Open Mic Cameron McAdoo

Careening around the bleached-out hillsides rolling high above the 91 Freeway in Corona, California, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki racer Cameron McAdoo has been both putting in the time and bashing out the laps in a spirited effort to get to the starting gate currently being placed inside Angel Stadium for the opening round of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship set for Saturday, January 7, 2023. And the native of Sioux City, Iowa is, understandably, ready to get rolling as he both hopes and expects 2023 to be his year in 250cc supercross competition.

Seventh overall in the 2022 AMA 250SX East Region points standings, that score does not reflect the season McAdoo had last winter as he was a race winner and fighting for second in the point standings behind Jett Lawrence before hitting the dirt in a press day crash at St. Louis. But that was then and this is now and McAdoo has been enjoying the process (more on that in just a bit) as he and the entire Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team finish up the heavy lifting on 2023 preseason testing.

Enthused to get on over to Angel Stadium and quietly confident in his equipment, technique, strength and fitness, a couple days after completing a testing and training session at the Kawasaki test track, McAdoo spoke about 2023 and the football and baseball stadium task at hand.

Racer X: Cameron, what’s happening? What are you up to here a day before 2023?
Cameron McAdoo: I’m actually just hanging out on my couch right now. I had a bike ride this morning, did some gym and today is Wednesday, so it’s kind of our day off of the bike, but I still did some work this morning. I’m just hanging out now and recovering for tomorrow. And the Christmas holiday was great. We had family together and it was pretty relaxing. It was nice to everybody together over the weekend and we just hung out.

Just before Christmas, Mitch Payton announced that both Austin Forkner and yourself would be lining up in the 250SX West Region for 2023. That appears to be the case, huh?
Yep, I’m racing West. The off-season has felt so long. When we get done with our last outdoor race, it seems like there is a long period of time to deal with, but it goes really fast. The work begins in a couple of weeks and before we know it, it is this time of year and coming up on the first supercross race. I’m really excited to get racing now. I feel like we have done a lot of good progress during this off-season. I’ve been enjoying the process with my whole team and I’m just really stoked to get going and to race the West. I haven’t raced the West the last couple of years, so it’s going to be fun to go to Anaheim 1. Nothing beats A1 vibes. 

I’ve read in recent interviews that you have done that you very much like the process of being a professional supercross and motocross racer. The way you explained the process and what it means to you is very interesting. Can you talk about that?
Yah, I really do like the process of it all. I’ve always kind of enjoyed it. I mean I think a big thing for me is to wake up and have purpose each day and really fine-tune myself and I enjoy the work art of our job and the part that some racers don’t really enjoy so much. I really enjoy the gym and the long bike rides and the long testing days at the track. I enjoy testing myself and my body and testing myself mentally. I really do enjoy the process and I think that’s what keeps it that much more enjoyable for me because we do the process. That’s kind of the words for it, but the day-to-day and week-to-week grind and the work is a huge portion of our life. You kind of need to enjoy it.

Your 2022 250SX East Region Supercross series really reflected what a standout racer you were. You were third in the opener at Minneapolis, you won at Arlington, and you were third, second and second at Daytona, Detroit and Indianapolis, respectively. You were really on a run and in a spirited fight with Jett Lawrence for the championship before you got hurt on press day at St. Louis. Your injury notwithstanding, it was a good series for you, wasn’t it? 
Yeah, totally. Obviously it was a step in the right direction with where we were going and then I had a super-small mishap. Honestly, I landed on a Tuff Blox on press day and that’s what took me out of the series. I now obviously need to minimize those little things and stay completely focused and completely locked in and respect what I’m doing every time I get on the bike. I want to keep myself out of those situations and I think we’ll be in a really good spot to fight to be our best every time in 2023.

Yes, and as you have just addressed, this can be a brutal and unforgiving sport at times, can’t it?
Yeah, it totally can be brutal and unforgiving. That’s something I’ve learned over the last few years. I’ve learned that you can’t let yourself ride the highs and the lows because if you ride that wave too much, personally, the highs are so high and the lows are so low and they seem so hard to understand. For me, I always have to make myself realize that things can be a lot worse, you know? When something like that happens and when everything seems to be going so right and then it goes completely wrong and you can’t find the reason to understand why, there is always a why. There is always a reason why, so I think taking full responsibility of those types of things is super-important for me. I don’t want to blow off stuff like that as something just happened. I want to learn form it. That’s super-important for me and I need to learn from it and to grow.

I watched all of you guys up at the Kawasaki test track last week and it was easy to see that it is time to go racing for everyone. What do you think about everything? As far as you, the bike, the team, is all in order and where you want it to really be?
Yeah, I’m really happy with everything. I mean my program has stayed very similar pretty much since I’ve gotten on with the Pro Circuit team. I’ve had the same trainer in Nick Wey and so-on. This year the biggest change we have made is that we have been really riding with the Kawasaki 450 guys pretty much every single day no matter what and I think that has made a big difference. I think the way the tracks break down and I think just the camaraderie and being able to be around the 450 team and feeling that pressure and having a large group of people with the same views just brings everything up another notch. I think that’s been really productive for us this year. Like I said, I think that we have just been able to do a lot of good work. We’ve had a few changes here and there with the bike that I think that we have made good progress on. I also feel like I have progress with myself, as well. Like I said before, at this time of year we are just a week away and we are ready. Let’s go racing.

How is your health and everything? Are you where you need to be?
Yeah, my health is totally good. I’m solid and really ready to go and feel totally primed-up to race.

How are you going to approach that opening round at Anaheim and then how will you approach the opening phase of the season?
I want to approach as I just want to do my best and be my best. I want to be my best version of myself each time I’m on the track. I want to go through each step of the way and the process of each part of the day and I think that will equate to having a good result at the end of the night. Obviously our goals are to win and that’s what we wat to do, but there is a process to get to that point and I think that I just want to focus on that and I think we’ll be good. 

You still have quite a few goals you want to achieve as a racer, don’t you?
Yeah, totally. I mean that’s what keeps me waking up every morning and being super-hungry to give every bit of what I have to offer each day. I have a lot of goals. I’ve achieved a lot of goals that I’ve set in the past and as you achieve your goals, you have to set new ones and I have big goals to achieve, so I’ve got to keep working towards those things and to do my best to be my best. 

Thanks for your time. What do you think? Can you win this thing in 2023?
Yeah, I believe that I can and I just need to do everything that I can each time and really focus on myself and I guess not put an exact number or a result. I just need to do what my best is and I’ll be happy with that. I’m very excited and ready to go racing.

Images by Octopi Media