Adam Enticknap

Welcome to Pit Pass Moto, the show that keeps you up to speed on the latest in motorcycling, and brings the biggest names in motorcycle racing right to you.

I'm your host PJ Doran, along with Tony Wenck, and we're introducing superstar Dave Sulecki. This week we have Adam Enticknap who we're going to be interviewing. But first, here's the latest news in the industry.

All right, so the board has approved... This is a little bit old news, but the board has approved that the FIM is not going to use WADA for anti-doping tests, or anti-doping tests in the AMA Supercross. And so the USADA is going to take that over. Big news for us. We've been talking about it for a while on the show, but it's finally official.

And more recently, Christian Craig has got his decision overturned. He appealed it. He actually had to go to Switzerland. They gave him a two year suspension and it was set to end on March 9th of 2020. It's lifted now and he's going to be back on the track. So, it's a big win for our sport I think.

And how far back does this... As we all know, most famously, simply because of his stature, this organization absolutely impacted and we've discussed it great length in the past. One Mr. JS7. These guys, WADA, can be directly credited with changing the path of Mr. Stewart's career.

Well, 100%. And it isn't just James Stewart, it's Cade Clawson, Christian Craig-

Yeah, he's just the most noted.

Rod tickle, who was a Factory KTM rider not that long ago. His suspension's just now coming up here this year or next year. I think it's.. The thing that's really good about it, I think, is they're still going to test to make sure somebody's not-

Performance enhancing. The point.

Purposely performance enhancing, that's the trick too, is-

The whole point. That's the whole point.

If something triggers it, the thing is it'll sit on somebody's desk, and who knows where. And in the meantime, this guy's career, let's be-

Is evaporating around him.

What are your thoughts, Dave?

Well, yeah. I mean, that's somebody's livelihood they're messing with. And I think it was a good move on their part to move it to the USADA, because they're promising faster turnaround. It's not going to sit somewhere for a long period of time, and hopefully get these guys ultimately back on the track, which is where they belong.

There's no way that the sport is better because of it. And I get that we don't want to have our athletes... Maybe we do. I want to have them [inaudible 00:02:44].

How far could they jump? If we just opened the flood gates and said, "Do it. Go all in."

How much more-

Let's go Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire style.

How much could Stewart do if he was 100% juiced? Oh, man. Oh, God.

He's now lapping at the ceiling of the Superdome. It's amazing. He is literally berm shotting the ceiling.

Won't they have to put a bunch of asterisks in the record books though?

Yeah, yeah. I'll-

I don't know. I think it sucks. I think it's a huge bummer for Stewart and Tickle and-

And the damage is done. You can't undo it. These are things that can't be undone ever. Right? I mean, Stewart, his life has gone on. And to his credit, he's clearly coped and well.

You know, I was actually speaking to Stewart. I was really excited to see some interviews with him. He's starting to come out of the woodwork a little bit more and he's still involved with Seven, his gear company. And of course, his brother's killing it.

And he's got some great videos on YouTube. That's stuff I've been seeing. He brings kids out. Does the same kind of stuff you do. The same kind of stuff you want to see a local racer do who has the ability to share the sport and bring new people in. He's doing exactly that.

Yeah, no doubt, that guy... In my opinion, as far as of the riding style going forward. And maybe somebody older than me will not appreciate this as much. But he definitely is every bit of... He's completely changed the style of sport. The Bubba Scrub. The kids are doing on SuperMinis now, and you're like-

"Where did they?"... Yeah. It's amazing.

It's incredible the difference that the riding style... I mean, not for me or Dave Sulecki. We are still...

I just try to say on the bike, that's my big power move. Stay on top of it.

I do like to keep the wheels close to the ground though, because I find I go a little faster than when I'm in the air.

Yeah, that's because you jump like you learned how to jump in 1975.

Yeah, exactly. I did actually.

It's very safe this way.

