Photos by: Weston Peick
Over the off season JGR / Yamaha became JGR / Suzuki and Weston Peick had no worries when it came to getting acclimated to a bike he had ridden for much of his pro career. As a privateer and later with the RCH / Suzuki squad, Weston was on the RM-Z 450, and his results during the first three rounds of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, show his immediate comfort on the bike.
One of the biggest changes we see in Weston’s game on the Suzuki in 2017 has been the elimination of the big mistake. Over the last two years, Weston landed on the podium twice on the Yamaha, but he also spent a lot of time picking himself up from some huge crashes. So far in 2017, though, the #32 has been Steady Eddie in all three rounds and has been progressively better in each of the three 20-minute plus one lap main events.
At the Anaheim 1 opener, Weston finished eighth. He followed that up with a come from behind seventh in San Diego and scored his first top five since 2015 last weekend at the Anaheim 2 SX. After his fifth in Anaheim, we caught up with Weston to talk about his switch back to Suzukis, his results in 2017 and his ride on Saturday night.
Weston, fifth in the main event, not the best of your career but the best of the season for you.
Yeah, obviously my best finish so far of the season. My goal this year has been to be consistent. I want to show up every weekend and not do anything crazy or out of the ordinary and make mistakes. I’ve been doing what I wanted to do. This weekend was extremely tough on all of us out there riding. It was a tough track and with it being so tight it was hard to ride. It made it interesting for the long race it was. I ended fifth on a tough track with a lot of tough competition.
What made this track so unique? We’ve been dealing with rain at the first three, but I’ve heard a lot of people talk about this one being particularly tough tonight.
Thankfully, the Dirt Wurx guys do an awesome job with getting the tracks prepped ’cause I showed up for track walk this morning and thought, “This track is going to be extremely rutted up and muddy,” but it looked like it didn’t even rain. Other than that it ended up being soft in some of the transitions, but for the most part, they did a great job. It rutted up, but the biggest thing separating everyone was how tight the track was. The 180’s back and forth, back and forth really raised the heart rate when there really wasn’t much of a separation factor. There wasn’t any time to really breathe on the track. It was just go, go, go. Other than that, it was a good race.
You switched to a bike you’re familiar with this year with JGRMX / Yamaha becoming JGRMX / Suzuki for 2017. Your results have been steadily progressing each week with an 8-7 and now 5 score so far. Does that steady progression coincide with your comfort level on the bike?
Yeah, I’ve been on Suzukis in the past. I rode Suzukis three years before I signed with JGR and got on Yamahas. Switching back to Suzukis is actually an incredible change for me. I mesh really well with the bike and the team’s been doing an awesome job getting the work, especially with such short notice that we had coming into the SX season. Everybody pulled together with the help of Suzuki and everybody in-house at JGR with being able to get stuff built and done for us. It’s a huge accomplishment on their part. The bike’s been awesome. Every week we’re getting better and better and making small changes here and there. Every week it’s progressing and going well.
Do you think you are someone that benefits from the 20-minutes plus one lap format. You seem to be able to push from start to finish without any issue and are actually stronger at the end.
I think from last weekend [at San Diego] I was able to progress the last four or five laps and catch those guys towards the front. It’s a catch-22, though. Tracks like tonight, I kind of struggled with how tight it was, but even at that, I was able to hold my ground and make passes.
We have Phoenix next weekend, and it’s going to be a much different track from what we’ve seen so far in ’17. It’s a covered facility with very hard packed soil. How do you like Phoenix hard pack normally?
I grew up here [in California] riding the hard pack. We’re up riding the test tracks here, and they’re the exact same thing as riding in Phoenix.
Yeah, the Anaheims have seemed hard with a tough layer of pebbles on top. I hate to use the word pebbly, but let’s go with it.
I’d say, yeah, at Anaheim and San Diego the dirt’s been pretty pebbly. I think Phoenix will be similar but a more hard packed base. I think the wheel spin will be similar to the test tracks. I think it’ll be a little bit different, but it should be good.
You were about seven-tenths of a second a lap off the leaders tonight. Do you see yourself being able to make that up and is a podium in your future? You’ve been there before, so I think you know if you’ve got that in you.
I know what it takes. There’s definitely some things we ca work on to get myself in that position. The guys up front are going fast and a second or a second and a half faster on an average lap. Some weekend’s they’re faster, but this week was a lot closer. I’m building my confidence. I had a rough year last year, and this year I wasn’t coming in expecting big things. I told myself just go race by race, race the track, do your own thing and be consistent. I think the biggest change for me is just going into the weekend to be consistent and telling myself, “Just go out there and race. Don’t worry about anyone else or put pressure on yourself.” I don’t want to tell myself where I should finish, because then it’s in my head and I’m thinking about this or that. Best thing for me is come into each weekend calm and collected and just doing my job.
I think the difference is evident and, yeah, you have seemed more calm, collected and just even keeled this year. Congrats on the fifth, and good luck in Phoenix.
Thanks
