By Allison Kennedy
Photos by James Lissimore 

Kamloops, BC’s Kris Foster joined a long list of Canadians who have made the trip across the pond to race British Supercross, thanks to the support of John and Jamie Hellam, promoters of the popular BC arenacross series. The Liverpool round was Foster’s first trip overseas, and he kicked it off with the biggest win of his young career. Foster beat out an impressive list—including JSR, Colton Facciotti, and Neville Bradshaw—to win Friday night’s main event. After wrapping up a successful indoor season out west, we caught up with Foster to see what his plans are for the coming season.

RXC: Hey, Kris. Just wanted to give you a call and say congrats on your Lites class win in Liverpool!
Kris Foster: Thanks; it was awesome.

That’s a pretty impressive lineup to beat, actually, finishing ahead of Bradshaw, Facciotti and JSR. Tell us about your race.
Yeah, I know. I got a good start and I just made a couple of passes and took off.

Would you say that was the biggest win you’ve had in your career so far?
That would be the biggest win, for sure.

You were looking good for a podium in the Lites again Saturday night until the last lap. What happened?
I was coming into the whoops and I was kind of jumping into them. There got to be two ruts in them, I clipped one of them, it sent me over to the left and I clipped a hay bale and it twisted my foot around backwards. I’m still waiting on the X-ray to see if it’s broken or not, because it’s all swollen and black and blue. I actually got up and finished that race in seventh. I came off the track and took my boot off and my foot wasn’t too swollen so I went back out for the Open main, just to see what I could do. I got a top 10, but I just couldn’t do anything. The rhythms were so tight and it just killed every time I landed.

Was this your first trip racing in England and what did you think?
Yes, it was my first time overseas. It’s pretty different. Everybody is driving on the wrong side of the road. [Laughs] Lee [Coutts] and I went for a walk the first night we were there, but that’s about it. We didn’t get to see too much.

So you got hooked up to go through the Hellams?
Yes, they paid our hotels and everything.

Often people struggle their first time over, whether it’s with a borrowed bike or jet lag. Why do you think it went so well?
I’m not sure. The first night, when I got there, I was fine. I just stayed up late and when I woke up I felt perfect, but when I got back home it was a little different because I got no sleep the one night and then had nine hours added on to my day. I’m still messed up. Last night I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn’t sleep.

Do you have plans to go back over?
John [Hellam] wants me to go back over for the London round, at the end of February.

You finished second in the Lites class and fourth in the Open class in the BC Arenacross series this year. It seemed like you picked up some momentum as the series went on as well. Tell us how the AX season went for you.
I knew I could do it, right? I just had a couple of bad starts and a little bit of bad luck in the first couple of rounds, but I put it together finally.

Word was that you’d picked things up considerably this winter. What’s been different?
Well, in the fall I’ve been riding with Kirk Haws, another local guy from Kamloops. He has an arenacross track out on his property and we just rode as much as we possibly could, which got us really ready for the arenacross. He was riding well too. He was keeping up with the pros. He could beat half the pros that were out there.

So what happens now, with AX over? Back to work?
No, I am going to heal, then go to London and as soon as I come back from there, Todd Schumlick has a house down in California where he runs some riding camps. I am going to go down there and help out with that for a month and a half or two months, and then come home. Then we are going to build an outdoor track at Kirk Haws’ property so we’ll have a full-blown outdoor track to get ready on there. Then I’ll race all the Nationals.

So are you doing the nine-round MX2 series?
Yes, I am doing all nine rounds. KTM Canada and RTR Performance are helping me out.

Have you traveled to any Eastern rounds before?
No, I haven’t. The furthest I’ve been was Morden, and I’ve done the Montreal Supercross once.

What have you heard about the tracks out East?
Sandy, and they get pretty rough. I’m pretty excited to ride them though.

What do you think of the new nine-round series?
It will be more of a consistency thing but I think it will be pretty good. Not very many guys are going to be able to do all the rounds, so it’s going to be a little different but …

What would you say your goals are for the summer?
I’d love to get top five. I know I can run that speed. Last year in Calgary, I had the third fastest lap time in practice and in Nanaimo I had two laps times that were a tenth of a second off of Nelson’s time. I’m hoping for consistent top ten finishes, and hopefully to get up into the top five at a few rounds.

Who would you like to thank for helping you out?
Troy Lee, Ogio, Factory Connection, X Brand goggles, Todd Schumlick, RTR Performance, and KTM Canada.

Thanks a lot, Kris and good luck this year.
Thanks.