Gearing Up for Outdoors - Dirt Rider Magazine

After taking second in the 2008 MX2 World Championships, Tommy Searle is making his attack on the AMA Outdoor National series. Tommy moved from his home in England to Southern California this past January. He elected not to ride the supercross series, so U.S. fans may not be too familiar with him, but he's looking great at the local tracks getting ready and could make the outdoor 250F series an exciting one.Pete Peterson: What's been the hardest adjustment to make moving to the United States?Tommy Searle: There's not really been anything really hard, it's just missing family and things like that that's the hardest thing.PP: Which of the US Lites riders have you raced with before?TS: None of them apart from Pourcel and Tyla (Rattray).PP: Which tracks have you been riding at to get ready?TS: Comp Edge, Perris, Milestone, just the local tracks.PP: How do they compare to the tracks you practiced and raced on last year in Europe?TS: Oh, it's a lot different to what I used to ride last year. Like, last year I used to ride by myself. I used to have just my parents, mechanic and a pit board. It's a lot different out here, every day I ride with good guys. Last year I used to turn up at the races not having ridden with any of the guys, and just go race, come back (home), and it would be the same each weekend. But here you kinda ride with a lot of guys during the week, that's the big difference.PP: How is your bike set up different than your set up from last year?TS: The suspension's a lot harder. This set up wouldn't really work over there in Europe because the tracks are a lot harder. They get hard packed and there's a lot of different ground, where over here it seems like everywhere it's pretty much ripped and watered. Back home you could have like shale-y and stone-y where's you're just drifting everywhere.PP: Do you regret not racing the supercross series with regard to not having raced against any of the US riders going into the outdoor series?TS: They all have races under their belts, and that's the only thing I haven't got. I would have like to have had some races with the guys, but I think it was a good move not to have raced supercross. I just haven't had much race time, which is kind of a bummer. But that's it, really.PP: Based on practicing, where do you think you rank against your competitors?TS: Prepping is a lot different from racing, (but) I know if I ride like I do when I'm practicing I want to be top three, top five in both motos. But we'll have to wait and see, (because) racing's a totally different story. Obviously everyone wants to be top three, everyone wants to go out and win. I'm excited to race, but also I don't know what to expect. Maybe I'm going to get a big surprise. We have to wait until the weekend to see that. But I've ridden with every guy that's out there at the local tracks like Glen Helen the last few weeks, and I don't' think there's going to be a big surprise. I'm just looking to go out and ride my own race and ride how I know I can, and then I'll be happy with myself. I don't want to ride tight and then be all pissed off because I messed up myself.Watch for more rider interviews this week here at dirtrider.com as we lead up to this weekend's season opener at Glen Helen.