5
Minutes with ... Pierce Chamberlain
February 28,
2005
By Brett Dailey
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Photo by Brett Dailey |
Pierce
Chamberlain turned pro in 2002 at the age of 16. He
accomplished his goals and turned some heads in his
rookie year by winning the 250cc Ontario title and finishing
sixth overall in the 125 East series. The following
year, Pierce clinched the 125cc Ontario title and finished
an incredible third overall in the highly competitive
125 East championship. He came into the 2004 season
loaded with confidence and went on to sweep both provincial
titles one round early. At the same time, he travelled
south to try to qualify at an AMA outdoor national.
Despite poor starts (he is known for strong starts)
Pierce qualified on his first try and finished just
outside of the points—and stayed on the same lap
as James Stewart. Everything was looking good for 2004.
Pierce was focused and his long-time sponsor, John Nelson
of Machine Racing was even hinting at his optimism for
the title. Unfortunately the wheels fell off their plans
at the first round in Barrie, Ontario.
Pierce was struggling with starts again and posted a
mid-pack result in his qualifier. Now his starting woes
were compounded by a poor gate pick and he started at
the back of the pack once again for the opening moto
of the series. He battled back to eighth by the end
of the moto but an altercation with a lapper on the
final lap left Pierce with a 19th and a severely sprained
ankle. He came into the series hoping to win the title
and his dreams were shattered before the first moto
had ended.
Other than a couple of breakout rides, Pierce was never
able to find his speed or confidence throughout the
balance of the series. With his ankle starting to improve
by the Montreal Supercross, Pierce finished fourth overall
behind Dusty Klatt, Colton Facciotti and Marco Dube.
It was an eye opener for fans as Pierce was always considered
an outdoor specialist. Shortly after Montreal, he went
to the Millsaps Training Facility in Georgia and began
building his supercross skills.
Pierce returned to Canada just in time for the World
Supercross rounds in Toronto and Vancouver. Despite
lap times that placed him in the top five at both events,
early crashes had him battling back from almost a lap
down at both events. Although respectable, his 8-10
finishes in Toronto and Vancouver were not what he had
in mind.
As we know in motocross, you are only as good as your
last race. Had Pierce secured another top three overall
at the nationals, he would have probably been on every
team’s wish list for 2005. His results didn’t
pan out and he had seemingly fallen off the radar in
only a few months. His long-time sponsors, Machine Racing
and Yamaha Canada submitted an offer but the two parties
were not able to strike a deal. A recent high school
graduate, Pierce was now out of school, ready to focus
on motocross full-time and was admittedly looking for
something new. That’s when the call came from
KTM Canada’s new team manager, Andy White. Over
the course of a few weeks, Andy and Pierce discussed
options and KTM’s team started to take shape with
significant support from sponsors like Outer Edge Industries
(AXO and Arnette), M2R helmets, Sprucewood Leasing,
Royal Distributing, Torco, Pirelli, FMF and Aldo shoes.
Pierce signed a deal last week and is leaving for Florida
on Monday—with orange bikes in his van.
Racer X Canada: This is a big step for you to
move away from Machine Racing and Yamaha. How long have
you been with Machine?
Pierce Chamberlain: Pretty much since I was on 80s.
In 1999, I won the 13-16 title racing a Honda for Machine
but I think I started riding Yamahas for Machine in
2000. I have been with John for a long time so it was
difficult to even look around. They have invested a
lot of time and money in me over the years and I wanted
to win a title for the shop last year. Obviously that
didn’t work out but I decided to evaluate my options
for 2005. You don’t make much money at this level
so I was mainly concerned with testing and opportunities
to test. I decided to look around a bit.
Were the other offers competitive?
Yes, I had a couple of other offers that were around
the same range—basically bikes, parts and a bit
of start money.
Why did you choose KTM?
I was looking for a team that was enthusiastic and really
excited about racing and had their team put together.
I was eager to get back to Florida to train so I needed
a concrete offer that I was comfortable with.
Earlier you mentioned the possibility of getting
some KTM factory parts from the U.S. team. Is that true?
Yes. I will be racing a KTM125 for the provincials and
KTM USA is no longer running a 125 effort so I guess
they told Andy that he could have whatever he needed
to make the bike competitive like cylinders and pipes
and that kind of stuff. For the nationals, our 250F
bikes will be pretty much factory bikes.
A lot of people will be focusing on you at the
provincials and nationals just because you are riding
a KTM. Will that add some pressure?
Yeah, it will be weird. I know that a few people will
come up to me right away and say, ‘What are you
doing?’ I’m sure they will have their two
cents about it but it’s all good—I like
change. I’m excited for this season for sure.
You had a great season in 2003 and then came
out strong in 2004 but ran into trouble when the nationals
started. What happened?
I don’t know. Things went downhill right from
my first qualifier at RJ’s. I got a bad start,
crashed and finished seventh or something. I came off
the track and I was so frustrated … I felt like
I couldn’t get over any of the jumps or anything.
