Barber Vintage Festival

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long, and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk. Hello, welcome to Motoclub, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 789, and this time we have another special show brought to us on this occasion by ex-host and friend of the show Scott Bolton, who attended the Barber Vintage Festival and was able to get a number of interviews with some of the riders taking part.

This falls under the umbrella of the AHMRA, which is one of the vintage racing disciplines, and a number of the races were, I believe, running in the Pro Challenge series. So whilst in attendance, Scott was able to talk with Tyler Scott, DeFano Messer, and Hale and Gillam, some of whom have been on the show fairly recently. The weekend also had Kenny Roberts, who was in attendance as the Grand Marshal, and Kenny Junior was also there, and Scott was able to get about a 20 minute chat in with Kenny Roberts Junior, which is fantastic because I don't know that we've heard from him for quite some time. As I record this intro, I haven't actually edited or listened to the interviews yet, so I don't know precisely what Scott's going to be talking to the guys about, but no doubt he'll touch on the Moto America season that's just recently completed, and fascinated to hear what Kenny Roberts Junior has to say about things, both in terms of what he's up to currently, and of course I'm sure Scott will have been touching on some of Kenny's illustrious previous career in Grand Prix. Obviously Jim and I can claim no credit for this whatsoever, so a massive thanks to Scott for getting along to this particular event and for grabbing these chats.

Again, great to get this extra content for the listeners and for the subscribers. Please give us your feedback, please subscribe to the show if you haven't done, and of course, as we always say, if you can contribute to the show financially, that would be highly looked to bring you more and more of this kind of content. So without further ado, let's head over to Scott, and first up will be Tyler Scott. I'm Scott Bolton here at the Barber Vintage Festival 2024. Saturday we got the, along with all the vintage racing, we got the Pro Challenge race today here in the Team Hammer pits with Tyler Scott on the Suzuki GSX-R Vision Wheel M4X Star Suzuki.

And just going to get a quick word with him here before racing ensues here in a little bit. So, busy Moto A season wrapping up here to try to bag a little extra cash this weekend. Yeah, it's been a great weekend so far. It's been sunny all weekend, no rain despite the hurricanes going on a couple hours away in Florida. But you know, I feel pretty good this weekend.

Stefano Mesa's here, Hayden Gilliam's here, Gus Rodeo's here, so definitely some competition out there for the Pro Challenge. Mesa went really well on, not exactly sure what it is, some sort of Ducati 1199 that makes 200 horsepower, but it's definitely going to be a good race for sure. Moto America season just wrapped up a couple weekends ago in Jersey. Overall it was a pretty rough year with some crashes. Actually had a big one here at the beginning of the season.

A bunch of crashes, some problems, just things in the team with my crew not connecting right. We kind of got that sorted out in the last couple races, so that's where the results came back up. I mean, we had one win at Road America, which was good, and then after that we kind of went on a patch of a rough streak, so to say, with the setup and the bike. But I mean, the team has worked so hard all season to give me the best bike they could, and I'm looking forward to what comes next year. Yeah, like you say, I know you had higher expectations, and a lot of us that are watching you know you're capable of more, just some weird stuff throughout the season.

Some of it you can control, some of it you can't. So that's racing, as they say. Yeah, no, but this weekend I feel pretty good. We're in contention definitely to win the race. It's only 12 laps, so it should be good.

There's a ton of people here, a ton of bikes. I've never been to this event before, so really cool to get out here for the first time and go around and just see everything. Yeah, I mean, for you know, motorcycle road racing in America, if you race here, probably the biggest crowd you're going to race in front of. Yeah, other than Road America, I don't think I've ever seen a bigger crowd in American racing. Yeah, it's a cool event, so just, you've been here a couple of days.

What's your thoughts on the vintage festival? I've seen some cool old bikes and just, it's a really neat event. I think this is the 19th year it's been going on now. Yeah, I've never raced with Arma either, so it's really cool seeing older guys with their vintage bikes. There's really unique stuff, there's some cool stuff.

