Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128366
Glenn Kearney: Full-Time GNCC Racer After a couple of impressive finishes as a part-timer in last year's GNCC Series, including a third in West Virginia, reigning Australian Enduro Champion Glenn Kearney has decided to make the commitment to race the series full time in 200S. The 23-year-old from Picton, New South Wales, is following in the footsteps of fellow Aussie off-roader Shane Watts, and, just this past September, he helped the Australian team to a fourth-place finish in the Junior Trophy class at the International Six Days Enduro. While he had originally planned to compete in the United States this year as a privateer, Team FMF Suzuki Factory Off-Road was impressed enough to sign Kearney as a stablemate for fIVe-time GNCC champ Rodney Smith and former champ Fred Andrews. In his first race as a full-time GNCC racer, Kearney finished second in the just-concluded opener in Texas. cn: What competition background do you come from? glennkearney: I grew up racing motocross as a Junior and then went into Supercross for a while before getting into enduro about five years ago. At the beginning of last year I did a couple of Australian Supercrosses, but I ended up crashing and breaking my wrist, so that put an end to the Supercross. cn: Is this your first time at GNCC racing? glennkearney: No, I carne over here at the end of the last two years, after the Six Days, just trying to get noticed and get a ride to do the series. Fortunately, I had a good ride last year, and Suzuki picked me up for this year. I was definitely coming over this year with the plan of doing it the hard way and living out of a box van. I had saved money all last year, but I managed to get picked up, so that's made it a whole lot easier. cn: How has It been going? glennkearney: Great. Rodney [Smith] and his wife, lori, have been kind enough to put me up, and I'm staying at their place. The whole plan was to start riding and training with Rodney, but he broke his leg just before I got here, so that changed things a little bit. But he's been working with me and taking me to the track to train and stuff. cn: What have you been doing to prepare? glenn kearney: I have been doing a lot of mountain biking, and lori is a gym instructor, so I have been at the gym, doing some classes and working out with weights. And I've been doing a lot of riding - a whole lot more than I have been used to. cn: How Is GNCC different than anything else that you have done? glennkearney: Our enduro races in Australia are more like the ISDE - kind of short sprints. So a three-hour race is totally different from what I am used to. cn: What are your plans for the year? glennkearney: At this stage, I will either continue to stay with Rodney for the rest of the year or move to Indiana where the team truck is based out of and travel to the races from there. cn: What are your goals? glenn kearney: I just want to represent Suzuki really well. Iguess my main goal is top five in the championship and just be consistent in each race and try to go injury-free for the year. I want to learn as much as I can and look to the future for 2006. I can see myself being here for the next few years and trying to do well and maybe get a championship in the end. Mitch Payton: Grooming Champions ing the points standings and is looking like a sure bet for another title. Now, with the I2Scc East Coast Series getting under way at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, Payton is hoping for equal success with his "East" riders, Matt Walker and Grant langston. And things went pretty well in Indy, with langston taking second and Walker fifth. We hooked up with Payton during the Indianapolis Supercross. If you take a look in the Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki pits at any THQ AMA I25cc West Coast Supercross race, you will see one very happy Mitch Payton. After all, his rider, Ivan Tedesco, is lead- cn: Are your riders living up to your expectations so far this season? mitehpayton: Actually, I'm really happy with it. I mean, Ivan has done kind of what we expected. I really believe that he would have been in the position he is. He had a rough go at the first race, in the mud, but he's kind of come back from that and become what I really consider to be really stable and dominant. So I'm really happy with him. Paul [Carpenter] has struggled a little bit, but that's in his hands, and he needs to work on his stuff a little bit. And I think both of our guys on the East Coast here, with Matt [Walker] and Grant [langston], I think they are going to be, hopefully... I mean, I don't like riding day qualifiers, but if everything goes well, I think they stand a really good chance of winning. en: What do you consider would be the ideal season? mitehpayton: The happiest season for me would be if they all do what I expect from them. like I would like to see Ivan win the championship. And out of these two [Walker and langston], may the best man win, but I would like to see them both win races. I'd like to see Paul on the podium. And then outdoors, I think they, once again, all stand a chance in being competitive for a championship. cn: Was getting the bikes set up for the new sound requirement difficult? mitehpayton: Yeah, you can make them quiet really easy, but the problem is when you go from, like, say the way our bikes were, probably in all honesty around 104 in race trim and everything, and to get them down to - our bikes are like 99 to 100, and on a bad day 101 - that's a huge amount. So to do that, you lose performance, and then, when the guys ride it, they don't like the muffler. They say it makes the bike slow and everything. So then you kind of have to work to get the performance back, and there is some of it that you won't get back. cn: What Is the latest with Stephane Roncada? If he can come back, are you willing to support him again? mltehpayton: We're just kind of playing it by ear. He has had some personal problems that he needs to work on; he's going to work on that. And when all of those things are in a better place and we feel more comfortable, then there will be an opportunity for him to come back and race.