KHC 128 - Adam Cianciarulo

Join us for a conversation with Adam Cianciarulo, former pro dirt bike racer, current broadcaster, brand ambassador, and podcast host. Adam and Cam talk about pro racing and the sacrifice and discipline as a kid, the pressure in racing as a pro in Supercross, highlights in Adam’s career, and more! Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com Follow Adam: https://www.instagram.com/adamcianciarulo/ Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first order Hoyt: http://bit.ly/3Zdamyv use code CAM for 10% off Sig Sauer: https://www.sigsauer.com/ use code CAM10 for 10% off optics Grizzly Coolers: https://www.grizzlycoolers.com/ use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% off LMNT: Visit https://drinklmnt.com/cam for a free sample pack with any purchase Ketone IQ: https://www.ketone.com/Cam use code CAM for 30% off your first subscription Timestamps: 00:00:00 Adam’s Fanbase & Industry 00:04:12 The Hype Behind Supercross 00:05:30 When Adam Turned Pro 00:08:05 Pay Days in Supercross 00:13:31 How Supercross Has Changed Over the Years 00:15:09 Adam’s Mindset Winning His First Race 00:16:32 Obstacles in Supercross 00:18:15 Doing Your Absolute Best 00:20:15 The Highlight of Adam’s Career 00:32:12 Ad Break (Black Rifle Coffee & Grizzly Coolers) 00:33:47 Dealing with the Pressure from Racing 00:42:43 Perspective in Racing: Broadcasting 00:50:58 Art Eckman & Ricky Carmichael 00:53:49 Ketone Shots & “Locked-In” 00:57:53 Aggressive Racing 01:03:52 The Strategy in Staying Focused During Racing 01:08:04 Track Maps & Rain Races 01:11:07 Where Adam’s Confidence in Racing Came From 01:16:11 Visualization, Adam’s Best Podium Comment, & Golf 01:24:09 Letting Go of Expectations 01:32:01 The Next Best Racers of All Time 01:38:06 Wear & Tear on the Body & Mind 01:41:38 F#$k, Marry, Kill: Supercross, Broadcasting, Golf? 01:43:44 New Knowledge in Supercross 01:45:54 What Adam Wants his Legacy to be 01:47:36 Importance of the Announcers Perspective 01:49:10 What Adam’s #1 Intro Song Would Be 01:50:27 Outro (Hoyt Bow & MKC Knife)

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:16Cameron Hanes?

  This is the Keep Hammering Collective with Adam Sienzerello.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  Stoked to be here, man. Thank you for having me.

• 0:22Cameron Hanes?

  How was that?

• 0:23Speaker 01

  You crushed it.

• 0:25Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I got it now. I got it now. Well, at least for that time. But Adam, man, it's an honor to have you here. It's a pleasure. I did not, well, I knew you were a badass, but we put up a few posts today. People love you on social media, dude. What is the deal?

• 0:42Speaker 01

  I guess it's, uh, I guess it's just a lifetime's worth of work in, in a single industry, right? I've been, I've been super blessed to have a really, really supportive fan base and it's really sustained me through, you know, in my sport, in anything, a lot of ups and downs, right? And the fans have always been, uh, yeah, it's just been the best part of it, my interacting with people and you're just able to, you know, able to have some influence on people. And I've always tried to kind of maintain a positive attitude, no matter what the circumstances are. And I find that people appreciate that. And I certainly appreciate them.

• 1:18Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, this podcast is going to be so easy for me because you're so well spoken and you're so good at this. And it's like, it's no wonder that, so you talked, you mentioned your industry. What is your industry? Tell the people. I mean, I know, cause we've talked about it all day, but for those who don't know, tell me your industry and then tell me what you're doing now within it. Because as I, as I mentioned, you're such a good spokesperson, but what are you up to?

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Well, thank you. Yeah. My industry, so I was a professional dirt bike racer for, I mean, I raced my whole life since I was four years old. I'm 28 now. Um, I had 11 year pro career. So racing Supercross, which is inside stadiums, you know, that's like the, that's kind of the pinnacle of our sport is, is Supercross. Um, I did that starting in 2014 and my last

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Full season was last year, uh, 2024. So retired, um, retired from that recently, which we'll, we'll get into that. There's plenty there. Um, but yeah, now I've moved into a broadcasting role, which has been very exciting. And it's actually something, uh, it's something that I've kind of always wanted to do. It's not one of those things where you see a lot of athletes just get into broadcasting because that's kind of convenient, what they know. And it's always been something since, you know, I was a big fan of the sport organically. From the time I was a kid, I just gravitated towards it and I loved it. Um, and I used to hear Art Eckman was the play by play and David Bailey. They called him the professor because he could just break stuff down so well.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  I remember listening to them in the early 2000s and as much as I wanted to be a racer, I also wanted to be that. And I think that's, that's what people don't realize, you know, I'm, I'm not here to, you, when it comes to this career, I'm, I'm very motivated. Like I, I want to work hard at it. I want to be the best I can be at it. Um, and so it's been perfect. I mean, to stop racing May of 2024, and I think my first broadcasting gig was maybe six weeks later. And so I've had a great opportunity to go right into it. Um, it's had its challenges, of course. Kind of learning to be an adult too, at the same time, right? Answering emails, doing all this, um, adult type stuff you just, I guess, not really used to doing as a, you know, as an athlete.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  But it's been, it's been so fun and rewarding and, you know, I'm able to, I love my industry. Like I love the people that I'm around and, you know, we have every weekend, every Saturday, there's

• 3:54Speaker 01

  25 semis and we call it the, the pits, the paddock, right? And just everybody in there, it feels like I've grown up with them, all those people. I have so many friends and the fans have been great. And so the fact that I still have a job within the industry that I'm passionate about, I feel very, very blessed.

• 4:12Cameron Hanes?

  What, what is it? What's the draw? Is it like the big shows coming to town and like everybody is hyped? Is that the excitement to it? The Saturdays? And here comes Supercross and it's going to be a big show. Is that, is that what it is?

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it really is just a, um, man, it's, it's the closest thing to like gladiators and in a, an arena besides like UFC type stuff, right? There's something so, in a way, it's so intimate um, about it, man and machine. And it really is. I mean, Supercross is such a big show, you know, opening, you hear a lot of riders talk about opening ceremonies, right? They introduce the riders, everybody picks their, you know, picks their song and those are the elite, really the 10 best dirt bike racers in the world get that opportunity. And I mean, I remember my first opening ceremonies like it was yesterday, right? Going into a packed stadium in Anaheim, 50,000 people on their feet,

• 5:09Speaker 01

  fireworks and it's just the, it's what you grow up, it's what I grew up thinking about every day, right? It's just, it's the most, I guess, mainstream, it's the biggest platform we have. So if you perform on Saturday night, if you perform at a Supercross race, it's, there's no higher, there's no higher than that. Yeah.

• 5:30Cameron Hanes?

  That's the pinnacle. And so you started that, you mentioned your first race. Did you win your first race? Is that, isn't that right?

• 5:38Speaker 01

  I did. Yeah, I did.

• 5:40Cameron Hanes?

  And you were what? If I do the math, 17 or 16 or how old?

• 5:44Speaker 01

  17. So, yeah, so I went, um, started racing when I was four. Of course, there's like an amateur motocross circuit, right? You go to all these, they're normally like week long events. So it'd be the same schedule every year. You go to Texas for a couple of events, you go to Las Vegas for the World Mini, we had this big, the biggest race as amateurs called Loretta Lins. And so that's kind of where you get scouted. You get scouted by these teams, teams will come and, and watch these young guys ride to look out, you know, for future talent down the line. And back then, you could go pro at 16. I had a, I had a really good amateur career, um, signed with Kawasaki in 2004 as a seven-year-old. They kind of brought me up through their, you know, their Team Green program.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  And then, yeah, I got it. I signed my pro contract, signed the first pro contract when I was 14, which was like a big deal at the time. Nobody had really signed that young.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  And then, yeah, I turned pro. It's crazy. It really is crazy when I look back now because I was such a little kid when I went, when I turned pro. I mean, I looked, I mean, I turned pro at 16, signing that contract at 14, but even

• 6:55Cameron Hanes?

  You look pretty young right now.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I, I've got the baby space thing going on, but

• 7:01Cameron Hanes?

  Babyface killer.

• 7:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, I was able to win my first Supercross race. It was Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

• 7:08Cameron Hanes?

  Whoa.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Actually, which was just

• 7:10Cameron Hanes?

  How many people were there? 50?

• 7:12Speaker 01

  I mean, it had to, yeah, I think it was a sold out crowd. So whatever that is, 50, 60,000.

• 7:16Cameron Hanes?

  Wow.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  It was, you know, I was still just a little kid. I look at pictures of me like on the podium from, from that night. I was thinking I was so grown up, right? And

• 7:25Cameron Hanes?

  And you're racing against men?

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, my teammate at the time was, you know, in his late twenties. There's a lot of guys in the 250 class. It can, it can vary. There's a lot of 18, 19 year old, not a lot, but there are a few really good. Hayden Deegan comes to mind in the 250 class. He's 19. So every once in a while, that teenager comes along and like stirs things up. Like you can tell like this guy's going to be good, right? If you're already that good, that young.

• 7:49Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  But yeah, I was out there racing against men and yeah, I was able to win my first Supercross race and just the best feeling ever. Something I'll never forget.

• 7:57Cameron Hanes?

  14 and

• 7:59Speaker 01

  17, 17, 17, signed the pro contract at 14. Yeah, yeah.

• 8:03Cameron Hanes?

  One when you're 17. Okay. And then 17 years old, what was that payday like to win that?

• 8:09Speaker 01

  So payday back then, it, it's so funny that you ask me this because I, I've been trying to kind of push it in our sport more. Talking about the kind of the financial side of things because most of the time people say, I tell people I race dirt bikes for a lit. I, I tell people I race dirt bikes and they're like, okay, well, what do you do for a living? Right? Like people aren't aware. It is, it is kind of a niche sport that's growing, but I think my bonus structure at the time. I think it was like around 60,000 that I got from my team. So it was in the 250 class. I was racing for Kawasaki, but Kawasaki's factory team in the 250 class was ran by a man called Mitch Payton, who owns Pro Circuit. So it was Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had a great relationship with those guys. But yeah, it was, you could definitely make a fair amount of money at the top level. And I think as a 17 year old, you win, I didn't even care though. Back then, I mean, 17, I was like, I just wanted to win. I would have done it for free.

• 9:11Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I get that. Well, I've talked about that, the business part of what I do also is like, we start off where we're just excited to be there. And then, as now you say, you're talking about the money, because nobody ever talks about it. But that is, eventually you're like, wait, I am kind of putting my body on the line out here. I'm working my ass off. This is what I'm doing, spending all, thinking about doing, training. You do deserve to be compensated, you know, we start off like, this is incredible. This opportunity is all I've ever wanted. And then it's just like, wait, this is a business.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as a kid, like you said it, I think when I, when I got into racing dirt bikes, I did it because it was fun. And I did it because I was competitive and I wanted to be better than the other guys. I didn't think about money at all. All I wanted to do was win. I was fortunate enough to be just in love with, with what I was doing, you know, and I was, in dirt bike racing, there's only a handful of guys, really in the grand scheme of it, that are able to, to make a living and to set themselves up to, you know, retire at a young age. So yeah, I'm very fortunate. Definitely I had great opportunities. And of course, it has its bumps

• 10:27Speaker 01

  and bruises along the way, just like anything else. It was, it was difficult, but it's so worth it, man. And I feel like I'm in such a good spot now. I get to do cool stuff like this. You were shooting bows earlier.

• 10:38Cameron Hanes?

  I know.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  It was amazing.

• 10:39Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it was. I, I just love, you know, the whole premise to this podcast is talking to outliers. It's like, what? Have my guests done to reach the top of their field essentially, you know? So how did you become an outlier and what you do? So that's why you're here. And I see the comments, you're definitely, I mean, people are rabid fans of you. And so that's a testament to how you raced, how you carried yourself. I was curious when you're talking about the money part. You said Kawasaki, the team paid you? Or who pays you if you win a Supercross event? It's not, it's not the event?

• 11:17Speaker 01

  So you do get, you do get money from, you do get money from the event, yes. But a majority of the money comes from the factory. So from, it was from Kawasaki.

• 11:28Cameron Hanes?

  I see.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that's normally, yes, the event, you know, the event pays some. And now we have what we call the SMX World Championship, where our three, our two series, Supercross inside stadiums and Pro Motocross, that's in the summertime. They're, they're two separate championships. They're two different disciplines. You, you ride Supercross a lot differently than you ride outdoors, right? And so you can, they've combined, basically combined them into being, we call it the SMX World Championship. So points are kind of combined between Supercross, motocross, and then we have three playoff races in September at the end of the year. And that is a very, very big payday.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Like, we've never seen anything like it in dirt bikes. You get a million dollars, like, you get a million dollars in the 450 class if you are the SMX World Champion. And it's a big payout down the list of the, you know, the top 20 guys. So that was, that's just kind of been put into play over the last couple of years. 2023 was the first kind of inaugural year for the SMX World Championship. But it's such a big step for our sport to see that much money on the line. And I think it makes a lot of people, even casual fans, realize, wow, these guys are, you know, you're really racing for something.

• 12:45Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, and I would imagine too, that it also gives more credence to the dream, the dream of becoming this, I don't know, the best in the world at something, because It's one thing to do it because you love it and you're like, you're not thinking about the money, but it's another thing when kids are watching and they hear their parents talking about it and they're like, you could win a million doll, you know, this now this turns into, you know, it's why kids always say, I want to make the NBA, right? I don't know if it's about the money, but it's just like being at the top.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  It's part of it.

• 13:17Cameron Hanes?

  But then also that I can take care of my family. This is, you know, generational type thing. I don't know who has that perspective, but you know that it's out there and this big payday, this big tournament, this big contest, whatever it is, and if you're the best, you could be, win a million dollars.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:34Cameron Hanes?

