Five Minutes with … Jimmy Nelson
JULY 19, 2007

Jimmy Nelson (centre) took home the 2007 MX2 West title ahead of Ben Evans (left) and Kyle Beaton (right).

 

By Danny Brault
Photos by James Lissimore

Jimmy Nelson has said time and time again that seeing the drive, effort and support from the Blackfoot team is what's motivated him to work his butt off the last two years. A lot of guys say they work hard, but Nelson proved it, for the second year in a row, that he hasn't wasted a second by claiming his second Canadian MX2 West National Championship. It was hard fought battle for Nelson on the West Coast this year, as he was docked five positions in the first (and only) moto at Morden, which moved him from first to sixth, then he stalled it in the first moto at Calgary and finished eighth and he had only three points Ben Evans heading into the final round in Nanaimo. Nelson rode like a veteran, however, pulling off the first moto win and riding smart in the final moto for third to take home the title. He will now head back home to Nevada and work towards winning the East/ West Shootout at Walton in August.

RXC: Jimmy, congrats on winning your second MX2 West championship!
Jimmy Nelson: Thank you.

In that second moto, where you finished third, it looked like you were riding a bit more conservatively.
I was playing it conservative. I knew what I had to do to win; all I had to was finish fifth. But Kyle [Beaton] was riding really good today and I don’t know if I would have been able to stay with him anyways. He went by me and I pretty much waved Ben [Evans] by me because I didn’t want something to happen where we hit each other and we went down. I just cruised from there; it was a long race.

You only had three points over Ben Evans and five over Eric Nye heading into Nanaimo. Were you nervous at all?
I wasn’t too nervous. I was nervous the first moto when I saw Ben in the lead and I was in fifth or sixth, but that was the plan, I wanted to try and win that first moto and get a bit of a points lead and that’s what I did. In the second moto, I went out and just tried to cruise.

How does this compare to your first championship that you won last year?
I think it almost feels better, because it came down to the wire like this. Last year, I just had to finish seventh in one moto [at Morden]—I didn’t even have to race the second moto.

After winning seven out of eight motos last year, did you expect this year’s series to be easier than it was?
No, I didn’t think it was going to be easier than it was. I worked hard during the off-season and tried to come here prepared. I was definitely in good shape and that’s part of the reason I won as many motos as I did this year. I didn’t have as much speed on them as I did last year, but I worked hard during the week and it really helps out when you can be there at the end of every moto.

You raced up here back in `03 on a Yamaha and in `05 with KTM Canada, but both years didn’t go that well. What do you think has changed in your last two years in Canada that has enabled you to win championships?
The first year I came up wasn’t too bad; I had a pretty good year. I was really young; I was only 16 and finished third. I rode for Bill McLean that year. Then I rode for KTM and it just didn’t go too well. I finally got onto a good team and seeing what these guys do through the week just makes me work that much harder. They make no mistake; they work their butts off during the week to get everything perfect. I can’t thank them enough for helping me out.

You’ve been known to be hard on the clutch, but I heard in early season testing, the team removed your clutch lever and it didn’t slow you down at all.
[Laughs] Yeah, that was at Morden. Actually, this year, we haven’t had any problems with the clutch at all. They’ve been lasting the whole weekend. I think I’ve learned to ride the four-strokes quite a bit better, from when I first came up here.

Nelson plans to challenge for the MX1 championship next year.

This is now your fourth year racing Canada, what keeps you coming back here?
I like it up here. It’s either race here and go for the win or race in the States and battle for 15th. I get awesome support up here and have an awesome team behind me, so there’s no reason not to come up here. I will probably be coming up here next year to ride the 450, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Winning up in Canada, you obviously get a lot of exposure here, but you also receive some down in the States. Have any U.S. teams approached you?
Not too much, mainly because I had a three-year plan last year. I wanted to win both 250F titles and come back and win the 450 title, if I could. That’s what I’ve been sticking to. I raced some arenacross in the wintertime and I come up here for the summer. I like it.

Who would like to thank for your second championship this year?
The whole Blackfoot team, BlackfootDirect.com, Toyota, Fox, Yamaha, everyone that has helped me out; the team sponsors, Dr. D, my mom and dad, my grandma and grandpa, and  all of my friends for sticking behind me.