I just thought this podcast was pretty interesting so I transcribed it for those that are hearing impaired. Or hate Podcasts.
I just thought this podcast was pretty interesting so I transcribed it for those that are hearing impaired. Or hate Podcasts.
Me: Larry your return probably didn’t go as good as you thought, talk about your day.
Laryy Brooks: Nah, I think it went ok, I guess you had to be there since up until today. James only started riding a month ago and after being off a motorcycle for 7 months it’s a lot of work on his side. The little bit of testing we got done, our expectations weren’t high, we didn’t think we would rule the world we were hoping to qualify. Honestly, him riding well and being fastest in both practices was huge. Right off the start to ride as well as he did the first moto I was more than happy, he left it all out on the track in the first moto he didn‘t really have a lot. To me it was a successful day, our expectations were low. He wasn’t putting pressure on himself. There isn’t going to be very many situations that when he wasn’t feeling comfortable and was tired that he would be able to pull off the track so we were just going to use that to our advantage and if that was the case then that was his out.
Did you learn something about the bike today too? Something like testing is nothing like racing?
For sure, and we knew that from James in the past from SX that we always set up a way of testing pre season and then gone to the first race and been off the charts. It happened again today, we chased it all day never been in the ball park because his speed is 80% in testing and 120% in the race so he’s just an awesome athlete. When he’s in that situation it doesn’t matter if it’s the first race back or whatever, he’s going to go as fast as he has to to win.
How was his wrist?
That came out really good, out of everything that we discussed the wrist was a non issue.What’s the plan now? Are you taking him back to California? More testing?
He’s heading back to Florida right now and he will and run through his program and we sent him home with some stuff so he’ll run through that and kind of see where that is and once he calls Monday then we’ll make a plan and we have 2 weeks to get things ready for Southwick.
The Des Nations team was announced, I didn’t get a chance to talk to him but I know he was hoping to be on it. What are your thought?
It was a disappointment, he wanted the chance to at least ride and have someone watch him ride and see if he was even good enough. If he wasn’t good enough they didn’t have to pick him but to not get the chance was disappointing.
It was odd, I was told there would be a 5 guy selection here by Roger. And then all of a sudden they announced the guys, was it weird?
It was weird, I had received a phone call before that saying this is the direction we are going and I was like man, can’t you guys just wait 5 hours and let the race happen and announce the team after? It doesn’t need to be in until 30 days before the event which is 2 weeks from now. The team is was it is and I think those guys are all very deserving of it and James feels the same way. He didn’t want to take anyone’s spot he wanted to earn the position. It’s more of a disappointment than anger or anything like that.
Knowing him he’ll probably use it as motivation. Did you have a motor problem first moto?
No.
Did you see smoke coming from it?
Ya.
Everything was good?
Ya. Outdoors it gets hot, we’d prefer to be on that side than the other.
Talk about yourself coming back to the outdoors. I read on the internet that you hate motocross so how has it been?
(laughs) I hear that too but I don’t hate motocross I actually love it. Going to Unadilla is awesome, we all been working in the shop Mon-Fri so we were excited to come to a race, that‘s awesome. The preparation because of the situation wasn’t as good as we wanted but we did our best and James worked his butt off to get here. You always wish for a better day but in the big picture I think it was pretty dam good.
There was a buzz in the air about you coming back so it made the series really exciting in that sense. What did you think of Saturday and how everything went? (as far as the way the races are run and all the new changes)
I was definitely in paper work trying to figure out what we’re doing. I never talked to referees so much without being in trouble trying to figure out what we had to do. I think the program ran really smooth, it’s real quick though and us being here our first race. And everyone else is so comfortable it was a little fast.
First call for the moto did seem kind of early…
Yeah, we had just got settled down and it was time to go back to the line and you can’t be late. If you’re late then you’re not in it or you’re last so we had to make sure James was there and on the bike so it was gnarly but it’s good it makes sure no one is lolly-gagging and everyone is on time. The structure is good as far as a team and organizing your day. I think it was good.
You guys will test until you dropped anyways but I think just having two is better.
The situation with James not being able to ride and us not being able to test very much put us in this situation. If he was healthy and we had time to really set up and if this was the first race then we would have been prepared. We did what we had to do to be out there today and we made the best of it.
Your own personal thoughts on this track? I know James is not a big fan.
James track record is not the greatest here but he’s fast, even this morning I was really pumped just to watch him ride and see that he still have speed and stuff, it was really good he was riding the track well and things were going his way even without putting all of that time behind it. A lot of people don’t see the kind of time these guys put into a series or even a single race. I couldn’t walk away from here being upset knowing the time limits that we faced so I’m stoked.
Thank you.