  That's going to get people hungry.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Yes. And the sport has changed so much from when I was, you know, I started, I started riding in, you know, 1999, 2000, the sport's changed so much. Now you have six, seven, eight-year-old kids basically living full-time at training facilities, right? We're back in, you know, I can only speak from my experience, there was a couple little training facilities, but I, I grew up in this little town, Port Orange, Florida, hour away was the closest track that I had. And, you know, my dad and I would load the van up every day and we'd go drive and find a track, find wherever it wasn't raining to, to get our work in. So it was just a different, it just becomes so much more serious, right? And I

• 14:19Speaker 01

  think it requires, just like anything else, it requires such a sacrifice and you gotta be willing to, you gotta be willing to give everything up. You know, I, I gave up, I gave up a normal life. Like I gave up, you know, I was homeschooled from the time I was in third grade, right? Like all, all that stuff. I went all in on dirt bikes, you know, when I was six or seven years old. And that's, that's what you have to do to be the best and to be one of those guys. And it's nice to know now, you're looking at, you're looking at that payday now, right? And you really have something to strive for. Where back in my day, I knew, I kind of knew once, you know, once you get to be a teenager, I knew that there was good money in it if I was able to be one of the best. But it's definitely,

• 15:04Speaker 01

  there's a lot more opportunity in our sport now.

• 15:07Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. No, I can imagine. Well, how did, what was your mindset like for that first one that you won when you were 17? Going against all those veterans essentially? And how, what was your mindset? I mean,

• 15:21Cameron Hanes?

  Did you have an advantage because you were young?

• 15:25Speaker 01

  I think so. I mean, I think a little bit ignorance is bliss in a, in a sense. I, I, I'd won, I had a really good amateur career in terms of results. I, I won a lot. And so I was used to winning. You know, I think my mindset was at the time, I do remember getting out front in that race and I wasn't surprised. Right. You gotta be able to.

• 15:47Cameron Hanes?

  You're right. This is what I do.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. And there's guys that can, it takes time, like to learn how to win a race and be at the front of the race with nobody else in front of you. That's a, that's like almost a different skill in itself. A lot of guys don't, are not comfortable in that position. Right? So I guess for me at the time, I figured, well, I was doing as an amateur. So why, you know, why would it be any different? I always wanted to be the best. I always demanded perfection out of myself at, at all times. And of course it was, it was kind of surprising in a sense, because even leading up to the race and in the off season, it, it normally takes kids a little while to learn Supercross because as an amateur racer, you're only, you're only riding motocross.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  At least back then it was, you're riding motocross only, which is completely, there's different obstacles, different techniques. So many different things about Supercross that young guys have to learn.

• 16:42Cameron Hanes?

  So what's the, what's the biggest thing?

• 16:44Speaker 01

  So we have obstacle, we have an obstacle in Supercross called the whoops, which are basically like a series of, series of dirt jumps, basically probably five to 10 feet apart, something, something like that. And you're basically having to, you kind of skim across the tops of them. Right? And it gets, it gets difficult. Sometimes the whoops are bigger. Sometimes they're smaller. As riders go through them, they get all chewed up and ruts everywhere. And so your bike is kind of all dancing around. So that, I guess that was the biggest thing. I mean, I remember going to a Supercross track for the first time and being scared to death to go through the whoops.

• 17:22Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  Right? Like it's, it's a kind of a trial by, by fire thing, you know, I definitely, that off season leading into my first Supercross. Race, I definitely had some times where I was, uh, I was on the ground.

• 17:34Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  I, I remember, I don't know if you ever watched like Nitro Circus.

• 17:37Cameron Hanes?

  I have, yeah.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  And you see sometimes you'll see Travis wear like a full, basically like a chest protector, but a full kind of jacket, almost a protection all the way down his arms and all like I, I literally used to put one of those things on to go and learn a whoop section because I essentially knew I was going to hit the ground.

• 17:57Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  Right. And it requires so much commitment to, you have to carry a lot of speed into it. So little things like that.

• 18:04Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 18:05Speaker 01

  I guess, yeah, it was just like, uh, just like anything else. I guess I just, I did it and I was like, well, I guess this is what I do.

• 18:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, I love to hear it. I, I'm, you know, you said you're used to winning. So when you're out in front on that first, first race in the Supercross, um, what was your mindset? Because I could see where people would be like, I don't want to be, have to make these decisions on being a leader, you know? I mean, they don't know what, what the pack's probably doing, uh, what's going on back there. Like what was your, was your attitude like, I'm out front, I'm just going to make this gap. I'm putting the pressure on everybody and nobody can keep up with me. Or what, what were you thinking?

• 18:46Speaker 01

  It's a great question. I think, man, back then feels like a lifetime ago now. Uh, I, I mean, I think at the end of the day, it's all about in anything in life. It's, it's all about doing your absolute best and not, it's hard to do these days, especially. Not comparing yourself to anybody, right? I had, you know, had some of my teammates behind me. You're hearing, you're hearing the motorcycles and you know, they're right there, right behind you, right? And the, the key is especially in Supercross, you got 60,000 people. You got a bunch of guys over the intercom, something you, you don't deal with as an amateur. So that though, really the, I think it was just about being present. And I think it's easier to do that when you're a kid.

• 19:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  And you're a little bit less aware of what's going on. Um, but I just remember locking in, in the moment, just doing everything I could. And I think it would, sometimes I would just say to myself, you know, if I, if I do my best and it's not enough, it's not enough. And I could, I could live with that, but I couldn't live with. Interfering with myself mentally and not getting the best out of myself. So if somebody was gonna beat me, somebody's gonna beat me, somebody's gonna beat me. But I was doing my, I was doing my best. And I think that was always kind of my mantra throughout my career, right? Is just trying not to, because you go through so many ups and downs with injuries and everything else. There's plenty of wins, but there's plenty of really low moments too.

• 20:10Speaker 01

  And you really just gotta stay honed in on you and stay present and do the best you can. Get the most out of yourself.

• 20:16Cameron Hanes?

  What's a, yeah, that's a great attitude, obviously. But what's, what's the highlight of your career now looking back?

• 20:25Speaker 01

  Highlight of my career? Well, this is a, this requires a backstory here. So you'll, you'll like this one. So I, in 2014, when I won, I won three out of the first five races that I entered.

• 20:37Cameron Hanes?

  Your first pro races?

• 20:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, my first Supercross pro races. So I had gone pro, I had done some pro motocross races, which is kind of, that was kind of the norm back then. You did the big race at Loretta Lynn's, your last amateur race. And then you would go, you would go pro and you would race some outdoors. So I did a handful of outdoors the year before and got some okay results, nothing crazy. But this was my first real full-time season. I never raced professional Supercross before. So yeah, three out of my first five wins there. And then I had, it's two rounds to go. And never thought, never thought I would win the championship my first year. But I'm like, two rounds to go, I had a good points lead and I'm like,

• 21:16Cameron Hanes?

  Looking good.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  I'm like, man, this is like, they were saying this was hard. I'm like, what? This is no problem. And of course, as a kid, you just have so much confidence and when you're winning, everything's coming easy. I mean, it just feels like you're floating and you can do no wrong. Well, I go to Toronto, two races to go, I think 14-point lead. And I'd kind of injured, injured my shoulder in the gym, actually, in the off-season. So I was riding with kind of a partially torn labrum. And of course, Toronto decides to just come out of that, my, my shoulder decides to come out of the socket in the middle of the race. And so I lost my, you know, I lost that championship. I actually, I pulled off the

• 22:00Speaker 01

  track during the race. I had the medics put my shoulder back in the socket and I went out there and tried to keep riding, couldn't do it. So I lost that, I lost that championship. And then got back on the bike, four months, you know, kind of was losing that whole year, couldn't race outdoors or anything. Got back on the bike, first day back on the bike in July, I tip over in a corner, weird angle, bike hits me, broke my tib fib. And then, this is crazy, but came back, my very next, my next race, kind of a warm up for Supercross, was in Geneva, Switzerland in December, crashed, shattered my socket, my shoulder, knocked myself out for five minutes, like bruised my lung, did a bunch of different

• 22:44Speaker 01

  stuff. So I missed all, after winning those races in 14, I missed all of 2015 with injuries. I come back in 2016, break my, break my wrist, like right before the first race. So I missed all of 2016. Wow. And so you go from the highest of the highs to like, this guy is going to be the best ever, to like, I wasn't even sure if I had a place in the sport anymore. You know, these guys, these are key developmental years and you're losing time. Like you're not on the motorcycle, everybody else is getting better. So what were you doing? Rehab, PT. Every day? Yeah, just working out and rehabbing my injuries. I mean, I had- Was that depressing?

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it was the first, I was living on my own, you know, I moved out when I was 17. It was like, the training facility I was riding at was a couple hours away from like where I grew up. So I'm on my own in this big house, trying to learn how to do life. And it was really the first time I had dealt with any type of, of course, you have some adversity, you know, as a, as a kid, I had adversity in kind of more of a, a personal way, not so much results, but I always did so well. I never really had any crazy injuries. Like I had broke my arm or this or that, but so it was a lot, you know, to feel like the sport's leaving you behind. Going into third year of injuries, almost. Third, yeah, third year of injuries. And then I come back, so I missed all of 15,

• 24:11Speaker 01

  all of 2016, 2017, race Supercross, lose the championship by one point, second.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  Who beat you? Um, Zach Osborne. Yeah, it was some, it's this crazy race. I actually won the last race in Las Vegas, but it was him and my teammate were kind of battling for the championship and Zach took my teammate out in the last corner. It was, it was insane. It was, you'll have to, I'll send it to you on YouTube. It's a good one to watch. Yeah. Um, Zach Osborne, he's a, he's a good friend of mine now, uh, but I didn't like him then at all. Um, and then 2018, again, second place, like by three or four points, right? So come to 2019, this is my last year, this was my last year of my contract in the 250 class. And I knew I had to make, this is a big year for me. I knew I had to make it happen. I knew it was now or never.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  I won five races that year. Had my best year in Supercross by far, was, was pretty dominant. Is it five out of 10? I believe it was, it was eight or nine races. Okay. At the time, so I- Winning most of them. Yes, and I felt the best I ever had. I mean, I put in a great off season leading up to that and felt like mentally I was right where I needed to be. And yeah, it was all there. And so we come into the last race again in Las Vegas. And I think the guy behind me, Dylan Ferrandes, he was second in the championship. He was seven or eight points but down and you get like 25 points to win. And so if he won the race, I had to get fourth or better, I believe.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  And so he's winning. We're, we've got like three laps to go in the race and I, I'm in third, like cruising around. I mean, I'm not taking any chances. So you're okay if you stay right there. I'm in control, even in my mind, like I was so calm and present and there was nothing. I always felt so good when my back was against the wall. When I had to, absolutely had to do something. I felt like there's so many times as a kid, I made it happen and I just, so I just had the confidence in myself to do that. And I crashed in the weirdest spot. I, I'll show it to you on YouTube. But it was like, I could hit that section, the way that I crashed, I could hit the section just how I hit it.

• 26:29Speaker 01

  A hundred more times and not ever do that one time. It was just like, I came down, I landed on the backside of a jump and there was just like a tiny little, like almost like a little rut, like a little edge. It's like, imagine, you ever ride, try to ride a bicycle or something over a garden hose? And you know how you kind of like, so it basically did that and it swung my back end into, we line the tracks, the way we outline the tracks, we have these things called tough blocks. And so it, it kind of slid my back tire into the tough block, eject, I go off the bike, fly into the air. Still would have been fine, but when I went to get back on the bike, my bike was destroyed. The bars, I couldn't, I couldn't even, you know, I couldn't even go, I couldn't really jump the

• 27:12Speaker 01

  jumps. I stayed out there, I had principle, just to finish the race, even though I knew I was gonna lose. But, just the worst, I mean, talk about traumatic, like, like I told you, that 2014, going from here, going from so high, and then 15, 16, you're like, I don't even know if I can do this anymore. Working my way back, all the way to being the best guy, and for me to blow it like that with two laps to go, you know, I mean, half a million dollars on the line for the championship bonus there. Not that money mattered at all to me at the time, but it's lot, lot was on the line. It was my last chance to really win a 250 championship, I thought, because I was always

• 27:55Speaker 01

  better at the Supercross discipline than the outdoor discipline. I'd only won a couple times during outdoors and I had like 12 wins in Supercross. So I was, I thought, well, I just blew it. Like that was my shot and got to right there and just, I mean, I still, I still won't watch it. Like I still won't watch it back. I mean, it hurts, man. Like, it really, it really does.

• 28:20Cameron Hanes?

  You think like, an inch or two, right? Or a reaction, some slightly different, just the tiniest, why?

