Words by: Dan Lamb – Interview by: Chase Yocom – Photos by: Hoppenworld
These “Privateer Showcase” presented by Race Tech Suspension at MotoXAddicts are interviews telling the stories of the guys in the trenches week in and week out just trying to chase their dream of racing in Monster Energy Supercross. While the riders at the front of the pack get the money, the T.V. time and the glory that goes with it, there’s a huge pack of kids just hoping to become regulars in the main events. We will talk to them and the guys on privateer teams looking to break through to that next level.
This week’s “Privateer Showcase” is from a conversation Chase Yocom had at the 2015 St Louis Supercross with Team Traders Racing’s Tony Archer. Every year in Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship we see a couple of privateers you may have never heard of break through and start consistently making main events. Out East, that guy has been the #285, Tony Archer. Tony, from Waldorf, Maryland, turned pro in 2010, and this year, he joined the East-based Traders Racing. Tony’s 2015 season started with his making the main at the Arlington SX, and since then, he missed one round due to a shoulder injury and made the mains in Indianapolis and last weekend in St. Louis.
After his best finish of the year—a 17th in St. Louis—Chase Yocom caught up with him for a quick “Privateer Showcase” interview. You can hear what Tony had to say in the interview below.
We’re here with Traders Racing Kawasaki’s Tony Archer. Tony, pretty crazy day today. Can you take us a through it a little? Starting with practice I know it kind of got a little rough there.
Yeah. The whole day was pretty rough; there’s no lying about that. Yeah, in the first timed practice, I was putting down some laps and I was fastest in the 450B group and just connected with a rider in the whoops and ended up going down pretty hard, tweaking my hip pretty bad. It’s a previous injury from pretty long back in the day. Ended up going down pretty hard there. The other rider got the worst end of it. It sucks to hear that he’s, I don’t want to say super seriously injured, but he got cut open and hurt pretty bad. Ended up going in practice, crashing, and then in the last practice, I laid down some really fast laps. Then there was an issue with a red cross flag where—I say it wasn’t up when I was coming through and it was thrown at the last second—but still the AMA officials kind of did what they wanted to do and docked me my fastest lap, so I ended up qualifying 24th. Then going into the night show, I had a good positive vibe going in. I know my starts have been great all year and I did just that in the heat. I believe it was heat one, I came around the corner in second and I got a front tire caught by Andrew Short and it just pushed me a little wide. I caught some tough blocks and as soon as I caught some tough blocks everyone behind me just smoked me and put me on the ground. Then I got up, tweaked the hip again, went into the mechanics’ area and decided just to finish out my laps to get some time on the track and get warmed up for the semi. Then go head into the semi and same thing—go into the corner, jacked up a little bit to avoid exactly what happened and still ended up hitting a rider, hitting the tough blocks and going down—and it was not looking good going into the LCQ with the second to last gate pick. I came through the first corner and almost ended up going down again, but we came out and it was just a hectic race. People were getting hit, and it was carnage. It was straight carnage.
I saw you and Kyle White get into a few times.
Yeah, me and Kyle got into it pretty hard and everyone was fighting hard for that spot, but luckily I pushed through and got myself into my third main of the year.
That was pretty clean though. It was probably pretty fun out there a little bit, a little nerve racking at the same time, but you know.
Yeah, it was a rough race, but I can’t say it was boring. It was definitely fun. I appreciate it.
Then onto the main. You had last gate pick in the main after finishing 4th in the LCQ, but you got a pretty decent start and finished in 17th. You have to be pretty pumped with that.
Yeah. A couple riders went down in the beginning and I just kept my head down and started getting a little tight through the middle of the race, but towards the end I regrouped, got my shit together and started clicking off better laps and started catching people. Unfortunately there was just enough time to catch up to the little group right in front of me and not make any passes. I was close, but not quite close enough.
Everybody is saying the dirt was pretty good tonight, lots of ruts in the corners but not as rutted as it was in Indy. What did you think of the track and dirt here?
I mean St. Louis is known for its dirt. It’s great. I love it. Good traction. The ruts are sweet. They don’t get super choppy and blown out like most places, and the ruts in the faces even—like they stay smooth inside of the rut instead of getting G-d out and gnarly. I mean, the transitions were a little sketchy here anyways, but yeah, everything developed great. All the ruts were sweet. They weren’t spongy and soft. They stayed kind of their form and good to go.
A couple weeks off here now with Easter break coming up next weekend. What’s the plan for the next couple weeks? Are you going to try to get some outdoor testing in, let the body heal up? What’s the game plan?
Well the good thing about the injuries from today, I guess you would call them, most of the time they’re a two or three day thing and then the pain pretty much goes away. Luckily it’s just a little tweak and a couple days off and then I’ll get back on the bike, do some outdoor training in the next couple weeks. We’re down there at Luke Renzland’s place in Live Oak, Florida, Dreamland is what they call it, and going to go out and start training for outdoors. Well, training has already begun pretty much but going to start getting on the outdoor track for about a week and then probably hop back on the Supercross track for Houston.
For people who don’t know, tell us a little bit about your team. You guys are a Northeast team. You kind of do your own thing. It’s pretty cool. You guys have a great setup. Tell us a little bit about it.
Yeah, Traders is actually a restaurant/casino in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, and Gary Luckett is the owner. He’s the one who makes it possible for us to come to the race and have such a presence and gives us a chance to have great bikes to compete on. It’s just unreal where he’s taken this team. My team manager Kenny [Day], my mechanic Brent [Duffe], both of them have worked nonstop all off season to get everything set up and ready to roll, and I couldn’t thank them enough. I can’t thank Gary enough for giving me this opportunity and it’s amazing how much this team has grown in the past two years.
The chemistry is great too. I see you guys joking around. You guys are always hanging out. So it’s got to help keeping the fun in it. You don’t see that at some of the other places so that’s got to help, a really relaxed atmosphere.
Yeah, I grew up with Kenny so I’ve known him since I was about 9 years old and he’s been taking me riding since then. It’s nice having someone that close on the team, and Brent and Nick—I just met them in the past year or so. Brent’s awesome; he’s great to get along with. He’s awesome when we’re at the track. He does a great job on my bike. And then Nick, he’s an awesome teammate. He keeps it fun. There’s no tension. There’s no problems. We’re all in it together. We’re all rooting for each other. When I win, he wins, and when he wins, I win. It’s all a great team environment. It’s awesome.
Thanks for your time. Good job on the 17th place.
Thank you.
