MXP Chatter With Mike Alessi

Hey everyone, last week I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the Alessi compound and ride with Mike at his track. A main disadvantage to not having a pickup truck is anywhere you go to ride you have to bring the whole RV camper with you. Not having data in the US, I wasn’t even sure if I had the right spot with the long driveway I was going down. Then I saw Mike and his wife following in behind me in their white truck; good, I have the right spot. From the narrow, one lane drive I have to make a sharp 90 degree turn in through a cattle gate to get into the track area. I don’t have much room to work with but I clear the gate post with lots of room but my trailer tires hook on a big mound of mud slop. Great, now I’m stuck. Mike calls over Tony with the Bob Cat to pull my rig through and that was my Grand Entrance. So that was behind me and it was a great day from there. Mike was just easing back into things since it was just his second day back on the bike. It was really cool to be able to watch such a professional go about his business.

Obviously a professional on the bike, but also with Mike’s whole circle he has working with him, they were totally prepared and have a very efficient routine down. Dylan Wright also came out to ride and was looking really strong on his MX101 Yamaha. Talking with him, he has been down in Florida riding and doing quite a few local races to stay fresh behind the gate. He will move on to South Carolina to finish out his training until it is National time. Tony was very nice and accommodating, fixing anything on the track we needed as the day went on with the Bobcat. This not only showed their experience but it was very encouraging to know he always had our safety in mind. If some of the jump faces started to get bad kickers or a bit sketchy, he went out and fixed it for us. With a lot of talk recently on safety in our sport I think this could be something we could improve on. I was fortunate enough to do an interview with Mike and I respected their request of not pushing the question on their 2015 outdoor race plans.

Cale Barnes: Mike you had a good Supercross run going with such a deep field this year. Unfortunately you had a bad crash at Daytona, but you are already back riding today. How are you feeling?

Mike Alessi: Ya, like you said, I had a pretty good crash at Daytona, was having a pretty decent Supercross season, a couple of good races, some decent races and then some bad races. That’s kind of part of Supercross, you know, up and down so it just kind of goes with the territory. However, I felt like I was getting better in Supercross especially this off-season I put in a lot of good work and was able to transition to an even better Supercross rider than I feel I was even last year. An unfortunate crash at Daytona, that’s part of riding and racing. I just had a weird crash and landed on my back just the right way, which put me out for a couple weeks. It’s almost nearing three weeks here on the injury so I’m back. Yesterday was the first day I started riding. I’m just taking it kind of easy getting back into it, don’t want to rush anything. If I crash again and make it worse, I have to start the healing process all over again.

Yes definitely. It’s been noticeable the past couple years you have elevated and even equaled your game in Supercross. It looked like your shock rebounded really quickly, which sent you over the bars.

It was just one of those things. Looking at the replay, they had a different angle than I had seen. There were a couple guys in front of me, Anderson, Dungey, and it looked like Shorty (Andrew Short). They all hit that same little kicker right before that drop off before the mechanics area, and as they are coming over it you could see those guys were all hitting the same kicker I hit. They got that kick and they saved it. It was bound to get somebody. I came around and I was just that right somebody that hit it the wrong way and it just sent me over the bars.

So do you plan on making it back in for the last few rounds?

As of right now, still not sure if I can get back to where I was speed-wise and endurance-wise. I’ll maybe come back for the last couple. That’s still on time to get 100% healthy and then get my motos and conditioning back into shape so I could race the last maybe two or three Supercrosses.

Let’s hope so. Talk about your thoughts on Villopoto going to race the GPs this year.

My thoughts on it is that it’s a situation where he is opening a lot of doors for future Americans to possibly go over to Europe and race. With his presence there it makes a lot more eyes, viewing eyes, tune in to that GP series, myself included. I’m interested every single week to look at the results, watch the TV, see how the tracks are, and see how he is doing. So it’s cool because he’s opening a whole new group of people in America that maybe weren’t so interested in the GP series. They will be now and it’s going to open more doors in the future.

You guys have expressed in the past how whether you race the AMA pro nationals, the CMRC pro nationals or the GPs, it doesn’t really matter as much because the real show is Supercross. Would you still agree?

Well, for me, I’m a racer so where ever I am racing I give 110% effort, there is no denying that, so where ever I race I am giving full effort. Obviously, Supercross is the main series of the sport. Motocross, GPs, Canada, Australia, but Supercross is the pinnacle of our sport. It’s being able to race in the AMA Supercross. For me, I am going to race anywhere.