• 28:29Speaker 01

  And I would be able to, I would have, I would have been able to, you know, I think I've come to a place of acceptance. Like, I think there might be a little part of me always, it's like, it bothers me, right? I mean, it's such a, it was such a big thing and I wanted to win a Supercross championship so bad, but. I think I've worked through it enough where it doesn't have any like negative impact on my life, but it's still like dang it, I wish I would have done that. And so that was the, and this is where the good part starts. Cause that, this is supposed to be the story of your, your best. Yes, but it has to go here. It has to go here before it goes there. Good. Cause I was getting depressed. Yeah, right. Same. Honestly. And so we only had a one weekend off between the end of Supercross

• 29:14Speaker 01

  in Vegas and the start of the Pro Motocross Championship. And so I blew in Vegas, whatever, feeling bad, but gotta get back, like, you know, gotta get back, gotta try, you know, for outdoors. And I'd only won, I'd literally had only won one outdoor before. I didn't really have much, but I was so pissed off. And from that, just that low of a moment, how when I won the first four outdoors in a row, after only winning one in the five years prior. Yeah. Right? What changed? I think that, I don't know. I felt like my back was against the wall. I felt like I didn't have an option. Like I had to. You blew it in Supercross. Now you gotta make up.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  I have to. Like, and I knew that I was going, I knew that I was going 450 next year. I knew I was making the step up into the premier division. And I'm like, I gotta do it. So I won the first four in a row as a 12 race championship at the time. And yeah, I, I won the 2019 motocross, 250 motocross championship, which was like, just, it was, uh, still gives me goosebumps. I mean, that day, that day in August, whenever it was, 2019, like just so many, all the hard, all the stuff that you go through, right? All the down days when

• 30:38Speaker 01

  I'm 2015, 2016, where I'm wondering if I'm even going to continue to race anymore. And just that moment to me, just, it meant, it just meant so, it meant so, so much to me. And it was just, it's kind of. It was kind of like a encapsulation of my entire career, like the lows and the highs. And for that to come, if had I not blown it at Vegas, there's no way I would have won that championship, that pro motocross championship. Like, there's just no chance I would have.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  And just for me to be able to, I look back and I'm so proud that I was able to overcome the, literally, the worst moment of my life and then turn that into something that I couldn't even imagine. Like, the performances that I had, how I was riding, the competition that I was racing was so high.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  And so it was just, yeah, it was incredible. And so as low as the Vegas moment was, it really, it set me up to do something that I never thought I would be capable of. And it taught me so much in terms of life, right? Like, when we have, we all think we have so much control over our lives and the way we want it to go. And so now, when I want to do something and it doesn't quite work out, I'm not, you know, I don't waste time punching walls.

• 32:00Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  I'm like, it's setting, you know, it's setting me up, setting me up for something. And I just thought that was such a, just a lesson that was in broad daylight, so simple. And just, yeah, it was really cool being able to turn it around like that.

• 32:14Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I'm wondering, if I'm thinking about when I've had a lot of pressure, was it,

• 32:22Cameron Hanes?

  do you think it was so powerful and you, and felt such relief because you won? Or because, because I'll just say, like, sometimes I go on these premier hunts and it's, it's, they're expensive, there's a lot of pressure, there's like the best elk hunting in the world. Mostly, I just don't want to screw it up and I just want to do, I just want to honor the effort, honor the opportunity, honor all my work. And when I do it, I'm like, it's like a relief almost. It's, yes, I'm happy.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 32:53Cameron Hanes?

  I did it, but it's just like, I don't have to deal with the thought of, or like failing and how bad failing hurts. So it's like, I, sometimes I don't know if I love the, that I did what I was supposed to do or that I didn't fail. Because failing, you know, you talk about, like, winning is great.

• 33:14Cameron Hanes?

  And it feels good, but the pain of failing is like 10 times worse than that.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:21Cameron Hanes?

  That high.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  I always say, I always say that I hated to lose more than I wanted to win. You know, and there was definitely that, and you'll hear guys talk about that still. You know, that sense of relief and a great champions in every discipline.

• 33:35Speaker 01

  But I think I gave myself no choice. I think I thought to myself, I don't know how I'm gonna live with myself if I don't. Like if I don't win this and I have to deal with the idea of the like just blowing the championship and then moving on to 450s without a title.

• 33:51Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  If I had like, I don't know how I'm gonna live with myself. So I had to like in every, every time I put it, every time I put something in my mind like that, I had to do something. I almost always did it.

• 34:04Cameron Hanes?

  Was there, how much outside pressure was there like?

• 34:09Speaker 01

  A lot.

• 34:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot.

• 34:12Cameron Hanes?

  So did it feel, did it get that pressure off you too? Or like, how did you, like, how did your family interpret your success?

• 34:21Speaker 01

  How did my family interpret my success? Well, that's maybe a story for a whole different podcast. We could go on forever. But I, I will say that um, kinda at the time, you know, I've always had very supportive parents. My dad, I wouldn't have been able to, you know, reach the level I did without his time and his effort. And that's greatly appreciated. My mom too. My mom is like a, just the biggest sweetheart ever. I mean, she's, she's my hero. She really is. And of course they, you know, they were happy for me, but they were actually, um, a lot of personal stuff behind the scenes, just, you know, kind of family drama stuff was, was going on during that year. I was having my best year ever, even though I, you know, messed

• 35:05Speaker 01

  up Vegas, like in terms of wins and where I was at, I was the best I'd ever been. And all the, you know, all that kind of personal stuff was kind of just lingering in the background. Right? And so I didn't have, I didn't have, I didn't even have a family member at my race, at the last race when I won the championship. You know, um, and so it really puts it, I think it really put it into perspective for me. I think that's one of the reasons why I was able to handle the pressure. Cause it was kind of the same situation going into the last race of pro motocross. I mean, I had a bigger points lead, but you still got to get over the line. You know, you're still, you got Vegas lingering in your head like, oh man, you blew it last time. Right. And I think the fact that I was always so driven to win and I didn't have time for, I didn't have time for any type of broader perspective.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  I didn't care. Like I just wanted to win. And I think that family, you know, the, the family stuff going on in the background. I think it was like, really made me look at it from a different perspective for the first time of like, hey, you can be having all this success and all these results, but if you don't have this, you know, you don't have the people you love around you and, um, you know, just along for the ride. It's just not as, it's not as fun. It's not as cool. So I, I think in a way, I think that helped me, like that helped me deal with the, deal with the pressure.

• 36:23Cameron Hanes?

  Like you had a chip on your shoulder or you said your family wasn't there. So it was like, you're going to win in spite of them kind of like, I'm going to show you that I can do this on my own.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. There were some of that. Yeah. There were some of that. I, I kind of, uh, yeah. It's, it's, you know what I mean? It's hard to talk about that kind of stuff, but.

• 36:44Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Nobody wants to, yeah, family.

• 36:46Speaker 01

  But yeah, I mean, there was, there was definitely part of that of me, you know, I really took the reins of my own program that year and it was really important to me, really important to me. Not only, not to prove to really, really anybody else other than myself of like, I was always so good at following orders as a kid, right? Like, um, dad was my coach. He, he pushed me hard and I would do what I was told. And no questions asked, I'm doing it. And I think, I think I wasn't sure if I could do it without that type of support like that with, without having kind of, with me having full control over my program, making decisions and doing all that kind of stuff.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  I, I kind of took a chance on myself going into that year. And so personally, to prove to myself that I was capable of doing that was, meant a lot to me. It still means a lot to me, like even just in my personal life, the fact that I stepped up to the plate there and you know, I. The fact that I got it done was

• 37:50Cameron Hanes?

  And you were 20 at that time? Was that, you said, or wait, how old were you? 23?

• 37:55Speaker 01

  I must have been 22 or 23.

• 37:56Cameron Hanes?

  Okay, yeah. So that's still damn young, but when you think about you went pro at 14 and you're doing this whole thing, you're making this money, you're basically, you have a career.

• 38:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:08Cameron Hanes?

  So you've had a career now at this time for maybe nine years. You're used to pressure.

• 38:14Speaker 01

  Definitely, yeah.

• 38:15Cameron Hanes?

  Still, does it make you immune to it? Immune to the, there's pitfalls?

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:21Cameron Hanes?

  Think about your, you know, your family and your challenges there and the pressure you're feeling from that. And then like, well, no, I want to make, I want to be my own. At 23, be, make your own decisions. So it's like, do you think that that, your journey there and coming through that is why you're such a good resource to these young writers? Cause, cause do these writers have the same type of pressure? Cause they need family to get there. Cause they're kids. And then it turns into this career.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:52Cameron Hanes?

  And is that how you can offer such good advice?

• 38:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't, I don't currently at the moment, I don't really have any formal role in, in anybody's program. Or, you know, of course I have friends that race and, um, but just in terms of, you know, what I'm, what I'm able to offer the sport long-term, you know, I'm just big on, I'm big on just contributing to your community, contributing. You know, I want to see the sport grow and that's a big reason why I'm do, I'm, you know, I'm in the position I am now. You know, I think it's, uh, you have a lot of responsibilities sitting in that seat and, you know, calling, you know, calling the races of doing it, you know, doing it the right way. But I think my perspective is, is definitely unique because I was more or less the golden child.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  You know, from the time I was five or six years old, I, well, for whatever reason, I got on a dirt bike right away and I was just good. You know, I was jumping jumps that nobody else was when I was five years old and you stand out, you get sponsored. You get the target on your back. Everybody wants to beat you. Um, and you feel like everybody's waiting for you to fail. You know, we, we kind of do that in society. We build people up and come, they come tumbling down at some point. But I always, I always had to carry that. I always had to carry this.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  You know, this sense of these expectations, these outside expectations. And it was, it was difficult, but that being said, caring, you know, dealing with all of the things that I dealt with and all the things that happened. Like, and we were, I was talking to you at lunch about this, but it's just, I can't, I can't even imagine if it, if it didn't go the way it did for me to, you know, one of those things, it's like, I just feel like I'm in such a good spot now. I have everything that, everything that I want in life. I'm, I'm in a dream, I have a dream opportunity to be doing this broadcasting so, so quickly out of racing. I never thought it would happen this quick. So I think it's just, it set me up, you know?

• 40:52Speaker 01

  And it wasn't the way that, to be honest, that my career was not, didn't go the way that I, that I thought it would. You know, I thought I'd win more. I thought I would, I thought I would be the greatest of all time. Right? And I'm not that, but I think, well, it's just what happened needed to happen.

• 41:09Cameron Hanes?

  Mm hmm. Well, and you mentioned a few times perspective, and I think that perspective is probably what makes you great at calling races and, and also getting to, into the minds of the writers, you know? So you, you know what the pressure they're going through. So you can maybe articulate it. You said, you talked about your community and protecting your community. It's like that perspective and that, that glimpse into how they're thinking, how they're interpreting different challenges, race day, wrecking, that gives you, because you've lived it, you know? And that's why they always want athletes to call these, these ra, or not races, but other sports, you know, like basketball, they have the, but not all those guys are

• 41:52Cameron Hanes?

  good at articulating, you know, the, the details or the, the emotional part. They're, they were great players.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:59Cameron Hanes?

  But you have, it feels like, and from what the feedback I've got from people who are deep into it, which I'm not, but it's like you have that respect and you have just that, that, you know?

• 42:13Cameron Hanes?

  Tested in the fire mentality and the metal that it took. And now you can kind of explain that to the, to the viewers.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I, and to be real, I mean, I love this sport. And that doesn't always happen, right? I mean, this is, this has been a job for me since I was eight years old, 10 years old. Had those expectations, had ups and downs. A lot of times there's guys that retire that were, you know, great racers, but it's almost like they're bitter at the sport, right? Like they don't, they don't like it as much. And through everything for me, that's what sustained me is like, I just, I'm in love with this, this damn sport, man. Like I just love it and I always have. And so I take a lot, I mean, it's just super, brings me joy to do this job and to watch these guys. I love watching racing. I love breaking it down.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  And yeah, having that perspective and having, you know, having the experience I was telling you, telling you at lunch, but I think as a broadcaster, what, what you say on the air, like I, you know, I'm responsible kind of for some of these narratives. A lot of fans will kind of latch on to some of the things that broadcasters say, right? And you're, you kind of, you have the first take on what's happening. This guy runs into, this racer runs into this racer. The way that you react to that is kind of how a lot of the fans are going to feel about it too. Right? So for me to make my perspective, to make my perspective as educated as possible,

• 43:47Speaker 01

  to break it down as fairly and, you know, breaking it down in a way that these fans can kind of digest it, I just, I take a lot of pride in, in doing that. And I, I really work hard on doing that the best I can. That being said, I mean, there's, I can definitely be better, right? I mean, I'm early in this thing and I'm, I'm still learning. Trying to learn as much as I can. Luckily I have a lot of really good guys working, you know, that I'm able to work with. One of those guys, Ricky Carmichael, greatest of all time, right? So these guys have been nothing but kind to me and, and yeah, just very helpful. So that's, that's been part of the fun of this new gig too. It's just as a racer, you're kind of. It's kind of like everybody else.

• 44:32Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  Excuse my language, right? But it's like, yeah, and this kind of to be a part of this team, like this whole broadcasting team, the camaraderie behind it, it's just, it's really fun, man. It makes me grateful for my community, as I said.

• 44:45Cameron Hanes?

  I bet. Yeah. I mean, so I've been saying writer, you say racer. Am I not supposed to say writer?

• 44:51Speaker 01

  Oh, you can say rider.

• 44:52Cameron Hanes?

  Okay, that's okay.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  No, you're good, man. Well, we're loose. We're loose. Our community is loose, man.

• 44:58Cameron Hanes?

  What I was thinking about when you were saying that about you take great pride in being fair, calling it, you know, with perspective, I think, and probably said that too many times now. But it makes me think of, you know, how the guys in the NBA now, they don't like the old heads.

• 45:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:14Cameron Hanes?

  Talk, you know, kind of talking shit on them like, oh, these guys couldn't play in the 90s. It's way too physical. So I get what you're saying about sometimes people are bitter because sometimes you hear these old NBA players and you're like, man, are they bitter that they didn't make all the money these young guys are making? And, you know, now it's all offense, defenses. It used to be a defensive league back in the 90s, you know.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  Hand checking.

• 45:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. And just so physical. And now they're like, oh, Jordan would average 50 in today's game. So I do get that where the old heads can get a little bit bitter and for whatever reason.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I think, yeah, like you said, luckily for, luckily for us, the guys like Ricky Carmichael is kind of the, he's been the main guy in the booth in terms of analysts for the last probably 10 years or so. And that guy loves the sport just like I do.

• 46:05Cameron Hanes?

  What makes him good at calling, calling races?

• 46:08Speaker 01

  What makes him good at calling races is, I mean, his perspective is gold because what he was able to do, I mean, it's not even, you look at his like record is he won 10 outdoor championships in a row, never lost.

• 46:22Cameron Hanes?

  In a row?

