Last week after the dramatic SuperMotocross Final in Las Vegas, Mitch Payton went on the PulpMX show to discuss Seth Hammaker's ride, Jo Shimoda’s win, the way penalties are handed out, Garrett Marchbanks' future, and more. We transcribed much of the conversation, but also included the entire podcast as well.
Steve Matthes: Mitch Payton is with us. Mitch let’s talk SMX, thoughts on the series itself now that we are three years in?
Payton: Well, I thought in the beginning the concept was to look at outdoors and supercross and maybe drop a couple of events and this would be the super finale at the end. And we just keep stretching it. I want to side with the riders, I think the season is really long. And it's really long for us too because it's like bikes, and parts, and travel and all of that stuff. And everything has gotten so expensive. But I think if we could clip a couple of regular events and this could be the finale, I guarantee if there are a million bucks on the line, they want to race. And for my 250 guys, for half a million, they want to race. And we don’t take any of the prize money from them, so they make all of that money. We just spend.
You don’t take any of it?
Nope.
Wow, there are teams that do, even Honda takes some of it.
So, I think they could shorten it a little bit but I don’t mind that they are doing this at the end because the payout is so big and I think it attracts a lot of people. It is a unique venue, I agree with what AC [Adam Cianciarulo] said, I thought Vegas, really that track, I thought first, 'I don’t know,' it was so fast, and it had so much stuff in the back and the inside was more tight, more supercrossy. And I thought it was a good balance, I thought it was really good.
You can listen to the entire interview starting about the three hour mark here:
What did you think of your riders Mitch? Obviously at one point, Seth [Hammaker] was the champion. It was early but Seth was going to win it. What did you think of your riders’ performances?
Ups and downs. Obviously, Seth rode really well, I think he struggled a little bit with his shoulder, and he is getting it fixed tomorrow, so he kind of limped through just to the end, because he wanted to and we said, 'Okay.' I think Levi [Kitchen] was up there the first moto and fell down and second moto was up there and actually it wasn’t his fault, he got a rock stuck in the brake and it locked up so he didn’t know what was going on. So that was that, and the other guys just had some crashes and either a bad start or whatever. But I still think the series overall was pretty good. I think there was some extremely strange riding, that’s for real. Seth lost five points for jumping on a red cross light and he was leading the race and there was no one around him. And this week there was six-seven infractions for aggressive riding [Deegan] and he lost five points. That wasn’t fair to my guys. Watching it I felt bad for Jo, I am like, 'Dude, he’s going to take him down.'
So, my thought is, you have one shot to take someone down in a championship scenario and then after that you just go one and win the race. What do you think, where is the line for taking someone down?
I feel like, and I think Haiden is a really good rider, but he has been really aggressive to everybody and last week Levi was aggressive to Haiden, and they wound up going down together. Now, was that pass super dirty or was it really aggressive? It was aggressive and he went in there to make a pass, he didn’t finish it really well. But I still back him up for not just backing off and always taking it, right. And when the guys on the outside and you have the inside you can stand the bike up, you can give it to him, and it's the first lap. So yeah, we were aggressive, but he could have waited. And for that Levi got put on probation. But now Deegan was already on probation and rode like that and I don’t think anything happened. He lost five points, and he didn’t even finish the moto so does it matter? I just think whatever you are going to do, like I took what they gave us when they showed us a picture, and they really showed us because we didn’t believe it at first but they showed us and we are like, 'All right you got us.' And then even Levi passed Austin [Forkner] on the inside even though Austin went all the way to the outside but they said, 'That’s a red zone you can’t pass,' but he had went to the inside and had it super easy and he got popped for it. But it was nothing like what happened this week. So, like, the crime didn’t really get treated the same way.
I am with you a little bit, especially when we heard that jumping on a medic flag is worth 15 points in the triple points format instead of five. So why didn’t Deegan’s fine triple? And from what I hear behind the scenes was that Star was saying, 'Well, if you break Jo’s bike, or break Jo, take the five points, cool we are still going to win.' And that shouldn’t happen.