Like I just watched the start of the sidecar race, you know, I've never seen one of those go around the track, but there's a bunch of cool stuff. Like you could spend all weekend as a spectator looking at different stuff. It's cool. Yeah, they got a lot going on. It's definitely an event if you haven't attended, you definitely want to put it on your bucket list.

So, yeah, you're talking about Mesa, whatever he's on. I guess the best way I heard it termed it's somewhat of a missile, but you know, you guys go around, get around here good on your GSXR 750, so I'm looking forward to a good race. I think you and Hayden and like I said, maybe Gus are going to maybe have a little something for Mesa, but he's definitely going to be pulling on the straights a little. I think me and Gillam are going to go real well and Mesa's bike's fast, but I think Mesa will gas out. You know, I don't think he's in the best of shape as me and Gillam, but you never know.

So I think it's going to be us three. I mean, Gus is here, but respectfully, like there's us three are the only ones that have the winning pace for 12 laps. So it should be interesting. And then if we hit lap riders, that should also be interesting. Yeah, I think I heard Gus, his Ducati is still kind of in the MA trim, so maybe it's neutered down a little bit, so not helping him.

But anyway, you guys got your game plan and that's what counts. So like say this and Daytona kind of finishing out the year, I guess you don't have anything else off the continent or anything scheduled, I don't guess just going to get into the off season and start training for next year. Yeah, yeah, I'm already starting training for Daytona in March, but yeah, did this weekend and then Chris asked me to come out next weekend to do the Team Hammer School and do the CCS 200 race. Basically, it's like 60 laps and then I'm coaching on a Ducati day on Monday as well. And then that's the end of my season.

Nice. We're not into 2025 yet, but anything wrapped up for next year as far as you plans? There's no contract sign, but it's in the works right now. It looks like it's going to be something along the lines of a two year super sport and possibly super bike in 26. Oh, nice, nice.

Well, yeah, nothing ever gets done really early here in the States. It seems like that's good. Good. You got something in the works. We'll let you get back to it.

I'll get prepped for this race coming up and as always enjoy talking to you and look forward to seeing you get out there and bring that team hammer back home first. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Tyler. All right.

Once again, MotoPod here at Barber Vintage Fest 24 in the Vesra Suzuki pits. Hayden Gillum making one last run at some nice little bonus money for the year. Hayden, thanks for joining us again on the pod. Oh, yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for coming over and having a chat.

Yeah, absolutely. I just wanted to catch you. I talked to you back at Road Atlanta and you were kind enough to give us a good 15, 20 minutes of your time that day. So I just wanted to get a few minutes with you here since the Moto A season's wrapped up. So you wrapped up the Super Stock 1000 class title second year in a row.

Done with some injuries, had that big get off on the bagger at Mid-Ohio and wasn't able to repeat that title. But hey, you gave it all you had and still not a bad year. No, it was good. I was overall happy with it. The bagger side definitely was a little bit more of a struggle.

I think the last couple of years I had a pretty easy mindset on everything where I just felt I got to just take what I can get. And in the end, everything has been working out rolling like that. This year having the two number one plates, I kind of put it in my head that I had to go win. And that's unfortunately, sometimes it works out. Sometimes, at least most of the time for me, it doesn't work out that way.

So but no, it was a really good year. The baggers had some ups and downs, had a big crash in Mid-Ohio, broke my hand, had some good runs on the 1000, really good in stock 1000, a couple crashes again, just all my fault. And then on the superbike side, running the stock 1000, the superbike had really good finishes, a couple of top fives consistently in the top 10. It was a good season. I had a lot of fun.

We got to learn a new bike, got to learn a new Honda. And yeah, just enjoying it. Now we're out here at Barber on our money hunter. And yeah, just going to have a good time today. Yeah, a little bounty hunting.

Yeah, I mean, this Vezor bike this year has been pretty successful. You're third in the 200 back in March and then you took home the big paycheck at Loudon Classic and now here like safe for a nice little year-end bonus, hopefully. So, you know, we got Ty Scott here, you know, both of you guys on the GSXR750 and we got Mesa here on that missile he's on. I don't know. We'll see how that goes.

