Welcome to Momentum, a motorsports podcast powered by High Gear Success. I'm your host, Heather Wilson Schiltz. Here we share the stories and strategies that keep the world of motorsports moving forward. And today I have Corey McDonald joining me from AmPro Yamaha, an off-road racing team that competes in GNCC, National Enduro, US Sprint Enduros, and JDay Off-Road. So what's happening today, Corey? Well, today is load up day. The boys are, they're outside right now, they're riding their bikes around, just making sure they got their final check marks slashed and they'll be putting them in the rig soon and tightening up everything before we head to Snowshoe. We always go just a little bit earlier than most. We got a house up there and it's kind of nice to get up there a little early on the mountain and kick back before all the created chaos. So yeah, just getting excited for that. That's awesome. That always is a big event for GNCC and a lot of chaos, it seems, but a good time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they have they've got the chaos a little bit more under control. mean, I remember the first two years of snowshoe. It was it was a big party on the mountain and definitely a big party down in the middle of the mountain at Howard's Hole. There's still a lot that goes on down there. I do feel like it's a little bit more under control, but it is a good time. You know, a lot of people love going to snowshoe just for snowshoe. And it is a great event and know, racer productions, they do a killer job putting it all together and keeping everything maintained and, and, under control. So the team is based out of travelers rest, South Carolina. So that's where AMA hall of famer and off-road legend, Randy Hawkins resides and started the team. And you've been with the team a very long time. So kind of tell us how you got your start with the team. Um, so actually it all started in 2011. I was, uh, still racing and actually actually in april big buck it was uh... april eleventh two thousand eleven i broke my neck that's where the scars from and put me out for about eight months and i didn't really have a uh... a job going on like my dad he was a farrier and i was doing that helping him and i was racing local races and you know making money in the pro class but when i broke my neck there's no way i could be Standing under a horse or you know lifting that weight or either being on my motorcycle for a minimum of eight months So Randy I've known him forever since I was a little kid um He was like, hey, you know, I got some light stuff that you could do here at the race shop help the guys out and I was like, yeah sure, so Just started washing the semi ah you know keeping everything clean and you know, the guys thought I did a pretty good job at that and Just one day Randy came out and he's kind of little a little bit in a panic, but he was like, Hey, can you work on a motorcycle? I said, yeah, no, I've done it my whole life. Uh, you know, just for myself and for whatever's going on in my garage at the home. And he's like, well, I got, if I put you a list together, can you do it for me? And anything else can Ryan Sipes help you out? And I was like, yeah, no problem. So I went in there, there's a bike there. Obviously it was one of Jordan Ashburn's and I went through the list, you know, did everything and you know, asked Ryan Sligo, was like, hey, you know, what else do need to do? And he was like, oh, you can do this, this. So I did it. And little did I know at first it was one of the race bikes until Ryan Sligo was like, hey, this is a race bike. Make sure you do a good job on it. I was like, oh my God. Okay. At least they didn't add that pressure on you from the beginning. Yeah, they didn't add the pressure from the beginning and know, towards the end it was definitely a little bit of pressure, but you know, I must have did a good job. You know, and then I did it for the remainder of the season after summer. And I tried to get back on the bike and I did race in 2012 and it was just, you know, I was having fun doing it, more racing the morning. And Randy actually gave me a bike to ride and just telling one of the new guys here at the shop. That was probably the most fun I've ever had. You know, you show up to the race, you're with the rig, you almost feel like you're factory and you're racing the morning race. I and there's no pressure on that. You just, you're going out there and you're just having a good time. And yeah, so I did that. And, know, I'd over all the mornings back when they did a podium presentation for sportsman a. But actually at Ironman that year, Rodney Tomblin come up and said, no more. We're not doing sportsman a no more because of guys like you that don't want to race the afternoon anymore. Come out here and smoke everybody. And I said, that's fine. So that kind of gave Randy a little bit of a, a little bit of, I don't know, some lead way on a new idea of saying, Hey, you're getting to be a little important around here. I don't want you to get hurt anyways. And uh so how about we just stay off the dirt bike? It's kind of working itself out with the sportsman thing. You know, you're not getting on the podium. We're not talking about the bikes anymore. So let's just do that. He says, I see a, he said, I see a lot of good coming out of this. I was like, ah, all right. So, you know, that's, that's pretty much the end of my racing career uh