Alright, Chris, has it finally sunk in that you’ve finished on the podium at the first two GNCCs and are currently sitting 2nd in points?
It’s set in somewhat. I’m trying to not let it set in too far, this is a 13 round series and a lot can happen from now until then.

Coming into the season did you honestly have any idea that you would be in the mix battling for race wins right off the bat?
No way! I knew I had the speed and fitness to have some good races. But I have never raced these guys before, and they are the best in the world, so I really had no clue on the pace they run or how mine would compare.

Yeah, tell us what it’s like racing against those guys. Last year you won the top amateur award and had some really good rides overall, but you probably never saw the top XC1 guys out on the track.
Exactly, even though I had some good runs inside the top-10 and top 5 overall, it’s all on adjusted time, so you never see anyone when you are that far back in the A classes. I actually enjoy the racing a lot better in the XC1 class. It seems that there is a mutual respect kind of thing, and everyone is clean and the caliber of riders is 2nd to none. You don’t really have to worry about anyone gooning out and cleaning you out or doing anything stupid. You can focus on just racing your scooter.

It seems like a lot of riders do well on the adjusted time, and then struggle a bit when they’re racing head-to-head with the guys. Over the past few years we’ve seen Cory Buttrick make huge runs in from the 4 Stroke A lites class, literally passing the XC2 guys, but he didn’t come in and win every XC2 race, same with Thad DuVall in XC1. What’s the difference that’s letting you actually do better racing head-to-head?
I think I haven’t taken quite as big a leap as those guys did. I didn’t come into this season wanting podiums. or even top 5s. I went to Florida wanting a top 10, and to go to GA healthy and be around 4th-7th. Those kids have had a lot of pressure on them to do really well right off the bat, and being a privateer I didn’t/don’t have that pressure. I just ride and do the best I can.

Yeah, I think that makes sense. Give us a little bit of an idea, from your point of view, the big differences in being a privateer compared to the factory guys?
Obviously you have your support differences, with bikes being supplied and an almost endless parts supply. But I think something that a lot of people over look is the “team” atmosphere. When a factory guy comes to a race, all he has to worry about is making sure his jersey and his pants match, and twisting the thing on the right of the bars. They don’t have to worry about if their bike is ready, will their sprocket make it through this race, who’s going to pit them. If they do have someone to pit them, are they going to screw it up? There’s so many variables as a privateer, and 90% of those are eliminated with the factory guys. The less variables you have, the more you can focus on just racing, and that alone is worth a lot. Parts and stuff is huge, but in my case I think my bikes are awesome. KTM makes great bikes right off the showroom, and with RidePG doing my suspension and WMR in FL cleaning up my motors, I feel my bikes are just as good as any factory bike out there.

In Florida, when you were going through the pits the entire KTM team was out there cheering for you. How did you feel about that? It was cool, but at the same time these are the same guys that looked you over for a ride last year and here you are putting it to all of their riders.
[Laughs] Yeah, it was awesome to have them behind me. They didn’t really “over-look” me, because if you look under that tent you can’t deny the list of talent and the stacked resumes. Steward is kinda the new guy, but he has a stacked amateur resume too. Everyone under that tent deserves a job, and I was just some kid who had some good overalls. Like you said it’s tough for amateurs to move to XC1 and do well, so it’s not a big deal I didn’t get signed. I’m just glad that my hard work is being recognized and they are standing behind me 100 percent.

Tell us some about the hard work that you’ve been doing. I’ve talked you a good bit over the winter I know you’ve been doing a lot of work under the direction of Robb Beams of MotoEndurance.net.
Yea, I got a chance to work with Robb Beams of ‪MotoEndurance.net‬ over the winter and he’s helping me put the polish on my program. We spent a lot of time analyzing my program and my fitness and doing different assessments and things to find out where I was versus where my goal to be was, and any holes that we found, we plugged and tried to make as perfect of a program as we could, and I think we are pretty close right now.

I know you don’t want to divulge any secrets about your training, but can you give us a general idea of what a daily workout routine consists of?
Our off season stuff was pretty insane. I would have a morning workout, lunch, then an afternoon workout, and I would usually finish up by about 2 or 3pm and then the rest of the day you just hang out. This was 5 days a week, and riding or racing on the weekends. Pretty stacked. Now that we are in season we just work to maintain what we built in the off-season, through mostly seat time on the bike and testing and everything. I’ll be racing usually 3 out of 4 weekends from now until Ironman, so balancing travel and race prep with my training becomes the key deal. But that’s why I have Robb and MmotoE–so I don’t have to think about it, I just do what I’m told! [Laughs]

Given your great start to the season, have you changed your goals or expectations for what you’d be happy with come the last round in October?
My goals and expectations have gone up a bit, but not much. Like I said earlier, this is a long series, 13 rounds, and we race for 3 hours, so a lot can happen at a race. I just want to keep myself in a place to be in contention for podiums, and stay a solid top 5 guy. Come round 13 I want to be a top-3 contender, and if I finish the series top-5 in points that would be awesome. I have a lot to learn this year, and I’m going to have good and bad days just like everyone else. So I’m taking it one race at a time, but looking at the big picture too.

You’ve obviously turned quite a few heads so far this season, and caught the attention of some new sponsors. Tell us about the addition of RPM as a sponsor and how that’s going to change your program.
The RPM/KTM team deal is going to be huge. It’s actually not a new sponsor per say, as they were going to help me out West, but new to the sense of an official deal for 2010. New deal, old relationship kind of thing. Basically with the help of RPM racing, the Factory KTM team can help me out through RPM. My program is staying the same, and RPM and KTM have been awesome and understanding and are allowing me to keep all my current sponsors as I move over next to the semi. So basically the only thing that is changing is now I have RPM Racing and factory KTM behind me at the races, and I will be pitting out of my own EZ-Up tent next to the factory KTM rig, and RPM will be helping me out with parts support and some other things. So in short, I will be riding for Team RPM/KTM, backed by Performance