Page 54 - PULSE-FOUR

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THE PULSE • ISSUE FOUR
I’m sure you were right around the perfect age where you were growing up watching Villopoto dominate...
He was actually nearly my favorite rider growing up. I think I was like seven, eight years old watching him race and winning everything, so then going to a track and actually racing him myself was just completely different. It was liter- ally a dream.
You guys had a nice little battle in practice, what was that like?
We all lined up next to each other on the start getting ready. I was all the way over on the inside ‘cause I wanted to be the first one out there and then they came over ‘cause they knew what I was doing, so they went to the left side of me. They jumped out front -- personally, I wasn’t trying to go for it, but I was just having a good time. Like, no one gets to do that so I just made the best of the ten minutes having fun with them; it was so sick!
How was it to be able to ride and race on a track that was prepped for a pro national?
Yeah, coming from the amateurs it’s completely different from the pros. It wasn’t as rough as when the 250 and 450 guys were out there just because we were the first moto, but it’s definitely a different kind of rough. The bumps were in different places than the bumps on amateur day; they’re
in different places than what you see in the amateur ranks just because of how the pros ride compared to the C class riders, and some of the ruts were actually more squared off than I expected. It’s just different, but I loved it though! The man made moguls were so funky in the beginning -- they tamed it down for race day, but on Friday there was literally one line that you could take through it. I liked that they had something different than all the other races, although the wall was pretty gnarly to hit; we were just slamming into it.
What was going through your head pre- race?
Mentally, I wasn’t nervous going into it but it was just like “Wow, this is going to be insane!” Lining up on the same gate as some of the top dogs in motocross and supercross -- mentally, I was more excited than anxious. I just kept telling myself that I just needed to breathe and have a good time really. I was going there knowing I could win of course, but I didn’t want to get too overly anxious about it. I knew I could win and that I had it in me, especially with what Villo- poto said in an earlier interview (that he was kind of worried about me.) That kind of built my confidence more so, so I was just going out there for a great time mainly.
You got out front early, did you get a signal on the pit board where those guys were at?
So, my dad didn’t take a pitboard so it was just hand sig- nals then! (laughs) But yeah, Hahn got the jump on me and
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