NOVEMBER 17, 2006
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Retro: Dave Arnold models an '04 issue of Racer X Canada and some external hardware for his wrist injury. |
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photo: Brett Dailey |
By Brett Dailey
Dave Arnold, who won the inaugural Canadian Supermoto Championship in 2003, has been slugging it out all year racing the AMA Supermoto series. He wrapped up his season last weekend at the Long Beach Supermoto finale dubbed the “Duel on the Docks” and finished the season in 16th place overall. Arnold, who started racing motocross in 1982 and won a 500cc Intermediate title in ’92 before turning pro, has parlayed his motocross experience into a successful career in supermoto. However, he at a crossroads now, battling to make ends meet while racing as a privateer. His story, which parallels a privateer in any sport, will make it into the next issue of Racer X Canada but here are some excerpts from our conversation.
RXC: Dave, take us through your race at the Duel on the Docks
Dave Arnold: I was really excited about the race but I wasn’t very happy with how I was riding. I qualified around 23rd out of 42 riders, I think. So, I qualified 23rd and they take 24 in the main event so I was happy to be in the main show, which usually isn’t a problem to do, but I wasn’t real happy with being 23rd. Anyway, even though I started on the back row, I was able to work my way up into 17th in both motos which is where I finished. For a bit I was even a little bit higher. There were some good battles; it was a really amazing track that they put together.
Were you pleased with 17th? It looked good to me, given the level of competition.
Well, if you look at the names, yes it’s pretty good but I didn’t feel like I rode as well as I normally do. It’s been tough … for the last month there has been big gaps between these races and it has been kind of miserable at home for the last month so I haven’t been able to practice or ride or train a lot. So, overall, I was happy with the result but it should have been a bit better.
Take us through your year. You had an aggressive supermoto schedule. Why did you decide to race all of these high profile races?
Well, ever since ’03 when I won the first supermoto championship, I came down to the States and tried my hand at these races—a bunch of guys came with me and we did pretty good. Ever since then, I have always wanted to come down here and put a solid season together. In ’04, that plan didn’t work out that well because I broke my wrist at the first round of the AMA series and then, in ’05, I rode the Lites class, which was a mistake—I’m a little bit big to be riding the Lites class. So I rode the whole series in ’05 but I didn’t put up any good results. This year, I decided to step back and go to the 450 and really make an effort to complete the whole series. I wanted to secure at least one top 10 finish and finish the year in 15th overall. I kind of met my goals because I was in 15th for a while [he finished 16th overall] and I did score a top 10 with a ninth [in Elkhart Lake, WI] and I made the whole season, every round, every main event, and I remained healthy. My goal, in the end, was to get through the whole thing in one piece and be the first Canadian to do that, run the whole AMA series and end up with a decent result.
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Dave Arnold finished a season high ninth overall in Elkhart Lake, WI |
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photo: Paul Mason |
It must feel like a big accomplishment but also I’m sure it has been difficult financially and logistically to do the series. How do you feel now that it’s over?
Well, I wish the sport had gotten its feet under it a little better. It’s great to do it and I love it, it’s just I wish we were able to even break even doing it. It’s costing me about 35 thousand dollars a year out of my pocket to run the series. That’s a bit of a drag and I’m doing it on an absolute shoestring budget, I’m hitching rides and bumming stuff. Without the help of a ton of great people, I never would have made it through the whole series. So, from that perspective, it has been really rough but on the other side, it has been a dream to become friends with and race with a lot of my heroes and a lot of great names in the sport. It’s kind of sweet and sour. I wish things were further along, that we all had at least some kind of a ride and were able to do it and the better guys were making more money than they are and the whole thing would sort of support itself.
Is it just expensive to run supermoto or is it the purse or what?
Compared to motocross? Yeah, it’s expensive but road racers chuckle and think it’s cheap. For a guy that could make a set of motocross tires last for a month, we go through two or three sets a weekend so the major expense, really, is tires. And then the travelling on top of that, obviously. Based on my estimates, on average, to do an AMA supermoto round, you are looking at around 2500 hundred dollars to 3000 dollars a weekend including travel. Remember, that’s doing it on a budget, the top guys are coming out on fresh tires every time they hit the track for timed practice, qualifying, main events, they are getting two fresh tires. To be competitive at their level, it’s probably more like four thousand dollars a weekend.
Wow. You made some comments earlier about hanging it up. How do you feel now?
