One of the coolest stories of the summer is that of Wildcat Race Team, which was started by Lorenzo Locurcio and consists of Locurcio (now injured) and Jose Butron. Like any privateer team, money is always in short supply, and some non-traditional title sponsors have stepped in at different rounds to help out. First it was PulpMX, then it was the Salt Lake City-based punk rock band, Racist Kramer, at Washougal. You might find the name offensive, and that’s okay, but please know the meaning behind it might not be what you think, as Racist Kramer bassist James Peterson explains at then end of the following interview. Peterson also told us about his love of moto, how the decision to sponsor the team came about, and possible future plans for staying involved in the sport.
How’d you end up sponsoring Wildcat racing?
Peterson: I heard about it initially by listening to PulpMX. Steve [Matthes] was talking about how these guys didn’t have a title sponsor, and we were luckily in a position where we had a little extra money. I’ve always been a big moto fan, and it seemed like the right move.
As in, it seemed like something fun? Or you wanted to help the team out?
Both. There are different facets as to why we wanted to do it. Obviously we want to increase our exposure. I don’t know how true this is, but there’s a rumor that’s been going around that there are 60,000 new audio files uploaded to Spotify every single day. Sure, it’s easier to get your music in front of people than it was twenty or thirty years ago, but there’s also a lot more music out there. Finding a new audience, I think, is probably on the same level of difficulty as it’s always been, so that was part of it for us. The chance to help a race team that needed a few extra bucks was great too. We didn’t give them a lot of money, we’re not a huge band, but we figured it’ll at least put gas in the truck for a few rounds.
Are the other band members into moto too?
One other guy, our drummer, Jared, grew up on quads and he’s got a Harley now. I’m the only guy in the band who follows motocross racing.
Was it hard to talk the guys into it?
Yes and no. I think the idea of a band sponsoring a team was novel enough that they thought it was kind of cool. And punk rock and moto have a pretty long history together, and reminding those guys of that, and talking about those old VHS movies [Crusty Demons of Dirt, Terra Firma, etc.] we used to watch, they remembered that pretty quickly and got excited about it. It just seemed like a cool idea, and we thought people might take notice. I don’t think there were any delusions that it would vault us into the spotlight or anything. We just want to see more people at our shows who know our songs. If that means it goes from 100 people to 120 people, that’s great. Exposure and money were a factor, but it was maybe 25 percent.
You spent the day here with these guys at Wildcat. What’d you think? Is it kind of fun seeing the backside of it?
Oh yeah! Just as a fan of the sport, just sitting under the awning it’s like, ‘This is pretty cool!’ I’m trying not to fanboy out too hard! We were watching the 250 start earlier, and we’re standing next to Jett [Lawrence] and it’s like, ‘Wow, okay, there’s the guy right there who’s probably going to go win 22 motos this year. These guys have been so friendly and so cool. We were hoping to have the whole band here, and everybody but me ended up having things come up. I was a little worried about being here by myself, but these guys have been super friendly, and some of the other privateer guys who’ve stopped by have been super cool. I’m really enjoying it.
Another thing that’s been pretty wild is the speed. I’ve been to a lot of supercross races, but never a national before. The speed, when you’re six or seven feet away from the track, is unbelievable. It’s wild to have that perspective! After the whoops, there’s that single and kind of a turn that’s super rutted out right now. Everyone is fast, but Jett is jumping into the apex of the corner and he’s already lined up for the next one in, like, a second. It’s super impressive to watch that live.
How long have you guys been together as a band?
We started writing songs together at the end of 2006, so it’ll be 17 years for us here in November.
[For context, you need to know who Michael Richards is to understand the next question. The actor played the outrageous and beloved character, Kramer, in the smash hit ‘90s sitcom, “Seinfeld.” After the show ended Richards was filmed letting loose with a racist tirade in a comedy club when dealing with some hecklers during his set. It was the dawn of the camera phone era, and Richards was swiftly “canceled.”]
Talk about the name, Racist Kramer. It doesn’t mean what people might think.
Coming up with band names is always a nightmare and someone just said Racist Kramer. It was like a year after the Michael Richards thing. We just laughed and laughed. It was a little offensive, but it wasn’t overtly problematic. As an aside, one thing with Michael Richards, from what I’ve heard, he worked with Al Sharpton and the NAACP and really put some work in to try and make up for what he did. I think that’s laudable. A lot of celebrities don’t go through any trouble to try to make things right, let alone a lot of trouble. But anyway, we just thought it was funny at first, but when we heard about all that Al Sharpton stuff, it kind of morphed into a reminder of… I think a lot of people probably have some prejudice buried down at some level, and the idea of the unexplored self is a pretty old concept in philosophy. We want to be the kind of people who are concerned about becoming better, and helping our family and friends become better. It turned into a reminder of that, and something more meaningful than it was at first.
Yeah, Kramer was just this beloved character, so to hear the guy who played that character say those things was pretty jarring. It was a shock.
That was really half the surprise. The character on the show didn’t care who he was talking to, he was buddies with everyone. Obviously the actor and the character aren’t the same person, but that was part of it.
Any plans to be involved with moto again in the future?
We talked to Jordan Burns [former drummer of Strung Out] and we may be doing some things with him at some supercross races next year. And something I would like to do, to maybe help some of the privateers, we’d be open to paying to have some of our music used in, what are the kids calling them? Insta-bangers?
I have no idea, I’m almost 42.
[Laughs] As far as I’m concerned, the more we can help some privateer guys, it means more to us and I think it means more to them, versus getting on with a more established team. We’re looking at some different avenues, for sure.
Where can people get your music?
We’re streaming on all the standard platforms, and our website is RacistKramer.com.
