Cycle News

INTERVIEW KENNY COOLBETH P82 healthy mind and healthy body. Coolbeth hasn't been entirely healthy as he suffered a broken thumb from a motocross training incident before the Springfield Mile. But he says it hasn't been a factor. "It's good it still bothers me," Coolbeth said about the broken thumb prior to the Grays Harbor Half Mile. "I'll tape it up tonight and just see what happens. At the end of the year I'll go get it checked out and see if it needs some screws or whatever they're going to do. It doesn't bother me on the track. It's just little things like picking up stuff, but I'm good." And while motocross is his training method of choice, Cool- beth is giving that a rest for a bit. "I kind of laid off on the moto riding," he said. "I'm just kind of going to the gym and doing my thing there and doing a little bicy- cle riding. I'm trying to stay off the moto bike as of right now. I don't push it; I just do it for a work out, but still stuff happens. In the po- sition I'm at in the points, I think I should just stay off of it for right now." Dirt track fever is growing over- seas, especially in Spain. Would being involved in some exhibition races like Superprestigio interest Coolbeth? "It'd be an awesome experi- ence," Coolbeth said. "I've never been out of the country except for Canada. I have an opportunity maybe to go to Australia over the winter and we'll see what hap- pens there. I have fun doing what I do. This is all I've ever done. So hopefully this is all I'll have to do." Like his fellow dirt trackers, Coolbeth is passionate about his sport so while it may be a bit bi- ased, who better to ask than a dirt tracker as to his thoughts of what makes this form of racing have the potential for mass appeal? "It's just unique," Coolbeth answered. "It's different. It's just close racing. Handlebar to han- dlebar. And everybody's so close in times. Like here today - any- body can win. In the whole field, anybody you can pick out… It all takes the right day, right bike, the right setup. Hopefully, it keeps growing for the kids that are com- ing up. It's going to be good for them, hopefully, and hopefully they can make a living doing it." And since Coolbeth has been around for a bit – he was the AMA Flat Track Rookie of the Year a decade ago – what does he think about the health of the series in 2014? "Ahh, I don't know, it's kind of stalled out," Coolbeth said. "It's not great, but it's not terrible ei- ther. So it's kind of stalled out right now. We just need some exposure out there. Like TV and stuff, but it all takes money. And I understand that. But we need to find the right people to pick us up, kind of like motocross. They're huge on TV. So that's what we need, I think, to take our sport to the next level." After this interview, Coolbeth went on to finish fifth in the rain- delayed Grays Harbor Half Mile, which dropped him down to fourth in the championship stand- ings - 14 points behind leader Mees, eight behind Bryan Smith and seven behind Johnson. But after the race was over at Grays Harbor, the mantra was the same – consistency. CN "I'm not going to bash them. They've made me who I am. It was good at times, but it was also bad. We left on good terms. It is what it is. You need to take the good with the bad and you move on, don't stew on it and just try to find good people to do your thing." -Kenny Coolbeth Jr.

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