That's because the bikes didn't want to jump back in 1975.

Yeah.

You know, I think that this move, I think it was long overdue. I think that I'm a little bummed that Feld or the AMA or somebody. Or the FIM, I guess, didn't do something a lot sooner than this, because it's such crap that these kids have had to go through that. And you say it affects somebody's livelihood. It isn't just their livelihood, it's the team's.

And their family who invested to get them to... James Stewart's family put a lot of things on hold. And again, he's just one example. An easy one. Lot of things went by the wayside to make sure he was at every race he needed to be at.

So you think about the sport off-road or Supercross. We're talking about Supercross. But if you think about the sport in comparison to stick and ball or collegiate sports, they have training facilities that they get sent to. If you kick ass, you're going to get to go to this camp or that camp or whatever. Whereas, in this sport-

You pay to play.

You got to pay, and it's expensive. And it's not the only sport, but it is, given the outcome at the end of your long and meteoric rise to the middle of the road, for some of these guys, it's a lot of money that may never be recouped.

Even a guy like my buddy Justin Brayton who's almost 40, it's-

And still blazing.

Yeah, I mean, obviously. But he still pays out of his own pocket to have a guy go and film him every day so they can study film at night. And that doesn't come out of team Honda.

Oh, no.

It doesn't come out HRC [crosstalk 00:06:25].

It's part of his race budget and he tries to get it covered if he can. But either way, I'm paying that bill.

Yeah. To your point, Tony, you know how many families have just mortgaged their future with these kids and spend it all at the race track. And something like this could just bring it to a grinding halt. All that investment, all that time and effort, and you end up in this position because of the testing process. Not necessarily the fact that they were found to have a substance, but the process of it.

Do you remember when they tested Ricky Carmichael's fuel and they said it wasn't in spec?

Yeah, it was a lead in the fuel if I remember right. Yeah.

He says, "If you think I'm cheating, that's okay. I just won't come back." And they're like, "Whoa, pump the breaks. Wait a minute, you can't quit. You're Ricky Carmichael, you are our star."

But really, didn't they kind of talk out of both sides of their mouth when they took Stewart off the track?

Of course they did.

They absolutely did.

There's a guy that was, was filling seats and really bringing this, like Tony said, bringing the sport to a whole new level. And they let that play out the way they did and they could have probably maybe jumped in there and helped things change for the better.

And now that they're out of one of our favorite sports, this isn't the only time they've been involved in controversy. In their own field and arena, they are routinely questioned for the choice of actions that they take.

You talking about WADA?

Yeah, WADA. I mean, in all the other sports that they... This isn't the only sport they have a hand in, or had a hand in, as it were. As I understand, they are the world anti-doping organization, correct?

Worthless.

Yeah, that's correct. [crosstalk 00:08:16] Yeah, so they're doing Olympic athletes and team sports all across the world.

Yeah, that's what I understood. And very famously, bicycle racing. And their actions in regards to-

Well, we know people don't cheat in bicycle racing. That's been proven that they've never been a cheater. There's never been anybody trying to get an edge up on bicycle racing.

Oh, gosh. It's the best, really.

It's the best use. With the electronics that they've come out with have really pushed our electrical bicycles to the next level.

All right, we got a guest coming up. We're going to talk to Adam Enticknap. But first, PJ, do you have this week's trivia question?

You bet I do. Who and when was the first back flip trick successfully completed in competition? By that, I mean who was it? When was it done?

Easy, easy one. I remember it well.

I do too. It was a big deal.

And I got a little trivia on that bike that he did it on.

All right, so with Supercross just around the corner, we're going to be joined with Adam Enticknap, who's returning for a second year with HEP Motorsports to compete in the 450 class Monster Energy Supercross Championship. What's up Adam? How are you?

What's up boys and girls? How are you guys doing? Just hanging out?

So we called you the rap star that also races a little Supercross.