happened. And you know, everybody says, well, which Which direction would you rather have, you know, being a racer and, and uh being a mechanic. I said, you know, honestly, being a racer was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Um, but the mechanic thing I would say has, if you do a good job at it, it has a longer, away longer, like period there then, then race, you know, and racing does open doors. You know, there's ambassador programs, there's, know, team managers, stuff like that. When you come from. the racing side and, uh, but yeah, just the injuries and stuff. see a lot of guys that finish pretty much their career and they are just walking around, you know, crippled in a sense. And then they got to figure out something else to do next for a job. Yeah, they got to figure out something else to do and, know, hopefully they stay in the industry and, know, a lot of, a lot of big names do stay in the industry. mean, when Jason, like he's, he's a perfect example, Jason, you know, he broke his leg. I believe one side he did it three times. And we were hanging out the other day. was looking at it. I was like, God, man, how do you even walk on that? It's just mangled. But he used his racing career and opened up the demo program with the Yamaha. And he did that for ever. now I believe this year he retired. And he enjoyed it. He had a lot of fun and now he's having a blast on his equipment. He's got property up the road that he has a little motorcycle track that he runs. And yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty cool. A place that he's got up there called the beach. So you guys have been a Yamaha team the entire time that you've been with the team. Could you imagine having to work on another brand at this point? So the one thing that really helped me with if that ever happened was I started doing a little bit of side work at my house. I don't do it anymore, but I was doing it for about five years. So I was really good with brand diversity. If something was ever to change, I was taking in Hondas and Kawis and everything. And of course I always had something to complain about what, this brand does this weird and this brand does this weird. Why would they do that? But it's, you know, it's all good. There's always good and bad, see in different models and you kind of learn from that, which is good. uh working on different ones, but I think Randy's been with Yamaha for, it's been over 20 years and he has never mentioned going any other direction. So, and I feel the same. I've been on Yamahas just about my whole life and I've tried some different models and I always came back to blue. I always came back to blue just because they've been a, just a really durable motorcycle for me. ah You know, if I was always on a budget growing up racing and We would get some help and support from different shops, but it's just like the Yamaha would just keep going. It was hard to kill. As long as you kept the air filter clean and the oil changed, those things would just keep breathing fire. So that was good for me, especially when I was out there doing it on a budget. But yeah, here at the race team, we have been Yamaha the whole time and I don't see ever a change coming with that at all. Yeah. And so back in 2015, I believe that's when we first met, I was tasked with writing a story for the AMA magazine. I was doing kind of a behind the scenes, like pit crew perspective at the GNCC. And I believe it was, um, it was either Randy or Dennis McNeal. He used to be the VP at Yamaha. He's a good mentor of mine. He, um, connected me with the team and said, you should follow them. And of course, Randy introduced me to you and said, I'd be shadowing you for the day. this was at the Penton, believe in Ohio. And I was probably in the best shape of my life. Then I was like running five Ks and running consistently. Like every day I felt like I was pretty fit, right? But I was exhausted with the amount of running that you had to do as a mechanic at the races, just trying to get from one point to the other to either give them the pit board or give them gas or whatever you needed to do. And you had all of that mapped out, but. There's a lot more that goes into it behind the scenes than people realize for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's funny how much has changed in 10 years now. You e-bikes got introduced and man, did that make it a game changer as far as leading places? Absolutely. Like when, of course, when the first one showed up, I believe, I think Kailub had one and everybody threw a fit about it. Like, this is, you know, it's cheating. It's too easy. I'm sitting there like y'all shut up. Like this is gonna make it a lot easier on us mechanics trying to get from point A to point B. Like we're, you know, running our butts off or pedaling a 30 pound, you know, pedal bike. And uh now if your battery dies, you it's a rough, you're getting a heck of a workout. Your battery dies. Those bikes aren't light, but no, the uh it has changed greatly in 10 years as far as getting places, uh communication to the other mechanics. You know, we have pretty high-end radios now with headsets and we're as a team we're very efficient with communicating to each other and you know if we hear a little bit of static in the radio you know we'll say something like hey can someone really relay that to me and sure enough someone picks up on that and they relay it to you