What do you think about the race coming up? It'll be fun. Get a good start and we'll see how it goes. Mesa's rolling good. You know, he's, Stefano rides really good all the time.

And then, you know, he's got a good machine under him this weekend to kind of propel him a little bit. It'll be tough. We'll see. I think it might be a good race for a second, but we'll just have to see how it all shakes out. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm thinking definitely you and Ty and maybe it'd be the flying Norman there a little bit. But, you know, Stefano, he's probably a little pissed off, you know. He didn't have the best of years, you know, admittedly. And he's looking to get out here and end on a high note, I'm sure. But, yeah, we're looking forward to it.

It ought to be a heck of a race. So I know it's still, you know, the calendar hadn't turned over to 25 yet and plans don't get announced generally until that happens. But right now, is everything as far as, you know, kind of set for next year like this year? We've got some meetings on the stock thousand slash sewer bike side of things to try to figure out what's going on there and what we can do and what we can't do. And then once that's kind of sorted, then I'll be able to figure out, you know, baggers or whatever else we end up doing.

But hopefully in the next month, we'll have a pretty solid idea of what's going on next year. But right now, who knows? Right now, I'm just relaxing and trying not to think too much about it, because especially in America, you know, now things are getting a lot better, but it's still slow moving at the end of the year. And we'll have to see. I think no matter what, I'll be out there.

But it just depends on where and when. Yeah, you know, it's great to see Honda, you know, getting back into Moto-A after being absent for so many years. And, you know, it's like saying nothing's official yet. But boy, there's a lot of us hoping to see out there on that thing in Superbike Trim maybe next year. We'll see how that works out.

And like I say, main thing is to see you back out there defending titles and going for race wins. So yeah, it should be good. Oh yeah, it'll be exciting, whatever happens. Yeah. So you got the family stay at home this weekend.

JD, watching the dogs. JD's at home. He was supposed to be going somewhere next week. So he decided not to come down. And then I guess that ended up getting canceled.

But I got my wife and our kids down here. And we got some friends down with their family. And we got a full house in the camper this weekend. But that's what this weekend's all about is having some fun and just going and enjoying riding. That's nice.

I'm sure when they're with you, it just makes things easier and better for you. Like saying, you know, maybe not as good a night's sleep, but you know, you know what I mean. Oh yeah. The night's sleep is the problem. Last night, I think me and my wife, we were up from like two to five with our daughter.

So it wasn't great. But luckily, I don't go out on track till after lunch. So I was able to sleep in a little bit after we got it sorted. I'm sure Summer's a trooper, you know, taking care of you and the kids and everything else. So I'll tell you, you can't put a price tag on a good wife, that's for sure.

Oh yeah. I've been lucky. It seems like there's very few people out there that get as lucky as I've been with my wife. So it's been, she's really good. She is a trooper.

It took me the second attempt. But as they say, I'm definitely married up. You know, and it's, yeah. Oh yeah. That's what everybody says.

No matter what, no matter who it is. You did it better than you should have. Yeah, we'll make sure the wives hear this. Oh yeah. And great season you had.

Looking forward to seeing you out there today. Hopefully get up on that podium one more time this year and just look forward to see what transpires for you next year. Everybody's excited of what might be. And we'll just hold our breath and see what does come out of it. But thanks for talking to us again on the pod.

You know, you're always so gracious and we just really appreciate it. And best of luck to you today and enjoy your off season. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's going to be good. Thanks, buddy.

Thanks. Sky Bolden here. Barber Vintage Fest. Aaron, the Boulder Motorsports pit with Stefano Mesa. Stefano, I understand you're sitting on a missile here this weekend.

Yeah, definitely. The Boulder Motorsports guys built me a piece of art to go fast on. I mean, everywhere you look at this thing, you're going to see some cool stuff and very unique parts on it. And yeah, it's been a treat to ride this thing. We rode it last year.

The boys got to work this year and brought a whole different package this year and it's been working pretty well this year. Yeah, qualifying. You just walked down in the 124s, I believe. Yeah, I got down into the 124.3. So that's definitely the fastest myself have gone around here.

