Catching Up With Mitch Payton

Mitch Payton, the owner of Pro Circuit, manages the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team that currently has two of its riders - Josh Hansen and Broc Tickle - at the top of the West Coast Lites Series leaderboard. Ryan Villopoto was with this team before moving up to the 450s and is a recent example of successful riders who, like Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael, started out with Mitch and went on from there. At the Oakland Supercross, we had an opportunity Saturday morning to sit down with Mr. Payton and asked him a few questions regarding the 2011 season and his team for those who might not be familiar with the Pro Circuit squad.

In the three races this year, your team has won the most points in the Lites Series. What's behind this outstanding team performance?

Although last week wasn't their best results, they've [Hansen and Tickle] been good at the other two rounds, got good starts and done well in the heat races. That's the key - it's a long series, just being up front, being around the box all the time was really our goal.

What are the strengths of each of your West Coast riders?

The three riders with us for the West Coast Lites are Josh Hansen, Broc Tickle and Tyla Rattray. Tyla's originally from South Africa and he rode GPs before. He was World champ over there and his goal was to move to the United States and ride Supercross. It's been a little bit of a learning process for him. He's nursing a little bit of an injured wrist, but his strengths are that he's in really, really good shape and always strong at the end of the moto and, actually, that he's been getting really good starts.

Broc Tickle is new to the team this year. Broc was a kid we looked at for the last couple of years and his results have continuously gotten better. I think he's going to win some races this year and he's also a good starter.

Josh is a kid that was extremely talented when he was young but went through a lot of, maybe personal, issues in his life, where he kind of lost everything. And then a couple of years ago our sponsor, Monster Energy - Mark Hall - wanted us to help him for the X Games. So he asked us if we'd put him on a bike. We said we would, Josh went to X Games - and he won. They appreciated that and said they wanted to keep him on as a Monster athlete. So, his salary is being helped out by Monster and we're really happy to have him on the team. He's obviously a really gifted rider. His problem in the past was just that his focus on racing wasn't always there consistently. I think now he's in a place where, personally, this is what he cares about, focuses on, and I think it's showing.

Training, of course, is just as important as speed on the track. How do your riders keep in shape?

They all kind of do a little bit different training. Tyla works with Eldon Baker, Josh with Doc "G" Broc with Charles Dao, so each rider has their own different program, tailored to their needs, and it's every week.

Josh is from Colorado, Broc is from Michigan, and Tyla is from South Africa, but currently living in California - so they're from all over the U.S. Do they have a base out in California for the western part of the series?

Yes. Pretty much everybody starts out in California this time of year because there's testing to do, there's West Coast races, that's where our shops are at, where we're based, and it makes it easier for us to help keep their practice bikes going, in good condition. Kawasaki has a track in Corona, which our guys ride at, and we have another track at Glen Helen that we use.

Tell us about your race bikes. How are your new 2011 KX250Fs working out?

Technically, the Kawasaki 250 this year is fuel-injected, compared to last year, and the fuel injection has been a big improvement - a big improvement for anyone who buys one because you don't have to worry about the jetting issues and changes from day to day or track to track. That's been a real benefit and confidence-inspiring thing for the riders. When they do sections on the track they don't have to worry about any carburetion issues.

The other thing that the bike has is a new fork system that is exclusive, which is called the SFS (single functioning fork). One side has the spring and the other side has the damping. It's a lighter fork with less friction so the action is really plush. Just listening to the guys, I hear its benefit is when the track is slick, where you see uys lose the front end.