Caden Braswell won last year’s AMA Nicky Hayden Amateur Horizon Award at the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch. While not as high-profile as other newcomers into the ranks like Haiden Deegan or Chance Hymas, Braswell, he did net a ride with Phoenix Racing Honda for Monster Energy AMA Supercross, but that team chose not to race the AMA Pro Motocross Championship this season. Luckily, Braswell got a fill-in shot with Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas for four rounds while Pierce Brown is out with an injury.
This puts Caden in a tough spot, as Fox Raceway actually marked his first-ever Pro Motocross race (he raced the Amateur Scouting Combine last year at RedBud), yet he’s also trying to show the industry what he can do. That’s a lot on his plate.
You’d expect this to be a stressful experience, and Braswell logged 18-18 results for 19th overall. There’s more to this story, though. Caden Braswell is one of the nicest riders you’ll ever speak to, and his politeness and courtesy gives a different spin on the day than juist talking about the result. He’s just genuinely happy to have the opportunity.
Our Kellen Brauer talked to him about it after the race.
Racer X: Caden Braswell debut, first of all let’s talk about that because it's your first time riding the nationals so talk about your experience racing these motos for the first time.
Caden Braswell: Well, they were a little bit more than I expected I am not going to lie. I didn’t quite meet my expectations. So, it frustrated the living tar out of me. I will say I had a blast, and I did it for a great team, Red Bull Troy Lee Designs GasGas. We got here this morning, coolest rig in the pits, music was playing, it was just amazing. And then they show us our gear for the day and it's this Sony Spiderman gear, insane. So, I knew I was the coolest looking dude out there, other than my teammate. We were the coolest people out there. I felt cool, everything was just coming together, and I was like, “Alright today is a good day to have a good day.” And then I raced, you know? And they’re very gracious, the bike deserves to win, and I didn’t put it up there as far as I wanted to and that frustrates me. But looking to the positives I got to spend my Saturday racing for a really cool team at an awesome place, and great competition. I had a blast, I am not going to lie. I gave it my best that’s all I can do. It just eats at me a little bit ya know? It lights a fire under your belly. Coming into Hangtown I want to improve a lot. I don’t want to be the guy that lists off all of my sponsors, but we have a lot of cool sponsors that support our team and make all of this possible. It's actually a pretty cool story behind today. So Mr. Troy Lee painted the top of my helmet, and I was like, “No way, THE Troy Lee painted my helmet.” And just little things like that just made my day. I’ve got a great team around me and some amazing supporters that are making this possible. So just a big thank you to them and then all of the glory to God.
Just tell me what this opportunity of getting to race for a factory program is like. I know for now it is only going to be four rounds. But getting the opportunity to come under a factory rig and kind of learn that process and also get the machinery underneath of you, what’s that like?
It's amazing. I was with TLD for a long time as an amateur, they got me when I first got on 85’s and we have a good standing relationship with them, we always jelled. This is always where I wanted to be, maybe under a little bit different circumstances instead of “Hey, here is four races for a fill in, make it count so maybe we can keep you” but it is an amazing opportunity. I am real grateful to God that all this came together. Mr. Max Lee [Team Manager], I’m very, very grateful that he allowed me to come and ride his bike.
You say that you expect more out of yourself for these next three rounds, so what is it that you learned today that you want to work on a little bit going into the next couple of rounds.
I think the main thing is just intensity. It's not big margins at this point in time, it's just that little bit more momentum. An analogy I could put out there is you come into a turn at ten miles an hour, you slam on the brakes and go through the turn at five miles an hour and then back up to ten, 20 miles an hour. If you come into the turn at maybe seven miles and then maybe eight through the turn and then pick up the speed quicker coming out, that’s the kind of things where people are picking up those spaces, those gaps. And then just being able to make it really, really consistent. This bike really helps with that because the bike is really consistent, you just know what you are going to get. And training and racing having that really consistent set up helps grow and learn and built that trust in the bike to where when you go out there on race day you’ve done it a million times.