By Allison Kennedy
Photos by James Lissimore
 

What a difference a week can make. Last weekend, at Kyle Beaton's inaugural AMA Supercross, he failed to make the night show. This week, in the swamps of San Francisco, he set the second-fastest lap time in unseeded practice (Canadian Brady Sheren was quickest), finished sixth in his heat race, and earned his very first AMA Supercross point. His 20th place finish in the main wasn't exactly what Kyle was looking for, but he achieved his first goal: making the night show, and even got the bonus of making the main event. We caught up with the MXforum-backed rider to see how he's feeling heading to Anaheim 3.


RXC: Hey, Kyle. How are things?
Kyle Beaton: Good, I am just lying in bed, sore. [Laughs] We drove about 10 hours home yesterday so.

Well, you must be a bit more stoked with how this weekend went.
Yeah, way more. [Laughs]

That was a pretty big leap from the week before.
Yep, a big jump that's for sure. I finally made it. Once you make a night show, it is pretty easy from there. You just have to get a good start, not that I managed to do that. I just picked everyone off one by one.

Let's go through the weekend from the beginning. What did you think when you first got to San Francisco and saw the weather?
We showed up the night before and the rain was coming down hard. I was thinking, 'Oh great, this is just going to be a disaster'. It was still raining when we woke up Saturday morning. I still thought it was going to be a disaster. We showed up at the track and they had cancelled practice and they were pushing everything back. We weren't sure what was going to go on, if they were just going to seed the top 20 and then draw straws for the rest of the guys. The track was completely underwater; they were pumping water out of the stadium. We ended up sitting around lots, trying to get the bike set up for mud. There was a lot of waiting around and just getting anxious to get out there and do something.

Then you found out you had one 10-minute practice to make it work?
Pretty much. I just had to go out there, right from the start, leave first and just pin it right off the bat. That's what I did pretty much. There were 26 of us sitting on the line and everyone wanted to be the first guy out there. I got lucky, when I kicked my bike it started first kick and I just went. I ended up being the first guy out. I didn't have anyone in front of me to get in my way. It was good. I had pretty fast lap times and I didn't even jump any of the triples. My practice bike wouldn't make it [Laughs]. I think Brady jumped the triple, and I was still really close to his lap times. I was like a tenth off.

The track was a bit better than everyone thought it would be, at first anyway?
It was a lot better than we thought. But once everyone started riding on it, it went to crap fast. All the water started coming out of it, and all the ruts started coming up and it was just a disaster.

So once you knew you were in the night show, how did your heat race go?
Once I knew I was in the night show, I didn't even have any worries anymore. All the stress left. I was just having fun from there on, just taking in the experience and going with it. I got a crappy start; I was dead last going into the corner. I found a hole and passed a couple of guys. Then there was a little bit of a pileup and a couple of guys went down. I passed like six guys by the end of the race.

That's awesome. Those are short races. Did you finally feel like you were riding more like yourself?
Yeah it was good. I wasn't worried about any of the other riders out there, I was just worried about the track and making it around it. I didn't care about the other riders coming in on me or anything, or about catching them. I just rode my own race and was able to catch up to them, and get by the guys real quickly. It was good; I rode more like myself.

It definitely makes a big difference to qualify right out of your heat, and not have to face the LCQ.
It's kind of weird actually. When I did it, I shouldn't say it was easy but it didn't seem that hard. I did it the easy way, straight from the heat race.

By the time your main event came around, was it raining?
As soon as we started pushing the bikes out to the line, she just started monsooning. [Laughs] It was like, 'Great … Mike, where's the umbrella?' 'We don't have one.' It got pretty hard to see at some points during that race. I got another crappy start, and I probably went through five tear-offs in the first two corners.

So you worked your way up?
Yep, I was in ninth for a while. Then I fell back to 12th and then I got landed on.

What happened there?
I don't know. Someone landed on my handlebars and knocked me down. Then the leaders were coming around, and they were jumping on the yellow--which you are allowed to do--but they were jumping right on my bike. They were cart-wheeling their faces off and they destroyed my bike.

What exactly happened to it?
The exhaust got completely crunched and my rear brake reservoir broke off. There was only like two laps to go too … I timed that just right perfect. [Laughs] So I got 20th. I got my first point!

Well, that's a pretty big night for your second round. That wasn't the way you wanted your night to end but you had to be happy with your progress.
I am still on cloud nine. I made the main, that's all that matters. I told the boys that if I holeshot the main event, I was just going to pull over and watch. Enjoy the moment of getting the holeshot and the cheque and go watch the main event. [Laughs]

So what happens now?
Well I guess I'll count the raindrops and watch Mike clean my bike all day. [Laughs] I'll get some riding in this week. I just have to work my butt off and do some training and get ready for next weekend.

And how will going to Anaheim 3 be different than going to Anaheim 2?
Well, I will just going into it knowing that I can do it. It's not going to be like it was at the first one. I know what everyone else is like, I know what I have to do, all that stuff. The nerves are all out now. I don't have to worry about stuff anymore, I know how everything works, I know what to expect, I know the organization; it should be good.

Do you think you'll finally get to ride your race bike?
I hope so. That thing is so fast, and it will help out so much. I am not going to say anything; I don't want to jinx it. It will probably be an absolute mud bath again. We'll have to wait and see.

Well, congrats Kyle and good luck at Anaheim 3. We'll talk to you next week.
Thanks a lot.