• 46:23Speaker 01

  Never lost. From, from 19, I think 1997 to 2006, then 2007, he was semi, semi-retired and won every race he did on the semi-retired schedule, right? So just the experiences and what he was able to, what he did is almost like alien. So to get his analysis on something, I mean, it's like having Michael Jordan call an NBA game, right? You're gonna, those words are gonna mean more.

• 46:54Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 46:54Speaker 01

  Right? And just the fact that. You know, that guy probably got $50 million in the bank. He'd be on a, he could be on a boat in the Bahamas, but he's getting on a plane, you know, every Friday, coming to the races, doing it. I just think it's a great asset, you know, for the sport to have the greatest to ever do it in the booth. Right. It just shows that a lot of, I feel like a lot of people in our sport share my perspective in terms of like how much we love it. You know, it really is like a passion project as well.

• 47:25Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, you know, I, then I was thinking of, you talk about the GOAT, because Tom Brady, he went into the booth and he got mixed reviews on, on how he was calling games. And he's the GOAT. It's like you, you'd hear a few times, he did have some, I thought some great, uh, he analyzed great and great insight. Sometimes he would kind of judge the quarterbacks for their decision-making, this and that. And I don't know if that's part of it, but there's probably a way to present that better.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  I think there's so many, there's so much stuff that goes into, you know, I had some, as a racer, you know, when I was injured, sometimes I had opportunities to do some, some guest commentating. I, you know, I knew what, this is what I wanted to do post-racing when I was 15. So every chance I got, you know, whether it was trackside reporting or up in the booth or anything, I, I did it. Um, and so I had an idea of, I guess I had an idea of everything that's involved, you know, producer talking in your ear, all the meetings and just how you, how they want you to present kind of the sport, right?

• 48:30Speaker 01

  But yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's quite a lot. It's quite a lot of work and it's, it just,

• 48:37Speaker 01

  it's harder than you, it's harder than you would think, right? And it's easy to say, even when I'm watching a basketball game or I'm watching a football game, I'm sitting on the couch. I'm like, wow, you should have said that. You should have said this, this, whatever. It's hard. It's hard. And I think broadcasting is one of those things that's so subjective. Like one person's gonna love what you say and the other person's not. So you gotta, kind of my, my previous career of racing has set me up perfect for this because I know I'm gonna get criticized, right? Every Hall of Fame commentator there is, Mike Tirico, Joe Buck, all these guys, Jim Nance. They all take their licks on social media anytime they call an event, right? That's just kind of the nature of the game. So I take the same mentality I did in racing. Do my best. Do my best. Try to improve, you know, listen to the people around me and

• 49:23Speaker 01

  yeah, it's, it's a perfect opportunity.

• 49:26Cameron Hanes?

  You, uh, you mentioned Ricky Carmichael and what makes him good. You also mentioned a couple other announcers earlier. Um, I can't remember their names now. Um, that were like, you wanted to be like them, or they were.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  Oh, yep. David Bailey, Art Eckman.

• 49:40Cameron Hanes?

  Right, exactly. Yeah. So what made them good? What, what's, what's, why were they good at what they did?

• 49:46Speaker 01

  Well, Art Eckman, he was the play-by-play guy, or, uh, I think in most of the nineties. I mean, I started watching in like 99. So, um, for one nostalgia, let's just get that out of the way, right? I'm a kid. I'm falling in love with this sport and these voices are, Art Eckman just had a perfect play-by-play voice, just a strong voice. And you just wanted to hear, you just liked the way he talked, really, the way he was super concise. And, and David Bailey, who is kind of, I guess was in, you know, kind of my role now as an analyst, uh, former champion, former racer. Um, I told you, they, they called him the professor because he was just, the way he was able to break down, like, really complex things that are going on out there. I mean, to ride a

• 50:30Speaker 01

  dirt bike that is fast as these guys ride around the track, there's, I could sit here and talk about it for five days, like with all the things that you have to do and, you know, what makes this guy special? Or like, all these little things that he's doing. I think the key is the way that David was able to, to kind of break down these really complex things and make them digestible to a wide range of audience, right? Because you're not just talking to the hardcore fans. I, if I was talking about just hardcore fans, I would completely, I wouldn't talk the way that I talk, right? You have to cater to the audience, right? Which is casual

• 51:11Speaker 01

  fans, people just tuning in. You know, sometimes we have shows, um, that are on NBC and like, kind of like more of a prime time slot. So we're kind of trying to cater to more of a casual fan audience, right? So I think just being able to break things down and making it easily digestible for people. That's, that's what I, that's what the challenge of it is for me. And that's what I find so stimulating, right? It's just trying to articulate these things the best I can.

• 51:39Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that's what I like about UFC and when Rogan calls, you know, obviously, most people aren't black belts in jujitsu. So he's kind of stepping them through what's going on, what the move is, what they need to be aware of, what, what the fighter should be doing. So it's like, yeah, it's not talking to black belts because they already know that. It's talking to the casuals. And that's why UFC has blown up. So it's like you being that liaison between the pros and the casuals. That's what you see.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  That's the sweet spot.

• 52:12Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, right.

• 52:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:13Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that's super interesting. Oh, did we do our ketones yet?

• 52:17Speaker 01

  Oh, let's do it, man.

• 52:18Cameron Hanes?

  Have you tried it?

• 52:18Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm a bit, oh, ketone IQ. I've been all over this stuff for years.

• 52:23Cameron Hanes?

  Do you know Michael Brandt? He's a CEO.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  Sounds, sounds familiar.

• 52:27Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 52:27Speaker 01

  Should I give him my, should I give him my address right here on?

• 52:29Cameron Hanes?

  You should.

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Right here on the, right here on the spot?

• 52:32Cameron Hanes?

  No, give him your cell phone number, right? Nobody listens to this. You'll be fine.

• 52:35Speaker 01

  Nobody?

• 52:39Speaker 01

  I'm having a tough time with this cap here.

• 52:41Cameron Hanes?

  There you go. Now we're gonna really ramp up our conversation.

• 52:45Speaker 01

  I want to be locked in.

• 52:46Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Do you know where Locked In started?

• 52:51Speaker 01

  No.

• 52:53Cameron Hanes?

  What's that guy's name? David somebody? Do you guys know who that is? Who shit his pants running?

• 52:58Speaker 01

  Goggins?

• 52:58Cameron Hanes?

  No, not David Goggins. He never, he doesn't, never shits.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  He never shits?

• 53:03Cameron Hanes?

  No, he's a machine. David Clark.

• 53:05Speaker 01

  Davis.

• 53:05Cameron Hanes?

  Davis Clark.

• 53:06Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. Oh, I know Davis Clark.

• 53:09Cameron Hanes?

  So that's Locked In.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:11Cameron Hanes?

  So remember he would say, you gotta, you gotta get locked in.

• 53:13Speaker 01

  Stay locked in. I actually have a comment on one of his posts.

• 53:17Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 53:17Speaker 01

  I, I, I said, you know how everybody says it's a bad day to whatever under his.

• 53:21Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 53:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. I said, like, he said something. I'm like, it's a bad day to take full accountability for your mistakes or something. It's got like 25,000 likes. It always pops up on my feed. Yeah, that guy's awesome.

• 53:34Cameron Hanes?

  I had one too that did that.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Really?

• 53:36Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. And I said, he shit his pants running Boston. You know, my, my, well, my other hat says, nobody cares to work harder.

• 53:44Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 53:45Cameron Hanes?

  So I said, nobody cares shit harder.

• 53:47Speaker 01

  No.

• 53:48Cameron Hanes?

  And that got a lot of likes.

• 53:49Speaker 01

  You gotta put that on a T-shirt.

• 53:51Cameron Hanes?

  Well, it's just because he shit his pants.

• 53:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:54Cameron Hanes?

  And he showed it like in the race, he's got shit running down his legs. That's locked in.

• 54:00Speaker 01

  That's wild.

• 54:01Cameron Hanes?

  That is locked in though.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Hitting those spreadsheets. You know what I mean?

• 54:04Cameron Hanes?

  I know. Yeah. I was just asking, uh, true of my son. I said, is Davis Clark still posting? I, I don't know if I fell out of the algorithm, but I haven't seen.

• 54:14Speaker 01

  The algorithm's weird.

• 54:15Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  Like the algorithm's so weird. I'll have a hundred and 50,000 views on my story one day and then like 8,000 on the next. Could post the same picture.

• 54:23Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 54:23Speaker 01

  Weird. You gotta get Davis Clark on here.

• 54:25Cameron Hanes?

  I know. I talked, he, he came out to California one time, I think for business and I, he was, we were gonna try to make it work, but didn't work.

• 54:32Speaker 01

  I'm sure it'll, I'm sure it'll happen at some point.

• 54:34Cameron Hanes?

  No, I, I love his attitude. He's pretty funny. I mean, and he's like talking about going into the office on Friday because nobody wants to work Fridays. I think he's in, must be Boston.

• 54:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, it looks like.

• 54:46Cameron Hanes?

  Maybe somewhere back there. Um, but yeah, he's locked in with the spreadsheets on Friday.

• 54:50Speaker 01

  Does stay locked.

• 54:52Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I love it.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  You gotta stay locked in for this 240 miler you have coming up.

• 54:57Cameron Hanes?

  250.

• 54:57Speaker 01

  250?

• 54:58Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Wow. That's gonna be rough. Well, you're ready now. You did Pisco.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 55:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, we did an interview this morning, like we did a little, you know, cameras following, we were talking.

• 55:09Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  Getting to know each other, going up that, going up that climb this morning. I was doing my best.

• 55:13Cameron Hanes?

  You did great.

• 55:14Speaker 01

  To not look like I was sweating at all. You were trotting up there pretty good, man.

• 55:18Cameron Hanes?

  You crushed it.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  But I felt good. I felt good. Open, opened me up a little bit, got the blood flowing.

• 55:23Cameron Hanes?

  What was the best part of the day?

• 55:26Speaker 01

  Best part of the day? Might've been that view from the top.

• 55:29Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Or doing 65 in our Kawasaki side by side in the neighborhood.

• 55:34Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:34Speaker 01

  Hey, we didn't get pulled over.

• 55:36Cameron Hanes?

  I know. We were trying to get that mug shot picture. That's what I wanted.

• 55:39Speaker 01

  We could sell some serious merch off that.

• 55:41Cameron Hanes?

  I love it. Yeah. Who, who did we say just got a, oh, that was, uh, Deegan, right?

• 55:46Speaker 01

  Hayden Deegan. Oh, yeah.

• 55:48Cameron Hanes?

  Shout out to him.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:49Cameron Hanes?

  I need one of those shirts.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  On that, yeah, you'll get one. I'm sure you go over to his rig this weekend. I'm sure you talked to Brian.

• 55:55Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  I'm sure they'll get you one sized up, uh, doing donuts, doing donuts in an Audi R8, I think.

• 56:01Cameron Hanes?

  Was it?

• 56:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. On the, on an off weekend. So I bet he's probably sold 50 grand worth of merch off it already. So.

• 56:08Cameron Hanes?

  Pay for that bail.

• 56:09Speaker 01

  Yeah. That is only a thousand dollars. So that's no problem.

• 56:12Cameron Hanes?

  See, that's just a good business decision.

• 56:14Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 56:14Cameron Hanes?

  Wasn't it?

• 56:15Speaker 01

  Right? Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's pretty funny.

• 56:17Cameron Hanes?

  I was thinking about something. What was I thinking? Oh. So you said, you, you mentioned wrecking, kind of that one year, obviously, um, with two laps left. Then you mentioned another race or somebody wrecked. Uh, what is your feelings when you're doing great and somebody takes you out? I mean,

• 56:40Speaker 01

  Rage?

• 56:40Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I, does that turn into big issues for the, for the racers?

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Hmm. Well, so you have guys, most of the guys, most of the guys at the top level, the sport race, just like, just like in F1, most of the time, you don't see anybody going and spinning out Lewis Hamilton on purpose to pass them. Right. There's like an etiquette involved and like the best, the best racers there are Eli Tomac, Jett Lawrence, Chase Sexton. Those are kind of the guys, um, at the top right now, like they will, they'll pass you aggressively, but unless it's for like the championship or unless a person ran into them and they're paying them back. Like they're normally, they leave the guys some room and there's a way to do it right and not knock people down.

• 57:27Speaker 01

  I mean, rubbing is racing, but when you're intentionally going in, trying to put the guy on the ground, to me, that's not great etiquette and, and some people might call me soft for that, which I get, right? I mean, I've taken my fair share of people out, you know, I've been taken out plenty of times. Um, but yeah, I mean, there are guys out there, uh, Justin Barsha is like the guy in our sport. They, they literally call him Bam Bam. Like that's his nickname.

• 57:52Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  Bam Bam. And he is just the most aggressive racer there's ever existed. Like if you pass him, you know, if you're not like hugging the inside of the turn, the next turn, like you are getting blasted into the stands.

• 58:06Cameron Hanes?

  Really?

• 58:06Speaker 01

  Right? So there's guys out there that you have to take into account, like how you pass them.

• 58:13Cameron Hanes?

  Mm hmm.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  Right? And you, like, if I got around, if I passed Justin Barsha, you better believe that next half lap was going to be the fastest I would do all day because I needed to get some space for him.

• 58:22Cameron Hanes?

  Right? Yeah.

• 58:23Speaker 01

  Um, but definitely just this past weekend, um, Jason Anderson, who was my teammate my last couple of years on Kawasaki. He's a former Supercross champion, great rider. Um, he's one of the more aggressive guys on track. And Chase Sexton, who's second in the championship right now, was coming through the pack and took him out.

• 58:42Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 58:42Speaker 01

  Right? And just that's, uh, It's definitely.

• 58:48Cameron Hanes?

  It's an accident?

• 58:49Speaker 01

  No, no, I don't think so.

• 58:50Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  I don't think it was an accident, right? But like, I think. If you take somebody out, especially somebody aggressive like Jason, like Chase knows he's got it coming now. It's just a matter of when.

