus 1 on a Tuesday, it’s gets dicey. We turn the brains off and send it to try and be the fasted guy in the moto. That’s just part of the competition. But there is a fine line trying to risk it for the biscuit for 0.2 of a second and making to race day on Saturday. Sometimes we forget that because we are all so used to giving it 100 percent every time. Now that I’m older, I’ve learned to roll it back a tad bit. People DON’T HAVE A DAMN CLUE how gnarly it is to do it Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday in boot camp. Think about it. On average you do 55-65 laps a day 4x a week Oct-Dec with a total of about 600 laps. Picture trying to be 100 percent focused, 100 percent intensity, 100 percent mistake free.
As far as being sick, you do your absolute best don’t to get sick. I mean absolute best. Eat, sleep, and train right. Try and max out your recovery days as much as possible. But not getting sick is almost impossible. It’s like crashing “it’s not if, but when.” But the ideal time to get sick is in the off-season. Catch water bug it is or cold and blow it through your system before the season starts. Because it’s like clock work for us, everyone is sick at round 2-3. Happens every year. You can try and wear gloves “or bullshit masks” in track walk and blah blah blah, but it’s going to get ya. So my advice is to lick every door handle late November, early December and get whatever it is that’s out there haha.
Phil,
Merry Christmas! What’s the holiday schedule for a racer? Do you sneak off to visit relatives or is it too important a time to leave the training grounds?
Jim
Jim,
Happy Holidays to you as well! Holidays are kind of tough. It’s not like we can take 5 days off to go see family. So most of the time it isn’t really worth it to fly across the country for two days? East Coast 250 guys can do whatever they want for the holidays. They have time to enjoy life and what not. Last year I went to Brazil for Christmas as well as this year [with Enzo Lopes and his family]. At this point in my life and with racing, I don’t care if I miss a day of riding anymore. If I miss one day riding at this point and I’m worried, then I have bigger problems. It’s nice to have a little disconnect before everything fires back up as well. Plus here over Christmas was so miserable and cold you couldn’t even ride. So there are a lot of variables that go into it. But if you can take the two or three days, do it. Because you won’t get those days back for awhile.
-Phil