I remember you guys used to have a property in Cali. Do you prefer this area of Florida better?

I moved to Florida in 2007, 2008 and since I’ve moved here I prefer Florida way better. The weather is better here, the tracks are better, and the people are better. Just the overall lifestyle is just way better and I would definitely not move from here.

More of a small town feel?

Ya, small town people. There are about 2500 people that live in my town that I live in here in Hilliard. It’s just real simple and quiet.

So how many starts a week does Mike Alessi practice?

I practice starts but not as many as people would think. Starts come naturally to me. Just because I’ve been such a good starter since I was a kid, I have just perfected my technique over the years to where it’s not needed to practice starts all the time. So for me it just comes natural. As long as I can remember my technique on the starting gate and the basic things that I know, which I’m obviously not going to tell you or anybody, but if I can keep that to myself and remember it on the starting gate, looking at that starting gate, just visualizing it and remembering everything that I need to do, I’ll always be in the front of the start or the top 3.

It seems like when you are on your starts they just keep coming and coming.

Ya they do, but sometimes you get on a run where they’re not so good and that’s when you have to start getting back to the drawing board of practicing those starts.

From your experience racing in Canada last summer, what is one change for the better you would like to see?

As far as change, I wouldn’t change anything on the tracks because I feel like they do a great job on the tracks by letting them get rough. The starts seem pretty fair all the way across from the inside to the outside; they’re always pretty fair. The only thing that I feel like could change in Canada honestly is the lappers. I feel like by the 4th or 5th lap we’re already hitting lappers and it’s a dramatic speed difference from Colton Facciotti and myself. Where we were riding at last year, we were lapping up to 6th, 7th, or 8th place almost every moto. The speeds that we were riding at were much faster and a higher risk for us because there was not much of a warning for them that we were coming. That would be the one thing that I feel like they could change and would be a benefit for the Canadian series. Being better at letting the lappers know with the blue flag – “hey, the leaders are coming and let them by”, because we were going a significantly different speed than the back markers.

That can definitely become an issue. Watching Gopher Dunes last year was very impressive with your sand speed. Do you have some sand pits you can practice at?

Not really. I was kind of pissed off that day because a lot of people were saying I wasn’t going to be able to ride at the speed of Colton that day because obviously you know his team is from there. Outside people, maybe his camp or friends of his camp, were saying I can’t ride the speed that he can in the sand and that got me kind of pissed off. I just was like, well I’m going to show these guys how I can ride sand. I mean, it’s a race track anybody can ride fast, so I don’t know if I rode well, but unfortunately, I ran out of gas with a lap and two turns to go from the finish. The second moto I got the holeshot, checked out, and about twenty five minutes in we stopped for gas and filled up a little bit, so that way we made sure I could make it to the finish line. I was able to get back in front of Colton, literally right in front of him, and was able to win the race, which was great and a big statement.

What would you say your favorite track on the series was?

My favorite track…I definitely liked Calgary. It was definitely one of my favorite tracks. I feel being that close to the city and the scenery behind the track, it just makes for a very nice race condition, very nice pictures for the media, and it’s really close to all the hotels, the food; everything is really easy to get to, you know a mile or two away. It also felt by being so close to the city, the people that it brought to the track were good, clean, wholesome people that were there because they were cheering for the race, not just for an individual rider, but they were there to cheer on anybody and all the riders.

It was a great race too for you.

It was, ya a great race for me too. Second moto I got stuck in the gate, just pulled a beginner move and got stuck in the gate, and came back from dead last. About the halfway point I caught up to Colton and was able to get by and went on to win the moto and finished 1-1. It was just one of those days where everything was just clicking and I just had a great race. I mean, I have had a lot of good races in my career, but I definitely feel that moto was if not the best moto of my career, it was definitely one of the best ones that I’ve ever had. It was just a day I was on and it seemed liked nothing was going to stop me that day.

That’s awesome. Alright, any parting words or thanks you want to give out?

I just want to say thanks to everybody up at the CMRC series. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it back up there this summer, I don’t know what our plans are as of right now but hopefully I’ll know soon and then everybody will know. If I am not part of the series, I just want to wish all of the riders, the teams, personnel and everybody working in the series good luck this season and be safe.