• 59:02Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Like, he's always got to be looking out for the 21, right? So that's, that's part of the way in, in taking somebody out. Yeah, maybe sometimes it'll be easier to, to pass them. It's almost a lazy pass. You know, taking somebody out to get by somebody clean is harder. But if you make enemies, like you don't want a bunch of enemies out there. And if you go running into everybody, like those guys will put you down. Right? So it's like, it's kind of, it's kind of a bit of a chess game. Like, sometimes you do have to take somebody out, but um. Yeah, it's very important not to make too many enemies. It's hard enough as it is.

• 59:35Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I mean, I, I can see that. You want to be aggressive.

• 59:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:39Cameron Hanes?

  But not overly aggressive.

• 59:40Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 59:41Cameron Hanes?

  With the enemies. Yeah, it's a, does it ever happen where? So we got one teammate winning. Another, another team maybe coming up. Does somebody on that, the, the team that's winning take out the guy who could beat him ever? Is it ever like, like a lower tier guy take out the challenger for the top just for his teammate?

• 1:00:05Speaker 01

  Off the top of my head. It does, if it's, I'm sure it's happened. Like, I'm sure it's happened here and there. But most of the time, I mean, yes, it's a team sport in a sense we have teammates. But it's a solo sport.

• 1:00:19Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  Really. I mean, you're not, it's kind of good etiquette. I mean, you're not going to race your teammate overly aggressive. Right? But there's not a whole lot of, there's not really a team atmosphere. I mean, you have your team guys in the truck, right? And everybody's on the same, but even like, even in the 450 class, like I, I have my own, like last year. Well, not my last year racing, I have, I have my own crew chief. I have my own mechanic.

• 1:00:47Speaker 01

  So it's like a two, it's like two separate teams within, within a team. Right? So it's, we're, we're all out there for ourselves.

• 1:00:53Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  At the end of the day, sometimes at the end of a championship, if one of the guys on the team is in position to win the championship, like. You may be asked to let somebody by.

• 1:01:04Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 1:01:04Speaker 01

  Like if he, if he's gonna win the title.

• 1:01:06Cameron Hanes?

  Asked, like what do you mean?

• 1:01:08Speaker 01

  Um, I can think of one time that I was asked and it was just like before, like it was, uh, we do our practice and stuff during the day. And then we have like a couple of hours downtime before the night show starts before the main, you know, the main show starts. And it was just like, hey, you know, this guy's in position to win. Um, and you may be asked to, you know, step aside basically and, and let them through.

• 1:01:31Cameron Hanes?

  And were you?

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  But it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. No, I, uh, I won that race.

• 1:01:35Cameron Hanes?

  Oh.

• 1:01:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. Well, you, yeah. So you can ask me, but no, I'm gonna win.

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  It really, yeah, right. It really doesn't, it doesn't happen. It's, it's nowhere near like a, like a Formula One or anything like that. It's very rare when it happens.

• 1:01:50Cameron Hanes?

  I see. I, I, I was just curious. I just know how competition works and it's like, there's only one winner. What does it take to be that guy?

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  There's, there's definitely a lot of discussion over if that's right or not. But it's funny how in some sports it's totally accepted. And then in our sport, it's very, you know, there's been some instances where the fans are definitely bummed out.

• 1:02:11Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  Like where somebody lets somebody buy.

• 1:02:13Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 1:02:14Speaker 01

  But it's, I mean, rare, it's rare. Once every 10 years, maybe.

• 1:02:17Cameron Hanes?

  What, um, and I should know this. I should be more, but I'm the casual who you're, you're educating.

• 1:02:24Speaker 01

  You're good.

• 1:02:25Cameron Hanes?

  So in a Supercross, say championship final, everything's at, how long is that race?

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  20 minutes.

• 1:02:33Cameron Hanes?

  20 minutes.

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  Plus one lap. So you leave the gate, the timer starts.

• 1:02:38Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 1:02:39Speaker 01

  Whenever that timer gets to zero, the next time you cross the finish line, it's white flag, one to go.

• 1:02:44Cameron Hanes?

  One lap.

• 1:02:45Speaker 01

  So we used to, it used to be for the 250 class, which is, you know, where I won my first Supercross. When you go, when you go from amateur to pro, you race the 250 class. And that's the displacement of the motorcycle, 250 cc engine. That's 15 minutes plus one lap. And then the premier class, 20 minutes plus one lap. It used to be 15 laps for 250s, 20 laps for the premier class, 450s. But now it's just, it's better for TV because some tracks are different every single weekend. There's a new design. And so sometimes the lap time might be 45 seconds and sometimes it might be a minute and 15 seconds.

• 1:03:24Cameron Hanes?

  Hmm.

• 1:03:24Speaker 01

  Right? So it's just a way to where you know exactly how much racing, you know, the fans are gonna see.

• 1:03:30Cameron Hanes?

  Is the clock counting down or up?

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  Down.

• 1:03:32Cameron Hanes?

  Down. So it starts at 20.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  Starts at 20.

• 1:03:34Cameron Hanes?

  Okay, it goes down.

• 1:03:37Cameron Hanes?

  It seems like.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  You're gonna have fun this weekend.

• 1:03:39Cameron Hanes?

  I know. It it it seems like, tell me if this is right or wrong, but for 20 minutes plus one lap, you're, Davis Clark, are you locked in on every single sec? I mean, you can't, has your mind ever wandered and then you rack and you're like, what? How did I lose focus? Does that ever happen?

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I think definitely in in it's something that you have to learn. I think it comes with experience, kind of being able to keep your, because everybody's mind wanders.

• 1:04:10Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:10Speaker 01

  Everybody's mind wanders, but it's what you do with it. It's how disciplined you are about bringing it back. Right? And focusing on the task at hand. But I mean, yeah, it gets to a point where especially like in practice, we normally have the same Supercross track that we practice on during the week. We call it like the test track. I mean, I could be thinking about,

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  you know, going to Chuck E. Cheese and jumping in the ball pit. I don't know, that's random, but I could be thinking about that.

• 1:04:35Cameron Hanes?

  How about a girl that you saw?

• 1:04:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, something like that. I could be thinking about something, something completely different and do laps and be fine. So much of it's muscle memory, right? But yeah, very important to stay locked in and really,

• 1:04:49Speaker 01

  it's not, it's not a situation where you just go out there and it's like, of course, you're trying to go as fast as you can, but there's strategy to it, to you have to know where to put your effort. It's like working smarter, not harder. Right? So there's different sections of the track that you need to put a little bit more emphasis on. People know their, their strengths and their weaknesses, right? And it's like, how do you kind of mitigate some of these weaknesses? What can I do here? What can I do there? So there's a lot of like strategy involved with it. A lot of the 250 class, like the young kids, they just go out there and, you know, try to go as absolutely fast as they can the whole time. But there's, there's an art to winning races, right? And it's a lot of times the fastest guy doesn't win.

• 1:05:29Cameron Hanes?

  Do you see racers now that you're like?

• 1:05:33Cameron Hanes?

  They need to change our approach, or you see things, mistakes they make. Can you see those from the booth with all your experience and everything? Can you watch and be like, man, this guy would have a lot better, more success if he raced this way. Like they got the talent, they're just not implementing it right. Do you see that?

• 1:05:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so, it's so easy for me to see from an outside perspective, right? It's a whole lot of different story. I mean, when you're in it.

• 1:05:59Cameron Hanes?

  That's right.

• 1:06:00Speaker 01

  If I could have, if I could.

• 1:06:01Cameron Hanes?

  Right?

• 1:06:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. And if I could take a look at myself, like if I could be calling my own race to, you know, two years ago, or whenever it was, it would be the same thing. And I would be like, well, why, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? It's harder to change when you're in it, of course. But yeah, that's part of the fun. You know, it's part of the fun. It's like everybody's, of course, everybody's doing their best and.

• 1:06:21Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. What they think is their best.

• 1:06:22Speaker 01

  What they, yeah, what they think they're the best. Exactly.

• 1:06:25Cameron Hanes?

  Sometimes you can't see the forest of the trees type thing. Sometimes you're so close to it. What I was curious, yeah, when you were saying that, these tracks, do you ever show up to a track when you were racing and be like, this is my event? You just know how it was laid out that it just fit your skill set?

• 1:06:45Speaker 01

  Yes, in a way, like we'll look at track maps the week. So it's for Supercross, you know, they build the track the week of on the stadium floor, but they come out with the kind of the track maps almost like six months in advance. So you can take a look at like, and you can kind of get a general idea of, you know, if somebody's really good, like I told you about the whoop section, being very technical. It's a lot of time to be made or lost in a section like that. There's guys that are really good in there and not so good. You know, you see somebody, somebody that's amazing in whoops and they see a track map with three sets of whoops on it, right? Obviously you're going to think that, you know, you're going to do better there. For me, it was always like, it was a vibe. It was like an energy,

• 1:07:28Speaker 01

  right? It was just how I felt when I got off the plane. It's like, sometimes I just knew, like sometimes I just knew it was it, like I was winning. That's kind of the way it always was. And for me, anytime it rained, I was like, let's go, baby. I got this. I got this. Yeah. Even I have no idea. I have no idea. I can, I can trace it back to one story of, of when I was a kid. And it was the week before, like our biggest amateur event. There was, we did a week-long race in Oklahoma. They called it, uh, Pocahontas City. And then you would, you would do that, and then you would go to, um, Loretta Lynn's after, kind of besides the point. But I remember,

• 1:08:12Speaker 01

  I was racing at the time, it was an 85, it was like the 85 CC open. So it was like 10 to 16 years old. And I'm like 10, like I'm on the, and most 10 year olds wouldn't even try to race that class.

• 1:08:25Cameron Hanes?

  But you're the golden child, remember?

• 1:08:27Speaker 01

  Exactly, right? A golden child. Um, and I remember, I remember, I, I always hated the mud because I won everything else. And if it rained, it kind of levels the playing field a little bit. So when it rained, I was like, that was kind of some of the only times I was scared of losing. But I remember for whatever this day, August 2008, I remember I did this 85 CC open. It was, it was practice, I think. But I was racing against guys older than me that I never really raced against traditionally, right? You never get a chance. 85 CC open, that class isn't at every event, right? So I was racing guys like Eli Tomac, some of these amazing riders that were four years older than me or whatever. And I, I just remember I went out there and I was just so fast, like my lap times. I don't even

• 1:09:12Speaker 01

  exactly remember what it was. But I remember that day when I got done with that practice as an 11 year old kid, 10, 11 year old kid, ever since then, every time it rained, I was like, let's go, baby. Let's go. I got it. Yeah. I have no idea why, but it's funny. It's just little moments like that. And I think the rain is just so much about attitude, really, you know?

• 1:09:32Cameron Hanes?

  That makes sense. Yeah. Um, you mentioned like, sometimes you'd get off the plane and you just knew you were gonna win. Like you had that, what, how did, how did you get that mindset? Where did that come from? Was that from watching other athletes like a Jordan?

• 1:09:50Cameron Hanes?

  You looked at him, he looked confident all the time. So how did, where did your confidence, where was it cultivated from?

• 1:09:59Speaker 01

  Work.

• 1:09:59Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:01Speaker 01

  I, I, like I told you, and you know, a lot of, a lot of kids do this, it's more popular. I guess it's more of a popular thing now to kind of go all in at a younger age. But when I say I was all in, I mean, I was all in, I wanted nothing else to do with anything. Like I didn't want to go to Disneyland. I didn't want to go to my cousin's birthday party. I didn't want to do anything else other than win dirt bike races and I would do whatever it took.

• 1:10:29Cameron Hanes?

  Like what, what was that? Was that just reps on the track, riding?

• 1:10:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:34Cameron Hanes?

  Or was it training?

• 1:10:35Speaker 01

  I think at the end of the day greatness comes down to deliberate practice. It's like how much attention to detail are you keeping when you go out? Everybody can go out there and ride laps, you know, we can all go out there and do a 20 minute moto. But it's like, are you, are you really locked in and focused on getting 1% better? Like getting better at, you know, the whoop section or doing this or doing that. And I think the intensity in which I worked from such, such a young age. I think I thought to myself, there's no way in hell anybody else is doing this. So I, that gave me, like that gave me confidence that, you know, nobody was doing what I was doing.

• 1:11:17Speaker 01

  And I, I worked hard enough and I didn't doubt, there was nothing, there was, I couldn't do anything else. Like there was, there was nothing left for me to be done. And so I think that's where my confidence started. And I, I think I was just a crazy competitive, like I was just really competitive. And I'm not really so much that way anymore. I think the trials and tribulations of life have, you know, shown me a lot more perspective where it's kind of hard to be that, I guess, kind of that all in mindset, you know, F everybody. And this is all that matters. And, cause in a way it's self, it's a selfish place to, you know, live. But if you want to be great, you want to be the very best at something. I mean, that's how you have to be.

• 1:11:58Speaker 01

  And yeah, I was just competitive. I mean, I wanted to kill those kids. Like I, I wanted to embarrass them. Like that's just how I was.

• 1:12:06Cameron Hanes?

  Um, yeah, that's unique for a kid. It's a, yeah, did that ever? How did that manifest on the track? I mean, were any other kids like that? Or did you ever have issues with that? Fire?

• 1:12:22Speaker 01

  Hmm. I think my biggest, I guess my biggest hurdle maybe as a, as a kid would be, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't lose, I didn't lose a whole lot. But when I did, I, I guess really not even, didn't even matter on results. I was just scared to death of losing. Like I just didn't, like I, I just really didn't want to lose and it just caused me a lot of stress. You know, I think that was maybe the downside of it. Yeah. I mean, you get, of course, with anything that, you know, you care about a lot, you're going to get your identity wrapped up in it a bit. And I didn't have a, you know, I didn't have a chance to, wasn't something, you know, dirt bikes wasn't something I got into when I was 18

• 1:13:04Speaker 01

  and I already kind of established who I was. It is who I was completely a hundred percent. So when I was doing bad on a dirt bike, I was a bad person.