I think it's the fastest the bike has gone around here. So definitely feeling good on top of the machine. Yeah, yeah. Looks like you're the favorite going into it. Of course, you know, Hayden Gillum, Tyska, guys over here next door.

They'll give you a run for it. But yeah, looks like you got definitely got some legs on the straight. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I don't count nobody off of it. You know, everybody that's here can win it.

We're all fast guys. But we got this thing working pretty good with the team. Been working pretty hard to get me comfortable on the bike and have done major improvements on it. And yeah, it's going to be a good race. I'm just going to go try out there and just run my own race and hopefully pull away and take the check home.

Yeah, nice payday for sure to end the season on. So real quick, just quick recap of your Moto America season. I know it didn't live up, I'm sure, to your expectations. You know, you had some good showings, but I know a little tough luck just racing stuff along the way. Just briefly, what's your takeaway from the 2024 Moto A season on your the SuperSport bike and the Enerjecta?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, the SuperSport season was not the best. We knew going into it, we were going to be it was going to be hard just because of the equipment we were on. We knew the Cowie was going to struggle a little bit because the new gen class keeps updating itself and it's updating to allow this new gen bikes more into the class, right? So we definitely struggled a bit.

We had some good showings. We were really consistent the whole season. We were pretty much in the same spots every race, which means a lot. Honestly wish we had a little bit more equipment because I know we could go with the boys just equipment. I was holding me back quite a bit at some places, but got to take away the good from the bad.

We went faster than last year everywhere and last year we were competitive. So meaning I didn't go any slower. So that's good for me. And yeah, the Energetica was pretty much the same thing. The class just got faster.

We made huge progress on it. We were going two to three seconds faster everywhere we went from last year. So we definitely made some progress on the E-bike too. And that thing is just a treat to ride. It's just so nice and so calm.

And just looking forward to hopefully the team getting some more stuff done next year. And hopefully we have the bike on the grid next year again. Yeah, that'd be great because definitely interesting seeing you out there. I guess Jason, your Rebe is here on an E-bike in the Pro Challenge, isn't he? Yeah, Jason is on a Flyfighter bike here in the Pro Challenge.

The boys have been developed that bike all year and they've done a great job at it. It's pretty cool to see EVs go that fast. I want to say he clicked the 29 yesterday around here. So that's pretty damn fast on a heavy EV bike around this place. So my hats off to them.

They're definitely doing some good stuff on it. And it's cool to watch because we're trying to do the same thing. So it's cool to watch another crew do the same thing and do progress with the E-stuff. I know a lot of people don't like it, but unfortunately it has to do with the future. Maybe it's not all the way there, but the future has to partake on that.

So just looking forward to where they go. We're all racing motorcycles. They're motorcycles anyway. So we've got to love the sport. That's what the future of the sport holds.

We've just got to try and love the most we can. It kind of sucks because there's no noises in anything, but they do have their own unique noises. So it's just a different platform, different everything, but it's enjoyable for sure. Two wheels and a motor. Still a motorcycle anyway.

Still a motorcycle anyway. And like you said, pretty damn fast. Well, hey, Stefano, looking forward to seeing you get out here and ring this up here. I tell you, this is a beautiful bike and I know it's a pleasure to ride. Looking forward to seeing you out hopefully on the Moto A-Grid again next year.

I know it's America and plans generally don't get made until after the calendar turns over into the next year. But yeah, for sure, always enjoy seeing you out there. Appreciate you. Taking time to talk with us here on MotoPod and good luck today and enjoy your off season if there is an off season. Thank you, boys.

Not much off season going racing in Costa Rica and all over the place, but we're riding motorcycles so I wouldn't change it. Hey, that sounds like my kind of off season. Thanks, Stefano. Thank you. Thank you.

Scott Bolton here at the Barber Vintage Festival, 1924. Yeah, I was thinking back when King Kenny was getting his championships. Yeah, so we're here in the museum and of course, big weekend. Kenny Roberts, Sr. and K.R.J.R.

Kenny Roberts Jr. here. And Kenny Jr. has been gracious enough to join us for a chat here. And so Kenny, how are you liking this vintage fest?

