Photo by: Todd Gutierrez
The 2015 season marked the return of four-time AMSOIL Arenacross Champion, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Tyler Bowers, to Monster Energy Supercross full-time, and the #911 wasted no time using those AX passing skills to win a heat race at the next level. After qualifying with the 7th fastest time in daytime qualifying practice, Tyler quickly showed he’s a lot better than a 7th place guy in his first heat race of the night, but not before reminding everyone just how he rolls.
In the second 250SX heat race of the night, Tyler pulled a great start and momentarily took the lead before getting passed by Rockstar Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne. Soon after that pass, though, Tyler made a very aggressive move back on Zach that pushed the #16 off the track, on the ground and later to the Asterisk Mobile Medical unit for X-rays. Tyler went on to win the heat race, while Zach was forced to qualify later through the LCQ.
With that, all eyes were on the #911 and the #16 looking for fireworks between the two veterans in the main event, but while they finished 2nd and 3rd, the two were never close enough to re-ignite that fuse. In the main, Zach got the good start and went wire-to-wire for a 2nd place finish, and Tyler battled back from a mid-pack start to finish 3rd. The podium finish was a solid start for the reigning 2014 AX Champion, and don’t think for a minute that the Californian is worried about possible retaliation. You don’t win four-straight AX Championships without knowing how to dodge bullets with a target on your back.
After the race, we caught up with Bowers in the Pro Circuit rig and asked him about his night, his return to Monster Energy Supercross and racing with a target on your back. As always, the very outgoing and personable Bowers was willing to chat it up. You can hear what Tyler had to say in his “Race Rewind” interview below.
Tyler, third overall in the first main event of the year. Do you consider a third overall a good start to the Championship?
Yeah, third was alright with me. I came in here hoping to get a podium—shooting for that—if everything opened up right and the cards fell where they may. A win would have been great. I was going to go for the win if I was there and the opportunity arose, but I had a horrible start in the main event and had to work my way up to 3rd. The whole goal is to stay safe and to be in the points hunt, and I’m only five points away after the first round. So, we’re going to sit there, see how everything goes, go back and regroup this week. Hopefully we’ll pull out some wins later this year.
This is your first night with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki as a full-time member of the team, where as before you were always just a fill-in guy. Does it feel a lot different?
Way better! (laughs) It is, man, it’s cool dude. When I filled in with Pro Circuit in the past I had like three days before the first race and I had a total of five weeks of riding their bike before I won the Las Vegas SX main event. I’ve been riding this bike for three or four months now—all summer. You know, I feel great on the bike. We actually have a good setup, where before I was riding what Dean Wilson or Justin Hill had set up for them and we’d tweak it a little bit. Now we have my set-up. I do the majority of the testing and we have a bike that’s just a fire-breathing-dragon. It’s awesome to work with this crew. Everybody here works so hard, the whole team, all the mechanics too. Like AC’s [Adam Cianciarulo] mechanic with AC hurt now Brett’s [Mountain] been helping me out a lot. Line choice, all of it. This guy doesn’t even have to come out and talk to me and he’s cheering me on and pushing for me. All the mechanics here are like that so it is a very good atmosphere with the team and I work really well with these guys.
Some of the talk in the press box tonight was about Tyler bringing AX aggression with him to SX. (laughs) There was obviously some contact between you and Zach Osborne in the heat race, so can you talk a little about that.
Yeah, in the heat race I had to go for it. The track, I should say, was kind of easy this weekend. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for passing, and when Osborne was behind me, he bumped me a couple times and I fired back. I let him know I wasn’t going to take it. I had to make a statement, because if I let someone push me around, everyone’s going to push me around. It’s the first round and everybody wants to pick on me ’cause I’m the new guy here.
(laughs) Oh, come on now, the new guy?
Yeah, a lot of these guys haven’t raced against me so I gotta let them know I’m not going to put up with it. I’m not going to run over anybody first, but I’m not going to put up with anybody trying to run into me. I had to make a statement and it’s unfortunate, because I’m good friends with Zach—or I was—but we had some words after the main event. We talked a little bit, and I’m sure we’ll smooth things over. I’m sure I’ll have to watch out for him in the next few races, though.
Yeah, Zach’s no youngster and knows how it goes.
Yeah, yeah, that’s the thing about Zach. I have a lot of respect for Zach, because he’s a very competitive person in general. I stayed at his house a few years back. We were on Yamaha of Troy together and we trained together for a while and stuff like that. I know he’s competitive in everything he does: basketball, cleaning up dog poop, getting the mail, anything. He just wants to be the best at it. Zach will definitely be a guy to watch for in this Championship.
Okay, moving on now. Round one is in the books and you’re moving on to round two in Phoenix five points down. What are the plans and goals as the series moves on now?
Just to stay up front, man. It’s a long seriesn and the wins will come. The Championship is the big picture, and I’m on the right equipment with the right team to do it. I’m super happy with the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki. It’s going to be a great year with a great team behind. I’m looking forward to the next round.
Congrats on the podium, and good luck next week in Phoenix.
Thank you
