I watched the Adam Cianciarulo Uncut video you guys produced out at Pala. Not only did I like the video, but I got really caught up in how you deal with the huge highs and lows of racing.
Obviously, dirt bike racing means a lot to me. You put a lot of work into it and you’re pretty emotionally invested in your goals and all that stuff and it’s easy to get kind of caught up in the rollercoaster of emotion of going up-and-down. Racing is always going to be up-and-down whether you’re winning or going through struggles. It’s a major goal of mine now to live my life level-headed. I read this quote the other day and I really liked it. The quote is, “It’s not things that are good or bad, it’s our judgement about those things.” The racing is all I’ve ever wanted to do and the results at Pala were not what I worked for. I don’t work to go out there and crash with the lead and not have good results. I work to win races and that didn’t happen. You have to take it all for what it is. You can’t dwell on it. You have to look at your mistakes, do your best to fix them, and then go out the next weekend and try as hard as you can. I mean, that’s really what I’ve done my whole career. It’s like anything that gets in my way, anything that I feel is a challenge I look at it for what it is: a challenge. It’s a challenge and I do my absolute best to try and conquer and do the best that I can and that’s what I’m going to keep doing. It’s hard to get me discouraged. I’m going to keep getting back up every single time and try my absolute best because my goal isn’t necessarily to go out there and win every time. My goal is to be my absolute best and to be the best person I can be at all times. It’s easy for me to bounce back and to keep coming back swinging with that mentality.
Every year there is talk about how deeply talented a field of racers can be in AMA Pro Racing, but the truth of the matter out at Pala was that the 450MX classification was astonishingly competitive, wasn’t it?
Yeah, with the competition it seems like every year everybody says it’s a really stacked field and it just seems to get harder every year with guys coming up. Dylan Ferrandis got his first win this weekend. We’ve got Chase Sexton coming in. With the plethora of other guys out there, it’s like first through fifteenth is insanely fast. You want it to be hard to win and to accomplish your goals because it makes it all feel quite a bit better. I’m definitely going to enjoy these guys. Everybody is going to get the most out of each other and I’m excited for that challenge.
There are still 11 rounds and 22 Motos yet to be run this summer. Do you feel good about your health and conditioning? You spoke a lot about arm pump immediately following the Pala races.
Yeah, I do. I feel good about it. Like I said earlier, the results weren’t that great this past weekend, but I know all the tools are there to be successful this summer. I’m just going to keep plugging away at it. Health-wise I feel solid. This plate I have on my collarbone is not in an ideal spot, so it’s going to bother me a little bit, but it’s not going to bother me enough where it is going to affect my results. This past weekend I took a hard crash and I was definitely pretty banged up. I dealt with some pretty nasty arm pump, as well. But we’ll just chalk that up to first race nerves. I’m feeling confident for the rest of the year.
I watched both you and the entire Monster Energy Kawasaki team from afar out at Pala and to my way of seeing things, your house truly is in order. What do you think? Can you win this thing come September?
Yeah, my whole team is awesome. I look around now and I kind of have everything that I ever imagined as a racer. I just bought a bus and I have a bus driver and that’s been awesome to have all that. My mechanic Justin Shantie is great and I have a great relationship with him. My crew chief Oscar [Wirdeman] is great. My trainer Nick Wey, the two of us are super-tight. Everything about my life right now is in such a cool spot. Like I said, it’s kind of everything that I could have ever imagined. And I think having those people around me, regardless of results, it makes me feel like I’m living a dream no matter what the results are. I’m just in a happy spot. I really enjoy my life and what I’m doing and how I’m doing it and how I’m going about my business. I think with my abilities and with the team of people I have around me, I definitely feel that I can accomplish all of the goals that I’ve set for myself. This is my entire life’s work. My entire life’s work is what I’m living right now. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t get to enjoy this part of my life for very long. I’m 24 now and realistically I can probably race at a very high level until I’m maybe mid-30s. I’m just trying to enjoy for what it is and for what it is right in front of me and it has all led to some pretty amazing times in my life, for sure.