Tapped as a fill-in rider for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki during supercross, Nick Romano has had an excellent two rounds to kick off his AMA Pro Motocross season. He’s been a factor at or near the front in both races, and has battled hard with championship contenders multiple times. We spoke with him in the pits on Saturday to get his take on his season so far, an intense battle with Jo Shimoda, and more from the Hangtown national.
Racer X: Hey, pretty good day for you. I want to talk about your day, but first, wow, did you think you’d be doing this well this early outdoors? I’m not saying we should be surprised, but you’re doing great.
Nick Romano: Tough question. Obviously I want to say yes, but there are a lot of unknowns. Everything was an unknown coming in. I got the call at the last minute, got thrown into the deep end in supercross. I knew, coming into outdoors, I’m just naturally a better outdoor guy. The bike is unreal right now. The power and suspension, it’s one of the best 250s I’ve ever ridden. I’m so happy that I have no sicknesses, I’m healthy, I’m on a good bike and team, and have people around me who believe in me. I was 7-4 [sixth overall] I think today. Coming into Pala I didn’t really know where I was going to be. Everyone knows I’m a good starter, I knew I was going to get a good start and go, but I didn’t know for how long. I’ve made a lot of progress just in one week. I had a big, big crash on Tuesday at Pala and wasn’t sure if I was even going to race today. A lot of small things that are refreshing—getting good starts, running up front, battling, passing people, ready to keep going.
That crash, is that what that’s from? [Points to huge scrape on Romano’s arm]
Yeah, I got my arm, hip, and my neck. I had a pretty nasty one. Looking back on it, I’m really grateful to be okay from it. It killed the rest of the week. Got some therapy, saw Doc. G, got some tissue work done, and it worked well today.
Take us through that battle with Jo Shimoda in that first moto. You guys were going at it for a long time.
Yeah, we were. It’s rewarding, it’s refreshing. It’s where I want to be, it’s where I’ve always dreamed of being. Jo’s no slouch, he’s SMX Champion. Coming into this outdoor year with Haiden [Deegan] out, he’s kind of the guy, right? So it felt good to battle him. I know I have the speed, I have the starts, we’ll keeping trucking along that path.
Where were you in that second moto on the start? Did you see that big pileup start happening or were you gone already?
Luckily I was inside of that. Someone hit my pipe and tire in the rear, but I didn’t know it was that bad until after the moto. My good friend, Nate Thrasher, I’m sure he’s okay and hopefully he is. Seth [Hammaker] was in it, my buddy Dax [Bennick], just a lot of guys. You hate to see that. It was a really sketchy first turn this year, I don’t know why they changed it to a 180 hairpin. I’m happy to get out of that clean.
What did you think of the track today? Some of the guys I’ve talked said it wasn’t rough at all compared to normal, others have said it was super choppy.
It was a weird rough for Hangtown. It deteriorated differently. I thought moto two was pretty brutal. We were going fast, and the bumps were big. Today, the bumps coming into everything were massive and if you hit them the wrong way or a little too hard you were just dancing your way into the turn. You had to be light on your feet and manage the track well. I love this place, it’s one of my favorite stops of the summer. I thought it was a good racetrack, just really rough.
