By Bruno Menard

Defending 125 East champ Donnie McGourty will join the Blackfoot squad at Gopher Dunes, completing the trio of #1 plates under the Honda awning. McGourty is ready for the series and is anxious to see if he can better his '04 performance. Racer X Canada's Bruno Menard caught up with McGourty to see how he's feeling about coming back to Canada.

RXC: How are things?
Things are great man, right now we are about a week and a half away from the east series opener. I'm starting to getting pretty excited about coming back to Canada again to do some racing.

What have you been up to lately?
Just putting laps down in the heat and pedaling on my road bike, have to stick to the routine. I wish I could tell you I've been doing a lot of exciting things, like hanging out at the beach soaking up the sun with lots of pretty girls, but I haven't. I have hit the lake a few times to do some wakeboarding though. You would think holding a #1 plate up in Canada would help out my situation with pulling the ladies, but that hasn't worked out the way I want it to. I guess I'm just not cool, I dunno. Have any tips for me? Maybe your readers can throw some tips my way at the races. 

What’s your training schedule like?
Well it’s tough, especially when it is 100 degrees outside like it is here. But nothing too special, just trying to gain a little here and a little there. Not just physical fitness, but I like to work on my technique a lot too.  

I noticed you haven’t been to the last AMA Nationals, what’s up with that?
Well I never intended to do a lot of outdoor nationals. My main focus was the east coast supercross series and now the east coast Canadian nationals. I used the two nationals I raced to work the bugs out of my bike setup. I have made a lot of changes to my bike setup since then. I'm pretty picky about my setup. I wasn't too comfortable for those two nationals but everything is good now. I took some time off of racing to prepare for the coming two months. I think the Blackfoot team should get some props from me for working with me on that and helping to get it sorted out.  

If you could go back in time, would you change anything you’ve done since Walton ’04?
I'm not really a believer in trying to change the past or anything like that. But I think I accomplished a number of good things this year. I signed up with Blackfoot Honda. I had an awesome night down in Daytona with a top ten in the main event, running in 2nd for half of the main, and passing Grant Langston in my heat race. I put in a bunch of solid rides in supercross as a privateer and I got a some good exposure too. My speed was pretty good for my rookie year. In Orlando I had the 4th fastest time in the factory practice. I also won 3 daytime qualifiers. I'm definelty not where I want to be yet, but I know I'll get there with hard work and more experience. My biggest weakness is the whoops, so I have to work on that. I've been gaining confidence. If things go good, I will be down here next year racing east coast SX with the Blackfoot team and my teammate Dusty Klatt.

What’s your plan to win that MX2 East title again?
Well I think I learned a lot last year and I have a good shot to win that thing again. It's not going to be easy. It's a short series, so my plan is to take it one race at a time and have some fun. I'm on a great team this year. JSR and Dusty have been holding up their end of the bargain for the team, now it is my turn to see what I can do. I know from my experience last year that it's going to be tough and it's going to take good rides and consistency. It will be fun.

Is this plan the same as last year?
Yes definitely. My plan is always to have fun and do the best that I can do. If I put in the work at home, all I can do is go out and do my best and have a good time doing it. I don't really want to do anything if it's not fun for me. We will see how it pans out. Winning five out of eight motos last season was pretty good, so we will try and come close to that or maybe better if I'm lucky.

How do you feel about the competition this year?
I know it's going to be tough, probably tougher then last season. There are a bunch of fast Canadian guys as well as some American guys coming up to race. The good thing is that I've raced most of these guys now so I have a better idea of my competition. It's cool to see my friend Kyle Chisholm will be coming up to race. I've know Kyle since I started racing and we are pretty good friends. So it will be fun to battle with a familiar face as well as all the other guys. I'm just ready to get it going.

Which races are you looking forward to?
I look forward to every moto. My bike is good. We have some new tracks this year so it will be fun.

It was nice to get an update from you. Good luck with the ladies, and the title...
Thanks! See you in Gopher Dunes.