Ah, that's funny. Yeah, I did a concert in Geneva recently for a packed house both nights and it went just absolutely amazing. It's kind of like one of those things where I grew up as a kid and I always wanted to race dirt bikes and dirt bikes was my passion. And I grew up just wanting to race Supercross. That was the dream. And it still is number one for sure hands down.

But I picked up the hip hop stuff a few years ago and it boosted my stardom a lot, just because people have music on their phones, they play music in their car, it's on the radio. It's everywhere, it's part of life. And people stream the music in unbelievable amount. And just to have my voice in their ear and just being reminded of who I am 24/7 around the world has definitely boosted my career and Supercross up. I am known as the rapper Motocross guy, but I'm having fun doing what I do and I absolutely love every minute of it.

So, JB and I do an event at my track in Iowa where he's from, the Justin Brayton Shootout. And it's in May. And last year we were talking about, we always bring somebody else, and Damon Bradshaw comes and we've had a lot of more current guys that are there that are still racing Supercross in and out over the years. And we talked about having you come to the race. It's the same weekend as the opening round of the outdoors.

So we thought about doing something. And at first I was like, "I don't know if that's a good fit". But I think it's a great fit, actually. We need to have a... That's not JB's style, but I think it'd be cool to have a beer tent and have you down there rapping and throwing a concert. It'd be pretty cool. I don't know if you've got an interest in that, but maybe we should get together after the show and talk about it.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I have interest in anything that gets me paid to ride my dirt bike. So if that means going to race and then doing a little concert afterwards, that means going to race and doing a concert afterwards. I'm all about it. And too, it's crazy how many people just absolutely love the music and are just so into it.

In Geneva, it was absolutely going off. I did a little concert at the after party too and that was even more insane. And it's cool because it almost ties having fun and dirt bikes together even more. When we get on the gate, it's full go. It's war, by all means. But the reason that we all got into riding dirt bikes is because we love it and we have fun doing it. So it's definitely a solid reminder that you need to have fun on your dirt bike and that's what we're here for.

And, Adam, you say, "in concert", which, awesome. Do you have a full band behind you or is this something you can set up and do yourself. Because Geneva, you're all over the place doing this stuff. I mean, do you need a whole bunch of support or is it a one man show?

Dude, it's fully a one man show. It's pretty cool with all the new technology and Pro Tools. It's taken me about six years to really get a good grasp on Pro Tools and how to mix and do all that stuff, but I've gotten so much better at it. And I get some of my beats from some of the producers I like and have a relationship with. And then sometimes I build a few of my own. But for the most part, I can get out all my songs and all that stuff concert ready.

For me, I don't really do like a full vocal. But what I do is, I leave the chorus and then try to leave some of the rapping part and stuff like that. Because it's hard to prepare fully for racing Supercross and then prepare for a concert too. So I just sing along with the chorus and then I rap the mid part. And believe it or not, it's harder to memorize all those little words than you think. So definitely a one man show. Definitely a one man show, which makes it really easy on me. And the other nice thing is you put in the work and then you get rewarded for it.

So, Adam, got a question for you. Is it harder to memorize a Supercross track or your next song?

I would say the songs for sure. Just because when you go around the Supercross track, there's only so many obstacles. And then with music, I probably do 50 voice notes a day and-

50 what?

50 voice notes. Voice memos.

What is that? What's a voice note?

There's a voice memo thing on your phone where you can record a vocal. And what I do is, like all day, there's random stuff that comes into my head and I spit it into my phone and record it. And then I'll write it down in voice notes, because sometimes it's a melody that I like and not so much the words. And then sometimes it's the words that I like. So I'm always constantly doing it because there's so many different words and melodies coming into my head all the time.

