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INSTAGRAM | @austinforkner

By Michael Antonovich

There was no rider more confident than Austin Forkner during the morning hours of the 2019 Nashville Supercross. With five Main Event wins to his credit and a 26-point lead over the competition, the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki had the 250 East Coast regional championship in sight. The mood in his area of the team tent was upbeat and included talk of the new town on the schedule, the possible purchase of a new Audi, and a daring patch on his pants that gave a nod to playboy Formula 1 driver James Hunt. Fans outside the fence line watched on and gave words of encouragement while rider and team set the sag of the KX250, and Forkner replied back with no sense of pressure or concern.

Things went awry during the first timed qualifying session, as a small mistake in the challenging whoop section turned to a body-jarring dab of the leg and wild crash over the next obstacle. Forkner had gone through his share of qualifying crashes in the 2019 season, but when the Alpinestars Mobile Medical crew stayed at his side, it became apparent that a serious injury had occurred. Forkner hobbled off with assistance from the trackside staff and went back to the pit area, certain that something was wrong in his left leg, but he returned to the stadium a few hours later for another attempt at the top qualifying time. Unfortunately, a harder than normal landing in a rhythm section dislodged the joint and the intense pain forced Forkner to pull out of the night’s race. Without Forkner on the line, his title rivals Chase Sexton and Justin Cooper chopped the 26-point lead down to just three markers.

The next three weeks were a blur of doctor visits and physical therapy. The initial prognosis revealed that the key ligaments in the left knee were compromised, but if Forkner could get through an intense rehab program and manage the injury when on the motorcycle, he could potentially race the last two rounds of the season and keep a chance for the championship.  

The rider and team took every possible precaution at the East Rutherford race. A massive sheet of grip tape was applied to the left side of the plastics, an attempt to keep the leg locked in place, and his knee was wrapped in a compression sleeve and Mobius knee brace. Forkner made it through qualifying and the Heat Race battled but still mobile and went into the Main Event determined to beat his rivals. Things looked good in the early laps, as he traded passes with Sexton and pursued teammate Martin Davalos for the lead, but a hard landing off a single jump jarred the knee out of place and overcome by the injury, Forkner pulled off of the track.

Austin Forkner’s title hope and 2019 season is over. On Wednesday, May 1st, he underwent surgery to repair the damage inside his knee and will spend the rest of the summer in recovery. The night before the procedure took place, we spent almost an hour on the phone with Forkner going over the previous month, including the full scope of the injury, what it took to get to the starting line, and his relationship with other riders. Always one to say how he feels, the conversation was candid and made clear how much this shot at the championship meant to the Missouri racer.  

To start, take me through the afternoon in Nashville. The crash happened in the first timed qualifying session and you aggravated it in the final session. What happened in the time between the crash and the decision not to race?

I was trying to get a heater in and skip the whoop with my front wheel. It was pretty simple, just a mistake. I honestly probably would have ridden it out, I would have run into the Tuff Blocks, but when I stuck my leg out and it jammed into the ground super hard. I was basically manualing out, then I got off balance and put my leg out to catch myself and it smacked, I wasn’t ready for it. It smacked the last whoop; I didn’t know my leg was going to hit that. I wasn’t ready for it and felt it pop. The actual crash wasn’t even that bad. I hit the Tuff Block and went over the bars. The dirt was really soft where I landed, so that didn’t hurt at all. When I jammed my foot into the ground, that’s what did my knee in. I walked back and it was super unstable. It popped out in the next practice; I over-jumped a rhythm just a little bit and it shifted. It was really hurting and was even more unstable, and at that point, there was no way I was going to ride. I iced it and was going to try, but when it was time to start getting ready they said, “Go sit on your bike to see if you can do it,” and I couldn’t even walk out to the bike. There was no way I was going to be able to ride. At that point, it was done for the weekend and we had to see what happened. I hadn’t had any knee injuries before, but I had a bad feeling of what it felt like.

How soon after did you learn the full extent of the damage? And because it was a complete tear, it’s not like riding in New Jersey and Las Vegas was going to make the ACL any worse, so was it more about managing the pain?

I found out that Monday that it was almost as screwed up as you can get it. I wasn’t going to make it worse by riding, I might have fully torn the MCL or torn the meniscus a little more, but it doesn’t matter because they are going to fix it all anyway. I might have done all of that anyway because it’s really screwed up now after I rode all day Saturday. It hurts as worse now as it did the day I did it. We’ll see, I don’t really know. I’m pretty sure I messed up more in it, but I get surgery tomorrow (Wednesday, May 1st) so they’ll just fix whatever is wrong. It’s not a huge deal.

