Luke Renzland On His Year Spent Over The Border

INSTAGRAM | @lukerenzland94

2019 MONTREAL SUPERCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

The 2018 Indianapolis Supercross was a career-defining ride for Luke Renzland. One of the year’s two 250 East-West Showdowns, the then-Traders Racing rider pulled an excellent start and held his own against the combined talent for a third-place finish, behind only Jeremy Martin and Adam Cianciarulo at the checkered flag. The finish, plus progress over the years and fifth place final rank in the 250 East Coast point standings, made it seem likely that Renzland would land a spot with a top-tier team for 2019. But an absence for most of the summer due to the team’s decision to focus on Supercross and only select outdoors caused him to drop off the radar, and he later parted ways with the Traders crew for 2019 due to a failure to come to terms with the team’s new structure. There was little news from Renzland from November to February (he missed the 250 East Coast SX series) until it was announced that he’d signed a deal to race the full Rockstar Energy Triple Crown Series with Royal Distributing/FXR/MX 101/Yamaha.

The year up north has been good for Renzland, results-wise. He was steady through the five-round Arenacross series, never finished worse than fifth, and was second overall in that championship. A win against eventual champion Dylan Wright could have swayed things more in Renzland’s favor, as he finished just nine points down, but it was an excellent showing when one considers the limited time he had to prepare with the bike and new team. The long summer was equally impressive, thanks to the overall win at Minnedosa and four other podium-worthy overall results, but the 10th place at Prince George and zero points scored at the Walton finale pushed him back to seventh in the standings. And now Renzland faces the three-round Supercross portion of the calendar, a short segment that could see him walk away with a number one plate should everything go well. He’s off to a good start already, thanks to a moto win and second place overall result at the opening round last weekend in Montreal, and again trails Wright by just a few points.

After the race was over on Saturday night, we spent a few moments with Renzland and discussed how everything came together for the year up north. This was the first time we had seen Luke in a few months, but his open demeanor made for some very clear answers. “It’s been good, fun for sure and a change of pace isn’t always bad,” he noted of the transition to a completely different racing culture. “You just have to have an open mind about it. It’s been a hell of an experience because the tracks are all different, the way they put the races on is different.

“Coming up here and trying to run the pace of the top dogs like Dylan and Jess (Pettis), it’s no easy chore. I’m glad to be making a name for myself up here,” he said of his close competition. There’s still a desire in Renzland to return to racing full-time in the United States, something he openly stated in our chat. “And hopefully my last chapter of racing in the US hasn’t been written, either. I’m hoping to get back there at some point and dice it up again in Supercross in some way.”

It had to be difficult to go from a career-high to low in less than 12 months, and Renzland admitted that the moment of realization has allowed him to see things in a new light. “It’s never easy when you feel like you’ve run out of options and don’t know what to do,” he said of the lack of offers in the US. All of the has made him appreciate the ride with Royal Distributing/FXR/MX 101/Yamaha even more, as the two parties were practically strangers during the initial interactions. “Kevin at MX 101 was able to give me an opportunity to come up here, someone he had never met and never really heard of. It’s been nice, refreshing, and has taught me stuff that if I ever get the chance to go back to the US, I’ll have a few more tricks up my sleeve and hopefully be able to keep the podium thing I started in 2018 going.”

But for now, Renzland is focused on the task at hand, which is securing the top spot in the 250 class of the Supercross season. The second-place overall result at round one has Renzland down just three points to Wright, and he is eager to get a hold of the points lead in the tight confines of Quebec City or Hamilton. “From what I understand, they’re just in hockey arenas, so it’s basically Arenacross. I haven’t had the red plate up here all year; in outdoors I would have had it at one point if it wasn’t for a mechanical failure, and in Arenacross I was close but wasn’t able to make stuff happen. It’s just a goal for me to get a hold of the red plate at some point in the season. With it being only a three-round season, it’s going to have to happen soon or it’s not going to happen. I’d like to get the red plate, maybe the championship, and finish out the year strong.”