This week’s Race Rewind Interview focuses on Tyla Rattray’s overall victory at the Freestone National. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki pilot was simply unstoppable in the Texas heat. After finishing second behind his teammate Dean Wilson in Moto 1, Tyla came out in Moto 2 on a mission for the overall. In the first half of Moto 2, Tyla found himself thirteen seconds behind Justin Barcia, but with the heat beginning to take its toll on the riders, thirteen seconds was not enough to keep Tyla back. He just kept coming, and as the race wore down, Barcia became defenseless and was left to watch Tyla ride away from him for the win.
In Tyla’s first two years since leaving the GP scene, he has steadily improved his results. Now, the 2008 MX2 World Champion comes into 2011 Outdoor Nationals with only one goal: the 2011 250 AMA Motocross Championship. He has made it very clear that nothing short of that will make him happy. After a third overall at the opener at Hangtown and an overall win at round two at Freestone, the eleventh year professional originally from Durbin, South Africa looks poised to possibly complete that goal.
After his win this weekend, we sat down with Tyla and chatted about his overall win. This is how it went down:
Tyla, I’m a fan first and a journalist second, and I have to tell you, that second moto was one of the most calculated, well managed type of rides I have ever witnessed. Awesome!
Yeah, it was pretty good. I was pretty pumped.
It was incredible! Let’s talk about Moto 1 a little. How did that go for you?
It went pretty good. Obviously, the conditions were going to get pretty warm, and I was expecting that. They brought in a lot of sand this year, and it made the track even more rough than what it was last year, so I knew it was going to be pretty brutal. The first race, I just tried to ride smooth and tried not to hit too many bumps because I knew in the second moto that’s what it was going to come down to. I managed to get second behind Dean. I think I was about seven seconds behind him at the finish. It was a good race.
Did you really try to make a run at Dean after you got up to second, or was he too far gone and you just decided to wait for the brutality of Moto 2 to win the overall?
Yeah, I started closing in on him around the halfway point a little bit—maybe a half a second or a second per lap. If I really tried to catch him, I would have had to dig pretty deep, and I don’t know if I would have had any energy for the second moto. I just tried to ride as smooth as I could and not make too many mistakes, ’cause the second moto there is always pretty gnarly.
In another interview early in the day, I heard you say it was “Africa hot.” (Laughs) It had to be pretty bad on the bike.
Oh yeah, it was pretty gnarly. I have ridden in conditions like that before, like when I’ve been back home in South Africa riding and training for Europe, like my preseason stuff. The coolest it was is like it was in Texas, and most days, hotter. I’m pretty used to it. I would go back to South Africa for four months a year at the end of the season and ride in those conditions all the time. That’s what I did my base training in for the eight years I was in Europe, so I feel like I am pretty prepared for the heat and we still have some hot races coming up—like Budds Creek and Millville can get pretty hot, and the next one at High Point can get pretty hot. I’m definitely looking forward to some hot races.
The World Championship GP series never really allowed you to showcase your ability to endure the extreme heat conditions because they never really got that hot, did they?
No, the GP’s weather was always a maximum of maybe 84 degrees. It was never that warm. The tracks were very easy. They normally didn’t get very rough, but the Nationals just leave the tracks now and it gets super gnarly rough, and it’s also pretty hot. Yeah, it’s pretty brutal racing over here. Obviously I’ve never raced in conditions like that before other than when I was training back home.
Yeah, and Hangtown this year was probably the most brutal track I’ve ever seen at a National. I walked around the track and looked inside the ruts in the corners and saw a ten-inch deep whoop sections inside the ruts. (Laughs)
(Laughs) Yeah, Hangtown was pretty good. They did a good job there this year compared to last year. The track got really rough, and the weather was a lot warmer than it was there last year. I think it definitely took it out on some riders there, too. I think we’re going to have a pretty hot summer, and the organizers are really trying get their tracks the best they can. They’re leaving them to get rough like motocross should be, and I think it’s going to make for a great summer.