• 1:13:12Cameron Hanes?

  You're like failing as a human.

• 1:13:13Speaker 01

  To complete failure and you know, that's some of that 2015, 2016 is overcoming that, right? But, um.

• 1:13:21Cameron Hanes?

  That's a lot of pressure for a kid though.

• 1:13:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of pressure. I mean, uh, you know, we gotta, it takes a lot. It takes a lot of time. You know, my dad was with me. I have a younger sister and my mom, of course, it was me and my dad on the road a lot. And like, I've always been a pretty aware person, even when I was a kid and just knowing that they were like, how much people were sacr, you know, how much people were sacrificing. And it's like, you know, if I, if I don't win this race, if I don't turn this into something, like I, I couldn't, I couldn't bear that thought of like doing all this, doing all this, seeing all these sacrifices being made around me. And even just going through what I was willing to give on a personal level.

• 1:14:04Speaker 01

  If I didn't, like just the amount of really of suffering I was willing to put up with as a, as a kid in order to make it.

• 1:14:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's a lot. It was happening for me, you know, and I, I wanted to. Even if I didn't get there, I wanted to do everything I could. You know, I wanted to do the best. I felt like I had that responsibility, you know, to do my best, even even as a young kid. And there's definitely some psychological implications of that, you know, as you move forward later in life that I definitely had to deal with.

• 1:14:37Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, there could be some scars from that.

• 1:14:41Cameron Hanes?

  I was curious, how much, maybe not when you're a kid, or maybe when you're a kid, but did you visualize, like, how much is visualization part of racing?

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I visualized, I mean, I would sit on the starting gate. And so for one, as an amateur, a big part of why I was good there was because I never stopped watching races. I mean, there's a million classes happening. There's racing all day. The track's changing all day. And I would always be out there on the track, looking at lines, watching the track develop, right? And so I would sit there, I would sit there on the gate and I would close my eyes and I would go through, you know, imagine myself getting the whole shot, imagine myself the feeling that that's going to give me, you know, going in the first corner, not seeing anybody to my right or to my left. And I would visualize, I knew exactly where I was going to go, like on the on the first lap. I knew every single line throughout the entire track where I was going.

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  And so I would sit there and close my eyes and just do laps in my head of, you know, hitting those lines and doing that. And I did that. I did that my whole career.

• 1:15:44Cameron Hanes?

  Did you?

• 1:15:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:45Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I think a lot of the visualization, I mean, even it's more like daydreaming in a sense. But, I mean, there would be times where, there'd be times where I would be almost, I knew what I was going to say on the podium because I had rehearsed it in my head, like the night before. Night before, you know, or or a week before, or a month before. There was times where I was like, there, I don't know, yeah, I don't know why I was like this. But there was times where six, you know, six months ago, I thought about something I would say on the podium if this happened. And I win a race and snapping my fingers are just there on the top of my head and I just say it.

• 1:16:26Speaker 01

  Like, I always wanted to be, I wanted to be more, I wanted to win more than anything, but I wanted to be more than that. You know, I wanted to really. You know, I really wanted to give people a show.

• 1:16:37Cameron Hanes?

  Be an icon.

• 1:16:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, and just, yeah, just do my best in all areas, you know, and I love, I love that part. I love the, I guess, kind of like the.

• 1:16:45Cameron Hanes?

  Strowman?

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:46Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  I like that.

• 1:16:47Cameron Hanes?

  What was your best podium comment?

• 1:16:52Speaker 01

  My best podium comment? Hmm.

• 1:16:56Speaker 01

  Well, I think I said, uh, so Denver of 2023, that was my last podium uh, in the 450 class. And, you know, I was dealing with the, I was dealing with this nerve injury, which is one of the reasons why I retired, but this nerve injury in my arm, where I wasn't able to like really hold on to the bike that well. And uh, 2022, I had missed all of 22 due to a torn ACL. And so 23, I came back and I was kind of,

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  I wasn't that, I wasn't as good as I was. I wasn't like that elite guy anymore. I lost it. You know, I kind of like missed my window of opportunity. I wasn't healthy enough. Um, but it got towards later in the championship. And like I said, durability is a skill and to be out there is a skill. And we had lost a fair amount of guys due to injury at that point. So the field was definitely a lot thinner. But I was able to get on the podium. It's, it's a huge moment for me. Um, and two of my friends that I, that I race, like the two probably best friends I have in racing, which I, I never really had a whole lot of friends in racing. It's just kind of the nature of the game.

• 1:18:00Cameron Hanes?

  Competitive.

• 1:18:00Speaker 01

  Um, but they were the first two spots ahead of me. And like these guys that I'd grown up with, we had trained at the train, same training facility. And on that podium, I remember I said, gosh, oh, now I'm losing it. What did I say? I said, I said, a winner,

• 1:18:19Speaker 01

  a winner is just a loser that kept trying.

• 1:18:21Cameron Hanes?

  Mm hmm. That's a good one.

• 1:18:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I probably stole that off a coffee mug or something.

• 1:18:25Cameron Hanes?

  It's so.

• 1:18:26Speaker 01

  But it hit hard, man. I had a little tear going down my eye and.

• 1:18:29Cameron Hanes?

  Did you?

• 1:18:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. People come up to me all the time and they're like, they talk about that podium speech.

• 1:18:34Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, that's perfect. Well, yeah. I mean, I, you know, there's this, there's a tactic with, I'm going back to the visualization now, but. There's a strategy where you're like your perspective, writing, going through everything. And then there's a perspective from like a bird's eye view. Like where it's not you, but you're watching you going through. Did you take both those or was it always you on the bike?

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  I would love to sit here and, and, and say both, but it was always just, it was always just first person. For me, but I can tell you that recently, and we don't have to spend much time talking about this because our audiences will not be stoked. But I, I'm super into golf. It's like the one hobby that I found outside of racing that, you know, that I can do. I never played any other sports growing up or anything. So it's, it's kind of cool for me and visualization, visuals, visualization. Geez Louise, I'm a broadcaster folks. My goodness, but yeah, it's, that's a big part of it.

• 1:19:34Cameron Hanes?

  Don't use that word this weekend.

• 1:19:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, for real. Every once in a while, there's a word like that that just, you know, sometimes it just escapes your mind.

• 1:19:41Cameron Hanes?

  I just read my book and there's like a certain like cadence of words that, well, when somebody, so I had quotes from outliers. And how somebody else says something is not how I say something. So even though I see the words and I'm reading it, my brain is like, well, no, that's not how I say it. I say it with these words in this order. So it's like, I'm looking at it. My brain will not say it, but anyway.

• 1:20:09Speaker 01

  No, there's times, man, I keep a little, I keep a little notepad, like a little pocket in my pocket all the time with some, just some bullet points. Because every once in a while I'll be coming back from commercial break and I'll have something I want to say. And if just last second, it'll leave my mind, right? It happened to me earlier in the year and then you're like, oh God.

• 1:20:27Cameron Hanes?

  I'm live.

• 1:20:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So you kind of have to learn to, to get around those little things.

• 1:20:31Cameron Hanes?

  What? So what was the golfing visualization?

• 1:20:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, just visualizing the shot that you want to hit and seeing yourself do it, right? And just, yeah, seeing myself do it. I've seen so many videos of me swinging the. You know, in golf, you're always getting videos of your swing and kind of analyzing, right? So I think it was just easier for me to visualize that. But my game, I just shot a 77 a couple of weeks ago is my career best.

• 1:20:53Cameron Hanes?

  That's good.

• 1:20:53Speaker 01

  In the rain, like I told you, I was always good in the rain.

• 1:20:55Cameron Hanes?

  What was par?

• 1:20:57Speaker 01

  Uh, 72.

• 1:20:59Cameron Hanes?

  Okay.

• 1:20:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:59Cameron Hanes?

  Five over.

• 1:21:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a big deal. It was at my home course too, is very, it's like a pretty difficult, uh, pretty difficult course. So it was, yeah, it was a big moment for me. I was, I'm still kind of riding the high a little bit.

• 1:21:10Cameron Hanes?

  That's a good effort for sure. Yeah, when I, when I think about a lot of people, like, you know how we, we had that elk target at the bow rack? And you were shooting it and I was saying, pick a, aim small, miss small, that type of thing. So a lot of people visualize that where they're shooting the arrow. Where I've tried to do is, yeah, I want to, I want to see the perfect arrow hit right where I want. But I also want to see from above and see how I'm reacting. So I can see what I do, what the bull does and see that whole process just to give it even more power in my mind.

• 1:21:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:21:44Cameron Hanes?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:21:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:21:45Cameron Hanes?

  I don't know if that works.

• 1:21:46Speaker 01

  And has there been, has there been a moment for you where you're like, wow? Like what I visualized was like so clearly happened? Have you had those moments?

• 1:21:56Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, yeah. It's just like, I saw this. I saw this happen.

• 1:22:02Speaker 01

  This exact thing.

• 1:22:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. And then, you know, you get to a place where I think you get to where

• 1:22:10Cameron Hanes?

  you make a perfect shot and you're like, yeah, that's what I do.

• 1:22:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:15Cameron Hanes?

  That's, I shouldn't be surprised. I'm surprised when it's not perfect.

• 1:22:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:22:18Cameron Hanes?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:19Cameron Hanes?

  And that's a big, because when I first started and maybe when you first started, if the arrow went where I wanted it to, I was surprised. I was like, holy shit.

• 1:22:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:22:31Cameron Hanes?

  I didn't know that was gonna, but now it's like, I'm surprised if it doesn't go perfect. So it's just that shift. Where, yeah.

• 1:22:38Speaker 01

  I get, yeah, I, I guess I, something that living with this, you know, I, I guess I've always kind of viewed my life just, you know, I kind of came up in my sport at the time, social media was kind of coming to the forefront and for whatever reason, you know, I was doing well, but people labeled me this next big thing and you're dealing with all this outside pressure. And I almost felt like I was living in a fishbowl. Of course, it's a, people can maybe even laugh when you hear something like that because of dirt bike racing, right? But in, you know, it's my world, right? And that's, it, it felt like everybody was just looking at me, waiting for me to, to screw up. And I think that after living with that and carrying that for so long,

• 1:23:20Speaker 01

  I think it's almost taught me to let go of expectations, right? Like, now I think that's been the biggest thing that's been an improvement to my quality of life. It's just, I mean, even sitting down and doing this podcast, right? Like before, five years ago, I would have been like, man, I need to make sure that I, you know, that I do this and say this or do it. And it's just like, just more of an acceptance of just doing your best and accepting whatever that is. And it's, that has been such an incredibly, and it's such a stark contrast from, from like what's been inside my mind for my whole life, right? And this is just a change that's happened in the last couple of years for me.

• 1:24:02Speaker 01

  Um, but it's just added so much, allowed me to be so much more present, compare myself less. Always used to compare myself so much to, you know, you shoot a buck and you go on Instagram and somebody's going to be shooting a bigger buck.

• 1:24:15Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:15Speaker 01

  Right? It's just things like that where, uh, it's kind of got away from the expectations a little bit.

• 1:24:21Cameron Hanes?

  How, how did, how'd that happen? I mean, what changed?

• 1:24:26Speaker 01

  Think just hitting rock bottom. You know, you get to a point where you're like, this can't get any worse. It couldn't be further off course than you are right now. And it's like, whoa, I'm still alive. Like the sun's still gonna rise the next morning, right? Like my mom's still gonna call me, tell me she loves me. I still got my friends, you know, it's just, I think that it's like, Yeah, I mean, I, I think for one, like, it's great to have things that you care about a lot, right? It's not this mindset of like, nothing matters, like this nihilistic thing.

• 1:24:58Speaker 01

  But it's just a way, I guess, I've found to get the most out of myself and just get the most enjoyment out of it. It's just, yeah, it's just allowed me to stay more, more present. It's just less, less stressful, less stressful feeling like you have to do this, right? It's just less stressful.

• 1:25:12Cameron Hanes?

  For approval type.

• 1:25:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:14Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. I mean, well, do you feel, do you feel pressure calling the races?

• 1:25:21Speaker 01

  Hmm. Like, I would say that I get nervous. Like, I get nervous before we go live on, on the show. Once we get into it a little bit, I'm like, I'm kind of good to go, whatever. But, um, no. I mean, I don't get super, I'm not like, you know, back in the day, maybe I used to think like, oh, man, well, what if this happens? What if this happens? Every once in a while, stuff like that would come into my mind. I never think about that now. I'm never like, what if I say this on air? Or what if I say the wrong thing, right? I just, uh, I guess I kind of have like a childish confidence that it's gonna, like, I'm, I'm just confident in the things that, you know, that I can say. And I'm confident with the fact that my best is enough for me.

• 1:26:04Speaker 01

  You know, if I, if I do my best, there's nothing more I can do. And I think that perspective is only possible through life experience, teaching you that, right? And I think that's it. It's just ups and downs of life. Everybody has them. I've always just tried to do my best to, to learn from what life has given me. You know, I love the term, listen to your life, like what it's trying to teach you.

• 1:26:24Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:25Speaker 01

  And I think I'm a real, I'm stubborn. I'm stubborn. You know, you've seen that saying where it's like, you will keep getting that same, like, life will keep telling you that same thing until you finally learn and finally apply it, right? And, um, I've seen my fair share of ups and downs. And I think, yeah, it just has allowed me to arrive in a place now where it's just. Yeah, I just get the most out of things. I just enjoy my experience a lot more. Not that it's perfect, not that I'm like some monk or anything, but I just, yeah, I have a lot of fun.

• 1:26:56Cameron Hanes?

  No, it seems like it. It seems like you're like right where you need to be and right where you wanna be.

