Kyle Peters | A Fresh Start
Share
Kyle Peters | A Fresh Start
Kyle Peters found himself in a precarious position at the end of the 2019 racing season when the future of the entire JGMX team was held on the brink of closing its doors due to Suzuki’s 11th-hour commitment. Fortunately, opportunity came knocking for Peters in the form of the Phoenix Racing Honda team, which has really made its mark in the Kicker Arenacross Series with champion Jace Owen. Based in North Carolina, the Phoenix Racing Honda squad signed Peters to contest a few rounds of the Kicker Arenacross Series, the Easy Coast 250 Supercross Championship, and the Lucas Oil 250 MX Nationals. We caught up with our buddy Peters at last week’s Honda media day in Corona, California.
Kyle! Tell us about the 2020 program…
We’re here with the Phoenix Honda Racing team for the 2020 season. I’ll be racing the Kicker Arenacross series, as well as the East Coast Lites and Pro Motocross outdoor season. So, we have a busy season ahead of us and I’m honored to have this opportunity with David Eller, the team owner, and Honda. It’s good to be back where my roots are. I’ve been riding the bike a little bit, the chassis and motor are awesome and I’m already feeling comfortable on it. I’m really looking forward to the 2020 season and showing what I have.
So, normal guys have two race series that they have to compete in, you have three now…
Yeah (laughs). We’ll just add one on. I think it’ll be good, the Arenacross series will get me warmed up and ready for East Coast Supercross. I’ll already have several races in my bag before we get to Supercross, so I’m excited about that. We’ll get in there, share some bar-banging, and maybe it’ll make me a little more aggressive (laughs).
Which series will you ride for outdoors?
We haven’t really decided that quite yet. We will see how it goes, I could be on a 450 or a 250. It just all depends.
Tell me aboiut the Phoenix Racing Honda team…
They’ve been around for a little bit, been doing the Arenacross series. Jace Owen won the series championship last year. David also has a ATV team for outdoors, as well as a GNCC team.
That said, can we expect to see you doing a one-off ATV race this summer?
You know, you never can tell. Depends how much money is in it (laughs).
The bikes look super cool. I’m kind-of intrigued by the Hoosier Tires because I’m a three-wheeler guy at heart and Hoosier’s were the shit. How are the tires?
The tires are good! They’ve really been working hard to get us what we want, with different tire compounds and tread patterns to try. It’s been great working with them. We still have a little ways to go, but we’ll get there.
We were just talking about Art of War suspension, which is Johnny Oler formerly of JGR. It’s like gladiator equipment, right?
Yeah, we are going out to war out there.
Yeah, racing is war…
Yeah, one hundred-percent (laughs).
Especially Arenacross…
Yes, especially Arenacross (laughs). I actually did one of the Asheville races last weekend, which is super tight Arenacross, we were turning like a 28-second lap time.
Oh wow, did you get dizzy?
No, they weren’t very long, but I didn’t get the best starts so I was having to slam some people (laughs). It was definitely war out there.
What’s new in your personal life?
I guess a lot is new, coming off of the JGR team, I’m back at Club MX now to train and ride there. I have all new sponsors now, single man, it’s all good.
Single and ready to mingle…
That’s it (laughs).
What is the “Makson” logo on the front fenders of the bikes?
Makson is the Team Owner’s construction company.
So you have Kicker on the swingarms, is your personal ride all whoofered out now?
Not yet, I’m really working on it. It needs to be (laughs).
