Interview and photos by Brett Dailey

It wasn’t a difficult decision to give Drew Clegg some more exposure after Calgary. He grabbed two big starts in the MX1 class and ran upfront for most of the first moto. A big crash in the first moto ruined an almost certain top 10 finish but he rebounded in the second moto with a hard fought 13^th. His 18-13 moto finished earned him 11 points and 16^th overall. We caught up with him shortly after the first moto.

RXC: Drew, tell us a bit about yourself.
Drew Clegg: I’m from a little town north of Grande Prairie, Alberta. I’m 23 yrs old and I started riding when I was 12—in 1985. I think I only rode for about two weeks before I found out about a motocross track and I’ve been racing ever since. I came from the PMA [Peace Motocross Association] and I raced up there for the better part of a decade before I ventured south to race the provincials and stuff down here. 

When did you turn pro?
It’s been a little while. I believe I turned pro the same year as Aaron Barr, which would have been ’99 or 2000. Antler Lake was my first pro race and I was only 15. It’s funny you ask actually because they asked me to help out with a tech tips section for the TV program and I wadded up on the big uphill tabletop. I hit a big kicker at the top and it launched me over and I flopped down the hill. I got to the bottom and looked back up and there was my bike chasing me down. So that was my first pro national and it was televised a month or two later and I got to see myself in the tech tips section—they showed my bike chasing me down the hill, it was rough. [Laughs] From there, I’ve had some ups and downs—motocross is an expensive sport—as far as finances go. I contract in the wintertime, working on the oil fields, running a service truck. So I do that over the winter and save my money and I try to get out during the last couple months of the winter to go to California and do some training. 

Take us through the first moto. You ran up front for quite a while.
Well, first of all, the boys had that bad crash for the first start. I had a great start so I was feeling down on my luck having to restart and lose my position. But then I got out there for the restart and ended up nailing a second place start so I was pumped.

You almost got into the lead in the first couple of corners because you were putting some good pressure on Josh Woods.
I knew there would be some fast guys out there and maybe a couple that would pick me off right away so I just told myself to try to ride smooth and try to stick to their lines. I felt really good. I was getting a good rhythm going when I was in about 8^th or 9^th place but I went down after the 110 and lost my bike down the embankment. So I was left to pull my bike back on top of the hill and it cost me a lot of energy and time. After that I struggled a bit and fell one more time but managed to get back into a rhythm and finished 18^th. But it was a pretty exciting moto for me. I felt like I rode solid, I just wish I could have kept the bike up at the halfway mark and I think I could have stuck it out for a top ten. 

Did it help to get out front and follow the lines and gauge your speed?
I think having those guys in front of me definitely opened up my eyes to better lines. I have always felt that I have good speed, it’s just putting it all together that can be hard. Everybody is fast out there, it’s all about who can put the track together quickly, who can be smart, pick their lines quickly and adjust their lines when the track gets rougher. You have to start looking for new lines when you’re out there and you’re dealing with fatigue so it takes a lot of know how and experience.

Great ride once again. Who would you like to thank?
I would really like to thank Suzuki and Walt Healy; they have been awesome. Madhatters up in Grande Prairie, they have been awesome, paying for my fuel. JRK Works in Grande Prairie. And my mom and dad and my family who has always stuck behind me.