• 1:27:02Speaker 01

  Which is crazy. It really is crazy because to be honest with you, if, if you were to show me my career on paper, like when I was 15, like of what I did in the sport now, and I can objectively say that now I can look at what I did and be like really proud, like really genuinely proud of the things that I did and I know I gave my best.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  But if I saw that paper when I was like 15 or 16, I would be like, no. Like just put a bullet in my head.

• 1:27:30Cameron Hanes?

  Really?

• 1:27:31Speaker 01

  Basically.

• 1:27:32Cameron Hanes?

  No, cuz you thought.

• 1:27:33Speaker 01

  I just thought that I was gonna be the greatest ever, ever. I won a championship. I wanted to win 16, you know?

• 1:27:41Speaker 01

  But like I told you, it's growing up under those like kind of extreme circumstances. I told you at lunch, if I would have kept winning my rookie year, and all these behavioral patterns would have kept reaffirming themselves, this is the way, this is the way, this is the way. I can tell you, that's not leading to anywhere good. And I, I promise, I see that so clearly, like I see, I see this buck on this wall right here. I mean, it's that clear to me. And it makes it, it's just like, there's just so much like magic and it makes you feel like there's just so much magic in life, right? And I just have, I got trust in this guy.

• 1:28:20Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:21Speaker 01

  It's got me, got me taken care of.

• 1:28:22Cameron Hanes?

  No, and that's, that's so powerful because, yeah, that, that's just a healthy perspective on looking at it. Cuz of course it's easy to say, I wanted to win the most ever and be the GOAT. It was super easy. Who wouldn't want that goal? Everybody has that goal, but it's not realistic.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:28:44Cameron Hanes?

  And it's not healthy sometimes.

• 1:28:46Speaker 01

  Definitely wasn't, definitely wasn't healthy. Definitely wasn't healthy for me. And I think.

• 1:28:54Speaker 01

  Who's to say, like, who am I to say that my life should go this way? Like, who am I?

• 1:29:03Cameron Hanes?

  Right.

• 1:29:03Speaker 01

  I'm this, I'm like this, you know? It doesn't, I'm not in control. I'm not in control of this. And so I think sometimes, as a society in general, we want things to go a certain way. And when they don't, we dwell, we dwell on, oh crap, you know, this happens, bad break, or this or that. Instead of focusing on like, what I'm talking about now, like this perspective that it gave me and just these, like I told you, these behavioral patterns that I was able to get out of, I was able to grow into a place where I enjoy my life now. Um, I think we spend a lot of time dwelling on it not, you know, not going the way that we wanted it to. And I'm not gonna lie, there was definitely times I was in that place. But it's the only way I would have learned to get here if I was there.

• 1:29:47Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:48Speaker 01

  I was there long enough to where I was like, I'm not staying here. I'm not gonna stay in this place. You know, I'm gonna figure it out.

• 1:29:55Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah. And I think people hearing that from you is powerful, is the ultimate winner to be okay and say, maybe winning wasn't the best for me.

• 1:30:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:06Cameron Hanes?

  I mean, but hearing it from you, who everybody, I see the comments, I see the response. Everybody looks up to, everybody respects. So for you to say that, it's, uh, I think that's gonna have a big impact on, on many.

• 1:30:21Speaker 01

  Thank you. Thanks for giving me this platform too, man. This is great. I've been so stoked. This whole day has been amazing.

• 1:30:27Cameron Hanes?

  Uh, I feel really lucky. I mean, I, I can't wait to watch you work up there.

• 1:30:32Speaker 01

  Oh, you're gonna have a blast, man.

• 1:30:33Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, I, so speaking to that, you talked about some of the greatest writers of all time, you know, Ricky, Eli, you mentioned a few other guys. Who's the next generation, the next superstars coming up that you see?

• 1:30:46Speaker 01

  The next superstar is coming up, pretty clear as day right now. So Jet Lawrence, uh, he's from Australia. I believe he's only 21 years old and I think he has seven or eight championships already.

• 1:31:00Cameron Hanes?

  Wow.

• 1:31:01Speaker 01

  Came over here, went pro at 16, which happens not often. Doesn't, yeah, you, especially nowadays, it's a lot harder to go, you know, maybe back in the early 2000s, that was more normal, but the level is already so high now.

• 1:31:14Cameron Hanes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:31:14Speaker 01

  Um, so Jet Lawrence has come over here and basically, yeah, he's done things on a motorcycle that. No, but that we've never seen before. I mean, he dominated the 250 cc class. He won Supercross championships, everything there is to win, every championship there is to win. He won it. He got in the 450 class, his first, he went, he went, he moved from a 250 to a 450, kind of mid-season after Supercross in 2023. So 2023 Pro Motocross, his first move to premier class, won every single race. Perfect season, which has only happened, which has only happened twice before. Ricky Carmichael did it twice, oh two and oh four, and James Stewart did in 2008.

• 1:31:58Speaker 01

  But a 19-year-old kid went 23-0. His first, his first season on a 450, which is like, just monumental. It's insane. I don't think we, like, Jet is, you know, he's very popular in the sport right now. I don't think we talk about it enough. I mean, an unbelievable talent, really. It's incredible. The way, I mean, it looks easy. When you watch him ride, it's like, anybody can do that. But he just, it's insane. It's insane. And then, yeah, so he's, he's actually, he went down early the Supercross season, four or five rounds in with a torn ACL. So he's sidelined right now.

• 1:32:39Speaker 01

  Another guy that has, is a superstar already, but talk about superstar potential, like, just in terms of like, reaching a new audience, Hayden Deegan is maybe the best chance this sport has ever seen at going, having some mainstream play, right? I mean, this guy is made for TV. I mean, he's authentically himself. He, for one, he's pretty, he's dominating the Supercross, 250 Supercross West Championship right now.

• 1:33:13Speaker 01

  And that's kind of the one thing we were waiting around to see. He had one, he'd won an outdoor championship. He won the SMX World Championship, you know, in the playoffs, those three races there. Um, you know, the one that season long kind of race, but he has yet to win a Supercross championship. Came close last year, but right now he, he's dominating this series and it looks like he's gonna win. And he's just talk about, guy will get on the, kind of like UFC. Like he'll call people out, like he'll be talking, I mean, he's talking, oh yeah, talking, you know, talking crap on social media, what, like, he's just not scared at all. He's had a camera in his face. He's got millions of YouTube subscribers. He's got like, yeah, 2 million followers on Instagram. You go by,

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  you'll see this weekend in the pits at Seattle, you go by his rig and there's 15 people lined up just to get a chance to, to look at him for a second, right? Like, so he's bringing this whole other, he could be in eighth place and you follow, like the, the cheers will follow him around the track. I mean, so just, Brian Deegan, um, Brian Deegan is his dad, you know, he's done great things and, um, you know, on a dirt bike in his own right, freestyle guy, won a Supercross race, but he's just played in terms of like marketing and, and I think he's just done such a great job in doing that. And Hayden's really embraced it. And I always say it takes two, two things to go, to go mainstream, to go superstar. So you gotta win, you gotta win a lot, but you have to embrace the other stuff. Like

• 1:34:41Speaker 01

  you have to embrace the fans, you have to embrace the media and all that. And, and Hayden does that more than, more than anybody else, I would say. So those, between Hayden Deegan and Jett Lawrence, and Hayden Deegan is still in the 250 class. They don't race each other yet. Um, but once, once Hayden moves up to the, to the 450 class, to the premier class, it's gonna be, it's gonna be crazy. Then you have Chase Sexton, who's, um, could win the Supercross championship this year. He's, he's a good friend of mine. Uh, he's, yeah, he's really, he's really good. Maybe the, physically the strongest guy you'd ever see. It looks like a, looks like a semi truck out there. The guy's built like a tank. Yeah. Um, Ken Roxton's been around forever. Eli Tomac, that's like, he's kind of, we never know when he's gonna retire. This could be his last year, next year could be his last

• 1:35:26Speaker 01

  year, but everybody's a huge Eli Tomac fan. It's like, it's kind of what I was telling you earlier, that thing about greatness, like. You be great long enough and everybody's just gonna appreciate you.

• 1:35:38Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:39Speaker 01

  And Eli's been great so long. He, he had his time, you know, back in.

• 1:35:43Cameron Hanes?

  They'll be haters for a while.

• 1:35:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, back in 2018, 2019, he had won a lot of outdoor championships, a lot of outdoor championships, but never got the job done in Supercross. And he won the Supercross championship in 2020. And since then, it's just been like, he's become a fan favorite. Everybody appreciates him. And so we're kind of saying our farewells to him at some point over the next couple of years. But he's still competitive. Like, he got hurt this year. He broke his leg in Supercross. He'll be back, but he was good enough to win the championship this year. So it's, it's kind of a cool moment for the sport because you have these older guys, you know, in their early 30s, which is, hasn't been that common in the past, racing. You know, these guys in their early 20s, these Jet Lawrence types, right? You're seeing this clash of two generations.

• 1:36:29Speaker 01

  It's like two different ways of riding the bike, you know? It's, it's like, yeah, it's a clash of generations. So it's a cool time to be a fan right now.

• 1:36:36Cameron Hanes?

  What ages people out? Because you're on a machine, but is it injuries?

• 1:36:41Speaker 01

  It's injuries, but it's also the, I think it's just more than anything, it's the amount of work. I mean, the amount of work that you have to, I mean, the schedule.

• 1:36:50Cameron Hanes?

  It only take it for so long or what?

• 1:36:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, 31 races a year. It's a lot, you know, it's a lot of time spent on a plane. It's just a lot of wear and tear on the body, but more, more so the mind, I think. Especially, it's a different story if you're a fifth to 10th place guy. You don't have the pressure of, oh, I gotta win, I got a podium, I gotta win these championships. I mean, when you're in the championship hunt, that's a different level of pressure, right? And that can wear on you.

• 1:37:17Cameron Hanes?

  Right, makes sense.

• 1:37:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, we had two of the, two of some of the greatest to ever do it. Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungy. Both of those guys won four Supercross championships in a row. Ryan Villopoto, 2011 to 2014, and then Ryan Dungy, 2015.

• 1:37:37Speaker 01

  To 2017, something, something like that, right? But they, they retired at 27 and they basically said, I can't, I can't deal with this anymore. Like this is all too much, right? So it's been cool that Eli's been able to kind of stick around longer, but more than anything, yes, it's injuries, but it's just the mental grind. Like it is, it is a lot, like what these guys, what these guys do physically, mentally, everything, and I can say it as objectively as I possibly can, you know, of course I grew up in it, I did it, but I mean, these are really some of the best athletes in the world. I mean, it's, it's really incredible what guys like Jett, Eli, Chase, these guys, Hayden, I mean, what they're doing right now is pretty special.

• 1:38:16Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, when you, it's super interesting, but when you were saying that it takes both, it takes the winning and the personality, it made me think of Kawhi Leonard, who has been an amazing basketball player, but just does not, can't get the fan, you know?

• 1:38:30Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:38:32Cameron Hanes?

  Doesn't talk, doesn't, so could never really ascend to that mainstream.

• 1:38:38Speaker 01

  Some people want no part of it.

• 1:38:39Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, and, and he's probably, he's probably fine with it.

• 1:38:42Speaker 01

  And you know what's funny? You know what's funny about this actually is, that's Eli Tomac.

• 1:38:46Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, really?

• 1:38:47Speaker 01

  I mean, that guy is all business. He's been, you see him smile a lot more now. You can tell he's a dad, he's got a family, he's accomplished everything there is to accomplish in the sport.

• 1:39:00Speaker 01

  Like I told you, the fan base loves him, so that there's an element that his legacy is already secured, but just the last couple of years in general, he's become more personable and, you know, is much more inclined to hop on a podcast or do this or do that, but that, and that's one of the reasons why people love him so much. I mean, I think regardless, regardless of whether you play in the media or not, or whatever, people just appreciate people that are authentically themselves.

• 1:39:27Cameron Hanes?

  And if they're great.

• 1:39:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course, and they're great. And, and Eli, Eli's been both and he's always, he's the only guy that trains in Colorado, like he's got his own, you know, in, in Durango, Colorado, I believe, just kind of out in the middle of nowhere, trains at altitude and kind of does his own thing, doesn't really have a bunch of.

• 1:39:45Cameron Hanes?

  Bow hunts.

• 1:39:46Speaker 01

  Bow hunts, that's true. Yeah, I saw some comments on our, on our posts, posts today, gotta get Eli on. But yeah, he's kind of, he's an anomaly because people love him, but he's always kind of just done his own thing and.

• 1:39:58Cameron Hanes?

  That's cool though.

• 1:39:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's super, it's super cool. I like it too. I like the idea of just showing up and doing your work and

• 1:40:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:04Speaker 02

  He's done it his way.

• 1:40:06Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that's pretty cool. Um, man, what a, such an amazing discussion. I've, I've loved every minute of it. Um, I do wanna, we got the dipshits over here that have questions for you.

• 1:40:21Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah?

• 1:40:22Cameron Hanes?

  This is the Muppet. Do you ever watch the Muppets?

• 1:40:24Speaker 02

  No, can't say I have.

• 1:40:26Cameron Hanes?

  Those are just like, these guys are like Muppets, little puppets.

• 1:40:29Speaker 02

  The Muppets.

• 1:40:31Cameron Hanes?

  So what do you guys got for, uh, our guest?

• 1:40:34Speaker 02

  Okay, well, first, I think, uh, with all the editing Macy does, I would feel bad for, uh, not saying she's a huge fan.

• 1:40:43Cameron Hanes?

  We gotta get a shout out. You gotta get a shout out to Macy.

• 1:40:46Speaker 02

  Shout out Macy.

• 1:40:46Speaker 01

  Shout out Macy. You, you sound awesome.

• 1:40:48Cameron Hanes?

  Right here.

• 1:40:49Speaker 01

  Macy?

• 1:40:50Speaker 02

  Camera seventeen.

