So, you’ve been on the 250 now for about three years, right?
I moved up to 250 in 2022, I believe. That was, it was like late 2021, 2022 because, yeah, I was young and small. But, honestly the best decision I've ever made. Made me a man. [Laughs] Obviously now I'm big and grown, but back then I was just a little kid. [Laughs]

It's probably helped you a ton being on that bike for so long. You did so many races on it that you got comfortable on it, you grew into your body. Now, you’re full stride.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. The 250 is a different bike and I’m trying to get a 450 right now to train and ride on down at the Dog Pound in Florida, you know, tough sand [a 450] would help me a lot. So, that's the goal, to kind of ride a bigger bike. And obviously I'll be moving up to a PC bike, much faster.  So, we're gonna start riding on that thing here pretty soon and test my waters at Ironman.

We’ve been following your racing in Canada from a distance. Give us an update on how that is going with one race left, right? Fill us in there.
Oh, it’s been a wild ride. I started off round one, crash, first moto, I was like, “Wow, this is gonna be hard.” And, no, the second round, I had a really big mess up [a DNF in moto two] and I just kind of been fighting my way back for the title the whole time. And, yeah, last round [coming up], I'm eight points down on Kaven Benoit and we're just gonna see if we can get it done. Probably gonna need a little bit of luck, but also some skill, obviously. I know I'm a rookie, but I try to race like a veteran. So, yeah, we're going to see if we can get these eight points on him at the last round of Walton coming up a week from now. So, we'll see how we can do.

And you said U.S. pro debut at Ironman Raceway?
Yup, that’s the goal. Well, that is a fact! [Laughs] I'll be racing!

And on the full time Pro Circuit bike after that?
We're just going to kind of see how it goes after that, you know. Obviously, there's no pressure going into Ironman. So, a result’s a result. Hopefully it's a good one. And, yeah, hopefully they see something in me, and I can race one of the coasts in supercross this year [coming up].

Being from Tennessee, how far did you grow from here?
I was about 3.5 hours from here. Yeah, so not very far. Local.

So, you’re one of few very local kids. That’s gotta be a dream come true to have this week here that you did.
Yeah, big time local here. [Laughs] But no, I've been racing here my whole life. I've got six titles here and, yeah, I'm glad that I could do this for Tennessee.

Obviously, you're one of the favorites to win the Nicky Hayden AMA Motocross Horizon Award. If you would get that, how much would that mean to you to really cap off a great week? [Note: we did this interview before he received the award]
Oh, that was the goal at the start of the week, you know, is to get that Horizon Award and obviously started off rough. I was like, “Oh, this thing is gonna be tough.” But, yeah, hopefully I can secure that trophy, that would be the biggest trophy of the week and biggest trophy of my life. So we'll, it's coming up in like an hour or so and we'll see if we can get it.

Anything else you’d like to add about the week?
Oh, I mean, now not much ended it on a great week. Didn't pull a single holeshot this week though, I was pretty disappointed in that. [Laughs] But like I said, first moto, I crashed and after that, I was just like, “Man, I just got to get through the first turn, and I can win a moto.” That was just what I had in my head. Obviously a holeshot would be much wanted, but it happens, so.

I gotta ask you, because you're pretty reserved. Like we know you're having a good time, but you're a pretty like humble guy. But you put four fingers up when you get that fourth moto win. Then you did the burnout after moto as well. Were the emotions finally hitting you and you're like, “All right, this is the last go round, this is it.”
Yeah, yeah. All week you don't want to celebrate so early. And once I won that first championship, I was four motos straight there. I just had to do a little something. The burnout was fun. I actually got in trouble for it, so I won't be doing that again, [Laughs] but at least we got it down.

What's the toughest part of the Loretta Lynch racetrack?
This year for me, it was the right-handed sweeper before the finish, the sand sweeper. It's definitely a tough factor. Like the inside line all week was just gnarly, like, humped out like Lommel or something. It was crazy. But years past, it's actually been Storyland. Storyland was pretty like gnarly during the years past, but this year is that sand section, it was brutal.