Five Minutes with ... Kevin Tyler
APRIL 4, 2007

Track prep was just one of Kevin Tyler's duties at last year's Sand Del Lee national.

 

By Danny Brault
Photos by Allison Kennedy

The Sand Del Lee round was definitely a welcomed addition to the Canadian National series in 2006 and it’s back on the 2007 schedule. The MX101 team, which is led by Kevin Tyler, Steve Dool, Walter Gressier, and Johnny Grant, put forth one heck of effort, turning the provincial track into a national facility. But their responsibilities don’t end there. MX101 also suuports a race team with help from Yamaha Canada and a long list of others sponsors, they run schools and riding camps throughout the summer, and they are now the distributor for the Hats Off helmet safety device. We caught up with KT to see how things are coming in Eastern Ontario.


RXC: What’s been going on this winter, Kevin?
Kevin Tyler: Pretty much just trying to keep everything going. With MX101, it seems like we add another fifteen or twenty things to do. We’ve already booked a quarter of our summer camp, the schools are starting to pick up and for the race team, we’re just trying to get everything set up for the riders.

You guys are involved with the sport immensely, so what exactly is MX101?
I joke that I’m building an empire up here [laughs]. I started off doing private lessons and then I teamed up with Gary Cavanaugh and we did the schools; that was with Johnny Grant. Steve Dool and Walter Gressier joined on and every time we take on a partner, we take on more responsibilities. At first, it was just educational with the schools and camps, and now it’s blossomed into running the facility and bringing it up to national’s standards. We’re always looking for things to keep everyone safe and we did some digging and got into contact with Hats Off and now we’re the Canadian distributor for them.

So dealers looking to stock the Hats Off, they’ll be calling MX101?
That’s right. We’re about a month away from unveiling an online store, where we’re going to be selling some of our products. We’ve got EZ-UP’s coming, all of our gear from Wrex will be online, and the Hats Off.

You have certainly come along way the MX101 team and the Sand Del Lee facility and racetrack. Looking back, how did you feel your first national went last year?
I’m stoked on how the national went. We received kudos from everybody. Still, every race we go to, people are slapping me on the back. It feels good. There was a lot of work—probably ten times more than previous years work. I was down at Orlando in the press box, picking on [Steve] Matthes, and he said some nice things even though he hasn’t ever been there.

One of Tyler's other duties: qualifying for the MX2 and MX1 classes.

Well, from my first hand experience racing at the SDL national, I will admit that it’s become my new favourite track!
It was definitely a lot of fun, for sure. The biggest benefit is for our members who get to ride that track five days a week.

You had a lot on your plate at the national: you worked the track, raced the MX1 and MX2 qualifiers and controlled the general chaos. How was that experience?
It was definitely pandemonium! I really hoped on doing the New Brunswick national but I had to skip it because—I said right from the beginning—if we were doing a national, we were going to do it right. Nothing was going to stand in the way of that. I had a YZ250F and YZ450F and I put 33 hours on them the whole year—and that’s combined. I didn’t get any riding in for myself, but the weekend was chaotic. Everyone rolled in Friday, and they were pretty stoked with the place and then trying to quality for both classes on Saturday and trying to water the track. Everybody points to me, but there are four of us in the company and everyone was wide open.

Being a racer at heart, was it worth it putting racing and riding aside to focus on the track and the national?
Yeah, it was for sure. I’ve never been a diehard; I made no mistake that I was ever going to make a career out it. I mean, if I had chosen to make a career out of it, JSR wouldn’t where he is today and that just wouldn’t be fair [laughs]. I go out and I always have a lot of fun when I ride, always have, and I never thought I had what it takes to get to that next level. This is the second best thing.

That might just be a better route. Being a professional racer, you come to a point where it’s make or break. At least with this, you can do it forever.
That’s right. I did the winters leaving in a box van back with JSR and [Paul] Delaurier and those guys. It was awesome for a while, but it wasn’t paying any bills.

You’ve qualified for a few US nationals though, right?
One. Southwick in `98 in the big bike class. I think I went 35-32. I was pretty happy. I’ve ridden a lot of US nationals and I was doing the math with my buddy, and I think I missed it by one spot six times. I’m truly the Gas Card winner all around.

[Ed note Tyler won the Gas Card at the Toronto and Vancouver WSXGP rounds in `05.]

As the crowd gathered around the podium after the final MX1 moto, Tyler finally got a chance to rest.

Anything new planned for SDL this year?
The layout will stay virtually the same; we started from scratch last year. What we are doing, is moving the kids’ track and putting in two arenacross tracks, just to give our up-and-comers something different to practice on. We’re trying to build a facility up that will help the sport and we can have a few more fast guys come out of this region.

Who will be on the MX101 team this year?
Jeremy Medaglia will be the one leading the team. I’m looking forward to working with him and giving him some advice to get him to the front. Myself, I will still be plugging around in the Vet classes, probably MX1 at the nationals. Then we got Chris Caryle who races intermediate and Tyler Gressier will be racing intermediate for us locally; Bradley Dool in the 80 and Supermini classes and my little guy, Mitch Tyler, will be bringing it up in the 50cc 406 class.

Great. Is this Mitch’s first year racing?
This will be his first year. He is 6 right now. He’s fired up; he’s got his eyes fixed on racing the supercrosses on one of those KTMs. He’s right into it; he’s been a professional practicer for three years.
 
It was good talking with you, Kevin. See you at the provincial.
Thanks, Danny.