Shorty Talks About the First Two Rounds of the Nationals

Andrewshort.com: Alright Shorty, we’re through two rounds of outdoor season. Talk about your season so far.

My season so far has gone horrible. Really frustrating. I’ve put in a lot of work and that’s why it’s frustrating. When you’re putting in that work you expect to get results because of it. Had two really bad motos – the one where I got taken out first moto at Hangtown, and I didn’t make the first moto at Freestone. And my other two have just kind of been just average. Definitely not what I’ve been looking or planning on, so a rough way to start the series.

The good thing about getting out of Hangtown is that the previous three years, you always DNFd the first race, for whatever reason: fluke bike problem, or maybe a crash or whatever. So it was nice to get through Hangtown. You crashed, but you made it through both motos and scored points.

Yeah, it was just delayed a week, or race I should say, this time. Its crazy, something weird like that happens to me every year. It’s kind of out of my control, out of everybody’s control. It happens, its life, and it’s a bummer.

So what you’re saying is, in the Honda pits you didn’t just throw your helmet around and scream at the guys?

No, those guys were busting their balls. They’re doing everything they could, like they always do, and it’s just a shame that it happened that way.

Talk about Freestone. The track, the facility… obviously it’s near and dear to your heart. You live in Texas, its kind of your home race.

I would say its kind of my home race. Colorado feels like home, but in terms of a track, that’s a home track for me. My track, here on my farm in Texas, is real similar, the same type of dirt. I ride in the heat all the time and so I’m real familiar with and feel real comfortable on it. I was really looking forward to it this year. I’ve always done really well there; I’ve never finished off the podium since I’ve been there. This year just didn’t go so good. 

But the facility itself, they make subtle improvements every year. This year I think it was a lot better for the spectators. They could get into part of the track that they haven’t been able to in the past. That race has always been hard for the spectators because they couldn’t really see much because it’s flat. But now that they’ve opened it up a little better it seemed to help.

Shorty in the second moto at Freestone this past weekend. He would go on to finish 6th in the second moto.

 I feel like it’s not the greatest track, but the promoter, Tony Miller does the absolute best job with what he has.

Yeah you nailed it, there’s not much else to say about that. I think there are some better tracks in Texas, like Lake Whitney. I don’t know. It seems like there’s tons of great tracks here. But that’s where the National is, and he’s put a lot of money into it and he tries his best and I think for the situation it’s awesome. It’s kind of far from the airport for everybody, and far for the fans to drive. It’s always hot every year, so the real troopers come out and watch this race.

Talk about the second moto. For a brief span there I thought you were going to win the thing. You were moving forward, and it was looking good for you, but it didn’t happen.

Yeah I basically cooked myself there at the end. I had some good passes at the beginning. I passed a lot of people and just got overcooked. Once my core got hot I was done, tired, and I couldn’t go anymore. It’s like you don’t feel tired, but you just start melting, you know, its like you can’t go and you lose your mind and you’re making mistakes. It’s crazy what that heat can do to you so quickly.

As a racer, you don’t pace yourself at the beginning of the moto and think, ‘oh it’s going to be so hot.’ You can’t do that right? You just going and going until that’s it.

I wasn’t trying to go balls to the wall like you normally would. I was trying to hold a little bit in reserve. But you get racing and you’re like ‘I’m gonna get this guy, I’m gonna get that guy’ and your emotions take over and before you know it you’re going pretty hard. I made a couple of charges on Metcalfe and that’s where I kind of blew it. I’d think ‘I just gotta hang it out a little bit to get by him.’ Then he’d close the door and I’d have to start all over.

He seemed like he had an easier time, because it always seemed like whenever he got pressured he would gap a little bit and there was a big battle behind him, but he was able to just ride.

Yeah, he put himself in that great position. That’s what you need to do. He did it right.

Let’s talk about this weekend at High Point. What are your thoughts on the track? How do you do there?

High Point is an interesting place. It seems like a typical east coast track. I’ve never done that well there. Last year, I don’t know exactly where I finished but I was on the podium. Both motos and overall, on the podium. So we’ll see what it has in store for me this year. I think if the weather’s good I should go good – typically in rains there or does something crazy. It gets kind of muddy and rutted so we’ll see what happens. I look forward to it. It’s a really fun track to ride. Big jumps and it flows good in and out of the valley, and I think it’s awesome for the fans too because they can see a lot of it. Seems like Peters has made a few tweaks to the track over the past few years and makes the flow better and the transitions are good on the jumps. It’s fun to ride.

How do you deal with the heat every day when you’re riding? Do you just go out and get your work done super early?

Yeah, it’s hot. But its weird, you kind of get used to the heat. It peaks about 5pm and that’s when it’s miserable. But by noon it’s already going. We start riding about 10am and we’re normally done about 1-2pm on the dirt bike, and then I’ll go ride a bicycle. If it’s really hot, like crazy hot, I’ll just ride my bicycle indoors because there no sense in cooking yourself. It’s just kind of a way of life. We go swimming or something; there’s always some way to cool off.

Thanks for everything you’re doing on the site; the videos have been a huge hit.

Thanks to everyone for visiting the site and checking it out. If you see me at the races, come say hi.