Somewhat under the radar a bit because of missed time, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Cameron McAdoo is looking to stay upright and consistent in 2024. If he can do that, and we know he has speed, he should be there in the mix for a title indoors and maybe out. We caught up to McAdoo on the PulpMX Show last Monday to chat about staying healthy, his new teammates, his bike, and more.
Racer X Online: It’s November. You’re deep into boot camp. Deep into prepping. How’s it going?
Cameron McAdoo: Things have been well. It’s been obviously kind of the same old for all of us. This is kind of the time of the year where we’re all pretty heads down and riding four days a week. It’s pretty grind time right now, but it’s been going really well. I’ve been enjoying it. I love this time of year. I really like this process of the work, which actually probably helps me out just in general. I can’t imagine hating it, because there’s so much of it. But it’s been going good.
When you do prep, you’re a veteran now. You’re not a kid anymore. When you’re doing the off-season prep, I think we know you can win races. You have to stay on two wheels and stay healthy and you can win races. That almost is, in my opinion, not even something you can fix one way or another. Small things you can do, sure, but it kind of is what it is. Motorcycle racing is dangerous. So, what can you work on? Do you specifically target areas in this boot camp, in this off-season that you need to do better?
Yeah, definitely. I don't think for me it’s necessarily sections on the track. I think it’s more so specifying what I need to do better as a rider and in general. Even down to the staying healthy part. I’ve obviously had some injuries that have been pretty unfortunate or things maybe I couldn’t control. But also, I’ve had my fair share of injuries that I could control. Obviously, racing dirt bikes is a dangerous sport, but some of the greatest guys, they didn’t get injured for a reason. It’s not just luck. I think that there’s times where we can be unlucky, but also [Eli] Tomac and [Ryan] Dungey, they stayed healthy for a reason. That’s kind of something that I’ve been really working on, even the last couple years where, figuring out the reasons. What was the reason for that crash? It’s pretty hard as an athlete to take full responsibility. It’s easy to be like, “Well, this happened and that’s why that happened.” There’s a reason why all of that happened.
So, I think seeing that and taking responsibility of what has happened in the past. To answer your question a little bit more directly, there’s definitely areas and things that I work on. My coach, Nick Wey, he’s obviously very good at breaking it down and breaking down the reasons why the guys win that are winning consistently. Makes it a little less rocket science. Sometimes it can seem pretty hard, but it is hard. We’re racing dirt bikes at the highest level.
![Cameron and his wife Maddie McAdoo.]()
Cameron and his wife Maddie McAdoo. Align Media ![]()
Align Media
Skip Norfolk: I think breaking it down like that, you can sit there in the room in your chair and you’re looking at the video and you’re looking at all this stuff and it could be somewhat simple to see it, but it can be extremely difficult to execute it every moment you’re on the bike. You alluded to that. That’s the challenge. How do you not find yourself in those positions?
Yeah, exactly. Really there’s 30 of us. There’s literally 30 guys who can do all the things right. We can all do it, but to do it 26 laps and consistently every weekend, that’s what we’re working for. Everyone’s fast. Everyone has speed. Everyone can do it fast. Not everyone, I’m just saying a large group of guys.
I don't know if there’s something to the guys that stayed healthy. You mentioned Dunge, and that was a phenomenal run. He broke his collarbone one year and then of course he had the neck injury that kind of put him out. But, remarkable run. Ryan Villopoto though, missed as many outdoor seasons as he won. Ricky [Carmichael] missed one supercross season with an ACL. I saw Ricky have some horrendous crashes in practice or whatever, and the dude just bounced up. Even Nick [Wey], he raced forever without really getting hurt. He kind of hurt his back there near the end at Millville, but Nick was really a picture of consistency for a long time and made him a lot of money. He had a really successful time because he stayed healthy. I don't know if there’s something to staying healthy. Correct me if I’m wrong. I just think it’s like body chemistry and maybe something mental, but I don't know if a guy can work on that. I don't know if you can see a rider turn a corner and be like, “Hey, I’m healthy now. I changed something.” I just think it’s sometimes just dumb luck of our sport. No?
Yeah, I would love to chalk it up to that, being that I’ve been injured in some way the last few years at some point. So, that would be the easy route I think for me to say, “I’ve been unlucky, I’ve been unlucky.” But at some point, I guess maturity-wise and everything, I need to figure out what caused it. I think early on in my career, there would be times where I would justify why it happened in my head so many ways to not make it your fault. I do believe there is unlucky. Honestly, someone like Jeffrey Herlings. That guy, his injuries lately have been just like crazy things have happened where it’s like, man. You just got to feel for him. I think it’s really important for me to work on taking full responsibility for what’s happened, and whether it be things that seem like it was out of your hands, but we’re assuming a super high risk and so how can we keep that risk to a minimum as much as possible. That’s I think what some of the guys who stayed healthy and stay healthy for a lot of years have been really good at doing, is minimizing the risks, unnecessary risks maybe, whether it be on a practice day or wherever. Like I said, it’s just something that I’m really working on. That was like last year coming into the season, I was very focused on racing all the races. I really wanted to race outdoors obviously, because I hadn’t raced outdoors in a couple years.
