The winner of the race and a winner in life speak
The winner of the race and a winner in life speak
Mitch Payton
Hey…so Bowers put in a nice charge and Aldridge, in his first main event, was ok.
That was better than last week. Last week was just a lot of crashes and maybe rookie stuff or whatever, and then even in the first practice he fell down twice in the first lap. Had to come in, broke the front brake off. So that was done. So I think he was just behind the whole night. I think he rode good and then in the main event he had a decent start but first time, I think he wasn’t used to the pace of what those guys were doing and that was the problem. Then at the last lap he crashed and then he finished way back at the very end. He was in 8th I think.
And Bowers?
Rode good, got a holeshot in his heat. That was great. Main event, he said he thought he had a pretty good start but he said everybody from the inside was banging around and he got tangled up on the inside.
A tuff block went flying every first turn. And it was a Suzuki one too!
And it got the Suzuki guy. So that was bad. That put us in the back and he did pass a lot of guys. That was great, and he rode a good main event. Wished he could have been farther up. If he’d had a good start I think he could have done something really well.
At times he was the fastest guy on the track.
He was. We’re hoping to go to Anaheim, fix that, and we’ll be all right. We’re still in it, so I love it.
Controversy last week with the pass on Zach Osborne. It was kind of aggressive racing. I like Zach but they’re not too happy about it. I thought John Gallegher flipped out a little. What’d you see out of that? It’s your own guy, but you’ve been around racing a long time.
I think Osborne should look at himself. He did it last year when he rode for FC and he would always be the guy that would stuff it in on people. A lot of guys take it and some guys don’t take it. They didn’t show it on TV but Osborne put it in on him and started it and Tyler got him back. I’m okay with it. I’m tired of that kind of crap happening to us, and if they’re going to do it, I want them to go fix that.
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“In my opinion that wasn’t right for him to do that. He didn’t see both incidents and he took one of them and went over and talked to him. I think he shouldn’t do that. He’s an FIM official and I respect him but yet I still believe that we’re an AMA series and I think we should be AMA sanctioned.” |
I didn’t think it was like a dirty, take-out T-bone.
It wasn’t. Actually if you watch it on TV, I think Osborne was at the top of the berm and the tuff blocks are not staked anymore. He rode to the top of the berm and Tyler just touched him and then he whiskey-throttled it off of that. I don’t think it hurt his thumb. I think that’s a bullshit deal also. I don’t think that had anything to do with this. If you look at the footage that was out later, his hand was still on the throttle holding the clutch in when he fell down. I think it happened the second crash and he blamed it on Bowers. I’m not going to back that up. I don’t think that’s cool.
Did you think Gallagher was cool yelling at him? I didn’t.
In my opinion that wasn’t right for him to do that. He didn’t see both incidents and he took one of them and went over and talked to him. I think he shouldn’t do that. He’s an FIM official and I respect him but yet I still believe that we’re an AMA series and I think we should be AMA sanctioned. This FIM thing is lingering over everybody and I don’t like it. I think it’s hurt James and I think that’s not a good situation. We’re in America and that’s why we want AMA involved in our series. I think there’s good enough people involved with AMA and they should sanction our series. There’s no reason for FIM to be over here sanctioning us. I have respect for them, but that’s what they do over there and this is our series. When we go there we abide by their rules and that’s the way I look at it.
Eli Tomac
Congratulations. You’ll take a win either way you can, even if you’re 2nd on the 19th lap and the leader tips over, you’ll take it. But that’s about the best way you can do it. Catch a guy, battle with him, pull away.
That’s the best way. Obviously every rider wants to go out there and just get the holeshot and go but that was just straight up fun. When you’re in that situation, if you are the guy that gets second you’re pissed off but if you’re the guy that wins you’re like, yeah, man! That’s the way to do it.
You guys have always been respectful of each other. I thought it was a good battle, clean battle. Nobody dirtied anybody.
Yeah, I think we’re smarter than that. We don’t just look at one race. We don’t want to torpedo each other. It doesn’t look good for either of us. Plus with 15 rounds to go you don’t want to piss anyone off too early.
A couple times when you got by him early on it’s almost like you expected it. You either heard him or you were like, he’s going to get me back here. Is that what happened?
When he got me back on the finish I knew he was coming so I had to check up, do the classic check up. The spot I had was the dragon’s back. That was my spot to make up time. Sometimes he would be a little bit better in the infield, but I cleaned that up later on and made the final pass on lap 10 or something.
I guess you could see yourself pulling away a little bit?
Yeah, once I got by him I was like, all right, I need to go. Honestly it was a big effort. I got a little bit tight at the end. I was like, all right, I’m glad I still have that little gap. It was tough. The whoops were tough, everything was tough.
I didn’t see it but I heard the announcer say “big mistake by Eli.” What’d you do?
It was in the infield on one of those little seat-bounce triples. The main line was just jacked. Huge, square-edged and then big old kink in the rut. Those were tough.
How’s it feel? 450 Supercross win. This is pretty much the best thing about the sport of Supercross and you won it. How’s it feel?
It sounds cheesy but it hasn’t set in really, just because the way the battle was. I don’t know. I really wanted to go out there and just do it. It feels like I’ve been just kind of waiting.
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“I think the whoops were the toughest part. I was side by side with Kenny a few times in there and they were sketchy enough to where you couldn’t just bomb into them. They were pretty spaced out.” |
A couple heat race wins to start the year, that’s nice.
Yeah. Last week I was just sitting there scratching my head after Anaheim. I’m like, really? Did that just happen? Did the season start like this? It was a disaster.
The track tonight was pretty tough. It was not easy to pass on but I thought the whoops made it pretty tough. It looked like it got beat up a little bit.
It did. I think the whoops were the toughest part. I was side by side with Kenny a few times in there and they were sketchy enough to where you couldn’t just bomb into them. They were pretty spaced out.
What about the switch to the Honda rig? What’s changed for you? As far as your day to day race day stuff, how is it?
I think it’s some of the best it’s been. I’m in a really good situation. I’m very fortunate that Factory Connection is actually letting me use the motorhome this year. I can kind of keep my private space and then my bikes are with Honda. Those are the guys we’re working with now in the week, so that group of guys feels more like home to me right now, so that’s where the bike is.
So you love your bike right now?
I do. It’s winning, so yeah, it’s a good bike.
