We got to speak to Mike Pellitier about the stress of being manager for team USA and the stress that it all brings with last minute changes to the team after SMX injuries – and Mike spoke candidly about Haiden Deegan and how he does want to ride for team USA.
Watch or read the interview below:
Hear from Webb, Kitchen and Beamuer below as they look ahead to the weekend:
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So America made it! A bit stressful I’d imagine last weekend, just talk me through that, you thought everything was fine and then suddenly Chance got injured.
“It was a bumpy road for sure to get here but as of last Saturday you know everybody knows what happened with Chance and you know I went over to KTM and asked Julian and I said, ‘hey, we leave Tuesday, how do you feel getting on the 450 and in the MXGP class?’ He raised his hand, never said no, never wavered. Here we are now and I have a really good feeling about all three of our guys.
What point did you find out about Chase’s injury? Was it the Friday night or Saturday morning?
It was Friday. It was right after that practice. He actually went out for the second practice of that day and pulled off early so we knew something was going on, got a few x-rays made sure what was really happening and just with that quick turnaround from then until now we just couldn’t do it. I feel for Chance a shout-out to him and you know this is the second time he’s been injured before coming actually to Ernee, so tough for him and thinking about him and and thankful for Julian for stepping up.
I’d like to ask you the Deegan/ Star question. I believe he was somewhat asked again or was looked into at the wait last weekend. What are your thoughts on the whole situation with needing to get the money? If you could have known about that earlier you maybe could have raised the money to what are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, and we did have a conversation on that Saturday (last week). I mean we have to you know? Haiden’s one of our absolute best riders in America, but really, logistically, that was way too fast even try to pull that off . KTM having the bike here in Austria and helping us do that and throwing everything they have at it made that work and and I will say, Haiden has wanted to come all these years. He’s had things against him with injuries or things that have come up but he has wanted to go and we even had a lot of conversations back in even July this year and walking through this to see if we could make it happen, we couldn’t, but you know I’m supporting these three guys and I’m excited to walk into the weekend with these guys.
What are your thoughts on the venue and wait till you hear the atmosphere at the weekend!
I’d say 23 was my first time here and it made me take a step back this is a whole other atmosphere, one of my favorites for sure and the French crowd has always been awesome, super supportive of team USA over here too. Everybody’s really great and welcoming for us and we just love being here.
I imagine Cooper’s been a bit of a help, he has raced here, knows the track, the atmosphere, to help Levi and Julien, like this is all brand new so I guess he has to prep them a bit!
Absolutely, all the team meetingsm we start leading it off and he steps in and he’s really guiding these guys and you know it’s a lot. Like Levi said in the press conference, first time to Europe so there’s a lot of moving pieces here for these guys and just trying to keep them you know focused and in check, Cooper’s doing a great job of leading that as the captain and I knew that was gonna happen for sure, he knew it and we’re just so thankful to have him too.
How stressful is your job? I mean your AMA job is probably stressful enough to try and be team USA team manager, everything go down at the last round of SMX it seems like every year, what’s it like for you to scramble all this together?
It’s challenging! I would say this year was hard because there’s no off-week, you know? Last year when we had the issues, we did have a break so we had a weekend to try to figure it out and we are home, which is a lot easier. It’s hard to go up to these teams and riders on a Saturday and saying we’re leaving Tuesday. I’m thankful that we have the full support of that and these teams will want to do it these riders want to do it, but it’s definitely challenging for sure.
And what’s the goal? A podium’s probably possible and obviously it’s Motocross of Nations and anything can happen!
You never know and that’s why we race it right? So we’re excited, anything can happen and we have a high ceiling with this team – I think it’s really possible to be on top step of that podium.
Thank you very much for your time.
