Five Minutes with … Kyle Beaton
APRIL 30, 2008

Kyle Beaton and Brady Sheren discuss the fastest way around the Seattle track.

By James Lissimore

The Seattle Supercross may have featured one of the greatest main even battles ever seen in the Supercross class, but, for Canadians, the best racing of the night was in the Last Chance Qualifers, where both races were won by Canadian riders. Joining Dusty Klatt in the LCQ winner’s circle was Surrey, BC’s Kyle Beaton who took an impressive win in the Lites LCQ.

Even though a lot of people say you can’t race supercross anymore as a true privateer, the British Columbia native has been quietly putting together an impressive rookie season in the Lites West Coast Championship, pitting out of his pickup and trailer and riding bikes that he himself and his sponsor, Clearbrook Yamaha, purchased. We caught up with “K.D. Beets” as he was preparing to leave for Calgary to continue his preparations for the 2008 CMRC MX2 West Championships.

RXC: Hey, Kyle, congrats on the LCQ win on the weekend! How do you think your day went as a whole?
KD Beets: It was good.  It started off a little slow, with practice and that. I was quite nervous, actually, going into practice. I wasn’t nervous at all the day before or leading up to it, but as soon as I was sitting on the line a big wave of nervousness came over me. I struggled the first practice, but came out in the second practice and got a good time. The heat race went good, well aside from the start. I mean, I got a good start but got pushed off the track. I managed to work my way back up to tenth but it wasn’t quite good enough and they only take top nine so I had to go to the LCQ.

In the LCQ I got another good start—man that bike is fast! It’s going to funny trying to watch everyone keep up to it this summer [laughs]. I just rode smooth and got the LCQ win.

So what happened in the Main? I noticed that a bunch of guys went down, what happened with that?
Well,  the whole main event saga continues for me with no luck. I got tangled up in the second turn pile up. Some guy went down in front of me. I went to go up high in the berm to get around him and some other rider ran into his bike and the bike shot up into my line and took me out. All of a sudden there are people coming behind us and all of a sudden we’re all laid out on the ground there and bikes were tangled. It took us a while to get the bikes untangled and to get my bike started. It was good though, I managed to work my way up to eighteenth and I got another three points so I finished off the series with six points. It was a lot better than I thought I was going to do in my first year.

What did you think of your first series in supercross?  What do you think of your experience now after having raced the West Coast supercrosses?
It was a good experience. I honestly didn’t think I was going to do as good as I did. I made three out of the five mains that I did. I screwed up at the first one [Anaheim 2], I was way too nervous. Then, at the other one I didn’t make, at San Diego, I KO’d myself in practice. It was good, I don’t know, I think I’ve been the top Canadian down there so far this year, aside from Dusty. As far as the Lites riders go, I’ve been the top rider and I didn’t even really get prepared for it. I just stayed home and rode arenacross and that, while those other guys were down south for months before the season, training and testing. I kind of just winged it, and it turned out to be pretty good. Steve Matthes helped us out huge, I can’t thank that guy enough. It was just an awesome experience and I can’t wait to be prepared for it next year.

So, next year your plan is to do the entire series then?
I would like to do the whole series. I mean, I can’t say for sure yet cause of that almighty dollar, but there’s also an opportunity for me to possibly go look at arenacross. There’s an opportunity to make some good money there and I know after my supercross experience that I should probably do pretty good at AX. It’s all just a waiting game right now; I’d like to race supercross though. I think that next year I can really put a good dent in the series.

For sure, with your arenacross championships in Canada that you’ve already won and Darcy’s success in AMA Arenacross, that series must be something that you can look at and feel confident that you could be successful at.
Yeah,  totally.  I talk to Darcy quite a bit and he tells me I should be racing those and not really be wasting my time at this Supercross stuff [laughs].  He tells me that, ‘Yeah supercross is big but it’s not where the money is. Unless you’re on a full fledged, factory team and you’re winning.’ So, I don’t know, arenacross is definitely something to look at, but you also have to look at the big picture and just where you want to be in the future and my goal is to be a top supercross rider and that might be what it takes to just do the whole supercross thing and forget about arenacross, but it’s definitely hard to turn down all that money that you can make by racing arenacross if you do well.

After chasing his supercross dreams, Beets will now focus on preparing for the opening round of the Monster Energy CMRC Motocross Nationals on May 24-25 in Ste-Julie, Quebec.

So, is it true that you had to buy your own bikes this year and will be racing on bikes that you purchased yourself?
Yeah, I had to buy one myself. I financed one bike. It’s funny, they weren’t even going to let me finance it myself; I had to get my dad to co-sign for it. I guess I didn’t have good enough credit [laughs]. Yeah, so I financed one myself and Ed [Wagstaff, owner of Clearbrook Yamaha] bought me two bikes and gave me his bike to practice on, also. I can’t thank Ed enough for everything he’s done for me; he’s been behind me for, like, six years now and he’s keeping me going. If he wasn’t around I’d probably be pulling levers, working alongside my dad. It’s definitely hard this year, the way the motorcycle economy is.

Okay, so tell people what your setup this year is. What are your plans for the Nationals and who are you doing them with?
Well, we’re doing them with Ed Wagstaff and Clearbrook Yamaha again. We’ve kind of put together a pretty good program considering the way the industry is this year. There is no money from manufacturers, or anything like that but we managed to get some outside sponsorship help and so far we’ve got most of our travel expenses paid for. Shane Wiebe will be going along and we’ll be using his fifth-wheel again to take all the bikes to the rounds and stuff like that. I’ll be flying in for Ste-Julie and will be staying out there for the first three rounds and then flying home after Morden. Then I’ll fly back and drive to the next couple of rounds til Nanaimo, then fly to Edmonton and back and then drive down to Washougal to race the AMA National. Then I’ll just be on the road after that finishing out the Canadian Nationals.

I’m guessing with supecross going as well as it did that must be giving you some confidence going into the Nationals, how is the rest of your outdoor preparation going? Are you feeling as if you’re the favorite coming into the season this year?
Oh, totally. I feel like I’ve got these guys somewhat beat, just cause of my fitness. To be quite honest, I’ve trained in the past, but not to what I’ve done this year already.  I think I’ve trained harder this year so far than in the rest of my years put together. I’ve been working my butt off, Drew [Robertson] has been helping out lots and kicking my butt. He’s been on my case every day, setting me up with a program and it’s good motivation. He keeps pushing me and motivating me to be in the best physical shape I possibly can be.

What’s your plan until Ste. Julie?
I’m heading out to Calgary tomorrow to spend some time with Drew. He’s going to be kicking my butt in the gym for the next couple of weeks.  I’m also going to be doing some suspension testing with Tim Zacharias from Enzo. The plan is to just get a bunch of solid outdoor riding in. I’ve been getting a fair amount of outdoor riding in out here, at 8 road, doing some gnarly sand motos and basically just going til I run out of gas, pushing it back to the truck to fill it up and going back out again. It’s just a waiting game now; I’m excited and can’t wait to get the outdoor series started.

Well, thanks a lot Kyle and good luck at Ste. Julie!
Thanks, James.