Open Mic: Heartbreak

“Everyone puts in a selfless amount of work to make us competitive and we’re competing against teams with unlimited recourses and budget. But…I feel like we’ve let our fans, and sponsors, and Max, down. My riders, they’re everything to me and they come first. Most people don’t know, but I live in my shop and my savings have gone to compete in America. I have no place to be there. I don’t come from wealth and I give everything I’ve got to be competitive. When I sign a rider I give them my word I’d give them everything I’ve got to make sure  they come first. A small team with a limited budget qualified first on the weekend but quickly we didn’t finish the final. It’s been really hard.

“I don’t want anyone to think one of our mechanics or technicians or people involved in our program was at fault. It was an OEM part that we also run in our practice bikes that failed. We’ve run it for the last two years. It’s difficult. We do our due diligence. So many people have reached out and said don’t be so hard on your self. Ferrari don’t finish. Mercedes don't finish F1 races. MotoGP teams don’t finish. Sometimes things fail. But I can’t dismiss this. It’s hard. It’s hard. Especially when you feel so responsible for your rider. We’ll learn from this and try to be better. We don’t know how to quit. We don’t. I feel blessed to have the opportunities that we get. I have faith in everyone around me and all of our mechanics and our riders. We wouldn’t be where we were today—and I’m talking everyone—if the first time they fell they didn’t get back up. I don’t think anyone expected us to have a red plate, to have a race win last year, to finish third in the championship, to have a podium in the 450 class [with Justin Brayton at Houston in 2021], and that’s because of the amazing and thankless people who have helped us. But this one has hit me. And not because we lost the points lead. That has happened to me many times in the last 25 years. It hurt me because there are many people that rely on me and I feel like I let those people down. I don’t want to come across with any ego. It’s remarkable and humbling because what we’re achieving anyone can achieve. The greatest gift of opportunity is being able to give to others. Our small team of courageous selfless people have one goal in mind, and the greatest gift is that we line up every weekend, and our Honda 250 that we literally built in a shed was the fastest qualifier. And Coty Schock, all credit to him, he’s also a privateer and he won a heat race. It just goes to show you can do anything if you work hard.

"I just wanted to communicate with everyone. I hate it when people don’t come out and defend those that they love and tell the truth. So, Max is doing a wonderful job and our team is doing a wonderful job and we’ll come back this weekend. I bloody love this job.”