Second one I've been to, it's better than the first. It's not better in the way of physically better. It's just better in a sense that I've been here to get to experience a little bit more and to soak it all in. And the museum takes, it took me three days, a couple hours before lunch and after a couple hours. And you get lost going, OK, did I see that bike over there?

You got to have a coloring book and then draw where you're going and then you've got to decide everything. It's amazing. It really is. I was talking to a guy downstairs earlier and he was like, yeah, he said, I wish they'd just let me spend the night in here. Well, Robert Pandea, he was asking where my dad was at at eight.

I'm like, I just left to stay at the track. And then he thought I was serious. I'm like, no, don't do this. Stay at the track. But to your point, you could just probably do something like that.

Yeah. So actually, before you got in here, me and Robert were talking about your dad being out on track the other day and you following him around on the Zero. He said you kind of like that Zero. Zero I liked a lot. He didn't know where he was going.

And it's like he should have followed me. But we were doing the video stuff. And I think that the electric bike is, you know, throttle on, throttle off and then brakes. And he was doing, you know, with the shifting and keeping it at the RPM is not as forgiving as what I was on. But I was pleasantly surprised.

I mean, I'm not a fan of the before yesterday or Monday, not a fan of the electric stuff. And now I certainly enjoyed I think that even if I would have been on a proper bike, because it just it's something completely different. And, you know, it simplifies a lot of stuff. Yeah. And the massive loads of torque.

Yeah, the torque for me, you know, for what I'm used to wasn't anything spectacular. Although for the average person, what was great was just how linear the programming of it is. Right. Right. And in saying that, they want to make it faster or lighter.

But I think that from what I understand, voltage controls your top speed and amperage controls the acceleration. And I think you just if you can get out of 15 mile an hour out of it, that thing would be a perfect bike for this track. Because the the bottom end and the power, if you want more, you just simply open the throttle. It doesn't necessarily have to be corner speed related, which is unique to, you know, race bikes. Yes.

Absolutely. So, of course, your dad did the demo laps here earlier today, and I was fortunate enough to be at the Indy Mile back in 2008, 2009, whenever he did the demo laps on the TZ750. 2009. Yeah. Right.

So, you know, just like then, he, you know, he got out there and he's not just parading around. And I think a lot of people, not a lot, but some people, you know, take them a little bit by surprise. But, you know, that's the racers still in it. Yeah, exactly. So that's good news for me.

Like if he can do that stuff, then it's like, oh, OK, there's what, you know, possibly, as you would think you've OK, try to stay in better shape, try to do things more. But for what he does, he is in great shape mentally and physically doing good. So not a bad footprint. Yeah, absolutely. So, of course, your bike, your championship winning bike is here also becoming a part of the museum.

Believe it or not, that's on mute. Display. It's actually on. That's probably because it's my wife, for sure. It's on double secret probation.

But we don't. But yeah, so anyway, my bike. If you need to get there. No, no. She is the boss.

That's OK. She'll text me something, Russ. But yeah, OK. Yeah. So I guess they were trying to get it ready for you to be able to write it.

I don't I can't I don't know where they're going with that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I didn't have any, you know, for him this weekend has been perfect for me. So I don't I wouldn't want to have to be out there and coordinate all that.

And I don't know if they're going to get that bike running. Want to get it running. I don't want any influence over what they plan to do. Sure. I mean, I think it's easy to form an opinion on what you, you know, would like to see happen.

But I don't think you can do what they've done here by luck. Exactly. You know, so they have a pretty good idea on what or a sense on what they want it to look like or want to have happen to these pieces in the museum. Right. Yeah.

And it's proven time and time again. It's possible to get it going to any level of performance again. Or, you know, but do they want it running? And that's, you know, because of the history of the bike. Oh, sure.

Not being started, not, you know, not running since Brazil. Do you want to have that up and going or do you want to just leave it like it is? Yeah, you know, you don't know if that's a chance. So you really want to take. So, yeah, it will be fine.

