Supercross Futures is designed to give up and coming amateurs a chance to gain experience on a real supercross track, in front of the fans, before turning pro. It gives the riders a chance to get their feet wet, so they know what to expect when they finally line up in the 250SX division. It has proven successful as riders like Haiden Deegan and Julien Beaumer have come through the program. The experience is invaluable to the racers and some riders, like fifteen-year-old Landon Gibson prove to be quick learners. From eleventh place at Daytona, his first Futures race, Gibson was able to rebound and land on the podium in St. Louis, finishing second place. Our Tom Journet caught up with the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider after the race to hear his take on the night.
Racer X: I believe this is your second ever futures race, and you placed second, that’s amazing. How did it feel?
Landon Gibson: Second ever futures race. I struggled the first one, but I'm so stoked to be on the box, dude. I'm so stoked to be here. It's just such a great experience and my whole team behind me, we work so hard, man. So, I feel like I deserve this. But the track was brutal tonight. I can't even explain and tell you how gnarly it was. It was just so brutal, but I got out to the holeshot, and I was a little tense the first two laps, I was kind of like a puffer fish if you can imagine. [Laughs] But other than that, after that, I loosened up and I started riding like myself and finding a flow and I brought it in for the checkered flag. So, I'm stoked.
Obviously Daytona, that was a brutal track, I am not sure if you crashed there or what happened, but that probably wasn’t the result you wanted.
Yeah, man. It was kind of mentally defeating because I had higher expectations than that. I'm really not going into these with any expectations. Next year, I'll have some expectations because I just turned 15, so pretty young for these.
So, when you do these Future races, you have to do qualifying just like the pros, but how does it feel that moment when you go through that tunnel? The stadium is pretty much packed and you're about to go racing?
I mean, sitting on the gate looking up at all the fans, it's such an amazing experience, honestly. Like you couldn’t pay for this experience, man. It's so cool.
