Between the Motos: Sexton & Ferrandis

Chase, you are leading the SMX points. Are you keeping any eye on those points or paying attention to them a little bit? It’s a lot of money on the line come the fall.
Sexton: Yeah. Obviously, I like to come into that series starting in the front, but right now like I said, my goal is to climb back up to where I was and start feeling a little bit better at the races. So, the goal obviously is to come into those leading, but as of right now I’m not super worried about it—at least right now.

Will this week be a normal training week for you, or do you think you’ll have to taper a little bit after this tough effort, so you have a full tank in Spring Creek?
Sexton: Yeah, definitely. I feel like I’m in good shape. I’ve just got to get back to feeling really good. I’ve been kind of trying to recover during the weeks and just dealing with a little bit of fatigue overall. This week I want to recover and come in swinging to Spring Creek. Obviously, I’ve ridden quite a few laps there growing up in the Midwest, so I like that track. Eli [Tomac] and I had a good battle there last year, so hopefully we can take that to our advantage and put some good motos in.

Dylan, what are you thinking about during the race? In these conditions, are you trying to manage yourself physically, going, “I’d like to go as fast as I can, but I have to do it efficiently?” What’s your thought process during the race? What are you thinking about?
Ferrandis: Today yeah, I think I was trying to manage my energy but normally no. I just don’t really think about anything. I just look at the gap with the guy in front, the guys behind, and just try to go as fast as I can without being out of control. I think I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t really think about anything. It’s become like normal, but it becomes so natural that I don’t really pay attention. When it’s racing, you’re in the zone and you don’t really think about something. You just do what you do in practice and what you do all your life under the helmet. Focus on the important stuff that you need to during a race, during a riding session. Pretty simple stuff. I don't think I think about anything crazy.

Do you ask your mechanic for certain things on the pit board? Do you ask him, just tell me what place I’m in, what minus or plus I am? Or what kind of things do you want your mechanic to put on the pit board?
Ferrandis: I like to know what the gap between the guys in front of me and the guys behind me. What section on the track I’m slow, I like to know that. Just lap time. It’s almost like, for us as a racer, we ride without the pit board. If you’re not first, you know what you have to do. You have to go faster and try to pass the guy. There’s not many…crazy information the mechanic can give. Sometimes yes, a little bit, if there’s a line on the track or a jump you need to jump, but most of the time, if you’re not first you have to go for it.

Chase, with the grates and all being the same, what is it that you look for when you take your starting spot, or you pick on the gate?
Sexton: The first thing I look at is obviously position on the gate and where I want to be for the first corner. Then once you kind of narrow that down, you look at what’s after the gate. I feel like this year, the ruts after the gate have been pretty deep, so it makes it a little bit more crucial to have a good time in practice so you can have first or second gate pick. But after that, kind of just position and how the rut is after the gate. First moto was a good start. First holeshot of the year in outdoors, so that was fun. Didn’t last too long, but it was better starts today and overall, I’m happy with that.