Between the Motos: Mitch Payton

So, that’s where my next question was going. This is the older, softer, cuddlier Mitch Payton, because I can’t believe you let this kid, who’s still relatively young, call his shots.
Well, it’s really not. If you think, we’ve had some fairly good success with Ricky (Carmichael) when he rode for us. I only saw Ricky one week for supercross and one week for outdoors. He was down there, and he did his program. You always think being out of state is going to be hard, and it is more difficult, but that was one of the quote “sales” features for us, was to give Levi a little more freedom where he wasn’t locked in on riding the same track every day, with the same guys every single day. He wanted a little more freedom. If I wanted him, I had to do that. So, I think it’s worth doing.

The Max Vohland deal. It was on, it was off, it was on, it was off. Tallon, his dad, rode for you. Max missed some main events, unbelievably. He’s also gotten fifth overall outdoors one year. So, what do you see in him?
When I watch him ride, I think his bike skills and technique is really good. So, unless I’m too old and my eyes are bad, there’s something there. I feel like he’s got something that you’ve got to get. So, for me, it was a little bit of a hard sell maybe with Kawi because they didn’t know if we needed him, and he hasn’t won yet. But I’m confident this year he’ll win races.

What was the problem with him? Missing the mains, making dumb mistakes? Have you addressed this, or is there even anything to address? Is it just new team, new start?
No, we talked about it. I said, what happened those nights? A lot of it was, “Well, I got bad start.” Well then you need to work on starts. So, just all the little things. I think he feels pretty comfortable on the bike. He really likes everything about it. It handles good. The engine is good. So, I said, you’re happy. You’ve got good technique. You say the bike is good. So, the last part of the equation is just you and fitness. So now if we have that, I think he’s a full package.

And he’s going to be tethered here more?
Yeah, but if he wants to go somewhere and do a little riding off and on, I don't care either.

We were talking about your team on my show, and potentially without injuries, you can be back on top. But you have a high-risk team. If it comes together, it’s going to be the old days. But we don’t know. Forkner, Seth, and Cameron (McAdoo). Do you feel like that too?
Yeah. I feel like all the teams are high risk, pretty much. I looked last year, and I think we were in Denver or somewhere like that and KTM didn’t have a rider there. There was no one there. Or maybe Max was there. Maybe that was their only guy, or maybe no one. I don't know. But, to see those guys go through it. Star had a rough year the year before. It’s injury related. We want them to go fast. They practice a lot. The potential for falling down every once in a while, is going to happen. If you’re lucky, they don’t get hurt and they get up. Sometimes it’s “Oh, gosh, that was terrible.” Or they break a collarbone or something stupid and then you’re out.

So, you don’t feel like your team is more risky injury-wise?
No. I think you have to say it’s purely luck. Austin got hurt last year at Anaheim by wheelying and getting his foot caught and jacked him up. So, that’s a racing deal. And he qualified fastest. So, he can ride good. Just the little mistakes. We’ve got to stop those mistakes.

I’m a big fan of Hammaker. He seems like a really good kid.
Great kid.

His mom was really nice. I’m a big fan. Well-spoken. He can be a champion, I think. We have issues staying healthy, but do you see that in him?
Yeah, I do. I wouldn’t hang onto him if I didn’t believe that. What I really like about him is he really will do anything that you ask of him. He’s got his diet straight. He’s training. He’s doing his work. We’ve just got to keep him healthy. I feel like he can do it. I know that he’s got the talent to do it.

You’re an icon in the industry and you’ve got all these titles, the history, but it’s been rough lately. Obviously, Kawasaki is footing the bill for you and you’re spending a lot of money also. You probably get the most money from sponsors of any independent team in the sport from your sponsors, because of your legacy and the things you bring. But it hasn’t always translated to titles. Do you feel pressure at this point?
Yeah. I feel pressure from not being able to deliver. I would feel more pressure if it was something that we were doing, something that I think we’re doing to cause it. Or if maybe we failed on the bike, to not have it perform at the level that they want it to perform at. But we’ve more than doubled down on all that to try to make it better and better and better. I’m doing everything I can do. I don't think I’m doing anything different than we used to do. It’s just unfortunate or not as lucky. When you had RV or somebody like that, there was three years in a row healthy. RC, healthy. They’re just healthy. They hauled ass. They crashed sometimes. I remember Ricky one year at Hangtown hurt his shoulder and went the hospital and was going to get it looked at. There wasn’t enough time, and he came back and it was, “It’s killing me.” Second-place start, weeds it. Still gets back up. It’s just kind of almost luck of the draw, a little bit.