I talked to you and your mom on Saturday morning and it sounded like you were in therapy around the clock between Nashville and New Jersey. What were some of the things you were doing?

I was busier than I was during a normal riding week of not being hurt. I would get up at 8 AM and just leave (to go to the doctor). I would have to have things like food delivered to every place I was at because I didn’t have time. Sometimes I would go straight to the doctor to have it drained and then to a place where they did red light therapy and some other things, like I was put into a hyperbaric chamber, and then from there I would go to Doc G’s and he would use all of the machines he has, electro stuff and magnet stuff, all of the things he has. He would massage it out and I would do exercises there. I would come home around 4 PM or so and from there, I would get some kind of cardio or workout in for the day, I would do the rower or skier at my house or spin, and then go to the gym. I was just as busy and not getting done until 6 PM or 7 PM some nights. It was full days, even though I was hurt.

“I could barely even walk up to the gate for the Heat Race and Main. It was bad and that’s why I think there is more stuff messed up in it.”

You rode one day, the Wednesday before New Jersey. Was the goal for that day to see if it was even possible to ride, or were you trying to get back to being comfortable at a race pace?

I was trying to see if I could even ride. I rode better than I thought I would, but I didn’t know when it was going to go bad. I had a better idea, it would feel fine and then, even if it wasn’t a super hard landing, if I just had my knee bent a little bit in the wrong position, it could slip out. And when it slipped out, that was when it really hurt, and it swelled up. It did that twice in New York in the last practice. Then it was really sore and started clicking a lot going into the Main. I could barely even walk up to the gate for the Heat Race and Main. It was bad and that’s why I think there is more stuff messed up in it. That morning I did track walk and it felt pretty good, but then I could barely walk up to the gate for the race; it was just clicking and shifting the whole moto and then it finally just gave out and did a big shift during the Main. It hurts really bad for three to five minutes and is really unstable because it just moved and is irritated like you can’t stand on it, then it numbs up and it goes away. But by that time, it doesn’t matter. That’s why I know right away because it did that in practice in New Jersey and it was the same thing that happened in the last practice at Nashville when I had to pull off. As soon as I landed off the jump after the finish, it shifted. I turned and hit the triple hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. Because sometimes it could move a little bit and not be as bad, like earlier in the race it moved a little bit but not fully and it hurt a little bit, but it went away after a minute. But that time, it fully shifted, and it hurt immediately. I hit the triple and thought, “There’s no way.” After it moves one time, it’s going to do it again. I could tell that it was so unstable, and I think it messed it up even more. My trainer said that if I couldn’t keep it from popping out and grinding and doing all of that stuff, then there was no point in riding through it. Even I could deal with the pain, if it was still unstable, I risked crashing again so there was no need. I tried and the pain was bad, and that was why I had to pull off. Even then, if the pain wasn’t that bad, it would have been so unstable that I don’t know if I could have finished anyway. That was what I was worried about going into the race and I knew I had to be 100-percent perfect every single lap. And that was going to be hard to do and win. You don’t even see what went wrong in the video. I pulled off, but you think I didn’t even do anything wrong, that I just jumped a little a far out there. It wasn’t a hard landing or a sketchy thing, there was nothing. I didn’t even have to do anything wrong, even when it popped out earlier in practice, it popped out in the transition of a rhythm section that I didn’t case or anything, I landed perfectly. The g-out of the rhythm section made it pop out. It was just not going to work, it was too messed up. We did everything we could, but when it’s that messed up with that short of time… Maybe if I had more time, maybe. But when the knee is that messed up and you’re riding at that level, I don’t think you can do much.

You admitted that the Heat Race wasn’t ideal, that it was as fast as you could go but you were further back in the pack than you’re used to. What was going through your mind? Were you thinking, “Oh sh-t, this is not good,” or did you feel you could have pulled something together if you needed to?

I only rode like three or four laps of the last practice because it shifted once and I pulled into the mechanic’s area because it was hurting. Then I went back out and tried another lap and it did it again, and it was hurting a lot. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to ride after that, because it popped out twice in three laps.