It's just is that what they want the thing to do? If they want to run, then that's pretty simple. You know, I've heard some interviews with you about your championship winning season. And, you know, obviously there were some some real challenges, you know, during that. Just some of the things that, you know, come to mind that I'd like to say I've heard you talk about it.

But it's, you know, you went through a lot that season. It wasn't just smooth sailing to the title, obviously. Yeah, I think that everything had led up to that sort of being natural issues that we were expecting on weekends from 96. Well, 97 through the 2000, which is the problems you'd have with, you know, my dad's three cylinder with, you know, engine failures and, you know, testing out the circuit. So as I got to Suzuki, it was a higher level being the before, but with similar issues with, you know, piston shapes and seizing and not being able to run carbon fiber reeds and stuff, which doesn't sound like it would affect a weekend.

It's just that you have a protocol that you're running through at that level. There's no failures in, you know, the trajectory of what you're trying to achieve by Sunday. So, you know, once you have the engine systems laid out for carbon fiber reeds and by Sunday you run on plastic reeds and you're down on a cylinder in the race and all this stuff. You know, it's we're adjusting constantly. Other guys are just racing.

Exactly. So I'm racing kind of one hand behind my back and trying to, you know, win the championship and stuff with a lot of different variables of what we don't have the ability to fight at the same level that they are able to fight a Honda Yamaha, etc. So, sure. Just a lot more moving parts for us. I'll tell you I was, I didn't really start following the road racing scene heavily until the mid 90s, 94 actually.

And that was a very proud moment for obviously you and me and a lot of American fans watching that race live. I mean, I just can still remember the feeling. Yeah, I think the more the closer you follow it, the more you know you feel that you understand that it's an underdog situation. Besides, you know, having a teammate, it was one bike against all the Hondas and the Yamahas, you know, essentially, and Warren and some of the stuff we were allowed to do outside of Suzuki allowed us to be competitive, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't smooth sailing. And you had to have the right mindset.

I mean, if I was to go out there and the only time I had pushed beyond sort of in a race environment that I said, okay, I'm not going to lose the race was Paul Ricard in 99. And what had happened was I won the first two races and then in her as Nabu ran into me the first lap of the Grand Prix, my teammate, which is a great help. Then I finished I think I got up to something I forget what position seventh or eighth and then broke a spark plug and finished 13th and then the next race was immediately wanting to go back into the winning mode because that was the first time I not won that year and push the front the last corner and then high sided and and then was irritated at that mistake. And I knew that I was pushing over the limit and I just okay, that's the last time I'm crashing that year or whatever, you know, this season. And I made it all the way until the last race in Argentina and hit some paint there and fell down and qualifying just something minor.

But yeah, I went three quarters of the rest of the season without falling down. Wow. Well, you know, and it's it had already got to that point. It changed from the days that, you know, your dad and Wayne and Eddie and those guys were, you know, just cleaning up over there. And, you know, you really embraced it because you didn't know when we'd see the next American champion.

Yeah. And there's only been one since then. Right. So, yeah, we want to change that. I mean, there's some things in place that we have internally that we're talking about and think that with the twenty seven, you know, the twenty twenty seven engine changes and Liberty Media coming in, maybe that's an opportunity now to start getting Americans infused back into it.

So we'll see how that looks like. Hopefully so. I mean, I know America's making some changes, bringing on the, you know, the Kramer design and, you know, it's a change and hopefully it's going to get things a little bit more headed in the right direction for these young riders because the junior Cup Bikes, they just, there wasn't a good transition. I think that, I mean, if you just look at it without being a positive or negative light and you look at Moto America, you take away Moto America and you look at the racetracks in America. You know, when Wayne and Kevin and these guys transition from America on these, they had raw speed.

They're going to circuits that weren't night and day different because of the, you know, the 80s and 90s. Hockenheim and Hungary and these places bumpy and, you know, they're not perfect like now. So if you understand that these guys were the best in the world coming to sort of that level and then you're on extremely hard bikes to ride that were easy to fall down on with the five hundreds, it was a totally different situation than now. The problem I see in America is that you're racing on these tracks that are just junk in my opinion. Now, again, try not to or the audience, whoever listens to this has to not only look at that with a negative light.