and it worked really well. uh You know there's a lot there's other teams that have those repeaters on their semis and I talk some guys and they say, you know, sometimes they work great and sometimes they don't. Well, our radios work pretty, uh pretty medium throughout the whole season. So we're happy about that. But yeah, I mean, the bicycles made a huge difference, you know, but as far as, you know, marking your spots, your checkpoints, you know, sending your guys out to the mechanics, you know, it's, all about the same. Nothing really has changed other than just the, the amount of better communication out there for sure. We're really good at lining things up at some kind of emergency event. You gotta change something or understanding what's happening. yeah, it's still lot of work, no doubt. It's just the e-bikes definitely made a pretty big impact on it for everybody to get around places. It's crazy because 10 years doesn't seem like that long of a time, but technology is advancing so rapidly and these new products getting introduced to markets, just like, you know, the e-bicycles and stuff gaining popularity that it makes it seem like some of that stuff was like a lifetime ago. Yeah, it really does. mean, it's technology has made such a big impact on everything. Obviously this morning I was having a hard time trying to keep up with it. We both were. Yeah, you know, it's crazy. Hey, the regular landline internet's not working. Let's fire up Starlink. And then Starlink is, you know, just this little satellite you carry around and throw it on the grass. The thing works better than our landline. uh Yeah, it is crazy. having once again, internet access at the races is huge too. You know, with live scoring, know, we have a We have a TV set up under the trailer now so we can watch the live broadcast and we can have live scoring on the other TV. It just makes it lot easier, running around and doing the whole notepad, writing down lap times and trying to add it all together. I'm glad that I was younger then because my brain doesn't quite calculate it as fast now because it seems like there's a hundred other things going on in there too. ah But yeah, the technology definitely is a huge help uh with everything. mean, to me, if you want to learn something, it's endless if you have internet. It really is. There's so much in social platforms and phones, AI, everything. I mean, you could literally ask AI how to adjust your valves on your model motorcycle and it will tell you. It will give you a really good rundown. And it's unbelievable. If you have a mechanical ability to know what you're doing in a sense of way, yeah, it's definitely a lot easier than it used to be. Before then, had mentors, the mentors that taught me everything that I know. And I'm always trying to learn and evolve with everything else. That's the biggest thing. You can't be stuck in your ways. You always have to be. open and accepting new possibilities and new things to operate on and stuff. So it's a big thing. Is it hard for you when a rider leaves the team for another opportunity? I would imagine over these years that you've had riders that have been there a long time or riders that are only there for a short amount of time. So is it hard for you to kind of build those relationships and then they go to another team? It's not as hard on me as it is on a couple of the other guys like, you know, Randy, Donnie. They've had a lot of, they're really big on loyalty and I am too. But, you know, over the years I've been really involved with the riders and talking with them and a lot of them have been really close friends of mine. And so when a good opportunity presents, you know, by all means, you know, you also have to think about your future, your finances, you know, everything like that. And yeah, it would be great. This team is like a family for you, but don't let it affect your financial decisions to improve your life. So yeah, it is hard. I've had some really close friends of mine that race for the team and I've been really close to them. But like I said, I understand if there's an opportunity and we can't match that opportunity or make it better, by all means, do what you feels right. go with that. So yeah, you know, I'm not gonna hold somebody back for sure. So you guys obviously work with a lot of different series, GNCC, National Enduro, US Sprint Enduro and JD Offroad. So kind of give us a brief rundown if you can of who's on the team this year and what it's like to kind of manage all those riders and all those different series um from a team perspective. oh So it's, it's, you know, lot that goes on obviously. GNCC is, You know, all hands on deck, you know, we have the rig. We have all the mechanics there. Everybody's involved at the GNCC. That's 100 % how it's always going to be and it's going to stay that way. know, Liam Draper, obviously in XC1, same with Kailub Russell, you know, him making a comeback out of retirement. We have our new WXC girl, Danielle McDonald. This is like her, you know, this is pretty much her rookie year. She's learning. She's young. She just turned 18. So she has tons of potential, no doubt at all. So as long she just keeps uh grinding away and learning how to ride in these conditions and the atmosphere of the GNCC, she's definitely going to be a top dog, no doubt. So she's in our WXC program. um And Evan Smith is our contracted Enduro rider, but he does occasionally