• 1:40:51Speaker 01

  You're it. I love it. I love it. Thank you.

• 1:40:54Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, she's, she's a big fan. She's gonna...

• 1:40:56Speaker 02

  Is she coming this weekend?

• 1:40:57Cameron Hanes?

  I don't know if she is or not, but...

• 1:40:59Speaker 02

  We'll send her a jersey or something.

• 1:41:00Cameron Hanes?

  I want her to, uh, I want this podcast up tomorrow, so...

• 1:41:05Speaker 02

  Let's go.

• 1:41:06Cameron Hanes?

  I don't know. Did you guys, you guys have it uploaded yet?

• 1:41:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's done.

• 1:41:09Cameron Hanes?

  Okay. Is it posted?

• 1:41:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, the, people are loving it. We're actually live. Amazing. This is fantastic news. My social media is gonna be popping off.

• 1:41:20Cameron Hanes?

  Okay, so what do you guys got?

• 1:41:22Speaker 02

  So, I don't know if you've watched any of the other ones, but we kinda have a running bit here and it's Mary Kill.

• 1:41:27Cameron Hanes?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:41:29Speaker 02

  Okay, okay. Your, your Mary Kill is Supercross, Broadcasting, and Golf.

• 1:41:38Speaker 02

  Supercross, Bod, oh god. Um...

• 1:41:48Speaker 02

  I'm fucking Supercross.

• 1:41:52Speaker 01

  All day long.

• 1:41:52Cameron Hanes?

  Okay, good. Well, you gotta marry somebody.

• 1:41:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, I hate to do this, guys, but I guess I'm marrying broadcasting. I'm killing golf. It breaks my heart.

• 1:42:03Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:03Speaker 01

  It breaks my heart, but I guess I'll find a new hobby. Maybe I'll be shooting these bows more often.

• 1:42:09Cameron Hanes?

  There you go.

• 1:42:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a tough decision there.

• 1:42:12Speaker 02

  Okay, next, next question. What have you learned about the sport, looking at it from a different lens of broadcasting that maybe you didn't notice or didn't realize while you were in it as an athlete?

• 1:42:24Speaker 01

  That's a fantastic question. And I think in a way, I'm, you know, I'm not even through my first season on this side of things. Right? So even to start the year, it was, it was different. It was, I felt so at peace with retiring when I did. And I've never one time have thought to myself, oh, man, I shouldn't have done that, or I should go back. I'm very happy with it. But it was weird to start the year in this role and a different role. And in a way, your emotions, it's the first time I'm around the races ever. And there's, there's, there's not as much emotion involved in it for me, right?

• 1:42:57Cameron Hanes?

  Like less pressure, right?

• 1:42:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's less pressure and you just view things, you just grow and you view things from a different lens. When you're in the moment, it just feels like the biggest thing in the world, right? And then kind of viewing it from this lens now and, and just, yeah, just seeing it a different way. I don't, I don't know exactly what, what I've learned yet that I didn't already know.

• 1:43:25Speaker 01

  I guess I've just learned that I still am in love with the sport because I think, I think there was times where, you know, we haven't talked about it much on here. And honestly, I don't even really want to because that's all I seem to have talked about on every podcast the last few years about this damn, you know, every moto podcast, this damn arm, this nerve injury that I had. But it kept me from doing my best.

• 1:43:47Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:47Speaker 01

  The last couple of years, right? And so it's, you go to the track every day and you're not sure what you're going to get. You're not sure if you're, my work was compromised. I was able to work as hard as I wanted to. And so it was really frustrating. And so there was times where I'm like, do I hate this?

• 1:44:04Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:04Speaker 01

  Or, or do I just hate this? Do I just hate this situation?

• 1:44:08Cameron Hanes?

  Situation.

• 1:44:08Speaker 01

  Right? And I, I can look now and I can definitely say that I, that I just hated that situation.

• 1:44:13Cameron Hanes?

  You just hated being injured.

• 1:44:14Speaker 01

  I love dirt bikes.

• 1:44:15Cameron Hanes?

  You wanted to perform and you couldn't.

• 1:44:16Speaker 01

  Exactly. I just wanted to do my best. Yeah. And I didn't have the opportunity to do that, which stung. But I still love it. So that's what I've learned.

• 1:44:25Speaker 02

  So you've kind of talked about the legacies of guys like Ricky Carmichael or James Stewart. What do you want your legacy to be? Be on the track?

• 1:44:35Speaker 01

  It's my legacy to be, hmm. I think I've always, um,

• 1:44:43Speaker 01

  I've always tried to carry myself in a way that has kept, like I've kept the gratitude involved. It's so easy when you're in it to kind of lose sight of how lucky you are to even have the opportunity to do it. Right? So many things had to go right for me to end up on Kawasaki for 20 years, right? To have that opportunity to do, just to do something like that and to live my dream. Sometimes I would get lost in the fact that, oh man, you know, it's not, gosh, I wish I would win more. Gosh, I wish this, like I didn't get hurt here, whatever. But at the end of the day, how often, how often do people get to live their absolute dream? You know, from the time they're four or five years old, I, you know, I got to do, I got to do all of that.

• 1:45:28Speaker 01

  I've completely blanked out and lost. What was the question again?

• 1:45:32Cameron Hanes?

  Your legacy.

• 1:45:33Speaker 01

  Oh, legacy. Yeah. I think my legacy, like I said, I always tried to just carry myself with a sense of gratitude and

• 1:45:40Speaker 01

  my, my legacy is I just want to be known for contributing to the sport. Like that guy just loved dirt bikes and brought a lot to our community. Really, I think really just contributing is such a big thing. I've tried to focus on the last few years, kind of as I've grown, is just

• 1:45:58Speaker 01

  contributing to the community. And, you know, I just want to be known as a net positive for dirt bike racing.

• 1:46:04Cameron Hanes?

  Seems like you've accomplished that.

• 1:46:08Speaker 01

  TBD.

• 1:46:09Speaker 02

  You guys kind of talked about briefly the importance of announcers that have been in the sport. How some of them can actually carry over if they're well spoken and can be great announcers. How important on the flip side of that is to also have the perspective of announcers that were never in the sport?

• 1:46:27Speaker 01

  Hmm. That's a great question. I'm not sure I have the right answer for that one. I don't know. I, I think, I think having a fresh perspective is great. I, I'll give you an example.

• 1:46:40Speaker 01

  Sometimes I can be too in-depth, like I can get a little bit too, kind of speak into that hardcore, hardcore fan a little bit because it's so black and white for me. It's so obvious for me that I, I lose track that it's not so obvious for other people. And our producer to start the year, didn't know a whole lot about dirt bikes, right? And so she was very helpful in being like, hey, you need to explain this a little bit more. So just having, I just love different perspectives. There's no like right or to a degree, there is objective, right and wrong, right? But it's just, it's good to have a different perspective. And I think you can learn a lot from, from people and

• 1:47:22Speaker 01

  people that are outside of the sport, the way that they would like to receive information. It teaches you how to explain things better to them, right? So I, I think everybody, everybody has a place. As long as they, they study up and they know what's going on out there, right? I think, I think that's important as well. Yeah.

• 1:47:41Speaker 02

  Okay. Last question. I asked you earlier about the tattoo you had of the astronaut. You said it was for, I forgot the band name. Who were they?

• 1:47:48Speaker 01

  Brand new.

• 1:47:49Speaker 02

  Brand new. So I want to know, maybe it's one of their songs, maybe it's not, but if you had one song to play during your entire career, what would it be?

• 1:47:59Speaker 01

  The Quiet Things, The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows, I think is the song it's called.

• 1:48:05Speaker 02

  Do you know who it's by?

• 1:48:06Speaker 01

  Brand new.

• 1:48:06Speaker 02

  Oh, brand new?

• 1:48:07Speaker 01

  Come on, bro. Yeah. Oh, wait, were you talking about just, just brand new or just a song in general?

• 1:48:15Speaker 01

  The middle Jimmy Eat World. Hey, don't write yourself off yet. It's only in your head you feel left down and look down on. Just try your best. Do everything you can. Something like that. It's a good guitar riff in there.

• 1:48:30Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, yeah. I like it.

• 1:48:32Speaker 01

  Sorry, man, I just probably hurt the listeners ears there.

• 1:48:36Cameron Hanes?

  Good shit. We're live. They gotta deal with it.

• 1:48:38Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Are we live? Are we actually? Is that just a joke?

• 1:48:43Cameron Hanes?

  But we don't have any edits, I don't think.

• 1:48:45Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:48:45Cameron Hanes?

  So far, I mean somehow. So Macy should be able to get this up. I want to have this up before the weekend.

• 1:48:52Speaker 01

  Well, should we start talking politics yet? We can get some edits in there real quick.

• 1:48:56Cameron Hanes?

  God, I know. Well, here's how I always end the show.

• 1:49:02Cameron Hanes?

  With this, I hand off.

• 1:49:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yes.

• 1:49:05Cameron Hanes?

  Brand new, keep hammering.

• 1:49:06Speaker 01

  Let's go.

• 1:49:07Cameron Hanes?

  What do you think of that?

• 1:49:08Speaker 01

  I cannot, I, I, when I was shooting this thing earlier, I had no idea it was gonna be mine.

• 1:49:13Cameron Hanes?

  That's cool. I know.

• 1:49:14Speaker 01

  This is incredible.

• 1:49:14Cameron Hanes?

  You're like, I'm gonna buy one of these when I get home or whatever. Where can I go buy one?

• 1:49:18Speaker 01

  I can't wait.

• 1:49:19Cameron Hanes?

  Bro, this is yours.

• 1:49:20Speaker 01

  I've told you, my uncle is a huge fan, bunch of property up in Georgia. He's always trying to get me to go up there. He's big, loves shooting his bow. So now I got my own, man. This is amazing. You want me to, you want me to pick it up?

• 1:49:30Cameron Hanes?

  No, no, you're good.

• 1:49:32Speaker 01

  This isn't, yeah, this whole thing is, honestly, man, this whole day has been so much fun. I, I can't, I really can't thank you enough for, for the hospitality. It's been incredible.

• 1:49:41Cameron Hanes?

  You know what else? I wanted to get a, give a shout out Kawasaki. You said you've been with them, was it 20 years?

• 1:49:49Speaker 01

  20 years, 2004, 2004 to present. I'm an ambassador still.

• 1:49:53Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, it's like, it's like, you know, staying Kobe, staying with the Lakers. I mean, that is rare in today's day and age. It's like, cause I, I talked about sponsors and I've had long time sponsors, but there's some times where you're like, man, do these guys appreciate me? And it seems like Kawasaki has always, you had a couple of years where you had rough years and they still stuck by you.

• 1:50:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:50:16Cameron Hanes?

  That is incredible. I want, I just wanted to say, it's so rare in business for a company like, or a sponsor like Kawasaki to, to just stick with athletes like they have you.

• 1:50:26Speaker 01

  No, it doesn't. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a business.

• 1:50:29Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:29Speaker 01

  Right? And the loyalty that they, they've showed me, like I said, like, I'll be Kawasaki until the day I die. Like, they're, they're my guys over there. So I'm glad we got that in.

• 1:50:40Cameron Hanes?

  They, yeah, they've, you know.

• 1:50:42Speaker 01

  They're good people over there.

• 1:50:43Cameron Hanes?

  I've worked, I haven't worked with a bunch of people over there, but Neil Stortz I have and he's set me up with the side by side, like help navigate this thing, getting me up to Supercross

• 1:50:54Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 1:50:55Cameron Hanes?

  On Saturday. So Neil, thank you. But yeah, definitely shout out to Kawasaki.

• 1:50:59Speaker 01

  Can't wait to have you on, on Race Day Live. Man, it's gonna be fun.

• 1:51:03Cameron Hanes?

  I'm pumped too. So this is also yours, which we, I don't think we talked about, but you got like the whole goodie bag from the bow rack. Remember that?

• 1:51:11Speaker 01

  Man, this day, I thought, man, I thought this day about a week ago was just a podcast and I get this whole itinerary. We're hiking, we're shooting bows, goodie bags.

• 1:51:21Cameron Hanes?

  You got a brand new, so this is called?

• 1:51:24Speaker 01

  No way.

• 1:51:26Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah, that's the keep hammering. That's a, I don't know what that is. Cameron Hanes pack out Skinner. So.

• 1:51:31Speaker 01

  I want to do that. Can I do that?

• 1:51:32Cameron Hanes?

  You can do that.

• 1:51:34Speaker 01

  Well, apparently I'm soft. I don't want to hurt your table, man. I can't do it. Let's go. You think I can get this, get this through, uh?

• 1:51:42Cameron Hanes?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:43Speaker 01

  Think I can get this through TSA?

• 1:51:44Cameron Hanes?

  Put it.

• 1:51:45Speaker 01

  Shouldn't be a problem.

• 1:51:46Cameron Hanes?

  James will put it in his prison pocket, which is his ass.

• 1:51:49Speaker 01

  Wow. Wow. On that note, let's wrap it up. No, I'm kidding. That's incredible.

• 1:51:55Cameron Hanes?

  So yeah, there's, there's different ways people get it on the plane, but um, yeah, it's a, yeah, I just wanted to share. So what I like about the lift run shoot and about having people down here, sharing my life with people outside of my life. And so this means so much to me that you came down, did the mountain with me, went to the bow rack, did the podcast. We've had such a great day.

• 1:52:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been amazing.

• 1:52:17Cameron Hanes?

  Dude, I'm, I'm so thankful. I'm honored you're here. I know people are gonna love this because everyone loves you and uh, this just means a lot to me. So thank you very much.

• 1:52:27Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you very much. This is probably the biggest, biggest podcast I've ever done and it's been so, yeah, it's been great to spend the day with you guys. Uh, you're the real deal, man. So thank you very much.

• 1:52:36Cameron Hanes?

  Appreciate it. Well, hope you guys like this. We'll see you in Seattle. Keep hammering.