So I would say that's the hardest about memorizing music is that you're constantly writing new stuff, and then you have to go back and remember what you said before. And then on that song My Bike's Too Lit, there's so many words in that song that you have to remember. And then in Yellow Blue, it's not as hard to memorize it because there's so many gaps and it's more punch lines instead of rhyming and flow. So, it really depends on the song. But definitely, dude, I can get a Supercross track down in five minutes. It takes me sometimes a couple of days to get a song down.

So usually it seems like a guy like you that's really creative likes a wide range of music. But do you have go-to... I liked Gang Starr and Ice Cube and Snoop D-O-G-G. I'm old though, right? Are you more of like a Boys II Men kind of guy or what? That's a joke.

Dude, honestly, you know what's crazy is, like for instance, this is what's on my phone right now. So I have this dude, Lil Peep, Lil Uzi Vert, Arizona Zervas. But then, I got Post Malone, Heartland, Queen. I've been listening to a lot of Weezer, ACDC, The Police, Soundgarden, Led Zepplin, Tom Petty, 50 Cent, Luke Holmes. I mean, I have literally, Destiny's Child I got on here. Ginuwine, Alan Jackson, Zach Brown Band. I mean, dude, bro, Green Day.

That was the jam, man. Beyonce getting her groove started.

Yeah, I got Green Day. I got everything, because it's so crazy how much inspiration you can get from any music. I'll even listen to some EDM and dubstep. That's definitely not my go to. But the synthesizers and the way they do the bass is so unique. It's just... And then I listened to a lot of the... I don't particularly love country, but it's got a lot of soul. And what they do is they create pictures and they create images so well that you got to listen to that music.

And then I love hip hop, it's like my root. Eminem was pretty much who made me want to really rap back in the day. Eminem and 50 Cent. So, that's where I got all my hip hop stuff from. And then, now I listen to everything, because there's just so much good music out there and you have such a bigger appreciation for what's going on when you start making music and you see how hard it is to actually do it.

It's kind of like super cross. When people go ride a Supercross track, back when [inaudible 00:17:45] at Milestone. But when people went onto the Supercross track at Milestone, it's funny how they're like, "Oh my gosh, how do you even do this?" And then when you watch it on TV and look at it from the stands, it looks super easy. So I think it's definitely the same scenario.

So, Adam, I love them the discussion of the music., But I understand you were also a BMX racer. How early did you get started on the BMX? Because I've got a pretty long background in BMX and I think it's an unsung hero of all of our motorcycle racing, really.

Bro, it honestly is. I think that's 90% of the reason. Maybe not 90%, but a lot of the reason that I'm good at Supercross. I started on a pedal bike when I was four years old. Started racing BMX. And this is something a lot of people don't know about me, but I raced the NBL for a long, long time, and I actually won the California title in the nine year old class.

Wow, that's no joke.

And then I went to... Yeah. I went to Ohio State and won the President's Cup for the state of California. So I got sponsored by Specialized right after that and rode for this team called [inaudible 00:18:59] BMX. And I rode Azonic helmet we had all of our Azonic gear. And after that, I raced for a couple more years. Still did pretty good, but wasstarting to ride the dirt bike a little bit more around 10, 11 years old.

And then around 12, 13, I decided it's way easier to twist the throttle than it is to pedal a bicycle.

Right? So-

And you go faster.

And you get to go way faster.

Yeah. And you go way faster and the jumps are way bigger and just everything about it. And it was so funny because when I was 12 and 13, it was really mostly just because I didn't have to pedal. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. You can go out and you can jump your dirt bike and you can do so much bigger stuff on your dirt bike and you don't even have to fucking pedal it to go." And now it's so funny because I pedal so freaking much on my road bike and my mountain bike. Looking back at it, now I have to train even harder on my bicycle than I would have if I had have done my mountain bike. It's so funny how that works.

So going back in time, Adam, the 722, the 7 Deuce Deuce. That's your identity, right?

Yeah, definitely.

And I know the AMA made you run 97 last year, and I don't think you were too happy about that, I'm just guessing.

No.

