One of the early feel-good stories of the year has come from long-time privateer Joshua Cartwright finding his way right into two of the first three 450SX main events of the year. Having only made two 450SX main events in his career coming into 2023, Cartwright qualified straight out of the heat race in San Diego and then qualified right into the main event in the Triple Crown in Anaheim 2. He earned a career best 450SX result with 18th in San Diego and put three solid rides together in Anaheim to take home 21st overall.
For a guy working a day job during the week and then going to battle with the long list of factory riders on the weekend, it’s certainly raising some eyebrows in a good way. After his second straight main event in Anaheim, we caught up with Cartwright to hear all about his story in 2023.
Racer X: Take us through your night, because you actually made it in right out of qualifying which is obviously a huge plus for you. And then 21st overall, but I think you were probably just happy to avoid the carnage and stay out of it tonight, right?
Joshua Cartwright: Yeah, exactly. At 17th [in qualifying] I was happy just to not do the LCQ. That’s a big part of just all that this weekend. And first main, I was in about 15th, 16th. I was holding off like McElrath, Bloss, all those good riders. I was really happy with it. But then I kind of just hit a wall a little bit at around the eight-minute mark and fell back to 18th. So, I was happy with that ride but that definitely kind of smoked me a little bit. I only had about a month on the bike before the season from an injury. So, I really worked on my heat race stuff. So now that I’m in mains, it’s time to really start working on getting into those twenty lappers and everything and working on my conditioning.
Well, you’ve been really impressive through these last couple of rounds. I think most people know you’re like a desk job guy and then you come race on the weekends. Pretty wild program.
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I work in IT. BI analyst. I work remote but I go into the office one day a week. So, at first it was three days, then they bumped it down to two. Now it’s one. So, that definitely helps with like the riding and training and traveling. I went to school for IT. That was my whole little thing a couple years ago. So, I just kept it rolling. This sport, it’s a lot of fun but I definitely need a backup plan. So, especially when you’re just kind of like a privateer. I’m not worried about going to the line, and being like, “Oh, man, I need this money to go to my gas.” I’m like, “Dude, I’m just out here having fun racing my dirt bike. That’s what the dream is. It’s what I love.
Starting the year off as well as you have, have you kind of almost surprised yourself a little bit? I feel like we’re a little bit surprised to see you qualify right in third round of the year into a Triple Crown. But how do you actually feel about it?
Yeah, I definitely surprised myself a little bit. I definitely knew I had this speed in me for the past couple years. A couple injuries kind of pushed me back, but last year I showed a little bit. Last year in the 250 I was inconsistent, but this year definitely just being back on the 450, being on my own program. Just like doing my own stuff. Having fun with it. I think just having a good home life. Just all that just comes together and lets me have fun at the races. I’m not just like worried like, if I do bid a team is like looking at me like, “Yo, what’s going on?” Now I’m just like having fun with my mechanic, Miles. Just chilling.
And then you said you’re coming off an injury, so you’re getting kind of back into the swing of things too. Is there some progress that you’re looking forward to making in the next couple weeks? The ceiling for you is even higher.
Yeah, exactly. So now that I know that I am a main event guy, I’m going to be in there every weekend hopefully. I’m going to start working on my 20s, my 25s, and getting that conditioning up so I can start getting up there each weekend, because I want to get a top 15. I know I can be there, around that Chisholm area. So, just start working on stuff like that.
