Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, everybody and welcome. I am Zach Herron, your host alongside Danny Stewart and Kyle Thompson to Preview the upcoming 20, 24 and 25AMA Kicker Arena Cross Series. So much to look forward to. Great racers, great racing. One of the things that I'm most excited about is we're bringing back the double headers. We got five double headers throughout the season and that changes a lot of things for the riders and the teams. You get little more bang for the buck, right? A little less driving, a little more riding. Plus it kind of gives riders the opportunity to change their fate per city, right? You don't have a good night on night one. You can change things on night two. Kyle, we'll start with you. What is, what's the things you're looking forward to them both here for this upcoming season.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: That's a great start is the double headers. I know not all of them are double headers, but majority are. And it gives those riders, you know, they come in, maybe they just go with a consistent Friday and then really let it hang out Saturday and try to gain some points or, you know, if they're feeling comfortable. And we know as riders, some nights are just off. You're just not going to feel right and then you're going to sleep on it, figure out why you did wrong, talk to your trainer, talk to your mechanic and then figure it out for Saturday. So I do love the double headers and it gives the fans, you know, an idea what the track's going to be like first night and then we get into the second night, without a doubt.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Now, Danny, you're kind of the man behind the scenes. You get to see all the action on the track, but see the action in the garage as well. What do you think the riders are thinking when they check out this upcoming schedule and see, hey, we've got a lot of opportunities for repeat rounds for two double headers. What do you think the riders are thinking right now?
[00:01:31] Speaker C: I hope they're thinking the same thing as me. Some of the most exciting weekends that we had last year are the cities that we're going back to. And there was one big question mark. Are we going back to Daytona? Are they getting new dirt? I don't know if they're getting new dirt, but we are going back and I'm pretty stoked about that.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Oh, without a doubt. I was able to make Daytona last year and to say it was action packed is an understatement. But let's start right from the top, guys. Rounds one and two, that's going to be November 15th and 16th out in Reno. There's a lot of. A lot of things that circle around the Reno round. Right. Obviously you've got a relatively big floor space, good dirt, and then you've got a lot of local talent as well.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Talking about that facility, I love this for round one. We've seen traditional track start round one in the past, which is the four laners, the normal arena cross, which is. Is tight and it's hard for these riders to adjust quickly. They're going to get a bigger floor space, a little bit more room to move, and I think they're going to love this for round one and two, get their feet wet, then we'll go to some tighter arenas later on.
[00:02:28] Speaker C: There's so many fast guys in that area and I don't know who yet, but you can always count on some extra guys to drop in and spice things up a little bit without it.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: And that's a theme throughout the whole season. Right. No matter where we go, it always seems like there's a couple of guys that show up and throw their name in the ring, name in the hat, and kind of play spoiler as well. So going to be really exciting to see, especially considering that's kicking off the season. So rounds one and two are going to be in Reno. We move over to Boise for rounds three and four. That was last year's opener.
Obviously this is a little bit smaller than Reno, but it's got really good dirt. Makes for some good racing as well. Danny, your experience out in Boise, as far as the riders go, is this a pro or a no track for them? What are their thoughts?
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Man, it was last year out in Boise. It was. It was electric. The whole place was packed. That was our A1 last year. So you had so many different names coming in. Lesher committed to the season. A Rod was there. Breece dropped in. Wageman was there. You know, at the end of the weekend, it was Wageman, Breece and Peters on top, which I think is something we can look forward to seeing a handful of times throughout this upcoming season.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, without a doubt. And one of the other things that I think a lot of people talk about with Boise, the crowd is absolutely insane out there. I mean, they don't just show up, but they show out. They go absolutely crazy. And that kind of helped bring the riders want to bring their A game as well. Kyle, wouldn't you agree?
