Everyone thinks the déjà vu moment in the 250SX class this year is the fact that one can say “Lawrence won again” no matter what coast they are speaking about. However, what about the fact that four out of five West Coast podiums have been the exact same. With Jett Lawrence winning and RJ Hampshire in second, usually by way of a late race pass on Cameron McAdoo to get there.
Lawrence is great at getting out front and managing his lead from there. Hampshire and McAdoo are doing everything they can to get up there and battle with and possibly take a win from Lawrence, but in reality, the real battle is between the two of them. It is a battle that McAdoo seems pretty frustrated with coming up on the losing end over and over. The two of them answered questions in the post-race press conference regarding the pass.
Was it a hard track to make passes on?
Cameron McAdoo: Uhh… RJ figured it out on the last lap.
RJ Hampshire: I mean yeah, I struggled in my heat race, you seen that. My start was bad, and it was three laps to go and I was still in like sixth or something. For me I did struggle but in the main event I did have a couple of areas picked out. The sand I jumped that kind of triple thing into the wall, that was the only time I did that all day, and it was to make that pass. It was just you had to catch the guy in front of you off guard to make it.
When you passed Cameron did you have that spot picked out or is that when it presented itself?
Hampshire: The first-time kind of. The second time, I thought that was the last lap, my pitboard said “Two to go” two laps before that. So, we kind of got side by side before that, going through the whoops, because I thought that was the last lap and there was a lapper split between us, and I seen he wasn’t going to protect the inside, so I squared up and kind of shot. Literally I thought that was the last corner so of course that’s what I was going to do.
RJ, what’s it like, you and Cameron are battling the last few minutes of the race, you have a track that’s wearing out and the lappers. Take me through that as you are setting up for that pass.
Hampshire: Yeah, I was kind of the opposite of Jett tonight, I felt like crap in practice, my heat race was terrible. And then the main event the opening laps weren’t that great. Then I found my lines and I was hitting my lines really well. And that’s kind of when I was making that push, after I passed Cam the first time and was closing the gap quite a bit. What caused those two really bad laps I had was the lappers. My lines that I had were really good but I couldn’t take those because they [lappers] were rolling. So just to switch those up, and I need to be better at adapting to those lines, I just stick to mine. And yeah, once Cam got me, I am like I need to regroup here, kind of settle back down, I rolled the rhythm, I don’t know why I did that. Then I rolled the next double too by the mechanics area. Then I look up and I am like, “I just gave him three or four seconds,” so at the time I am like, “Dude I got three laps to go.” I’m not sure what the times were but I feel like I made a pretty heavy push with how gnarly the track was deteriorating. It was kind of all or nothing for me at that point.
You could see the disappointment on McAdoo’s face in the press conference, and he did not have too much to say at that point. Luckily Steve Matthes caught up with him afterwards where he was much more open about his disappointment.
Racer X Online: Cameron McAdoo, you have a podium, you rode well, that’s good. But this RJ Hampshire passing you late thing has to be, I don’t know, maybe you can put a positive spin on it, but you’ve got to be pretty frustrated.
Cameron McAdoo: Yeah, I mean obviously it's getting very frustrating, there’s no positive spin on getting passed with a lap to go. There’s a lot of positives that I am taking out of tonight from myself. We made some changes from the last few races, and we were really racey all main event. It was tight, and I had some good lines. I had a really good line in the whoops that I got going, and honestly a big thing was just to hit those rhythms every time. With five laps to go I had like three really good laps and I was hitting everything really good and I pulled a pretty good gap. I was really close to the leader [Jett Lawrence] and then the next lap with two to go, the rhythm after the finish line we were going double-triple-triple, and obviously the ruts in the triples were pretty tough and I went two and I missed my line to go three and I cased the first three really hard and I had to go double single into the turn. I did really think that I had lost as much time as I must have, and then by the time I got around to the whoops, I went into the whoops behind, I think it was five lappers. It might have been three, but it felt like five. Two of the guys went to the far right which is where I was blitzing. Which I think I was one of the only guys doing that, I think they went there to get out of the way assuming we were going to the middle. It was just really tough, I had one more ahead of me and I went below him in the turn and I had no clue that RJ was even there, and he missed the whole turn. He made it happen. He made the decision…
It borderline could have been bad for both of you, but he got it done.
McAdoo: I mean we are racing dirtbikes and this is our job. I understand it, I am doing the same thing. So, I am not putting any blame. He did what he needed to do, but I am frustrated obviously, with the end result. Proud of my ride, happy with my ride, but that’s happened three times this year and that’s a lot of money dude. That’s a lot of money out of my pocket. Money, points, everything. Pride. What we all work for. So yeah, I am frustrated with that, but I am going to hold my head high. I’ve seen a couple of times on TV when I rewatch the race and it bums me out the way I look on the podium. I’m like, “Man I need to do better.” Sometimes it's hard when you’re in the moment. But I have to go back a few years ago, one of my really close friends and mentor Justin Brayton, I talk to him all the time, and he told me this year after either the second or third race and I was really frustrated he said, “Hey dude, be proud of where you are at, someone told me early in my career that Ernesto Fonseca didn’t know his last podium.” And that rang so true. I need cherish this, but not be completely content, which I am not. I want to win.