Five Minutes with … Tucker Hibbert
JUNE 17, 2008

Tucker Hibbert went 1-1 in Morden

By Danny Brault
Photos by James Lissimore

Tucker Hibbert likes Canada. Once the snow melted, the Monster Energy Arctic Cat snocross racer traded in his studs for knobbies and put together a flexible motocross schedule this summer that includes two Canadian rounds, Morden and Regina. Hibbert can’t say enough good things about the racing up north and made sure he didn’t miss out on the action this year. Racing a YZ250F (that looks pretty trick!), Hibbert was the fastest MX2 guy all weekend at Shadow Valley Raceway. He had the times, he had the starts, and, by Sunday afternoon, he had two wins and a thicker wallet (well, maybe not after the fuel prices up here). We caught up with Hibbert on Sunday evening after he finished chatting with fellow sledneck, Blair Morgan.

RXC: As I asked Colton Facciotti, could things have gone any better for you in Morden?
Tucker Hibbert: Not too much better. The rain held off so that was good. Qualifying was good, practice was good, the track turned out good, I was pretty happy. In the second moto, it started to get a bit rough and it was a little bit one lined but since it got rougher, it developed more lines towards the end of the motos. I got a good jump off the start out of the gate. I started inside for both motos so I had to shut down a little early. In the first moto, I got there with the lead group so I was pretty clear. In the second moto, one guy came in and I had to shut off, but I hugged the inside and still came out top five, I think.

Obviously your snocross season is well wrapped up and now you have a mixed motocross schedule going on. Why the decision to come back to Canada?
Mainly because they’re close. This race is only three hours from my house so rather than going out to the AMA nationals in Pennsylvania, it’s quite a bit closer. I like racing up here; the races are fun to come to and the racers are fun to race with. It’s good practice and training, yet it’s low key and close to home. It’s all wins! It’s fun to come up and do a couple and I’m not doing the entire AMA series so there is no points chase that I’m worried about.

You had an okay season with Cernic’s Kawasaki last year, but bike troubles and bad luck kept you out of the championship hunt. It must feel nice to return and sweep both motos.
We had a good year last year, we had some moto wins and overalls. Things this year are going really well. We’ve been working hard with our bikes and testing and getting everything ready for this year. It feels good to have success when you put together a program by yourself and see it pay off. Especially at Morden, where, last year, we had the whole mud situation and DNFing. I’m happy to come back and have some revenge on the track, I guess [laughs].

Hibbert is racing Regina this weekend as well

I would say Morden is, arguably, one of the best national tracks on our tour.
They have a great layout and really good dirt and it just takes the right amount of moisture. It was a little muddy in the morning and it made me nervous that it was going to keep raining. But it turned out perfect and you couldn’t ask for better conditions in the motos.

As you said, you have your own program, and I’m curious to know where you’ve done your testing and what you’ve done to prepare for motocross.
Well, we work out of my dad’s shop in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. It’s the same program and shop that we have for snocross. I’ve just been riding at home. We have some good tracks around the house, and, besides that, we spent three weeks in a row going to some local races. We had two long weekends at Millville, staying after the races when the track was beat up and rough. Really, just focusing on going to some races and getting comfortable racing again, even at the local level, and then using the tracks to test. We really learned a lot staying after those races and working. We went to Texas last weekend for the AMA stuff and that was our first main race.

You did pretty well in Texas too. Was it 11-21?
21-11. It was definitely my best ride in the States. I was pretty happy to be able to do that at the first race of the year for me. I didn’t expect that; I figured I would do okay but not that well.

That’s definitely a good ride, especially for a guy from the North riding in that heat.
Oh, it was brutal! It was the hardest race I’ve ever had in my life, by far. It was so hot and humid. Up here it hasn’t been humid at all. Sometimes, at home, I was riding with two jerseys on because it was so cold out. It was hard to go down and race in the heat, but we pushed through it and we’ve been working hard.

So we’re going to see you in Regina next weekend?
Yep. We’re going to Regina next weekend and that will be the end of our Canadian nationals for the year. I’m excited to go there; that track always seems to be pretty good and I’ve raced there a lot. It’s probably my fourth or maybe my fifth time racing Regina.

Great, it’s nice to have you up here, Tucker.
Yeah, thanks.