show up to GNCCs, and he does want to race as many GNCCs as he possibly can. But the main focus is Enduros and he's having a little bit of issue with his shoulder right now, the beginning of the season. He sustained that injury at the first National Enduro. He was sick and had a pretty good crash. was kind of a bad beginning of year and I hope he get back on his feet and everything. Same goes with Brandon Gregoire. He's our J-Day rider. He got the number one plate last year. He's hit and miss on some of GNCCs. just everybody wants this three hour intensity. That's what they're shooting for. yeah, like to see him out there every once in a while and show me what they got. like I said, their main focus as far as Evan and Brandon goes is National Enduros and then JDay. And they're really good at both those series for sure. I mean, Brandon, he is a... He's a ball fire. get along with him. Great. Same with Evan. The best thing about, you know, me, it's not hard to get along with, you know, I'm really sarcastic. I'm constantly like giving people crap. I don't, you know, I'm not the, I'm not so straight edged. Like I will, I'll be serious when I need to be serious. The guys have all seen it. Um, you know, last year we were struggling and we had a pretty rough meeting. I pretty much come unleashed and they all called it the meeting of doom now and they said that we never want to see that Corey ever again. And I was like, I don't either. I don't want to see that anymore. Uh, so as long as we keep giving good results, we don't need to have another meeting of doom. But, uh, yeah, they, as far as the lineup on that, you know, we, we have a lot of amateurs too, you know, those, have a lot of upcoming kids, uh, kind of like Colton McQuarrie he's 13 years old. Not even old enough to run in the afternoon yet. um And he is, he's fast. Like he is a really fast kid. He's on 125. He's overall'd the morning race. um So really looking forward to see what he's capable of moving up in the afternoon. You know, the hardest thing is that, that three hour struggle, that, that third hour really just shows you if you got it not. So hopefully during his off season, he'll, he's gonna have to really be hitting the gym hard on some, some, you know, making things last a little bit longer as far as cardio and stuff. yeah, there's a list of Kailub's little son, his son, he races for us. Shawn Remington Jr., he races for us. And those kids, you give them a dirt bike and you can give them a 55 gallon drum, a fuel, and I guarantee you they'll be out of that at the end of the week. ah When they were in Florida, They just rode and rode Sean Remington's dad would send me videos and it'd be almost dark outside and these kids were riding so it's it's really cool to see that, you know all these guys, you know coming up and and everything and yeah, I'd like we do have an 85 rider also hunter Carey he He's done. He's dominated his class this year. So he's itching so bad to go up in the bigger bikes and Hopefully he'll be able to make that move soon. That's up to Donnie and Randy on that call. yeah, we do. We got a pretty big family. That's for sure. We all hang out and we try to talk to each other when we can and everything. yeah, there's, yeah, mean, we still have that. There's even a couple more people that are missing. So it's a pretty decent size program. But going back to our main focus, it's Kailub Liam, Danielle. And then it'll be Evan and Brandon. So they're, you know, our main guys are our main focus, but yeah, I, I enjoy every second of it. It's a lot, but I enjoy every second of it. My understanding too, is that Randy is kind of starting to take a step back from the team and Kailub's going to start to take over ownership eventually. think he's kind of in that transition year. Is that, is that correct? Or have things kind of changed? No, that I've heard it's more of a rumor actually. of that happening. Yeah, yeah, more of a rumor. You know, you always hear things, but that has never been brought up in a conversation at all between me, Randy or Donnie, or even really with Kailub. um One of the conversations that we had with Kailub was he said at one point he thought about, you know, running a team, but he realized the amount of overhead that you had to have. the amount of money you had to put into a program. And he's like, why would anybody do this? Well, I we can set the record straight for now. We can clear those rumors up. So yeah, yeah. No, that's just what I heard. And, know, I've I've always maybe, you know, there's been times where like Steward wanted to start his own thing with Yamaha as a brand. And, you know, maybe that's something like Kailub wanted to do. know, years ago, Josh Strang did it with. uh Rocky Mountain ATV. He kinda had his own little gig going. He was supplied with bikes. His bike was built here, but he kinda ran his own program in a sense. I think, not 100 % sure if that was kinda the case that was going at first, or it still could be, but yeah, like I said, there's always so many rumors, like the Yamaha 350. Designing this Yamaha 350, I guarantee you. he uh would absolutely wish that there was a 350 out there. um Cause he would be on it if there was no doubt. oh He liked that performance package when he was on the KTMs. So yeah, that was another rumor. I was just, say, hate to break everybody's hearts, but as as I want one too, it's not going to happen anytime soon. So