Privateer Logan Karnow has certainly made a name for himself over the last few seasons of Monster Energy AMA Supercross. After an odd situation with a sponsor left him without bikes in 2022, he went and bought his own Kawasaki’s and started making 450SX main events. Then for 2023, he signed a title sponsorship deal with OnlyFans which certainly turned a lot of heads. Though 2023 didn’t quite go how he wanted with results, Karnow was still very popular in the pits from week to week with fans flooding to his setup and the numbers showed with continued growth on his social media accounts. All of it has made him one of the more popular privateers of late and he has just recently announced he is continuing his OnlyFans-backed program for 2024. We caught up with him to hear more about it.
Racer X: Well, first of all I guess, tell me what the deal is. What's the plan? What's Logan Karnow’s deal for 2024?
Logan Karnow: Yeah, so basically just, I just recently resigned with OnlyFans for 2024 which is huge for me. It's exciting. They treat me super well and yeah, super stoked on it.
What uh does it entail? Anything different or is it a bit of like a similar program to last year again?
Yeah, pretty much the same deal as last year, which is awesome.
I see as well that you've been really kind of like funny lately on Instagram, which you always were, but you've been doing like more skits and stuff like that. Is that your own deal or is that like OnlyFans asking you to do some fun stuff too?
No, it's just me. I feel like I'm kind of starting to figure out how to, I guess in a way like kind of figure out the algorithm. Kind of what people think is funny like stupid stuff that gets the clicks. It's so weird because I feel like, I mean, you post like the sickest riding clip you can, and it doesn't do anything. But then I throw up a video throwing a thong out for like a split second and that video gets millions of views. It's so weird how it all works.
Well, that's why I asked if OnlyFans had any hand in it. Your Instagram following has gone up. Did that make it any easier going back to OnlyFans and be like, “Hey, this is what I bring to the table,” and all that?
Yeah, definitely. In my contract last year, obviously I have my numbers with my social media like my Tik Tok and Instagram and all that and then basically seeing that it went way up from last year was I think a good selling point for me because I'm kind of on the rise it seems like with my social media and stuff like that. So, I think they take that into consideration and yeah, they're pretty pumped on it.
What's the general reception you got this past year from the fans and stopped by the pits and everything and kind of see what you got going on?
Yeah, it's crazy dude. Like the last couple of years, nobody really cared about me, but like last year was insane. I would say I was probably one of the more popular privateers in the pits. It was crazy. Just kind of, I think because of my sponsors and just kind of being relatable and I just try to be cool to everybody.
Well, I mean, I know you said last year you really tried to open up more opportunities to get sponsors involved and stuff like that and it seems like you're kind of doing a similar program again this year. Is it still the same thing you're trying to branch out, get some more companies involved and stuff like that too?
Yeah, definitely. I got a lot of other people helping me out as well, which is cool. Not just OnlyFans and I feel like that's kind of the way to do it nowadays. Like, really a team's going to maybe give you a race bike and a practice bike and pay your travel expenses and that's pretty much it. You can't really do much else on your own, you know, because it's a team unless the team's getting money for it. So, I don't know, I feel like myself and [Kevin] Moranz have figured out a way to make money.
How has that I guess kind of changed your own program with training and being able to focus on the racing?
Yeah, it is a lot of work definitely doing my own thing. I mean, coming down to getting the EZ-Up done and getting all the logos and the right files and, you know, getting your money from all the sponsors and all that. I mean, it's a lot of work but really at the end of the day, it's totally worth it.
I know 2023 for you didn't go exactly how you wanted. It kind of started a little bit slow and it ended strong. But if you look back at the way things ended, did you take a lot of positives from the way that things turned around and kind of uptick towards the end of the year for you?
Yeah, I did for sure. I mean, obviously at the end of the year, it started thinning out, but I also started riding better. My confidence was getting higher, but I’ve had a really good off-season so far. I've been working my balls off and it's really showing. I can confidently say I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my entire life right now and I feel stronger than I ever have on the bike and my speed is pretty good. So, I'm really looking forward to this year. I think it'll be a good year.
What's your program like? You're in Florida, right?
Yeah, I'm down staying with one of my best friends down in Jacksonville and the owners of Waldo and WW Ranch have been amazing. They've built some nice supercross tracks out there and they help me out a lot. It's badass down here.
How much for you would you say having a consistent track or program that you can rely on week in and week out is for a privateer like you?
Yeah, it's definitely nice. I mean, showing up to the track and know when it's going be ready to go is a big weight off my shoulders. The tracks that I ride are like 50 minutes from where I'm staying. So, that's pretty nice too.
Take me through real quick, I saw on Instagram your car caught on fire right after Salt Lake City? What happened?
Yeah, so that actually was my buddy Tony, my mechanic from last year's car. So, we ended up driving home from Florida after the season and actually I bought a new boat right after the season and we connected it to his car. He had like a little Buick Ranier and we connected the boat to that for the last like two hours. I picked that boat up like two hours from my house and about 30 minutes after we left, it just went up in flames. It blew something under the hood, and it caught a flame and as soon as we opened the hood, it kind of just took off. But what was scary is my boat was uninsured and it was connected to the back of the car that was currently on fire. And Tony actually had balls big enough to jump in the passenger seat, which I mean, it was still just like the front of the car that was on fire, but the cockpit and everything was still pretty smoky. For the most part, we got lucky. We saved the boat, but the car obviously, which it wasn't super expensive, but I had my stuff in there because we just packed both vehicles completely full. So that was pretty crappy. But everyone was safe which is good.
I know you said that you lost some parts and stuff like that. Did that kind of set you back at all in kind of getting things built back up for this next year?
Yeah, it wasn't great. It was mostly a lot of OEM parts that I was gonna put back on the bikes. We had like our paddle boards in there, GoPros, and brand-new pairs of Tech 10’s, just like little things. I mean, not little things but it wasn't life changing, right?
I guess, kind of similar offseason for you then in regard to spending some time out on the boat and stuff like that this year?
Yeah, the offseason was pretty loose this summer. Which I really needed that because I was so burnt out after supercross. I barely even rode during the offseason, but once I started riding again down here in Florida, I felt good. I'm excited, you know, my last offseason I was, it was kind of just, I don't know, I wasn't having that much fun and this season I'm having a lot of fun which hopefully shows the results.