You have to understand that take Road Atlanta. I think there must be what 48 different types of pavement transition and asphalt. And then you go to places, you know, that you're racing and you just saw Motegi. I mean, there is not a pebble out of place on the racetrack. So you you have these riders that are on machines now that you can drag your elbow on the tires and the electronics and everything are essentially perfect from the standpoint of reliability and consistency.

But then you're racing on these tracks that aren't allowed to repave because of a green belly frog or something. You know, so it's not necessarily just, you know, there's a lot of combinations of things, but you get these guys that come over and now they're on racetracks that are dead smooth. And they're racing against guys that have grown up on just perfect conditions and have done it for at least as long as Americans have. So they have an immediate disadvantage on like, wow, I can lean over and I don't have to pick it up for the sprinkler head. Yeah.

So, you know, the way that I see Americans coming to MotoGP is to get them out of the United States as quickly as possible to put them in the situation to get used to that speed. While the infrastructure slash racetracks in America and racetracks like a barber that is perfectly smooth and has the right mentality to go racing more tracks like this become more available in the U.S. Then I see it getting better. Yeah, that's a very good point. And hopefully we've got a few, I know at least one track in Tennessee that's under construction that has looks promising.

What year is that supposed to? Well, they supposedly have their, I think they've got their club course actually almost ready, but then they've got to work on the Grand Prix course. So, you know, fingers crossed. Like three years? Yeah, I think they're looking into the next two or three years having a world class track is what everybody hopes for.

So, of course, time will tell. But yeah, holding out hope. Anyway, you still traveling around the country in the motor home with the wife and kids? We stopped just before around 2018 and then with homeschooling they got into flight football and soccer and some stuff. And then that transitioned into ballet and some other things.

But when you have the ability to travel and then you stop doing it and the kids are getting involved of stuff we with some friends recently just spent a little over 40 days in Europe. And so now the kids kind of understand like, you know, dance is great. Flight football is great, but Italy sure is fun. Again, if you have the ability to travel, it just opens up, you know, different avenues of different things for you to focus on. So maybe we start doing that again, but we're based in Idaho and that's a fantastic state.

Sure. And coming here is eye opening for the kids, getting to see this stuff and for what Barbara offers and the surrounding area seems equally as nice as where we're at. Right. Being able to hit the links much these days. We play Wednesday and then I played about every time I see my dad in Arizona, which is like once a year.

So, yeah, it was played at Mountain Brook and that was have you been by there? I'm familiar with it, but I have not. It's it's like Augusta. It's beautiful. I mean, everything around here is pretty.

So have you seen the movie for this? Oh, no. Yeah. They like Mark Witt, who was told by Mr. Barber that he wants to design a racetrack.

But before that was a garden of 280 acres. And then after that was done, now put a racetrack inside it. Oh, yeah. And they get referred to a lot as the Augusta golf course. The racetrack facilities and you can see the resemblance.

Yes, it's fantastic. Yeah, it stands out amongst all the tracks in America for sure. Really in a lot of places around the world. So just the manicured nature of it. I'll tell you what, don't want to keep you any longer.

I know your dad's getting ready to be over at the swap meet, doing another autograph session. You may want to hand over there and make sure he's behaving. I really want Robert to announce it and to keep him there as long as possible until he starts complaining. Oh, man. The grandkids now just antagonize him to a level of...

They used to do it at the house in California. They would hide his glasses and his hat and he'd come over and have some cocktails. And then he thinks he put his hat somewhere. Then I'd have to play the cameras back because the kids hit it. And then they didn't really remember where they hit it because they were like yay big.

So now I'm dealing with the third kid of like he doesn't know where the hat's from. The glasses are out. Then the kid's like Ashley, where'd you put the hat? She's like grandpa's hat? I was like, play the camera back.

Okay, Ashley took it and hid it in her toy box. And then Logan's got the glasses and he put it over and it's just like, okay, here's all your stuff. And it's still like that now. They antagonize him all the way home after dinners and too much desserts or whatever he's having. Oh, yeah.

