Kyle Thompson, one of the five Thompson brothers, has a wealth of experience and it is very interesting to hear his honest opinion in this short interview from Morton Mississippi. It is safe to say that the Thompson’s are a legendary Canadian motocross name and I caught up with Kyle on his current endeavors and some of his thoughts on motocross in general. For this week’s MXP Chatter we welcome aboard Cale Barnes who is currently training down south. In between rides Cale will be sending home some reports on how our Canadian riders are doing.
MXP: Hi Kyle, can you start by giving us the 411 of what you got going on down there in Mississippi with the Jetwerx complex?
Kyle: Yah, my older brother (Justin) bought this place off of a guy who is a Sheriff, it’s just outside of Jackson Mississippi, and he bought it a couple years ago and has just slowly been building it up. It’s turned into a sick facility. So far we have an Arenacross track that is lit up, a Supercross track, then a gnarly outdoor track and a pit bike track or a 50 track. It is a two minute lap time on the outdoor track, the Arenacross is kind of in between an Arenacross and a Supercross with it being a little bit longer lap times. We don’t have a full gym here yet, but that is in the works for getting one. As of right now we just go to town, about a 20 minute drive to the YMCA and train there. We definitely have all the angles covered for training and riding. We have myself, my brother Justin, as well Jay will be down through March, Taylor Ciampichini and Weston (Wrozyna) has been down, we have also been working a lot with Tanner Ward right now. We have plenty more coming down in March, Canadian’s mainly and there are a bunch of Americans that stop in here and there.
Kyle Thompson is someone who loves to multi-task and these days he certainly has a lot on his plate. photo by Lissimore
Right on, and what brought you guys to Mississippi?
Actually the Series, AX Tour that my brother runs brought us here. He started riding in that and we kind of needed a location to go to between weekends and have our bikes, motorhomes, trailers, whatever we need. From Jackson, everything is super central to all the races, six hours is the furthest one and most of them are within an hour. So it is super central instead of having to go back to Florida, we keep it right in Mississippi where most of the races are. That is why we looked at this place. Justin built the track originally out here so we went from there.
Yes makes sense. Now did Justin start the AX Tour or did he take it over?
He took it over. I think he is either the third or fourth owner, the third I believe. He helped the first and second owners build the tracks, and the second owner got older and kind of just wanted to retire. The second owner was a good buddy of his and he (Justin) was interested in buying it so he asked if he was interested in selling it and bought it off him and has been running it ever since. We just completed our fourth season last weekend.
Is the AX Tour a component of the training? Do you take some of the riders there who want to compete in it?
Yah, we took Tanner (Ward) to a bunch of them, Austin Watling from our area, whoever is down here really. Taylor (Ciampichini) was down here racing before he got hurt. It is a good setup for them it gives them good quality race time, you don’t have to worry about weather and the tracks are always really good. It is an awesome set up for the winter, you get your racing in and some outdoor practice in during the week. Definitely a win win situation.
From your experience would you say it is smart to switch it up in the winter time to race Arenacross and break up the motocross routine?
Yea! I think honestly it’s a long summer when you start racing in the spring time. A lot of time people get burned out of that racing and it’s honestly just changing the environment and learning the different experiences. I can’t suggest more to young kids growing up to just take in as many experiences as you can. Be it enduro or anything that you’re not used to. I think many Canadian riders are so used to just going to Walton, Gopher, Motopark, all just the local races and when they get taken out of their element and they go pro and go to the nationals out west they are not used to it and they don’t adjust. Arenacross is just a step in that experience direction. You gain more experience, more aggression, racing with different people you are not used to. You can definitely get something from any type of racing and I suggest trying anything you can.
Yes I agree, diversify all your skills. Where do you stand on the Canadian teams hiring more and more American riders?
Hey if you’re fast enough, they want a title, that’s it you know what I mean? Honda wants a title, Colton’s fast enough, he is Canadian and he won it. Other Canadian teams can’t find that top Canadian to win it then they are going to have to find an American to beat him. So I have nothing against it, you are just going to have to work hard. You can’t sit back and cry about it because you can go down south and take money out of your own bank account and pay for training just like they are training, you know what I mean? They are fighting for position, they are fighting for a ride so you are going to have to do the same thing.
Plus it gets us more exposure up here too.
Yah for sure, and the bigger the names up north the better. People draw attention saying oh Chisholm is up there or Goerke, Alessi, Metcalfe, you know it gets more attention worldwide.
Definitely! How many riders do you have on team right now?
We have a bunch, but right now being winter they have either gone different places or they are still up north, or have not come down yet. That is a tough call, usually by the summer with our elite program Frank Fit and MX Schools, we have 15-20 of the elite kids and then the camp kids who come throughout the week. We just want to have a solid showing at Walton, Loretta’s, any of the local races and stepping into the pro’s.
Nice. So is Frank Fit also a business outside of motocross?
Yes it is. I train a lot of people who are just looking for fitness, who are just looking to get in shape and lose weight. It can definitely help anybody. I personally just love fitness, love the health aspect of it and love training for your sport. It is something that is often over looked. People and parents just say “take him riding, take him riding”, but the thing about that is when you’re riding so much is your mental aspect of it, you lose that focus. I have talked a lot about this over the last few years about riding less and working harder off the track. So when you are on the bike you are strong and you are also focused. You are not burned out mentally of being on the bike, being behind the bars all the time and you are having fun. It has got to be quality over quantity all the time.
So to change it up a bit, I would like to end this with three off topic questions; What are the most played songs right now on your ipod?
I just got the new Drake mix tape so that is definitely going hard, then I’ll go totally 180 on this and go country, Florida Georgia line, and maybe slide in some T Swift you know what I mean.
For sure, solid combo there. If you could hang out with anyone for a day dead or alive, who would it be?
I would say, oh that is a good one. . . I would say either Sidney Crosby just because he is a Canadian boy and I love hockey, Or David Beckham. That guy is just a legend.
What is your daily driver right now?
My F-150. Me and the F-150 have just been killing the miles.
Well thank you Kyle for your time. Kyle: Awesome, thank you.