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You know what? It's all about the venue there. Obviously the crowd comes in, but the way the venue set up and the Crowds on top. You feel like gladiators when you're on the floor. I know, Danny, you experienced that with your, you know, video and all the night and being down there. I was down there last year and electric is a perfect word, Danny. It's. It feels that way and you feel like you're just in the middle of this dome and all this energy is coming out and the crowds into it. And like you said, you've seen Bree, you've seen Peters, you've seen Wageman last year. Is that like foreshadowing this year? I kind of have to think so, yeah.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: It's definitely going to be fun to watch. But we moved around five and six. That's going to be out in Loveland now a little bit different there. A lot more talk about elevation, not quite as much floor space. One of the smaller rounds for us, and a little more hard packed dirt. So Ryder's going to be talking about tires, going to be talking about getting the power out of the motorcycles as well. Any big things that you, either one of you guys are looking for out of the Loveland rounds.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Big thing about Loveland is getting into that New Year's swing. Obviously we get first two rounds and they get that bit of a break. Do some of the riders that have bad ones through four rounds really pick up that energy, get some good training in and do those guys that had great first four rounds kind of coast and then maybe come in a little bit slower these, you know, the new season rounds. We'll say in the 20, 25. I like Loveland. Dirt is hard, but I feel like that is traditional arena cross. That hard clay that you see, sometimes it'll come in a little softer, get.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Ruddy early on, but, well, and some of those kind of rounds where the tracks maybe not quote unquote ideal, it's one of those, hey, you gotta get through it, right? And that's what, when we talk about AMA kicker arena cross, we give you guys a little bit of everything. Not everybody loved the dirt in Daytona. Not everybody loved the dirt in Loveland. So these riders, when we say they're going to have to deal with all kinds of situations, it's not just big floor spaces and small floor spaces. It's very hard packed dirt one weekend and then obviously we go down to Daytona. Now we don't know yet what kind of dirt we're bringing in, but we take a look at last year, I mean, they were dragging pegs by the end of the first practice. So a lot of variety. As far as the Circumstances the riders are going to be dealing with this season. Now we take a look after that round seven, one of one of our only non double header rounds. But I think this is one of the rider favorites. It's one of my eyes as far as a fan favorite standpoint. But you talk about Guthrie, that big floor space, I mean we're almost competing super cross size floor space. It's one race. So you got to, you got to show up and you got to handle business that one night and then awesome dirt with usually really long whoops. Now, we haven't seen the track layout for Guthrie yet, but this is one of those rounds where we saw a lot of debate between the 250 and the 450. If you guys don't know, obviously both of you know. But open class out here in AMA Kicker Arena Cross so you can run the 250 or the 450. And we saw our reigning champ, Kyle Peters kind of move back and forth between this throughout the season last year. What are you guys looking forward to as far as Guthrie goes?
[00:06:35] Speaker B: To be honest, and I know Danny and I talked about this a lot. Is that that transition where like last year, actually we'll talk about Peters, for instance, switching over to that 450. And Danny, you can attest to this, how much he struggled making that switch. But he was in a panic mode at that point. And that was right where the Guthrie round came in, is panicking. He knew that Breeze had a little bit more speed than him, and he was trying everything in his power to try to figure that out and keep that points gap going. And Guthrie was one of those rounds that it was a real struggle with him. He struggled with Hicks the year before that, being on a 250 against a 450. So for, for those big 450 guys, they're going to love this round. Obviously it's the most Supercross like, but it's a pivotal point in the series to make that last stretch down the, you know, the last few rounds.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Yeah, Guthrie last year came right at the point where all the headlines started stacking up his KP on his back foot. And with it being an open class, it's a bit of a game of chess versus checkers where Kyle felt like he had to try something. Kyle's got plenty of time this season. He sees the schedule, he sees all the rounds at elevation.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: I think you make a great point, Danny. It's the preseason prep, right? It's, hey, let's go ahead and look at the full schedule. And do I Want to go ahead and start testing things out with the 450 or do we really want to put our time into dialing in the 250? So like you said, Kyle, we had KP versus Hicks, we had KP versus Breeze. I got KP versus question marks right now. Who's going to be the guy to step up and challenge him this year? It's going to be exciting to see for sure. Especially as we start to move towards that second half of the season where in the back of the head, championship points are going to start to matter. The overall title is going to start to come into play as well. Now for rounds eight and nine, we're going to go back to Reno. We already talked about that and obviously some great stuff there as far as familiarity goes, where riders may be going to be looking for a little redemption back up in Reno. But let's jump to rounds 10 and 11 out in Prescott Valley because it is almost a complete opposite of Guthrie. It is another one our double headers, but pretty much our smallest round. Kind of back to the basics, right? Four lane arena cross racing. A tight space means tight racing. Sometimes things get a little hot out on the track as well. What do you guys think about Prescott Valley?