But what's the story behind 722? I'm always fascinated by riders and the number they chose. And what's the story behind it? Sometimes it's an anniversary or a... What's the uniqueness of that number to you?

So it's kind of funny, because... So Jeremy McGrath was always my favorite racer when he was racing. But when I got into Arenacross, because I turned 21 when I was in Arenacross and we went pro. And I ran 522, which is actually my birthday. So May 22nd is my birthday, and I was running that during arena cross. And I was like the first test guy to do the Arenacross series to get your Supercross license. And it worked super good. So I just got done doing my Arenacross deal and I was 522. And I went to apply for my AMA Supercross license to get a number, and I put in 522. And my second option was 722. And the reason that being, is at the time, my favorite racer was James Stewart.

And I was like, dude, James was always so sick and I just wanted to be like him because he was just so fast. He did the biggest jumps and he was just so sick on the motorcycle. So I was like, you know what, if I can't get 522, the next best thing is definitely 722. And I figured, shit, if it's seven, it's got to be a little bit lucky, so I threw 722 in there. And they called me a few weeks later and they're like, "Hey Adam, 522's not available, 722 is." And at first, I was like, well, I don't know, should I do something different? And I'm like, no way, 722's got to be it. So that's kind of how I got my number and it's been super good to me ever since. And I absolutely love it.

Well, like I said, it's your identity out there. I think everybody has picked it up and and it's giving you that image out there.

Yeah, no, definitely.

You're a good marketer.

Yeah, no, I've marketed myself as 7 Deuce Deuce, and I just embraced everything about the number, and I love the look of the number and that's who I am. And it's crazy how it took over my music too. It was one thing, it started out on my dirt bike, and it's funny how that just goes to show you how much Supercross really is my identity, no matter how much music I make. Because I could have picked any rapper name in the whole entire world, but the rapper name that I chose was pretty much my dirt bike number. So everything about racing dirt bikes, everything about 7 Deuce Deuce is just who I am.

It's good. And so when you're in Arenacross, that's the Tyler Bowers era, or?

No, I was actually right before Tyler Bowers. Literally, like-

Before [inaudible 00:23:34] really killed the series.

Yeah. Yeah, no. I went to Arenacross when... One of the last years Jeff Gibson was killing it.

Oh, dude, that was really fun that time. Everybody still kind of partied, but-

Yeah, [inaudible 00:23:55]. Yeah, [inaudible 00:23:55], he's the Scott guy now. Who else was in there? I think even, I want to say it was Josh Demuth last year on Babbitts.

Yeah, it was right when Demuth was just about done. And so Hoffmaster and those guys were gone by the time you got in there, right? [crosstalk 00:24:14].

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe a little Brock Sellers in there?

No, Brock Sellers was out.

Well, Brock recently was 52.

Oh, come on. I'm trying to rep Ohio here.

That's awesome, man. I love hearing it. Tell you the truth, I didn't know that much about you other than just what I saw. And I listened to a couple podcasts that Mathis did with you on there, of course. And those things go on for like eight hours, so I can't catch them all. But the thing I like about you, I say you're a good marketer, but you don't come across like you have an ego, so it's very easy to like you. Do you know what I mean? I'm an older guy, I'm 42, so I'm kind of old. So if I can like a guy that's rapping his way through Supercross, that's pretty dang cool I think.

We need to add him to your annual, man. Because how cool would it be to have him race and rap at your party while I'm shooting fireworks over everybody's head?

You're not doing Outdoors, are you?

I think I might do a couple, but I'm not doing all of them. No way.

You don't want to do the first one, that one sucks.

Ah, that one's the closest though.

I know. It's the same weekend as mine. Well, we'll talk about. I'll talk to JB and see what he thinks. See if we can afford the 7 Deuce Deuce, huh?

Straight up. Just go-

We can get a really crappy RV out there for you. You'll have a really luxurious stay.

We get new RVs down there. What are you talking about?

