Jalek Swoll’s season—and time with Husqvarna—has come to an end. The long-time Husqvarna rider finished 6-8 for eighth overall and claimed tenth in the 250SMX SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum finale. Our Steve Matthes caught up with Swoll after the race.
Racer X: You’re way too young to appreciate the history here, but was it cool to go up and down the peristyle? I mean, you know about the history of this thing, so was it cool?
Jalek Swoll: The only thing I know is [Brian] Deegan doing the ghost ride thing [in 1997] because everyone was walking around with T-shirts today. I’m a little young to know the history here, but it was a sick venue. Going up and down, it was a little sketchy. But it was pretty cool, it was unique. This was by far the best SMX round I think. Way better passing and racing and everything. This is the one I had the most fun on.
Good first moto for you.
It was a good first moto. Got up there, had a good start, ran third for a while, and ultimately finished sixth. It was weird coming back to supercross. Yeah, I did a lot of outdoor rounds, but there’s nothing like supercross, you know? I had those jitters a little bit. It took me a while to get out of that. Sixth, it’s okay, I was up there with those guys. In the second moto, really, really bad start, almost dead last. I kind of spun, I feel like we got to the plywood on the start. I felt like I rode way better in that second moto than I did in the first, so there are some takeaways from it.
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Overall, what’d you think of the SMX thing? Just three races, motocross, supercross, hybrid, what’d you think?
Bro, those first two were pretty tough.
Chase Sexton told me he’s never been more sore than after Charlotte.
Dude I raced on supercross suspension the whole time and it was gnarly. We definitely have some things to work on next year for that. Setting your bike up for that was like a horror movie. It was pretty gnarly. But all in all, I think it was pretty good. I think we just need to work on passing opportunities a little bit. I feel like they made the tracks a little too fast to really be racy.
Too easy for you guys?
Not too easy, just fast! Chicago was wide open, front to back, and it’s hard to pass on stuff like that. This race… You watched it, did it seem like there was more passing?
Maybe a little bit, I don’t know. It was kind of a freight train.
When you have bowl turns, I feel like it’s a little more dicey, it’s fun like that. Next year, if we had to redo it, I feel like if they made bowl turns it’d help it a little bit.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Qualifying Points | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Haiden Deegan | Temecula, CA  | 554 | 157 |
| 2 |  Jo Shimoda | Suzuka, Japan  | 468 | 152 |
| 3 |  R.J. Hampshire | Hudson, FL | 474 | 122 |
| 4 |  Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA | 478 | 114 |
| 5 |  Jordon Smith | Belmont, NC | 234 | 110 |
| 6 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 399 | 101 |
| 7 |  Max Vohland | Sacramento, CA | 416 | 98 |
| 8 |  Tom Vialle | Avignon, France  | 422 | 90 |
| 9 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 660 | 89 |
| 10 |  Jalek Swoll | Belleview, FL | 221 | 88 |
Farewell ride for you here, you’re going to a new team next year. You won a race with these guys, you had some setbacks, and you made some progress. Is it bittersweet? Are you looking forward to the challenge? What’s the mood like?
It’s super bittersweet. I’ve been with these guys since I was 14 years old, and I’m 22 now. It’s been a long road and I’ve got a lot of love for these guys here. They’ve treated me really good. I just had a really good opportunity to get back with some guys who have my full interest, and are a family to me. I had to jump on that opportunity, and I’m excited to see what the future holds. We’ve accomplished some good things, we’ve had podiums here. Even this year I came in behind the eight ball, but I still feel like in outdoors I was showing flashes again, so the speed is there. These guys treated me good and helped me the whole time. I’m super grateful for this team, and I’m looking forward to the future.
It's going to be weird not having a white fender in front of you, right?
Yeah, it’s gonna be weird. It’s not gonna be white, it’s gonna be black. I’m still gonna come over here and talk some shit though. We’re gonna be good!