yeah. But um actually I believe what his deal is, is he has a multi-year deal, obviously, and I think it's racing for two years and he's supposed to move into a brand ambassador program. And that's my understanding of it. I try to stay out of that business side of things. Obviously you wanna know what's going on just based on the future of what I'm doing. But I've had... a couple offers like, when Steward Baylor tried to start his or he didn't try. He did. He started his own team with Kawasaki. Um, it's working really well and he tried to bring me with him, um, for this year and it was a back and forth thing. It was definitely a really hard decision. You know, me and Stu have been friends for 23 years, I think. Um, you know, worked with him for two years when he was with Yamaha. helped him. I helped make the decision to get him on a Yamaha back in, in 2020, yeah, it was 2020 when he lost his deal with Sherco and he really didn't have anything. He made that phone call to me and ah I went to Randy and Randy's like, what do we do if he gets on the podium or wins? I said, I guess we just give him a contract. Yeah, so we... uh We actually had a really killer year in 2021, and Stu, we were definitely burning the candle on both ends trying to win two championships with Enduro and GNCCs. We succeeded in the Enduros, the GNCC was, it was a lot of work. had some issues with things and we had just some bad conditions at that last race. That Ironman year, never seen anything like it. Yeah, it just didn't work out for us, but that's racing. You know, it sucks, but at the end of the day, we wish we could have won the championship, but under the circumstances, just everything put together as a whole, you know, we didn't, we barely lost it. So, but we did clinch the national Enduro Championships. That was great. And then 2022, obviously with us was struggle with him breaking his neck and then fracturing his face. A lot of, just a lot of dumb crashes and injuries, but you know, that's. Once again, I say that's racing. It happens. It happens to the best of us, no doubt out there. yeah, and you know, he went to start his own program and he did it for a year and then he was confronted with Kawasaki, with the managers there and they're like, hey, you know, we want you to, you know, be our main team. And he called me up, he's like, I want you to manage the team. And I was like, alright. And you know, he went through all the, went through everything that that was included with it. And I said, well, I've been with Yamaha forever, Stu, yeah, just out of brand loyalty, I really wanted to stay with Yamaha out of brand loyalty, 100%. And um Randy, too. Randy, he's done a lot for me through my years. And he's taken care of me and everything. So just take a step back and go to a different team would definitely be a lot. um In the past, when I interviewed you back in 2015, one of the things that you said is that you love a good looking bike. So are you still a stickler for attention to detail and like cleaning up the bikes and making sure everything looks perfect? Yeah, I am. It's bad. actually beginning of this year, uh, one of the mechanics were in there. He sanded his frame a certain direction and I was like, that's ugly. And then after I thought about it, was like, Wow, that was rude, Corey. So I was like, and he did make it different and it looks lot better now. no, I always uh kind of set an example a little bit. I was really big about these aluminum frames, framing them down and we use a certain kind of acid and we use a green scotch bright and then we use. an SOS pad and then we'll hit it with our cleaner and then we'll go with SOS pad again and it is, uh it makes a really big difference. It makes these frames shine and once you do it, once you do it, you can't go back. That's the problem. You go down the rabbit hole of, you know, uh using that stuff and making these things look good. And yeah, I mean, our guys, they're uh into it also as far as making their bikes look good. Like, and obviously my, can't hold back when I don't like the way they look. oh But they, they know most time I'm messing with them like, what the heck is this? You know, there's a bubble right there. But they fix it. They know they fix it. And, they're great. You know, the two guys I have in there that are full time. ah Yeah, they kill it. Like I, they, I do go over the motorcycles. They always want me to be looking and I do have an eye for picking things out, which is good. I can walk by someone's bike and see something instantly and be like, no, this needs to be changed or I'll go sit down. I'm looking at something funny and they'll go, what? What are you looking at? I'm, no, I'm just, something looks a little weird, but it's good. They like that. They like the reassurance and I do a lot of the more technical side of things. I'm the one that dives into the engines. uh I love doing the motor stuff. uh The electrical harnesses, know, nice thing about the new models, there's not much crap that comes on the harnesses. So there's not much to get rid of. And if you have to, I do build our own separate harnesses for our radiator fans and stuff like that. So it makes their life a lot easier when I can hand them something that's that's built and ready to go. And all they have to do is put it on the motorcycle. ah They appreciate that a lot, but I am I'm still a stickler about the bikes looking good like. ah I at least