There is absolutely no quit in Kyle Cunningham. Photo by: Hoppenworld
There are are tough characters in the Monster Energy Supercross pits, but few are tougher mentally and physically than AG Motorsports/Gurrnaid Energy/Rocket Exhaust’s Kyle Cunningham. Kyle has been through it all. From trucking it to the races on his own to solid rides with factory satellite teams and back, Kyle has been there week in and week out trying to live the dream of being a professional supercross and motocross racer.
Kyle’s 2015 Eastern Regional 250SX Championship started out rough with a strange crash heading up the finish line jump in Arlington, Texas. The big crash was missed by cameras and witnessed by few, but it must have been a hard hit, because it left the Texan asleep on the take off of the finish. It was a scary scene that caused a red flag and a rough 22nd place finish for the #35, but true to form, Kyle was back after it at the next round in Atlanta. Unfortunately, and probably due to still feeling the effects from the crash, Kyle had a rare DNQ at Atlanta 1, but since then, he has steadily improved his results.
Since his DNQ in Atlanta, Kyle has gone 15-10, and at the last round in Indianapolis, he finished with a hard fought 5th. After starting near the back, Kyle somehow found his way up to fifth on the tight, technical and very rutted Indy circuit. It was a solid performance from the #35, and with Kyle having been on the podium in the past, it was more along the lines of what we expect from him. With that fifth, Kyle now sits tied for 14th in the 250SX East Championship.
After his first top-five finish of the 2015, Chase Yocom caught up with Kyle to talk about his night. You can hear what Kyle had to say in “Race Rewind” below.
We’re here with Kyle Cunningham. Kyle, top 5 tonight. Man, that’s got to feel awesome. How was the main for you?
The main went awesome. It started off a little bumpy today. We had some things that we didn’t have a chance to change from the start. Got some good notes and showed up with some different suspension this weekend. It was a little rough in Texas. I didn’t get to do much riding this week because of the rain, and the track was brutal in practice. I felt like it was one of those where I just needed to get to the night show and in the main event. The bike handled great. The Grenade Aging Motorsports guys, Al especially, really takes care of what I told him and fixed the suspension, and the guys at FC. I couldn’t be happier on that. We got off to a usual start about 13th, and I just put my head down there. Me and [Jimmy] Decotis and Vince [Freise] were in there. [Who?] Peters was in there. We had a freight train going and it was a huge battle. It was kind of hard on the track the way it was. You had to protect lines and try to go forward at the same time. We rode a solid 15 laps. I pushed the whole way to the end and kept the bike on two wheels tonight, so we ended up with a good result.
How hard is it to protect lines and how are you able to keep your focus on that? I mean, you guys had a four-man train going and you were hauling.
It’s tough. You got to leave the door open a little bit or somebody gets it in on you, and that’s what me and Jimmy D. were talking about in the stands. We had a little rubbing going, but I think we kept it clean for the most part. It’s fun racing like that. Like I said, it’s been bumpy from the get go, from the crash at Dallas—you have to overcome that—and then no main event in Atlanta too. I have a positive group around me, and just big thanks to them – Al, my mechanic Chums, all the Grenade guys, One Industries, Bell Helmets, Experian Goggles, CE Boots. I’ve got a lot of positive people in my corner. A big thanks to my family as well; they keep me going when it feels like it’s a lot harder to pull yourself out of the hole than it is to get yourself in there. But we showed up this weekend, rode a solid race, the bike worked great.
Definitely a tough track tonight. Where were you able to pick all the riders off coming back from 13th?
It was key on getting on the right lines. When you’re in that four-man pack, you’re kind of stuck to the line protecting. When I got by myself, I felt like I was able to see a little more and change up some lines in the turns where I had made some mistakes early on in the race. I was talking to my dad, I think he said my fastest lap was on lap 12 when I was by myself. So we’re going to take all the positives out of this weekend that we can and move on to next weekend, try and bust these next two races out with hopefully the same and better results and go into outdoors confident.
How much did the track deteriorate over the night? Definitely the main event, probably not as much in the heat race, but that main event is a long one and it seemed like it got really rutty out there.
Yeah. It was pretty crazy all day. The dirt was super soft. I’m sure it’s from the moisture up here, and I had a rough one in Indy back in 2012, went down hard, stuck in a soft spot in the whoops and ended up laying in the berms. So, that’s how it always is here; the track changes so much. It’s crazy. From the first heat you’re kind of timid because the jumps are refaced and soft, and then by the time the main rolled around, everything was different. You could kind of see from us blitzing the whoops too, I think. Most of the guys in the main were jumping through them. It’s key on taking good lines, not making any mistakes and keeping the bike on two wheels for 15 laps.
Definitely, the track changed over the day. Did you guys make a lot of bike changes throughout the day or stay pretty similar to the setup you had coming in?
We just made a few changes click wise on the suspension. Like I said, we had a new setting that we didn’t really know what it was going to do, but it ended up working really good and just some minor changes here and there to get the shock to work a little more the way I wanted to. I felt that the forks were really good. I feel like we had a positive day. The bike seemed pretty on point, and like I said, between Grenade, Al, my mechanic Chums, Rocket, we got a bunch of great people behind the motorcycle. I was bummed on the results before, but I’m happy I could put them in the top 5 tonight. We’ll just try to keep it going that way.
Detroit next week. What’s the game plan for the week?
I’ve been based out of Texas the last year. Luckily these guys let me stay at home. Like I said, the weather was bad this week. I only got to ride one day and it was outdoors, so it’s been a little rough at home, but get back to Texas—we’re supposed to have some good weather this week—get on the bicycle and get some laps in at the supercross track and come into Detroit and try to do the same thing, just keep it moving forward. Even from the negatives you can find a positive out of it, and I feel like that’s what we’ve done every weekend. Even though we had some bad races, we’ve stuck in there. We’ve kept pushing and we’ve kept making positive changes.
Alright, man. We’re stoked for you, finally top 5. Congrats again.
Thank you.
