HOW WAS YOUR RACING IN 2018?
Well, last year I raced in the GNCC series
and the Full Gas Sprint Enduro series.
GNCC is the toughest, most physically
demanding racing I have ever done. It
is a three-hour sprint as fast as you can
go with heart rates averaging around
180bpm. The tracks are so beaten up as
we are the last race of the weekend at
1pm on a Sunday. I enjoyed the GNCC
as there is so much to learn with some
many different lines developing. I had
a reasonable year with some highs and
some lows but three DNFs hurt me so I
finished 8th overall.
The Full Gas Sprint Enduro is an awesome
weekend and it’s really good for improving
your speed. It’s two days of racing with
two tests, each testing being about five
minutes. There’s one test in the trees and
one in the field. They are ribboned on
both sides for the whole track. I was lucky
enough to win the Pro 2 championship in
this and I only lost one day over the whole
series.
WHAT WILL YOU BE RACING IN 2019?
My team for this year is called Tely Energy
Racing, which is a KTM-backed team based
in Pennsylvania where team owner Todd
Ely lives. The team has Steward Baylor and
Grant Baylor in Pro 1 at national enduros
and XC 1 at GNCC. Both of them are 450s,
and I’m in Pro 2 at national enduros and
in XC 2 at GNCC. I’ll be riding a 350SX-F
for enduros and a 250SX-F for GNCC. I
am getting paid this year but a lot of it is
bonus structured, so most of it depends
on how well I do.
I will be based in south Carolina again
where I will continue to live with Stu and
his wife Jade Baylor. Stu has a training
facility with 200 acres and three MX tracks
as well as some turns tracks, trees and a
lot of machinery. There’s also a gym at the
house where we train.
I’m very lucky as I get to travel with Stu
to the races in his MASSIVE motorhome,
where I’ve got my own bed.
My expectations for this year are that I
want to be on the podium at every race
and get a win in the XC 2, and I also want
to be in the top 10.
HOW IS YOUR TRAINING GOING?
Stu and I have a trainer who pushes us
to our absolute limits. He sends us daily
training schedules covering what exercises
to do and what we need to eat. The
training is all done with a heart rate strap
and is all controlled, which means I’m
doing things properly and getting the most
out of my training. We spend a lot of time
in the gym getting strong, but do a lot of
cycling for cardio fitness too.
KIWI RIDER 93