I didn’t even hit most of the rhythm sections during the Heat Race because in my mind I thought if I did some of them, it was going to pop out again. I started off really slow and worked in and got a little faster every lap. By the end of the Heat Race, I wasn’t awful. I was going faster than I was at the beginning of the Heat Race, so I got it kind of figured out and was trying to figure out the limits of what I could do. Then I looked at the lap sheets and I think I got beat by like 20-seconds, so I knew that was not going to cut it. What I was doing, I was trying to manage it and that was not going to cut it. There’s no way I could have ridden like that and kept my point lead, so I just said screw it. I knew I had to go and if the knee couldn’t take it and it popped out, I was done. In the back of my mind, I knew it was a matter of time.

I thought it was going to happen immediately if I tried to ride like that, like it did in practice. But I made it four laps and was riding good! I had just gotten in my head that I was catching Martin, and that was for the lead, so I thought it could happen. I passed Sexton and some of those guys, so I thought it could happen. As soon as I took off from that jump and went a little far and knew how I was going to land, I just thought, “Oh, no. If it doesn’t pop out here, I’ll be lucky.” But I landed and it shifted and I was done. It was a matter of time because I would have had to do fifteen perfect laps. And not just perfect laps, my knee would have to have been kept in the right spot whenever I landed. If I landed in the pocket of a rhythm section and it g’d out or there was a rut and the bike moved weird, that’s all it would have taken. Something so little could have done it in basically.

I saw in the Main Event that you lined up by Sexton, you ran it in through the first turn, he came back at you in the second turn, and you both made contact before the finish on your bad leg. Was the adrenaline so high at that point that everything was blocked out or was the pain still apparent? Your mindset was, “I’m going to beat him,” right?

Yeah, that was it. Going into the first turn, I didn’t even think. He had a bit of a better jump than me, but my rut was messed up because I had like 10th gate pick and that was the best gate to the inside I thought, it was one of the only ones left. My rut was kind of sh-t, though, and when we got out he hand the jump on me. I was so mentally, “I’m going to win,” that I didn’t even think and went into the first turn way too hot and smashed him and ran him outside. I went into the first turn not caring and after that I was like, “Don’t think, just go.” He got me back in the second turn and then I saw an opportunity. I ran it in hard in the first turn, he ran it back in on me in the second turn, so it was fair game. He left the door open in the turn before the finish, so if he’s going to leave it open and it’s a three-point championship battle, I’m going to take it! Yeah, I’m going to hit you, I really don’t care. After that, I was in third, but Alex Martin was in the lead and he messed up on the first lap. After that, I was second behind Davalos and I was going to ride there for a couple of laps to find my groove, but I was ripping. At the third or fourth lap, I saw it could happen and I started to gap Sexton a little bit. I knew that I needed to get Martin and then run away while Sexton was behind Davalos. I was trying to set Martin up, that’s why I went outside in that turn after the finish, I needed something different because I followed him for two laps. I was trying to make different lines work and then it was a tiny mistake and that was it.

I re-watched the today and when you and Martin go down the start straightaway, he looks over like he’s trying to see where you are. Knowing Mitch and the way he operates, I’m sure he wants to just let you guys race. But was there ever any kind of, “Martin, if you’re in front and he’s behind you, get out of the way,” or was it more just letting it play out to see what happened?

To be honest, I think after the Heat Race, everyone had to think if there was a possibility for me to win. Even in my mind, I knew I had the potential to ride with those guys but that my knee couldn’t take it. We didn’t really talk about anything, because I don’t think anyone thought I would be like that. But then I was. Martin said he didn’t know it was me behind him and that if he knew it was me, he probably would have let me by. But it didn’t matter. Even if he would have let me by, I would have had to have ridden perfectly for 10-minutes plus a lap. It wouldn’t have matter in any scenario, even if I got the holeshot and could have ridden every single lap because I would have had to have ridden hard and pushed the limits just enough to where my knee probably wouldn’t have held up. There was not any kind of, “If I got him, this wouldn’t have happened.” It sucks to think like this, but it was probably only a matter of time with me riding as fast as I was.

You said the pain when you landed and it jarred was worse than anything else has been.

