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How’d you get hooked up with the Estenson
Racing team this year? The way it all came to- gether -- I was fortunate enough to ride all the other bikes during my era -- the XR750, the Honda RS, Kawasakis, and of course this new Indian came to the track and it’s been pretty dominant. I’d hoped that I’d get a chance to ride one but I didn’t really think that opportunity would ever present itself. I’m part of a charity that helps injured riders (Class of ‘79 and Friends) and it’s grown and support for it has grown -- one of the big supporters has been Tim Esten-
son from the Estenson racing team. His team runs Yamahas in their Twins program and their Singles program, but when the Indians became available
he put in an order for several of them in case they wanted to race ‘em. Also, Tim’s building a museum in Arizona and he wanted one for his museum, so he ordered several of ‘em. So, he said Kolby would be racing one at the races connected to Daytona Bike Week just to get some Twins experience since he’s the current Singles Champion. He’s defending his title this year, so at the other rounds the Indian would be in the race truck every week. Tim told me I could ride it any week I want since Kolby won’t be riding it, so one thing led to another...I was just going to do the two Springfield races, but then I ended up being in California working during the Calistoga race -- that was the first of the three -- Calistoga, Phoenix, and Sacramento. My first time on it I was eleventh fastest and missed the main by one spot; the front tire was going flat, so I was in a transfer position but I missed it by one. That kind of got me eager to ride Sacra- mento being that close and I ultimately made the main there and got in an extra twenty-five laps. That got me extra time on the bike goin’ into Springfield and as it showed, my results were better. So, that’s kind of how that whole situation came together.
So, that was the first time you rode an
Indian at Calistoga? Yeah, first time I’d been on the bike and seen that bike was there at the track. It says a lot about how good of a motorcycle it is -- it was comfortable, it works well, handles good, runs good -- it does everything it’s supposed to do. It’s basically an RS750 Honda or even an XR750 Harley, just built with the technological advances of fifty years. It’s like a water-cooled, higher horsepower, higher revving XR750.
How often are you able to ride (away from
racing) when you’re back at home?I probably get to ride on average once or twice per month, but that once or twice per month has been enough to keep my timing and everything sharp. I also spend five days per week on average cycling on a bicycle, including two or three days a week on a road bike doing about one hundred miles per week, and a couple of days a week on a mountain bike. It helps me with maneuvering, bike skills, staying sharp; so it’s not just the twice a month on my motocross bike, if that’s all I did then I wouldn’t have the endurance to ride and be competitive for twenty-five laps. It’s more the cycling that’s keeping me more in tune with being able to go out and race at my age with the lack of actual on-the-bike training.
What kind of bike do you have back home
and what sort of riding do you do? I’ve got
a 2015 Husqvarna FC350 and that’s what I ride. Mainly, I do aggressive woods riding I guess you’d say, so that’s where I spend most of my time riding. There are a couple motocross tracks around where I can go ride and I do that occasionally, but I don’t en- joy that as much. Most of those tracks are set up so there’s temptation to try and clear most of the jumps and I kind of like to keep the wheels on the ground -- at this point, it doesn’t do me any good to get hurt ‘cause that jumpin’ isn’t making me any faster for what I’m doing.
You ended up getting fourteenth at Sacra- mento in the main event, but you were ex- tremely close to winning the third heat race after finishing second to Kenny Coolbeth Jr. It’s pretty cool to have two guys battling for a win that made their AFT debut before the
2000’s.
Yeah, it was. It was kind of shocking -- I got a good start and I stayed right on Kenny, but I didn’t know what was going on behind me. Brad Baker and Chad Cose were behind me (I didn’t know until I watched the video later) but they weren’t makin’ any ground on me. I was able to kind of run the pace and that kind of gave me a little more confidence, especially going into Springfield. But in the semifinal ‘cause I got second in that heat, I started in second position
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Ronnie
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