Nothing's changed. So we'll go over there and see if we can rile it up. And after about two hours, he'll be like, what the? Like I say, just because they're getting older, it never gets old. Oh, yeah.

Messing with grandpa. Yeah. Like a third kid. That's great. Well, I'll tell you, I know I can speak for myself and all of the fans here this weekend for having you and your dad here.

It's been an awesome experience. They do it right. They do it right. And it's enjoyable here. And everybody comes here with the right frame of mind, I think.

There's not a lot of, you know, nobody's honking. Nobody's Laguna Seca. You get people, you know, WL lines. Most of the time it's Kaczynski, but it's just a different atmosphere. And Southern hospitality maybe creeps in.

And yeah, I really enjoy it. So you leave here wanting it to be better and bigger the next year. That's an important thing for Mr. Barber. Doing all this for selfless.

It really shows. There's nothing that's self-centered or just open to the public. And I've heard stories that he would just go around on the trolleys or whatever. The trams. The trams and just listen to people talk about it without all his apparel on.

And that was one of his favorite things to do. And I sort of did that today. It's nice just kind of seeing people having fun and everybody's laid back. So it's a fun thing. Yeah, I feel fortunate.

I live just north of Atlanta, so it's kind of in my backyard. So yeah, it's a wonderful thing he's done. So we were adopted by Alabama, the Crimson Tide. We got to go to the game where you guys came to town. Oh, okay.

Do you follow football? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we ate the dogs that day. Actually, I'm a Georgia Tech fan, so go Tide.

Roll Tide. So you're the same as what we have to do with Alabama. I mean, with Auburn. Yes. Right?

They hate Auburn. Oh, yeah. So you guys hate who? You hate Bulldogs. Well, yeah, you know, the Yellow Jackets and the Bulldogs always hit.

But, you know, Tech's the engineering school. So, you know, their football team is like every 10 years maybe we're able to beat the dogs. Of course, you know. Well, we've never been to a football game, a college football game. Okay.

And that was our first one. And then Trump was there. Oh, yeah. You know, and there's 102,000 seated, you know, 103,000 seated. There's another 100,000 outside.

Everybody's got all the Trump stuff on. He comes in and then the Secret Service is everywhere. It's at a different level. Yeah. And you think when you go to the games, okay, we've been here since 9 a.m., standing all day, getting in at 4, game starts at 630.

Yeah. And you're like, this is real tiny. You're like, this is going to be like, you know, because this was made whatever many years ago. Sure. Before Mensantos and all the food companies decided to start dumping all this stuff in our food.

And we all weigh 300 pounds now and can't lose weight. So it's like, how am I going to fit in this thing? Sardines. Well, the great thing is when it starts, everybody stands up. It's like, okay, well, we're standing for four hours.

And you think, okay, during the halftime or, but no, that's when they actually have all the fun stuff. Oh, yeah. Right. And then you have four hours and that's then nobody want to go to the bathroom because Trump was going to make an appearance. So you couldn't do that.

And then they played Dixie Delight. So you had to wait for that. There was four hours of just this constant buildup. And then you guys, well, Georgia came back. Yeah.

And you only won. So. Yeah. And everybody's like, you guys went to the wrong game. It's great.

You got to see it. But now you're going to be disappointed for the rest of your life because it was one of the best games ever. Yeah. I'd like to say the college football crowd that takes the intensity to a whole new level. Well, Tuscaloosa is amazing.

I don't know. I haven't been to others, but it was fantastic down there. It was unforgettable. Wow. Yeah.

A neat experience. Kenny, I appreciate you spending a few minutes with us here on MotoPod. Perfect. Our listeners are going to be excited to get to hear your thoughts and kind of catch up with you and look forward to you coming back here sooner than later. Yeah.

Well, we're supposed to be back for the next five years anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Through the invitation of Barbara and I don't want it to go by fast, but I can't wait for next year. Yeah.

It's the 20th anniversary. Yeah. So that's going to be big. So yeah, looking forward to it. Perfect.

Thank you. Looking forward to seeing you over here then. Awesome. All right, Kenny. Thanks, buddy.