I don’t think I have ever told anybody to just go out there and blow him out. And I don’t dig that. I think everybody in that room has been hurt and I don’t dig it. And you are talking to a guy who is in a wheelchair, so do I take injuries serious? I do. Sometimes if there is something sketchy I am like, 'I don’t know if I can tell them to do that.' I don’t want anybody to get hurt. It's a great sport to enjoy for all of these years, nobody needs to come in and just blow it and turn it into WWF or to make it crazy. Let’s keep our heads. Let’s be proud of what everybody has created.
I agree it makes our sport look stupid, which I don’t know if you saw this weekend, the Kay de Wolf stuff?
I did. I was pretty surprised at that, I am sure it was a last ditch effort, but you know what? That’s FIM and if they don’t want to do anything I don’t really care. I think we have the best series in the world over here and that’s supercross. And we need to protect that for these guys to have longevity in their careers and stuff. We need to protect this venue and keep it on TV and draw people and all of that stuff. We can’t let select people blow it for us.
Speaking of Jo, I know he doesn’t ride for you anymore but this is really cool for him.
I’m happy for him. Truthfully, he is a good person, he’s great, he speaks better English than he pretends, I guarantee that. So, let’s make that clear. But he’s worked hard and done really well. He did well for me, he won races. He went to Honda, he almost came back, and then something at the last second they promised him something bigger and better and he stayed. And I said I was good with it. And I like the mom, I like the dad, they’re good people. So, for me to root for him, if we couldn’t win, I’m fine with it, Jo deserves it. He’s worked hard.
What about Hammaker? Because we knew he was good, he won a race a few years ago, but did you expect the step he made in supercross this year?
I believe a lot of that was his decision, he really wanted a break from just being out here and riding the California tracks. And he had the opportunity to go and ride with the Lawrence brothers, and he didn’t want to miss that opportunity. And the whole group down there, Darren [Lawrence] and the boys and the whole group down there they work really hard and even though he’s on a Kawasaki they treat him really well. I think it showed in his riding and his technique a little bit. And I believe if he wouldn’t have had a shoulder problem, he carried that the whole outdoor series, so it was taped up, taped up. So finally, MRI’s were done this week and we are just like, 'It's got to be done, we just have to do it, it has to be 100 percent.' But he can win a title, he should have had a title this year. He’s improved a lot and he’s got really good raw speed, we just need him to be 100 percent where he can finish the motos that he’s leading.
So, Garrett Marchbanks said that you pushed really hard to keep him and that you even offered to put up some of your own money to keep him?
Basically at one point Kawi said we could only have four guys, and I really wanted to keep Garrett because he was doing so well outdoors. And it was like, 'Nope. Nope Nope.' It had gotten to the point where I had spoke to KTM and recommended him, I’m like, 'You’ve got to hire this guy.' And then I was supposed to talk to the Triumph guys and this and that and then finally I talked to Dan and said, 'I’ll just pay his salary, how about that?' He said 'Really?' and I said 'Yeah, he deserves it. He’s done well and I will just pay his salary.' And actually Dan did a good job and was able to speak to them and they said, 'Yeah he deserves it,' so we were able to keep him.
Is there any chance, and this is just rumor, that one of your guys goes to the second 450 spot?
[Crickets]…Well, that’s been hinted around the industry. But that’s not the current plan. The plan is for him to ride the 250 class and just see what happens. I had actually said I would like to see him get a shot at a 450 ride because of his size and I think if he could be in top shape I think he could be a decent runner in the 450 class. If he could prove that he wouldn’t get tired, because even when I watch the 450 motos they’re coming off their good laps, they’re going down. So, if you could get a guy who could start up there and if he could hold that lap time, I think he could be a player. So, like I would really like to see Garrett get a shot at a 450, I have been open about that, but we just have to see what happens.