You do? What?

Yeah, we do. So we got to wrap this interview, but I want to congratulate you on another year on the HEP Motorsports. I think you got great teammates with Max and Kyle, and I wish you all the success this year in Supercross, okay?

Hey, thank you guys so much. And make sure you guys swing by the pit. Come say hello at whatever race you guys get to come to. And I appreciate you guys having me on.

All right.

Look forward to seeing you to race.

Take, care Adam.

Adam Enticknap. So before we came to him, we had this week's trivia question of the week. It was who and when was the first back flip successfully completed in competition? I remember very it well. I said it's impossible. PJ?

Yep. And the answer is Carey Hart at the 2000 Summer X Games. Tony, I'm going to let you add, where was that? You remember where that X Games was?

California, wasn't it? I assume California. But I wasn't there, I watched it on TV.

Watched it on TV along with the rest of the world.

But what's about that, is that bike is actually over in the Quad Cities on the Illinois side of Iowa, Illinois border. The guy that owned Springfield Armory, the hand gun company-

I'm well aware who he is. I've actually got a gun from him.

Okay. So Tom, he sold his half of the business for $180 million or something to his brother, who is his 50/50 partner. So now his deal is he has a giant, and I mean five times the size of the dealership you work in, full... 10 times maybe. Full of motorcycles including-

Cool ones.

And he's a collector. It's not a museum... It's a museum, but that he has a full-time guy working on bikes. Or guys. Team probably.

I'm sure.

But it's not something that's open to the public every day like the one in Anamosa or the AMA one or any of that stuff.

Or the Evil Knievel one down in Kansas.

In Kansas. This thing's just simply for sometimes. And I've had the luxury of being able to go there several times. But he's got some of Jeff Ward's bikes, Chad Reed's bikes. Travis Pastrana's bike that he jumped into the San Francisco Bay.

Oh, man.

He's got old, old stuff, newer stuff, and one of the bikes he has is Carey Hart's back flip bike from 2000 when he... It's so cool.

That is. That's like getting Tony Hawk's first McTwist skateboard. I mean, it changed the sport that day.

What kind of bike was it, Tony? And that was a Honda I think, right?

Yeah, it was a Honda.

Yeah.

Yeah, and the thing's pretty straight.

On a related note, Carey Hart's got a kid that seems to be coming along in the racing as well.

Oh, really? Yeah. So when we were doing the team stuff, we would see him and Pink sitting down during... And there was always kind of a swarm of people. But but during practice, we would go up there and I'd just sit up where all the industry people would sit as a team manager. If I wasn't out in the middle, I would just go up there. And we weren't usually in the tower for the practice, because it's a lot of running back and forth.

But I sat next to those people many times and they're just as normal as anybody-

They're good peeps.

They are good peeps.

And yeah, his kid, I specifically remember him being... If you watch the entire Supercross broadcast on any given weekend, you'll catch the 50 races, the little kid races. His kid has been at the front pointy, slash won that, in my memory, a couple of times. So if you've got any connections, you should talk to him about his kid. And he's got a cool name. I can't remember it right now, but this kid has a cool name.

Purple.

Something like that.

Yellow. Something sweet.

All right, I want to thank all of our listeners for tuning into this show. I want to thank our guest, Adam Enticknap, for being with us today. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe to us with your favorite podcast app where you can get alerts with new episodes are uploaded each week.

And of course, make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook and our website www.pitpassmoto.com.

Thi... has been production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to Ed [Koolancamp 00:29:45]; our producer, Leah Longbrake; and audio engineer, Sean Rule-Hoffman. Want to say a special thanks to Mr. Sulecki for joining us. Welcome to the team, as dysfunctional as we may be.

Thank you, thank you.

It's a functional dysfunction. We enjoy it. All right, I'm Tony Wenck, with PJ Doran and Dave Sulecki. Thanks for listening. See you next time.