My main goal and my end goal in the next two years is to do well on a big bike eventually. I think in order to have those opportunities, I need to go show what I’m capable of on outdoors and show that I’m capable of racing the whole season. Last season was obviously pretty tough, and even the year before when I got hurt mid-supercross on press day. That was super hard to wrap my head around. But again, whether it be not fully mentally engaged or whatever the reason being, there’s a reason for all of it.
East or west? Do you have a preference on what you want to race?
I prep every year to be ready [for West Region]. I think everyone kind of knows Mitch [Payton] really kind of keeps it to himself pretty late. I think for that reason, to make sure all the guys are just ready. I prep as if I’m going racing right away, and then whatever it becomes, it becomes. I raced west last year. The two years prior I raced east. Actually, 2021 I raced technically west, but it was all East-Coast tracks because it was that weird year. But I really like the East-Coast tracks. I like the stadiums, the stadium-style tracks. They get a little bit softer. Just the shorter times and more laps. I feel that that suits me. But at the same time, like I said, at the end of the day, my goal is to be racing all 17 of them here in the next few years. So, I need to be ready for whatever it is.
No secret that your team’s bikes got better in the outdoors at some point, and the holeshots were coming. Without giving us the usual rider bull crap about “never felt better on my bike,” how is your bike compared to when you got off of it? Did the gains carry over to supercross?
Obviously, I spent quite a bit of time off the bike this summer, but I stayed as close as I could to knowing what was going on. It was pretty direct I think right when they introduced some of the new stuff with our bike. You could tell right away. They were all up front pretty consistently. I have been extremely happy with the progress that they’ve made from supercross last year. Actually, when I got hurt in supercross last year, we had just found some of those new improvements. They found some improvements. I think that they have just continued to improve upon those. Actually, this last week I was doing some of the new engine testing of what they have brought to the table now. I’m really happy with it. It suits me, like the way I need to ride and the way I like to ride. So, I like what they’ve done with the bike, for sure. As everyone kind of saw, for sure in the starts and just everywhere, all of our guys last year toward the end of outdoors were doing well.
Your new teammates, Max Vohland, and Levi Kitchen. Did you get to know them a little bit? Did you spend a lot of time around them?
Yeah. I actually have quite a bit, because we’ve all been riding together. Levi will be staying on the East Coast, I believe, but up until the photo shoot time he’s been out here. I knew Levi prior to him coming to the team very well. He’s a super cool kid. He and I have always got along really well. He’s fun to ride with. Not an ego guy. We can do a moto together. Max is cool, too. I never had ever really even talked to him prior to coming to the team. He’s a nice kid. Fairly quiet, but he does some cool stuff on the bike too. At the end of the day, it seems like he doesn’t really want to end the day at the track without going and having some fun on his dirt bike, which is kind of cool to see. Obviously, a lot of times especially myself too, you go there and just work, work, work, work, work and then get out of your gear and leave and go to the gym and do whatever. But he’ll go out and play around with little quirky wheel-tap stuff, and just different bike skill stuff. I think everyone has really seen that with him. He’s kind of a BMX-type guy. It’s kind of cool to watch. He was wheel-tapping this thing at the Kawi test track the other day when I was getting undressed in the back of my truck and I’m like, holy crap. That’s big. I think he posted a video of it on his Instagram, but it doesn’t really justify it. It’s fun to have new people around and new people to ride with.
Can you imagine if yourself, [Austin] Forkner, [Seth] Hammaker, we already know Kitchen is amazing. If you, Seth, and Austin can just stay healthy this year, you guys can have the glory years of Pro Circuit when Skip worked there. They could come back. You guys have the potential.
That’s the goal. That’s what I’m working for. I know that for sure. I assume I could speak to the other guys. We all want to win really badly. We put everything into this.
Last year of your contract for you?
Yeah, it is.
You mentioned something about a couple things, but the one that stuck out was you saw Max kind of having fun riding his dirt bike. Do you still have fun riding your dirt bike? Or has it become a bit of a grind or a bit of a job?
I really have fun. Actually, what’s the most fun to me is the work. I think it almost sounds cliche, but I smile ear to ear leaving the track when it’s been a tough day, a lot of laps. I have something to be proud of. That’s kind of me as a person in general. Even if I’ve been injured, I need to do something each day that I’m proud of what I did that day. Whether it be building something at our house. So, I think that’s what’s fun for me, as I grow into an adult. I really enjoy the process of it. I enjoy being there late and changing stuff on the bike, and then finding something that was good or figuring out that something wasn’t so good. I really do enjoy the work part of it. So, like I said, I think it’s kind of like different strokes for different folks. Some guys have to just go play ride to have fun, but I really have fun just improving. I can’t sit here and be like, some days I don’t wake up like, man, two 20s is going to be rough today, and I’m really sore from Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and it’s a Friday. But I really do still have fun on my dirt bike. I guess five years ago me, where I’m at right now, I would have signed up ten times over and wouldn’t have believed you. That’s kind of what keeps it fun for me is I guess my story and what I’m achieving or what I have achieved. My new goals are so far-fetched to the Cameron McAdoo of maybe seven years ago.
Check out the full segment with McAdoo on episode #564 on the PulpMX Show below, with McAdoo calling in around the 2:31:43 mark.