They pulled my bike apart and the clutch was burnt.
It messed with my confidence and I started worrying
about my riding and the bike—everything. Once
you start thinking about stuff like that, it plays on
your mind quite a bit and that definitely hurt me this
year.
How did you get the ankle injury?
I got another bad start. I was coming up through the
pack and I was in about eighth or something on the last
lap right behind Ryan Lockhart but in the second-to-last
corner, a lapper decided he was going to pull off the
track and he cut in front of me and smoked me. I hurt
my ankle pretty badly so that ruined my season from
there on. Throughout the whole national season I didn’t
ride at all during the week. I tried a few times but
it hurt so bad that I wouldn’t even bother. I
was cycling and stuff but riding was almost pointless.
That must have messed with your confidence.
Well, I would go out there and want to ride for the
team … to show that I wasn’t being a wimp
but I was having trouble with the injury and it didn’t
work out.
What clicked in Montreal?
My ankle was getting better. I had a little bit of time
off and I had some time to just go ride and have fun
and get back into the groove. I did better at Walton
in the last race of the season so that helped my confidence
going into Montreal and got me pumped for riding again.
How about the World Supercross rounds in Toronto
and Vancouver?
I felt confident coming into Toronto after being at
[Davey] Millsaps’ house. I knew how to ride a
supercross track so I wasn’t too worried about
the track—I knew it would be tough and the whoops
would be tough but I felt comfortable. I think I got
third in my qualifier so I was happy with that. My lap
times were up there ... good enough for my first try.
In the main, I went down on the second lap when I was
in third or fourth. I picked myself up but had a hard
time restarting my bike so I had to fight back from
dead last. I pushed really hard and came in eighth—actually
I was right behind [Ryan] Lockhart for the majority
of the race but he was in third and a lap ahead! When
I was riding behind Lockhart, I was thinking that if
I hadn’t fallen, maybe I could have finished third
and that would have been huge. The exposure would have
been excellent—look at what happened to Ryan after
those two races.
How did you feel coming into Vancouver?
I was furious. I was like, ‘Man. I want to get
top five.’ I believed that I could do it so that
week I trained really hard and went over some tapes
of supercross races that I had at home and just watched
to see what guys were doing and I just tried to focus.
I knew that I had to get a good start, so I tried to
focus on that but it didn’t really work out. I
didn’t get a good jump [out of the gate] but for
some reason I have a knack of getting around the first
corner and passing a big group of riders so I was doing
okay by the second or third corner but around the third
corner a group of guys bunched up in a corner. I was
coming in too hot and I just smoked them. I was the
only one who fell. [laughs] They didn’t
even go down.
What happened after that?
I pulled in to get my clutch lever tightened and I just
went out and gave it all I had. It was cool actually
because I could see [Nathan] Ramsey behind me but for
two or three laps he didn’t gain much at all.
I was ready to pull over and let him by but I kept looking
back and he wasn’t gaining. I was just mad. I
wanted to prove to people that I could go fast. I didn’t
really think that anybody was watching me [because I
was a lap down] but if they were, they would have seen
me trying and going at a good pace.
In the past two years, you have travelled to
the states to race the four stroke nationals, AMA outdoor
nationals, Kawasaki Race of Champions and a few other
events. Has it helped?
I like the tracks. It’s a lot of fun to go down
there and race because of the atmosphere. It’s
really interesting to go down there and ride with those
guys especially when you go out there and they are hauling
right away. Everybody is on it, so it’s really
exciting to go out there and just push that hard and
not be passing guys. When they beat you it makes you
try a lot harder that’s for sure. Canada has some
really fast riders and some great tracks but I feel
that it’s important for me to go down there and
race.
Why aren’t more riders going south to
race even in the winter?
Probably just money. It’s not like anyone at my
level is making money at this right now. Riders are
working and going to school and trying to make ends
meet. It’s tough to commit the time and money
to drive 10 hours on a weekend to hit a big race when
you don’t have any money in your pocket. However,
it would be nice to see more riders going south so Canada
can step it up a bit.
What are your plans for the rest of the winter?
I’m off to Florida on Monday now that I have bikes
and a deal. Basically, I just need to get used to my
bikes, put in a lot of laps and try to get to a point
where I feel comfortable on the bikes and everything
is going well. I’ll work on cornering and stuff
like that.
Anything specific that you need to improve?
Just speed—quicker lap times. I’ll be doing
motos to get in shape and going cycling and going to
the gym but I just need to find that speed that the
U.S. guys have. It’s only a couple of seconds
a lap but at this pace, those few seconds don’t
come easily.
What’s your outlook for 2005?
My outlook is great … being with KTM and Lockhart’s
Odyssey will be a good mix. Brad [Lockhart, the shop
owner] has a lot of experience so I think it will work
out really well and I know KTM is all about racing and
they are really enthusiastic. Andy White has a lot of
experience and he seems really enthusiastic as well
so I think it will give me the confidence to take it
to the next level this year.
Good luck in Florida.
Thanks.
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