It was equal to Nashville when I had to get off my bike in the mechanic’s area and laid on the ground. That was about that pain it was equal to, but that was a practice and I didn’t have as much adrenaline pumping. I had a lot of adrenaline pumping in the Main Event and the mindset of, “Screw it, just go.” I probably had more adrenaline going because I was mad. It didn’t hurt quite as bad, but it hurt a lot. The pain I felt at Nashville was so bad that I had to get off and lay on the ground. Nashville was the first knee pain I had experienced. It was new and it hurt, so I was not used to it and it freaked me out. In New York, I was used to it. But as soon as it hit, I thought, “Damnit.” It hurt a lot, too bad to stand on and I knew it was over. I wasn’t even super upset about my knee hurting. As soon as it did that and it hurt, I was like, “Game over. I can’t ride through this.” It had done that in practice, but this shift was even worse, it was like it tried to come out the side. That was what I was trying to prevent and it happened.

I rolled over that jump and went through the turn. I thought if I did the triple I would make up my mind in the air if I was going to ride. When I was in the air, I thought, “Screw it, I can’t.” It was so unstable and it was going to do it again. I took my foot off the peg to and rode into the mechanic’s area. I got off the bike and was standing there with the medics and Olly said, “Let’s just go.” I turned the bike around and I don’t think I realized how bad it was until I could even get on the bike. That’s when I first felt that I messed up more stuff in it. With the side of the bike that I was on, I would have had to stand on my left leg. He wanted to get out and kept saying, “Let’s go!” But I told him that I couldn’t even get on the bike because my knee was going to fold over or something like that. I had to walk over to the other side of the bike, put my good leg on the peg, and step over the bike. It sucked.

I was standing at the tunnel when you rode off of the track and it seemed like you managed your emotions pretty well. You threw the goggles down, and that’s to be expected, and you yelled, but you didn’t overreact. What were your immediate emotions that night and into Sunday?

You should have seen back at the truck because it wasn’t as pretty. I just knew it was over. I was super bummed out at Nashville, but I still had hope. I thought, “Maybe I can make it happen. Some guys ride without ACLs, so maybe I can make it happen.” I had that in the back of my head, but when it did it there, I knew it was over and that I was done. I wasn’t the pissed off type, like when you’re mad and throwing sh-t. I threw the goggles but at the truck, I just took my helmet off and sat it on the table. I wasn’t mad as I was sad. I knew it was my dream since I was a kid and I screwed it up. It almost sucked more because I had put it in my mind to be so positive and did everything I could, told myself I could do it. Everybody around me said the same, even if they didn’t think so, which I’m pretty sure some of them didn’t. I was so motivated and had worked so hard, too, that to have it go the exact opposite of what that I wanted it to made me really bummed. I was heartbroken really.

In the truck, everyone that was in there said that I needed to remember the way I felt for all of the rehab and all of the shit that I’m going to go through until next year and to use it as motivation. That was the most bummed out I’ve ever been for obvious reasons, I’ve never been in a championship position like I was. After I calmed down a little bit and we drove back to the hotel, I was happy because I did give it my all. Everyone can say that yeah, I lost the championship, but I proved everything I needed to prove. I was the fastest guy on that coast this year and I was going to win the championship. Even with a torn ACL and with all of the stuff, I was still beating the guys in the race that I was in the championship hunt with, like Sexton and Cooper. They are going to know that too. It helps my confidence going into next season, even if I race those guys or not, with a torn ACL I was beating them in the race until it popped out. That is confidence for me and looking at the bright side, it’s one of the only things I can be happy about. My riding ability and my mental strength overpowered my physical strength, what my knee could take was the only thing. That was a much better way to go out than riding in 10th place and watching it go away. That would have been worse because I would have been not confident and thought I was slow going into next year. That was a good way to go out, I feel, and better to fail giving it your all than to try to be conservative or try to prevent something from happening by going slow or not trying my hardest. It’s better to say screw it and give it all you have and it not work out. That’s what I’m telling myself anyways to make myself feel better, that I was still fast.

“I respect the riders, but at the end of the day, if I have to put someone on the ground, I don’t want to feel bad because they are my ‘friend’ or whatever you want to call them. That’s my take on it.”

This leads perfectly into the question I wanted to ask next. You and Sexton seem to have an intense rivalry, you made it a point when you beat him this year. Is there a longstanding issue between you two when you were amateurs, or do you just view every rider you are up against as a mortal enemy? Because even last year, there were some run-ins between you and Osborne.

