Did you learn much battling for a championship over the course of a season last year that you can apply into the upcoming one?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I just gotta work on my weaknesses and I feel like if a couple of little things went different last year, obviously, the outcome would have been a little better. So, just try to fix a couple of small things and we'll be good.

You guys have a new bike for ‘25. Have you had any time on it? And anything you guys different from the old bike to the new one?
Yeah, I've been riding for about two weeks now here in California and there's not a ton different. Motor wise, there's a couple things that are a little different, but power feels pretty similar. But the handling, I would say it feels…it's really weird because I think the bike’s may be a little bit heavier, but it feels super light underneath you and it corners unreal, that's the first thing I noticed. So, I'm really… like on a supercross track, it's been awesome. so, I’m looking forward to racing it next year.

With Ty and Garrett joining this year, do you feel like you and Cameron were stepping up to the leadership role?
Yeah, probably, I mean, Garrett, he was here before. So, for him, I think it's pretty easy. And obviously he's ridden supercross for a long time. Ty, on the other hand he's fairly new to supercross and obviously new to this team and everything. But, me and Ty go way back to 2018, we trained together in Texas at his place. So, it's pretty cool having him on the team and everybody seems to get along, so it's been good.

You mentioned the pressure. Do you feel like that's coming from the team or is that just you knowing that you were close last year and you have to get back there again?
Yeah, that's more so just knowing that, I mean, I feel like him and I are who they expect to have red plates, I would assume. I mean, everybody, obviously, wants to be in that position, but I think that's where they expect us for sure.

And then your first year with the team last year went pretty well, obviously being a whole new program, bike, training, and everything. Is there any changes to your program this year or are you just gonna pretty much pick up where you left off and just try and be a little bit better everywhere?
Yeah, I mean, for the most part it's pretty much the same. I had to learn a lot about just health and your body throughout outdoors and trying to manage everything. So, yeah, I'll definitely do a couple things a little bit different, just tweak some stuff. But for the most part keep it pretty similar because last year it was working pretty good. So, just try to pick up on a couple of things and make them a little better.

You've been open to telling us when, “Hey, Washougal, the center of attention kind of overdid. Really wasn't mentally prepared.” Other times through the year, maybe bit off more than you could handle.  What's the outlook now going into ‘25 on that? To learn the balance?
I think that's everything, especially for me. I could be a bit of a head case. There's people that are really good at it: it's just not getting too high when things are good and don't get too low when things don't go good. So, that's one thing I'll try to work on and also just listening to my body. I think it's important to just make sure that no matter what, every weekend I'm coming in as strong as I can. And as I get older, like being the best guy at the practice track was always fun and the goal when you're coming up but there's times where it doesn't matter, you gotta be the best guy at the race and I think that's the most important thing for me.

Earlier today, Haiden [Deegan] was one of the first guys we talked to and I mentioned to him he's done a really good job saying what he wants to and getting the reaction from the fans. There's been definitely some barbs between all of you guys, social media behind the podium or whatever. What is the difference with you guys not taking it to the next level and what's it gonna take to maybe be like, “I'll bite, I'll do it back to you too.” RJ [Hampshire] answered the question in his own way.
I mean, if it's off the track, I don't really care. I mean, that stuff is.. I don't know, it's not really my personality. But if it comes down to like on the track and it gets that way, then that's when things could, I don't know, have some fireworks. Like I'm not gonna take that [talk] onto the track.

You talked about in the past in your own words sometimes being a head case. You're pretty close with Chase [Sexton] and with all of his success, has he been a big help to you? Like learning how to deal with the pressure of being in the title hunt?
Honestly, I feel like any racer might say, but we don't even really talk about racing, to be honest, when we're together. Everybody's a bit of a head case, he can be a head case too. [Laughs] So, I don't know, he's definitely given me a little advice. But for the most part, I think it's one of those things, you can only tell somebody so much, but once you're in a position, obviously he's been in the position, which helps but, it's kind of hard to…I don't know, I think you gotta just kind of figure it out by yourself. And with experience, I think it just gets easier. At least, I hope! I think it's gotten a little bit easier for me.

Have you ever considered working with a sports psychologist or something like that?
Yeah, I do. I have a full-time mental coach.

What benefits do you see from that?
Just, calming me down or you talk about more of…I mean, to be honest with any mental coach, or good ones at least, a lot of times the racing isn't the problem. It's a lot of times it's relationship with family or girlfriend or whatever, whatever the case can be. I mean, there's so much that goes into the race day. You just have to minimize any distraction and if you have stuff going on at home, I mean, you're not gonna be your best, you're gonna lose sleep. And there's a lot that goes into winning on a Saturday that people don't really think about.

Were you one of the guys who, before having a sports psychologist, kind of brushed off the idea, thought it was stupid and then once you jumped in you were like, “Wow, this actually is quite helpful?”
Yeah, honestly, I was. I was like, it's just one of those things where there's so many different things you can do to be better. But at some point, it almost feels like too much, you just have to pick and choose. I've kind of experimented with different stuff and you just gotta learn what works for you. But I definitely think for me that's been a bit of a help. I started working with them middle of outdoors last year, I think, somewhere around there. And, yeah, it seemed to help. I had a lot of stuff going on. Just stress and just random stuff everybody deals with, everybody knows that. But it's just somebody to talk to that you can tell them anything. And I mean, that's kind of the whole point of it is just to let it out there and don't have any criticism for it.

You mentioned the family stuff and going back to Washington. I know you spend a lot of time away from your family, so what was that like being able to go back and have the down time with your family? You haven't been able to because you've been kind of secluded in training and really preparing for this life as a professional racer.
Yeah. Good question. Yeah, it was fun. Honestly, so growing up for about eight years in a row, we would do this float trip, and it was like a five-day float trip in this canyon on rafts and fish for steelheads, fly fishing. So, once I went pro and got on Yamaha, I wasn't able to ever go home so I missed it for five years or six years or something like that. So, this year it was the best thing ever. I got to go home and go on a float trip with my dad and my friends and just spend quality time. That's kind of how I grew up before I started taking racing seriously: it was a lot of that kind of stuff. So, it was like the best thing ever. After that I felt like it was finally time to get back to the training. Being in a canyon with no phone service for five nights is like the best thing ever. [Laughs]

And you think that's helped you just reset everything so that next year everything hopefully goes well and then more downtime at the end of year again?
Yeah, honestly. And now that I know that Mitch [Payton] and the whole team, they're pretty relaxed on what I wanna do. And now hopefully I get to keep doing my fishing trip in the off-season and life will be good. [Laughs] I caught a pretty big steelhead on a fly rod when I was doing that fishing trip. It was a good fish.