Well, I would love to keep going but the reality is, the amount of money that I am spending and not seeing a return on it, and it probably won’t happen for another two or three years until the sport does get its feet under it, I just have to look at my situation and make some decisions. It’s the old story: it’s not only the money that’s you’re spending, it’s the money that you’re not making as well because you’re not at your job.
I guess the decision must be difficult because you keep improving.
Yeah, that’s been tough. I’ve hung around with a few guys that have had some great success and seen how they do it and everything comes in steps. You set a goal and achieve it and move forward. That’s the way things have gone for me. I had a major setback when I broke my wrist but I’ve been able to relearn how to ride without that mobility in my right hand and still come back and be faster than I was. In that time, the whole sport, all of the riders in the sport, the whole game, has moved up significantly since the first season that I came down here. The speed that we go now is so much faster than it was. When you factor all of those things in, I’m happy with how I’m riding but at the same time it’s really difficult to stay with it when you’re not seeing much reward. The AMA is paying us 300 dollars to win a main event so you could make more money staying at home racing local motocross than you can doing national championship supermoto.
What would help supermoto to make it more viable for racers?
There is no simple answer to that. A lot of good people have come to the table and tried a lot of different formulas but nobody has struck the magic chord yet. But this year, they have learned a lot from what has happened in the past and they are starting to make really good decisions on what type of events and venues that these races need to be hosted at. Because, bottom line, you need people. Once you bring spectators to the event, everything else falls into place. You need a spectator base otherwise the industry and advertisers have no interest. Also, the AMA’s TV package needs to be addressed and, from what I understand, they are moving to a new network. So, there are a lot of things in the works that are positive and I have a good feeling that things are going to get sorted out and next season is going to be significantly better than this one and the following year will be better again. We have some good people steering the ship now.
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Arnold won the Canadian Supermoto title in 2003. |
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photo: Brett Dailey |
If you do move away from racing, what are you going to do?
Well, I have been in California since the final round and I’ve just been hanging around with friends and trying to figure out which direction to move in. I would love to manage a supermoto team or a motocross team. That’s something that I think I would be great at and I would really like to stay in the sport. I’m not worried about being out of a good job or without opportunity but I’ve kind of come to a point in my life where I’ve realized that it’s more important to love what you do than do something just to make money. I’m just looking to find something that I really love and I’ve always been racing!
Well, it’s always good to have people in the sport that are there for the right reasons.
That’s always been my objective … since I became involved in supermoto, I wanted to be an ambassador to the sport and that is part of the reason why I go down to the States and do what I do because it’s good to have a Canadian in the series and they like that I’m there. We have guys from all over the World in the AMA series, from Germany and Austria, Australia, so it’s pretty international. And we’re just above America so there really is no excuse for us not to have some guys racing down here.
Who do you want to thank for this year?
Machine Racing, LGS Suspension, Bondi Engines, Troy Lee Designs, Motion Pro, Uni Filters, DeCal Works, Motomaster Brakes, Dunlop Tires, Motostrano.com, Scott USA, Alpinestars, Hammerhead Designs, Fastway, Renthal, DID, Works Connection, Acerbis, Magura, Applied Racing, JST Racing.
Bondi Engines has helped me huge this year and really he didn’t get much out of it because I haven’t raced in Canada. My bike has the full Bondi Engine package and we did a lot of testing on the dyno and came up with a great combination that works for supermoto. I really have to thank Ken [Clark] and Chris [Bondi] for coming to the table on that because we spent hours and hours and hours on the dyno especially in ’05, putting the motor together. Adam Robinson, from LGS Suspension, he was my mechanic, and he came out to the track and tested with me and has helped a lot with suspension so it’s kind of cool to have the Canadian component to my assault on the Americans [laughs] plus all of my other sponsors. When we first started supermoto, you could just throw some wheels on a bike and now it’s very technical to build a machine that’s competitive on the International stage. We are changing all kinds of things like triple clamps, shock linkage, brakes, suspension settings, tire combinations. Everything is evolving as well, wheels are getting lighter, and it’s pretty amazing what goes into them. To build a competitive supermoto bike from an eight thousand dollar showroom 450, it could cost 25 thousand dollars. Although, I hesitate to say that because I don’t want people to think that supermoto is so expensive. In the amateur classes, you can show up with wheels and brakes and have a great time and be very competitive.
Thanks Dave and enjoy the rest of your time in Redondo Beach.
Thanks.