try and try to keep them in this window of, of, you know, trying to keep them clean. So I can remember as a kid coming back and washing my bike after riding and I'd be like, I'm done. You know, my dad would come back and he'd be like, no, you're not like, yeah, I am like, he'd be like there and there and there. like, it wasn't clean enough for him. I didn't care that much to have like the perfect sparkling clean bike, but to him, that was important. Yeah. Darrell Raines definitely set the standard for me. He would kind of do what I do now. He'd walk around my bike and he had this look on him and I'm like, what? And he's like, well, you missed a few spots. Where did I miss a spot? And he'd show me and you'd see him. And it's funny now, cause when I watch the bike, I always remember those spots. The spots that's in the chain block, you know, the mount, you know, behind the master cylinder guard on. on the motorcycle, like those places in the linkage. You always like think about that stuff now and it's kind of the same way. He's like, hey, I want you to take your bike back out there. I want you to wash it the best that you can. And then he's like, I'm gonna pick it apart. And I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do that. And I did and sure enough, he find something. It'd drive me insane. But at that just kind of burned a hole in my brain of like, all right, there's a standard way you wash these things. You pull apart, you take. everything off them. You strip them down. I and it's like, I tell people all the time, they're like, if I could take the knowledge and everything I have now and bring it back to the 10 years ago or when I first started, they'd be so awesome. And I feel like there've been a lot more better opportunities for some of the riders, just knowing what I know now. you know, there's always, that's always the past and you always have to look forward to the future. And, you know, we have what have now and we're extremely efficient for what we have. it's, you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's a great thing, you know, but I do wish I could, I wish I could have gone back in time you know, give me some more pointers. So aside from racing and the team, you're big in a hunting and fishing. So what are some of your favorite places to go for that? So, um Stu doesn't invite me deer hunting anymore. No. He does. when uh I, he would lease a piece of property in Missouri, but unfortunately for him, every time it went out there, I killed the biggest deer and uh he, it would drive me. He was happy. No doubt he was happy, But a little jealous mean, I have one that, you know, it was a, definitely was a lifetime deer and the story behind it was. You know, every deer that I had, it had this crazy story. There was no, oh, he walked out when the sun was coming up and, you know, I pulled the trigger on the release and the arrow went flying. No, it was something crazy every time, especially with Stu. It was always something crazy. um But yeah, so we, for a few years I was out in Missouri with them. We'd hunt out west and that piece of property that he was leasing, um I'm not sure if he still has it, but it was just an amazing place. um The deer out there are huge compared to South Carolina. I believe the meat is because they're eating beans and corn. I believe the meat even was better out there on the deer. I'm big about the processing and jerky and things like that. We can make a whole deer in the jerky and it won't make it to Christmas. It'll be gone. My dad's same way. He's always making something. yeah, after the whole with Stu and everything, kind of... split our ways and he wasn't sure if he was gonna get the lease back and I didn't really bother him about it because he's paying money to have this property and I just didn't want to overstep anything. If he wanted me out there, he'd invite me out there. There's no problem about it. A lot of people are like, since Stu left the team, you guys, it must not be good. I'm like, what? We've been best friends for 20-something years. That's nothing. That's just work. That's life. Like we have been through way worse than that. uh, yeah. But, uh, recently Randy Hawkins, uh, well, Randy, everyone knows Randy decided to bring me out to Kansas. He has, um, some property that him and a couple other guys are partnered in and they got a cabin out there. Um, it's a pretty good amount of acreage and he takes me and, Shawn Remington out there. And, uh, I want to say that there's this There is big bucks out there, no doubt. um I just think for the acreage versus Missouri, for some reason that little golden patch that Stu has had a lot more quality than quantity. Kansas has a lot more bucks. They just don't have these giants that Missouri had. So as far as hunting goes out West, anybody that is an avid whitetail deer hunter, go out West or, you know, it's far like Indiana, Illinois. Kansas, even Kentucky. There's some good places in Kentucky that a lot of my friends get some really nice deer out there. You know, if that's when you're trophy hunting, if you're meat hunting, you know, local, local is always good. know, Randy owns about 1700 acres down in Union County, which is 10 minutes from the Big Buck GNCC. And my dad lives on that property and he takes care of it, manages it and everything else. And that's where I bring the kids. You know, there's nice big box stands there. And it's great for them