In your eyes, nothing has changed on your side from your program? I think you finding this power last summer and pulling starts from all your guys shows that you’re still on your game, per se. You’re not just sitting back and resting and drinking Coors Lights.
No. We have more things we’re going to try still. I want to make it better. There’s got to be a way to make it better than we are right now. Everything is an infinite amount of effort. The last pieces become harder because the easy parts come quick. You get to a certain level pretty quick and those last little bits, it takes a little bit from this part, a little bit from that part. Then you try this, and something you tried before and maybe dig it out again. Then you just keep moving on it.

I want to get your opinion on a couple things outside the industry. Triumph, Ducati is coming in. Triumph is here. Beta is here. It’s good because it’s going to sell more pipes for you, because these bikes are coming out. That’s awesome. But also coming to the sport as a competitor, right?
Yeah. I think having more manufacturers is positive. I think it makes the sport look better. The only thing I wonder is when you wind up with all these guys and maybe from the outside looking in, it looks easy. Maybe it is easy for them. I don't know. Maybe I’m wrong. But it may not be as easy as maybe they think, or maybe the end goals won’t be as high as they maybe speculate. I speculate whether the volume is there for them to get involved. But if they speculate it is, maybe that’s good for the overall growth of everything. Somebody crunched some numbers and said, this is doable.

Read about the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's 2023 season in the November 2023 issue of Racer X Illustrated below:

It is crazy, in this time of bike sales that are kind of flat, if not down, that they are jumping in. So, that’s good.
Yeah. I think they’re a little flat because we went through that little spurt with COVID where everybody was flush with money. Maybe did they all buy bikes then? The average guy doesn’t buy a bike every year. So maybe we got to wait another year or so and it cycles through, or something like that. Then the clothing guys, they got overloaded with clothes. Everybody overloaded with stuff. Still truthfully, one of the biggest problems is getting people to work.  

Sexton to KTM. Supercross champion. Jumping to a new bike. It’s definitely something that we’ve seen before, but four times I think in the history of the sport it’s happened. What do you make of that?
KTM. So, big company. They’ve proven that they can build really good equipment. So, they’ve done that. Maybe they have been through a little bit of a slump, too. I know Roger (DeCoster) and Roger wants talent. It drives him nuts to lose, too. To try to get Chase, who is obviously one of the best riders, too. So, him to make that move, he seems happy over there. It’s his chance to prove he’s the guy. He does have the number-one plate. But it will not be easy. It is a different bike. There’s probably a lot to learn. There’s probably a lot of testing.

I’m not positive where that puts him against Jett (Lawrence) or somebody, because Jett is pretty phenomenal, too. He’s something special, too. So, both of those two, when I look at them, they both kind of have similar technique. Stand up a lot, all that kind of stuff. Nice style. It might be a war. Might be really good. Honestly, I kind of think (Eli) Tomac is not done. I think he had a year off or whatever, half a year off, and he was still kind of right there. He was right there before he got hurt. I probably don’t assume he’ll lay down. Cooper Webb is on a different bike. Maybe he’ll be in there.

Roczen will be in there every so often.
Ken is amazing. So, he’ll be up there, too. Jason [Anderson] I think will be there. Adam is doing better than he did last year. It’s going to be one of those things. We say it every year. There’s probably going to be ten guys that can win races.

And then there will be four!
Well, it will narrow down probably. Even without injury. They’ll find themselves in spots where the same guys are the podium guys every week. They’re going to work their way up. Good start, bad start. They’re going to figure it out.

When I talked to the MX Sports people and the Feld people, they tell me the SMX series was phenomenal and incredible and the next great thing in our sport. Where are you at, though? I always like getting your opinion. As a guy that at one point told the AMA, “I’m not doing your stupid meetings because nothing changes,” tell me what you think?
Well, they don’t. I still don’t know that they listen completely. They don’t even talk to us no more. They talk to the manufacturers only and they don’t have an advisory board or whatever. I think they talk to the manufacturers, and the manufacturers of course spend the most money, so that’s probably okay. But they also need to remember that there are some satellite teams that are putting in quite a bit of money, too. And they need to take care of us also.

So where are you at on these SMX races?
Well, there’s three more races or whatever. Two more, really. But I think they did really good. I think it was a good event. I know that we’re probably not going to go back there, but I loved Los Angeles. I thought it was really cool to go back there. That was really neat. I thought Chicagoland, I really didn’t think they were going to get anybody, and I thought they did good there. That was good. I didn’t go to Charlotte. I don't remember why. I think I was sick or something like that. Overall, I think it was good. Maybe trim a bad race out of something. Try to get it back down to maybe 30.