They’re leaving them “Tyla rough.” (Laughs) Speaking of rough, that second moto was insane in Texas. Tell us about Moto 2.
Yeah, the second moto was good. I missed the jump a bit on the gate, but I managed to charge into the first turn hard, and I came out of the first turn fifth or sixth—so that was pretty good. I just sat behind Cunningham for a while and saw he was starting to make some mistakes, and that’s when I knew he was starting to get tired. That’s when I passed him straightaway. I just kept the same momentum going around 2:11, 2:12 [lap times] and my best was a 2:10. I just tried to do that the whole moto and stay consistent. When I started catching Barcia, I knew I had the race. I think one lap I caught him like four seconds, then the next lap three seconds and next thing I knew, I was right behind him. When I saw I was catching him as quick as I was—I didn’t even know how much time was left in the moto—I just tried to push as hard as I could when I got behind him—try to pass him and then just try to pull a gap. Then the next lap, I came around I had the two-lap board. (Laughs) It was pretty good timing, I think.
So the mechanic was keeping you well informed on where Justin was, but nothing about how much time was left? I like it.
Yeah, but I was just trying to keep my lap times consistent. When it gets hot like that, guys’ best lap times to their worse are quite a bit different. I just tried to keep mine consistent the whole way, which I pretty much did until the very last lap when I slowed down. Other than that, I just tried to keep my lap times the same. I think, at one point, I got a signal that Barcia was thirteen seconds ahead so it was definitely a good race.
Yeah, and that thirteen-second lead was past the halfway mark. Around lap eleven or twelve, I noticed that you ran a 2:11, and he ran a 2:14—and I knew it was about to get good. He was coming to you more than you were pushing to him at that point.
That’s my plan when I go to hot races. Try to push as hard as I can and try to ride a pace I know that I can maintain the whole moto. It’s pretty tough, though. You always want to ride as fast as you can, but sometimes that’s not the smartest thing to do. You know that, obviously, after the fifteen-minute mark, your lap times are going to start dropping off the pace. I just try to keep a good rhythm and good momentum in the turns. That’s what I managed to do. So yeah, it was awesome.
This year you’ve been working with Aldon Baker. Has that changed much in your training regimen or just fine-tuned it?
Yeah, I have always known what I’m doing with training, and it’s pretty much what I’ve been doing my past eleven years as a professional. It’s just fine-tuning a few things like on the nutrition side of it. I knew how to eat healthy and that, but there were a couple little things I needed to change. I’m feeling a lot better now. The cool thing is last year after Texas and Budds Creek, I was really down, like energy-wise. But after this weekend, I felt really good. I didn’t feel like I had to go for an IV or anything like that. I actually felt pretty good. I definitely know my training is paying off. Like I said, I’m looking forward to a great summer.
Nice. I’m curious—with a good percentage of the top guys all being in the same rig, under one tent—do you see any tension forming as the summer wears on?
No, I don’t think there will be any tension. We’re all professionals, and at the end of the day, we’re all professional athletes competing at the highest level possible in our sport. Everyone on our team gets along pretty well—myself, Dean, Blake and also Broc. At the end of the day, the best man’s going to win, and the guy that works the hardest is going to win the Championship. That’s how I look at it. We’ll just take it round by round—can’t think of the championship until there’s maybe one round to go.
Well, I know from our last interview that the only thing you will be happy with in 2011 is that title.
Hopefully I can get it this year. I definitely think it’s possible, and I’m in great shape. I have a good bike—well, we all have good bikes—and at the moment, everyone I am racing for the championship are my teammates, but you can never count the GEICO guys out like Barcia and Tomac. They can always step it up. A perfect example is what Trey did last year. The first two rounds, he was hating it, and then something clicked. Man, he won the championship. It’s still a long series and anything can happen.
Well, Tyla, it’s going to be a blast to watch. Good luck to you for the title. Thanks a bunch for doing this.
Okay. Thanks, Dan! Speak to ya later.