[00:08:41] Speaker C: There's something, there's something in the air there. I haven't been to that city for a race and not have a drama packed night. Whether it's Jared Stanky and Cade Clayson coming together, Mason Kerr taking out Kyle Peterson, Bitterman taking it to the number one. I know Bitterman has had people in his ear saying you gotta fight back, don't get pushed around. Took himself out in the process but man, tempers were flaring. There's something about that place. Two for two going there. It was one of the most action packed nights.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. And you're right, Danny, if you go back two years, that is one legendary arena cross. It was the, the night Oakland was canceled or the Saturday Oakland was canceled. That was a Friday night and you had so many top tier pros just funnel into that place and make it insane. The Wageman brothers going head to head. If anybody were to look back on an arena cross that stands out as one of those moments. Prescott Valley was one of those moments and very cool venue.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Excited to go back without a doubt. And that's going to set things up for the finale, right? Danny, you talked about it when we previewed the season, Daytona, everybody was talking about it. That was, that was probably the most action packed weekend I thought of the whole season. Last year Just because some of it was pure chaos. We had bikes smoking. We had the number one. Almost not make the main event. I mean, that place is absolutely crazy. So much packed into such a small spot now. We don't know what the dirt's going to look like, but it's Daytona. I kind of like the sandy, soft soil. I think it provides a little bit of a curve ball for the riders. But is that what they're going to want for the final round? What do you guys think about Daytona?
[00:10:17] Speaker C: The perspective from a spectator versus rider in this instance has got to be night and day different. I was there shooting the arena Cross insider videos, trying to chase the stories, and I could not keep up with everything that was going on. I had a microphone in Breece's pit. Meanwhile, I'm hearing that Kyle Peters just got knocked out by, I believe it was Ashton Aruta and one of the qualifiers sent him back. Every single night racing, there was an adrenaline rush. We had. Not what you'll want to see, but lots of fights. You had Crockett, Myers going at it. Breece was getting into it.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Major drama here between Breece and Marquier. Breece is not happy pushing and shoving, going on.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Tempers were high.
[00:10:57] Speaker C: Yeah, tempers were high. Dirt was flying, bikes were smoking. Kyle, what were you seeing there?
[00:11:01] Speaker B: I was at home in studio. Well, you guys were enjoying the action from the floor there, Danny, but as a spectator, you were so right. It was the perfect.
It wasn't the last round last year, but it was the perfect mix to get Breece right back in that picture. Right. The gap closed and then the next night it was the opposite.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: He got pulled away. So it was like the yo yo effect and the emotions that went into it. I think it drew a lot of attention as well as being in Daytona. That's a place where a lot of people. Bike week's going on, the Supercross and all this stuff's going on. And then you got the chaos in that stadium there. I personally would love to see that dirt come back for final round because it becomes unpredictable. Right. You go to traditional. We talked about Loveland, Sturt. Very predictable. Kyle Peters is going to be good. He knows how to ride that hard pack. Priest is going to be good. He's good on the 450. You throw that sand in the mix, we could get a Crockett Myers take a win and then Breece finish in eighth and Peters finish in fifth. Like, it's so unpredictable. And I think as a spectator, as a fan, there's nothing Better than going to the last round with a tight championship and an unpredictable track?
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I think without a doubt. And even like you said, Danny, it's. Is it what the riders want? Maybe not so much. But as far as a fan perspective goes, you can't ask for anything better. Especially if we get the close points battle like we've had these past few years. I mean, like, like you said, Kyle, you, you bring it to Daytona. It wasn't the final round, but it kind of seemed like that was, that was the pinnacle of the season, right? That was when both Breece and Peters had to perform if they wanted to stay in championship fight. And we saw what resulted from it. Chaos everywhere. And like you said, Danny Crockett wasn't afraid to throw some hands off track. All right, Robin's Racing. But without a doubt it is going to be exciting. And I can't think of any better way to close out the season. Kyle Peters going for history with that six championship. We're going to have to wait and see how it all plays out. If you guys have not already seen the upcoming schedule, you can find that on Arena Cross USA our Instagram. And if you guys want to tune in for all of the racing action live, make sure you subscribe to Arena Cross all access app, get it downloaded, get subscribed and get ready to enjoy a fantastic season of AMA Kicker Arena Marina Cross.
