Perris Raceway provided the soil for the three racers of Team USA to get their first ride together as a team and show off their gear and bikes for the upcoming 2009 MXoN. The race takes place on October 3 and 4 on a track being built just for the event in the infield of the road racing facility at the Autodromo di Franciacorta in Brescia, Italy.
Ivan Tedesco had a great year, but in talking to him you get the sense he expected more. It's a pretty fast rider who's not happy with a third overall in the Outdoor series, including an overall win. He's running #3 on his Honda 450 in the MX3 (open) class in his third time on Team USA (he was part of Team USA's wins in '05 and '06).
Pete Peterson: You've gone over there as a rookie already, you're taking a couple rookies this year. Are you giving them any special advice?
Ivan Tedesco: Yeah, we had a little meeting this morning, and that's what this day's all about, trying to get together and get the team morale up. We talked about it, I gave 'em what advice I can give 'em, but they're both professionals, they'll adapt, and they know how to race. There are a few things with this race that are a little different, and going over to Europe and racing different guys, and it being a team event there's a little bit of tactics going on.
PP: Is your bike bigger than a 450?
IT: No, I'm just riding the 450. It's a good bike and it can win against anything. I think if you went any bigger you'd just be getting out of control. My bike's good, we're good to go, and we'll see what happens.
PP: How important is this race in the year? You had what I would call a good outdoor season, but I know you expressed that you were hoping to do better.
IT: You always want to do better and you want to win. I got third in the series. I had a few races where I got DNF's which held me back, but Chad rode well, I'm not taking anything away from him. In the middle part of the series he was the guy to beat, and we didn't answer to that. But going into the Motocross of Nations Chad will be there and it'll be cool to race him again over there as far as a team event and see if we can pull it off.
PP: Who do you think is going to be your biggest competition at the MXoN?
IT: I think Australia's going to be tough with Chad and Burner and Metcalfe, they all had solid outdoor seasons. Italy's going to be tough, being on their home ground, they're going to be wanting to win over there, and also they've got the World Champion [Cairoli] and some other good riders on their team. France is always really strong, and Belgium, but you never know. Maybe a dark horse will show up and have a day of their lives.
Jake Weimer had a break through year, nearly winning the AMA West Coast Lites Supercross championship, and finishing fourth in the AMA 250 Motocross series with three overall wins. He's running #2 on his Kawasaki in the MX2 (250F) class.
Pete Peterson: It's your first MXoN. Tell me where this ranks with living the dream, being a factory rider, racing the AMA series. Is this something that's been a goal of yours or is this a fresh thing?
Jake Weimer: It's kind of a fresh thing. Obviously if you would have asked me a year ago, two years ago, I would have said for sure. It's something that's very appealing, very cool to ride for your country. It wasn't really in my mind at the beginning of the year, and I didn't really think about it until I was told that it was possible that I would be on the team. I'm really excited to be here and to wear the Red, White and Blue.
PP: Have you raced in Europe before?
JW: I have actually raced in Italy once, a supercross, so I've been over there.
PP: What's the biggest trick to adapting to the travel and racing in a different country?
JW: When I went over there it wasn't that bad. I think some people struggle with it more than others, but I adapted fairly easy and I would say the hardest thing is just that the food is so much different. I think Italy's one of the easier ones, they do have some real good food, but some of it's really different. For me that was the hardest thing, just to find food that I wanted to eat that was healthy and all that. But as far as sleeping and the time difference, that wasn't too bad for me.
PP: When team was formed... Any bad blood between you and your teammates?
JW: No, none at all. I've hung out with Ivan a little bit, I've always gotten along with him. I've never really hung out with Ryan but he and I have never had any problems or any words. We talk at the races a little bit. I think every one of us is good with each other.
PP: You just got through the outdoor season. Are you banged up at all, or are you in perfect health?
JW: I'm perfect, I'm good to go. I took a little bit of time off after Steel City to clear the brain for a minute, and I'm just getting back into it this week.