Five Minutes with ... Kyle Beaton
MARCH 26, 2007

Yamaha Canada's Kyle Beaton

photo: Allison Kennedy

 

By Danny Brault

While Darcy Lange is making a name for himself in AMA supercross, Yamaha Canada’s Kyle Beaton is trying to get his name out at the AMA amateur nationals. Two weeks ago, Beaton and mechanic, Mike Smith, travelled to Texas for the Lake Whitney Spring Classic and then they toured over to Oak Hill the following week. Beaton rode well in the opening laps of each moto in Whitney, but arm pump dropped him back him back to 14th in the 125 ProSport class and 29th in the 250 ProSport class. He wasn’t too jazzed to refill his forearms full of blood in Oak Hill, but it was a good thing he decided to race because he came away with two top ten scores and he holeshot the final 125 A moto. We caught up with Beaton while he was resting up from his 22-hour journey from Texas to SoCal.

RXC: Kyle, how was the arm pump in Oak Hill?
Kyle Beaton: It got better. I figured some things out and we’re going to try some stuff out. Hopefully, it will all go away. I think I’m still too young to be lifting weight yet.

That’s part of the process; everyone is different and you learn every step of the way.
Exactly.

Tell us about Oak Hill. The track looks pretty sweet from those videos on www.racerxfilms.com.
Yeah, that track is by far the sweetest track I think I’ve ever rode. It was awesome. There were so many lines to pass. They had a lot of whoop sections and supercrossy-rythym sections. It was pretty fast too.

How did the week go for you?
It was all right. I mean, I wasn’t too happy going into it just because of how Lake Whitney went. I felt a lot better on that track and I just started fresh. I looked at the track and thought, oh, man, this is my type of track! I struggled a lot with the cement starts. I had some bike problems; I blew my race bike up in the first qualifier for the 125 A class. I had to bust out the practice bike and put my pipe on it and my ignition. It worked well. I actually ended up pulling the biggest holeshot in my career in the last one--I had like twenty bike lengths on everyone. That was in the 125 Pro main. I led for a lap and then got passed by a couple of guys and settled into fourth. The bike started losing power and guys behind me started catching me. The oil line broke that goes from the bottom end to the top end and It leaked oil everywhere and it died. It didn’t seize or anything, so that’s good. I had only a quarter of a lap to go and I was in fourth.

Wow, fourth! That’s pretty good. Who was ahead of you?
[Austin] Stroupe, [Trey] Canard, Jared Brown, that was it.

That would be interesting to see who racing against all of those fast amateur kids.
Those guys are fast! Stroupe and Canard are gone; they are on, like, full factory bikes. Then Jared Brown, I guess, he’s coming up to race for Suzuki in the West; he’s really good too. I didn’t go there as prepared as I should have been. I was having some suspension issues; I didn’t test at all before I went there, but I battled through it and played with clickers and got it set up good enough.

You raced your 450, too, right?
Yep. I finished ninth overall in that and ninth overall in 125 A.

Do you feel Lake Whitney and Oak Hill were a good opportunity to see how you feel and where you are right now?
Oh, totally. It’s good to go and do some races—big races—like that and see where I stand and figure out what I need to work on. Last year, I went to Lake Whitney but didn’t really do anything after that. I just waited until the first national to race. Already, this year, I know what I need to work on and set goals for how I can change this stuff. We have Vegas coming up here in a couple of weeks, so I’m going to race that too. Then there is a four-stroke national coming up too.

What are a few of things you’re planning to work on?
Just fixing the arm pump and getting my suspension dialed. I’m actually flying out to Calgary for a week to test with Tim Zacharias. Then I will come back for Vegas. Tim and I have a good relationship, so he knows what I need underneath me.

And goals, you said you have some goals.
Just to keep pushing and get all of the bugs worked out. When I go to Vegas, I hope to get consistent top fives. I know I have the speed; I just have to put everything together and work on the start. We were talking to some people down there and they told me some things to try and when I tried it in the last moto, I holeshot. So I’m going to stick with that for now.

What’s your motivation to chase these amateur nationals in the States?
Just to get ready. I am concerned how I do and I want to do really well; I want to win. I’m doing these races for a warm-up, you could say, for the stuff back home. A lot of these guys down here have factory rides for the next years coming up, so I just want to get in the mix and get my name out there for the near future and see what I have to work on.

Beaton is currently living and training in Southern California.

photo: James Lissimore

Are you still racing the Seattle SX?
No I am not. I didn’t get my endorsement.

Explain that deal. What is going on there?
I honestly have no clue. They won’t give me my endorsement because they say I’m not supercross elgibile yet, I don’t have experience and that I will be hazard on the track.

Did that letter of recommendation come through from Yamaha?
I don’t know what’s going on with that now. I haven’t been too concerned about it. They said they’re going to take care of it and I’m sure they’ve tried. But I guess the AMA hasn’t gone for it.

That’s ridiculous.
Yeah, it sucks after doing so well at Vancouver.

I can see the AMA’s point of not allowing just anyone to sign up, because I do remember seeing guys out on the track who don’t belong there. But someone from the AMA or someone who has some influence must have been at the Canadian WSXGP rounds and watched you ride. I don’t think you can fluke out and set lap times as fast as the factory guys, maybe outdoors, but not in SX.
There are guys racing the West Coast that didn’t even qualify for Vancouver! It just makes me so mad.

How do keep yourself entertained in California when you’re not riding or hitting the gym?
I’m basically doing all the work on my bike myself. But Spencer [Knowles] got hurt and he went home, so his mechanic Mike Smith is helping me out. Nick Dunn is down here and Darc [Lange], so we’ve just been going bowling and playing golf and stuff like that.

Okay, Kyle, I will let you get going. Good luck in Vegas.
Sounds good, thanks.