I mean, like, for me it kind of sucks because I’ve seen it happen or heard stories where guys thought they were friends with someone, and then had that person clean them out on the track. It’s almost a bit two-faced to clean someone out on the track and then come up to them after, “Hey man, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to.” No, you did mean to! I find that to be two-faced and don’t want to be like that. If I’m going to ride you like that on the track, sorry, but I can’t be your friend. It’s just how I am wired. I can’t be friends with someone that I’m racing every single weekend, that I have pressure to beat. If I have to put them on the ground to do it, I’ll do it. If I have to have that mindset, it’s hard to be friends. You have to line up and tell yourself, “Screw all of these guys. I’m going to beat them. Nobody in this class is my friend. They are trying to beat me and take my championship.” How can you have that mindset and then be like, “Hey buddy!” To me, I can’t do that. I’m not going to be best friends with someone off the track because I wouldn’t feel right if I clean them out on the track or hitting them. That’s not an option. If I have to make an aggressive pass on someone, I can’t not do it because we are friends. Sorry, maybe I’m not racing you like that now, but I’m going to have to in the future. If I’m a nice guy on the track and get back to the truck, my team is going to say, “You had an open pass on the third lap, but didn’t pass until the eighth lap. Why not?” “Oh, well he’s my buddy and I would have had to hit him.” No, that’s not how that works. You put him in the stands if you have to. To be honest, when I line up on the gate, nobody is my friend. That’s just how I am. Some guys can be buddy-buddy off of the track and then make that work, but to me, it’s being a little two-faced and I can’t do that. If I can hit you on the track, it’s hard for me to go back to the truck and say, “Sorry.” If I blow someone out, they are going to be mad at me. And if they do it to me, I’m going to be mad at them.

It’s not that I don’t like any of them or don’t respect them. I respect the riders, but at the end of the day, if I have to put someone on the ground, I don’t want to feel bad because they are my “friend” or whatever you want to call them. That’s my take on it.

It’s nothing personal, it’s just a competitive mindset.

Yeah, nothing personal, it’s just business. That’s how it is. I have to win, I get paid to win. I want to win the championship and I want it just or bad or worse than anyone on the track. Just because I smash Sexton doesn’t mean that if it was anyone else, like Oldenburg, that I wouldn’t still do the same. It’s not that I don’t like one person individually, it’s just the game.

You go under the knife on Wednesday and right now you don’t know the full extent of the damage, that’s something they’ll find out when they get in and the recovery timeline is still uncertain. So, what will you do now? This is the first time that you’ve had a summer off in quite a while. Will you take a vacation or will you hunker down and wait this thing out?

I’m going to be in California all summer because that is where I’m having surgery and will do all my therapy. Dr. G is out here too and I pay him already, he’s a jack of all threads, so I’ll be saving money to do the therapy with him. I’m settled in, I’m renting a house in California and I think Rylee is coming here after Las Vegas and will be here a while. She’s trying to do some modeling in Southern California, so I’ll have her here. But to be honest, I’m going to need her for the first couple of weeks after surgery, I know that I’m not going to feel good after tomorrow.

I have been trying to think of what I’m going to do all summer because there are only so many movies or XBOX games that I can play. I don’t know what I’m going to do for four or five months [Laughs]! Obviously, I’ll have therapy to do every day and that’s going to take up some of my time. My trainer already told me that as soon as I’m able, I’m going to be back in the gym to maintain what I had. The fitness I have right now is the best that I have since I have been racing, so I don’t want to completely lose all of that. Obviously, I will lose some strength in my left leg and probably my right leg, because I won’t be able to do leg stuff. But if I can keep my upper-body strength, I can start doing some rowing or sit in the chair and do the ski machine, some kind of cardio to keep some strength. I probably won’t be able to do a lot in the first month, so I don’t know what I’m going to do but watch a lot of movies and play a lot of XBOX. I’m trying to find something I want to put time into and it’s kind of hard. I haven’t ever had to find something to do, it’s always been the opposite, trying to find free time instead. Most of the time I’m so booked that I try to find time to relax. I’m going to take the recovery really seriously and I want to get my knee the best that I can for next year, so hopefully, that keeps me occupied. Maybe I’ll get a puppy or buy a car.

You have taken this really well. After watching your video on Instagram this morning, it’s apparent that you’re motivated and it’s not something that will negatively be on your mind. Honestly, you might attack this with just as much energy as you did this championship.

Yeah, that’s what I have to do. I need to find a picture of whenever I was off the track when I was going to the pits, me screaming in my helmet. I need to make that my screensaver so every day I am reminded of that feeling.

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Michael Antonovich

Michael Antonovich has a wealth of experience with over 10 years of moto-journalism under his belt. A lifelong racing enthusiast and rider, Anton is the Editor of Swapmoto Live and lives to be at the race track.

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