because my dad used to send me up in a tree in a climber and hit me in the bottom of the stick like, go up higher, high enough, like 30 feet up. Everything looks small from there. ah But yeah, I'll take the kids and they'll go sit in the box blinds. It makes it a little bit easier. ah My stepson, I have taken him up pretty high in a tree with a crossbow. He's not quite ready for a compound yet. He got a really nice buck a few years ago. It had an injury, so it still had velvet in November on its antlers. And that was a really uh unique deer. And we have it mounted and it's really cool. lot of people are like, did you shoot that early in the season? No, it actually, it was November. It's crazy. But yeah, I do enjoy the hunting. Me and Stu definitely have a bigger connection as far as uh that side of things, the hunting, the bow fishing. um know, Randy's son Mitch, he's getting a lot older. He's getting into hunting a lot more, bow fishing. Like me and Randy actually, we just bought a new bow fishing boat this season and we went in half on it. you know, it's not, to me, was thinking, was like, well, you know, that's helps me out. It helps him out. We're both bow fishing. Mitch is on my boat majority of the time. So it works out. uh You know, I do all the, the maintenance on it and everything. And I put all the electronics and I keep it all up. And you know, if Randy wants me to take him or his daughters and Mitch and that, you know, we'll, we'll go out. And so it's, it makes it worth, worth it for him too. Um, and Stu he does have a bow fishing boat, but it's more like a pirate ship. Yeah. Yeah, it's rough. It's, it's a rough unit. So he's always trying to like, Hey, come on, bring yours down here. Everything works great. or come work on mine. When I was working with them, I'd be down there. We do like suspension testing during the day and we do boat work in the evening and then bow fishing in the afternoon or at night, sorry, at night. It would be boat work in the evening and then, know, fishing at night and then started all over the next day. we, one thing I will say, we put in, me and Stu did put in a lot of work, but we did have fun too. And that's a huge thing in this sport. I always tell people, if you're not having fun, what you're doing. You need to stop, you know, or re-evaluate. know, at one point in 2022, I really was just thinking at one point, like, is this really what I want to do? Like, is this something I want to keep pursuing? And, you know, I feel like every once in a while you have to go through that and, you know, just make sure it is something that you want. So, and I did. I took a step back and then I came back in full. throttle again. I felt that way about teaching motorcycle safety classes. This is my 11th year doing it and there have been some years that have been, you know, not quite so fun. And I was really questioning, do I want to keep doing this? And then kind of just took a reset and now it's fun again. So I'm glad I stuck with it. But yeah, I think it's just kind of natural to have those kind of ebbs and flows. Yeah. Um, I did this, uh, I went up to Rock Hill to do kind of like a career day and I had the motorcycles there and I had some stuff. One of the teachers, she asked a question. They're like, you know, what advice do you have for these kids? And you know, they're in elementary school, so they got a long ways ahead of them. But they were like, what, if you could give any advice to these kids, what would it be? And I said, you know, find something you love to do that when you wake up every day, it feels natural and you're getting paid for it, but it just feels natural and where, you know, you enjoy it. And like I said, you will have your ups and downs. But as long as you're waking up and then wanting to keep doing it, or if you, like to me, if I stop working on a bike, it does drive me crazy. I do enjoy it so much. Now I'm not doing it as much, but Danielle brought her practice bike in the other day and it was pretty roached out. And I was actually having a good time committing to a motorcycle and working on it and stuff. it. I enjoy it, I really do. enjoy the whole side of the racing aspect and you know it does get stressful, it does you know wear down on you but all in all at the end you know it's enjoyable and it's something that I really love doing you know as my career no doubt. So that was the best advice I give those kids you know find something you love like you know everybody wants to tell you what to do when you're growing up and yeah you know but find something that you really really enjoy and you make yourself good at it. mean, you'll make money. There's no doubt about it. Just be creative. So it's been awesome catching up. It's crazy to think that it was 10 years ago that I was following you around at a JNCC time flies and now we're both in kind of different roles within the industry, but tell people where they can connect with you online, Instagram, website, whatever you'd like. So, uh, I have my main Instagram, is a circle underscore M underscore racing. And then I have another one that is actually circle period underscore M period racing. Thanks again for joining me. And thanks to everyone for tuning into momentum and motor sports podcasts. This has been a production of high gear success. Want to connect or recommend a guest head to momentum motorsports podcast.com until next time, keep the momentum rolling.